Bought this for about $350 from an online store. Came in a small box. Why did I even bought this player? I had a large collection of songs and music and the other mp3 players didn't have enough space to store them all. I didn't want to shuffle music between my Mac and mp3 player. Picking which songs to put my previous mp3 player was a pain. Wastes too much time. It's much easier to just dump my entire collection into my player and forget about it. This player's perfect for me.


2. Setting it up


It's quick and easy to set up. One very good feature is that you can just charge the player from the usb port instead of using a bulky adapter. I used an oversized 6' cable because that was all I had at the time. Had the player running in less 3 hours. Took a while to download part of my music collection to the player and I didn't give it a full charge (I know, I was impatient). Started listening to some songs and I was surprised at the clarity and quality of the sound. After the test drive, I redocked the player for a full charge overnight. The player was fully-charged by the next morning and I was ready to roll with my new ipod!

3. Features and Sound/Video Quality

It plays music and mpeg video. Although it doesn't have a recording and FM radio feature, the impressiveness of the other features more than makes up for it. It has a bright display and long battery life of 20 hours(if you're just listening to music) or about 6 hours (if you're watching video). I rarely watch video with my ipod but this is still an attractive feature for those who enjoy music videos. The bright LCD screen means that you can watch video in any lighting condition. The 80 GB storage space is more than enough for most people's music collection. But if you're an audiophile like me, you would want to store your entire song library in the ipod so that you will have of your songs at your fingertips at all times instead of having the hassle of downloading songs from your Mac from time to time. With a usb port for charging and downloading, it eliminates the need for and bulky adapter or batteries. The other features are watching TV shows, looking at photos, viewing movies and videos, and games. Don't expect state-of-the games from the game section, though. For photo viewing, the screen is a bit small, but it's enough for most picture files. There's a slideshow feature but I prefer pressing the keys manually to switch to the next picture. Although it allows you to display .bmp graphic files. I wouldn't recommend it because .bmp files take up a lot of space. It's better to convert them to other formats first. For podcast/video viewing, quality is slightly less than watching on a computer or laptop screen, but still detailed enough for decent viewing quality. Audiobook sound quality is just like when it's played on a PC or laptop. I have yet to watch TV shows on my ipod.

5. Overall

I would recommend this ipod to anyone who listens to music and need lots of storage space for their music library. However, I wouldn't recommend this player to people who just want to listen to a few songs because the ipod won't be used to its full potential. With the exception of podcasts and music videos, I would not rely on this as a substitute for a true portable video player. But as a digital music player, it's excellent.

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 350
Recommended for: Music Lovers - High Capacity Storage for an Entire Album Collection