Is there REALLY anything else?
Written: Feb 04 '04
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Pros: It's the REAL thing.
Cons: 4 hour battery life. Beats up very quickly.
The Bottom Line: If you're going to buy and mp3 player, just get the iPOD. There really isn't anything else.
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| das20's Full Review: Apple iPod 3rd Generation White (15 GB) MP3 Player |
I don't mean to sound pretentious with the title of this review, but honestly, there doesn't seem to be another worthwhile option.
This is coming from someone who helped design one of the iPod's competitors and was saddened to see it fail. In the end it was just trying to be the iPod and nothing of it's own. Sadly in the mp3 market, "wannabe" products don't seem to have a bright future. Through that process, I also had the opportunity to use and break apart many mp3 players and likewise, they really didn't measure up.
So if you're going to buy an iPod, these are my notes over the past couple months of owning one:
01. It works great with WIndows XP, using iTunes.
02. I would recommend buying a firewire card if you're using a PC. Not only is the file transfer much quicker, but connecting through firewire also charges the iPod.
03. The iPod only comes with 1 firewire cable. To connect to the computer you need to use the firewire cable. To charge the iPod using the iPod charger, you need to disconnect the firewire cable from your computer and plug it into the firewire port on the iPod charger. I went off and bought another cable, just so I have one dedicated to charging and not forcing my computer to be on all the time, just to charge.
04. Don't expect your iPod to look so fresh and so clean after you start using it. It scratches INCREDIBLY easy and the fingerprints that collect on the back give you the impression that there's diseases stuck all over your iPod.
05. The navigation is not as Apple "user friendly" as it should be. Granted it's a minimalist device and looks great, but there's no STOP button, no BACK button and no POWER button. You can only PAUSE, to go back you have to use the MENU key (which I guess makes sense in a non-Apple kind of way) and the POWER button is the PLAY/PAUSE button. The SCROLL wheel works is just that and the button on the scroll wheel is select. Anyway it just takes a little to get used to it and then the learning is over and then it's "user friendly"
06. The touch buttons are REALLY sensitive and you'll have to use the lock button quite often. Every time you put the iPod away in your pocket, which it does fit in quite well.
07. BATTERY LIFE...it says 8 hours, but that's with no backlight, the equalizer turned off and a volume so low you can't even hear anything. With a 5 second backlight delay, the equalizer turned on and a volume that can be heard, it's more like 4 hours, which I guess is about 4-5 whole albums.
08. It comes with 2 pairs of foam covers for the earpieces, but I managed to lose both in 2 days. The earpieces are great, except you're now that guy or girl on the bus with the damn white earpieces, which I guess isn't as annoying as those cell phone head pieces that make people look like football coaches.
That's pretty much it, the sound quality is great relative to other mp3 players and the size and look are slick and easy to take.
If you look at the mp3 market, you'll find that the price range of most harddrive players at the 15 - 20GB level range from $250.00 to $400.00. So cost issues are still going to be cost issues regardless of which one you want to go with. Again, in my honest "epinion" if you're going to buy an mp3 player, just buy the real deal, because honestly, the rest are just "wannabes" in features, quality and design.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 300.00
Recommended for: Music Lovers - High Capacity Storage for an Entire Album Collection
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Epinions.com ID:
das20
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Reviews written: 13
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