If You Love To Take Your Music With You This Thing Is A Must Have
Written: Dec 31 '03
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Pros: Size, Ease of Use, Features, Backlight, Sound
Cons: Actual HDD size is a bit smaller than advertised, Sensitive Buttons
The Bottom Line: Why buy the Ipod when there are cheaper models out there? It's kind of like trying to decide between a Mercedes and a Toyota.
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| jinrikisha's Full Review: Apple iPod 3rd Generation White (20 GB) MP3 Player |
Ever since the first Ipod came out a few years ago I have always gone into the electronics store and salivated over it's sleek design and great features. Of course, when it very first came out it was only for Mac users so, for me, it wasn't an option. Later on when the PC version finally came out I was again tempted, but I had to ask myself, "Did I really need one of those things?" Now, before I go further, a little about myself: I am a musician and I love to listen to music wherever I go (the car, plane, DMV, etc.). I always thought it would be amazing if I could carry around my entire collection with me so I could pick exactly what I felt like listening to that day instead of being relegated to whatever happened to be in my car or CD player at the time. After thinking on it for awhile and checking out the different mp3 players available I finally decided to go with the Creative Labs Nomad Jukebox III, mainly due to the fact that it was cheaper than the Ipod, yet still the same 20GB capacity. True, the Nomad was quite a bit larger than the Ipod, but I just figured it would be the same as having a portable CD player which in some respects was the case.
Fast forward a year and it seems as though I should have gone with my instincts and gotten the Ipod to begin with as I am now on my 3rd Nomad due to hardware issues with the first two. Result: The Nomad has gone up on Ebay and the Ipod is now in my possession.
My first impressions of the unit were very favorable. I had seen Ipods around, but never actually gotten to use one and I was amazed at the small size and light weight. It's even smaller than my Palm m500. The design is very simplistic and took a little bit of getting used to after having the Nomad which has controls more akin to a CD player. The IPod came with a surprising number of accessories: earbud headphones (which I have yet to use as I own a pair of Bose Tri-Ports - I know this kind of defeats the purpose of the Ipod's minimalism, but these things sound too amazing to go without), a firewire connector cable, firewire adapter, docking station, AC adapter, wired remote and a fairly nice nylon case to protect the unit. The one drawback of the case is that it covers the unit entirely, so if you want to use the controls you either have to use the remote or take the unit out. I may look into getting an exo-skin case or something later...
The one weird thing I noticed right away was the lack of a STOP button. Coming from the Nomad and the world of CD players I wondered why Apple had done this, but I guess they figure that users would just use the pause button or just switch to another track if needed. The two main ways to navigate are the MENU button, which lets you switch between the different menu selections and the scroll wheel which has a smaller button in the middle which is how you make selections. I found it very easy to start using the Ipod immediately with the scroll wheel and liked how the menus fly in and out. The menu system itself is pretty intuitive, especially after using the Nomad which was a bit convoluted. Songs and albums are easy to find and can be sorted by genere, artist or composer. The backlight on the IPod is extremely bright making the menus easy to read in the dark and the four buttons light up in red which is a nice touch.
The unit sounds excellent and actually can be played louder than the Nomad which is nice. Not that I always use the loudest volumes, but when you're in a noisy area, such as on a plane, it's nice to have that extra boost. There's an EQ section which I haven't used and a bunch of extras such as a scheduler and some games. The feature I will probably find myself using is the alarm clock. I love that I can hook this up to my computer speakers and wake up to music as opposed to a chirping alarm (although you can do this with the Ipod as well.)
The only two major drawbacks I see on this unit are: 1) The buttons are VERY sensative and can be activated with only a slight brush to the unit. There is a button to lock the buttons from being pressed, but it's a little bit of a pain to keep switching it on and off. 2) The space avaiable on the unit is actually 18.5 gigs as oppsosed to the advertised 20. I know they need space for the OS, but 1.5 could fit a good amount of songs, so it would be nice if they could make the HDD a bit bigger so you actually could use the full 20 GB.
These are minor gripes though because this is an amazing product that I'll probably have for years to come (until they come out with a cheaper 40GB version :) If you're on the fence as to whether to buy one of these or a knockoff go with the Ipod. You won't be disappointed.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 399.00
Recommended for: Music Lovers - High Capacity Storage for an Entire Album Collection
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Epinions.com ID:
jinrikisha
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Location: Dallas, TX
Reviews written: 7
Trusted by: 1 member
About Me:
Fulfilling my ambitions to be a mighty morphin power ranger....
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