Even the box is nice
"When Slashmusic asked me to tell them about the new iPod Nano I had to admit that I felt pampered just holding the box...

Like all Apple products, even the packaging is excellent - but the real treat is inside.

The iPod Nano looks brilliant and it charmed me instantly. It’s easy to see why iPod owners become obsessive about their music players."


Crackers and credit cards
"The Nano is small, thin, light and its 1.5-inch colour screen lets users navigate through songs, displaying album artwork when playing iTunes purchases. It’s beautifully-finished, just slightly larger than a credit card, and as thick as a Jacob’s cream cracker. But, trust me, you don't want to try putting cheese on and biting it. It's incredible, not edible.

It’s very responsive, faster than hard drive-based players because it uses solid-state memory (called flash memory). This also makes the Nano robust - in fact, it likes it rough.

There are cool little design details too: there's a slight rough finish on the front click wheel that contrasts with the slightly more rough engraved Apple logo on the back of the device. Meaningless? Oh no. Now you can find the navigation controls in the dark, or when you have the Nano in your pocket."

What else do you have?
"There’s extra features, too: you can look at photos, though unlike full-grown iPods you can’t yet transfer them directly from your camera, which makes this less useful.

There’s games, you can store notes and contacts, it has a clock, a stopwatch, an alarm and a built-in calendar. There’s even a screen lock you can employ to make stealing the device a waste of time."

It plays music too...
"Having said all that, it’s a music player. So how does it sound? Well, overall, it's very impressive, but with some reservations.

The iPod Nano delivers outstanding sound clarity, better than your iPods. In fact the music sounds great in the treble and mid-range. However, fans of booming bass lines will find it a little lacking in depth.

No amount of tweaking the built-in digital graphics equalizer truly bought the bass sound out. If you love, say, dub, I suggest getting a full-grown iPod, but acoustic music sounds fantastic.

I tested the sound output against my iPod photo and iPod shuffle, and, despite Apple’s claims to the contrary, both are louder. It seems the Nano's output has been limited to comply with a new EU law on MP3 players' volume levels. The buggers."

My ears are alight
"Apple's trademark white headphones get my goat, so I usually ditch them in favour of my black Sennheiser’s.

Except now, I have to admit that Apple’s have the edge. The sound is warmer, they improve the bass response, it's just a bit tragic they're white, that's all I'm saying."

The science bit
"Of course, before listening to the music you have to put some songs on it. Transferring songs to the music player is easy. You just plug into a USB port on your Mac or PC and iTunes does the rest for you.

If you have more songs than the device can hold, you get to choose playlists, or iTunes will automatically and randomly select tracks to transfer. Using USB 2.0, I found that 1GB of music (147 songs) transferred in around seven minutes. You should be able to fill it up in an hour.

However, older computers that don’t have USB 2.0 ports will take an age - perhaps ten times as long. Mac users will be frustrated though - Firewire is no longer supported for transferring songs.

This is bad because many Macs under two years old have a perfectly good Firewire port, but not USB 2.0. If that’s you, then you’ll be playing a waiting game."

So, is it any good then?
"Despite all the reservations, the Nano is completely enchanting. It’s classic Apple: astonishing design marrying state-of-the-art utility. I’d have no hesitation keeping the one I borrowed.

But I’d use black headphones.

And I would miss dub."

Information for the people
Who makes it? Apple (www.apple.com/uk)
Will it go with my shoes? The Nano is available in black or white in either 2GB or 4GB capacities
How big is it? 3.5-x-1.6-x-0.27 inches
How much is it? 2GB,£139; 4GB, £179




Thanks to Jonny Rocket