Good player if you have a normal system
Written: Jan 30 '04
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Pros: Construction, sound quality, storage space, included accessories.
Cons: Syncing problems with non-standard hard drive configurations. A bit pricey.
The Bottom Line: The 20 GB iPod is a good purchase for PC owners running Windows on their c: drive.
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| psychictangler's Full Review: Apple iPod 3rd Generation White (20 GB) MP3 Player |
I purchased this iPod so I could listen to my iTunes purchases while I wasn't at my computer.
PACKAGING:
Anyone who has purchased Apple products in the past is familiar with the high quality of Apple's packaging. The organization of the parts and the box design makes the purchaser feel as if he or she is opening a jewelry box. It certainly adds to the sense of anticipation when you are about to open it.
CONTENTS:
The 20GB version has a pretty good bundle. Aside from the basics (player, cd, headphones, firewire cable, and adapter), the package includes a dock, iPod remote, a 6 pin to 4 pin firewire converter, and a belt clip/carry case. I thought that the extra accessories in the 20GB version that aren't included in the 15 GB version made it worth the extra hundred dollars.
The player itself is quite beautiful. The metal plating on the back is polished to a mirror finish. I also opted for the free laser engraving at the time of purchase, and it was well done as well. The only drawback is that the surface loves fingerprints, so I'm always afraid to touch it.
SET-UP:
This stage was where I encountered some difficulties. My main computer is based on an ASUS P4C800-E motherboard. This motherboard has both parallel ATA and serial ATA connections available. I have a hard drive connected to the parallel ATA drive, and it serves as my Linux drive. My Windows drive is a serial ATA drive that makes use of one of the serial ata connections. Consequently, the default drive letter that was assigned to my windows drive was drive H:. This turned out to be a major problem with the iPod, and Apple did not warn people of this on their website. When I connected the iPod to my firewire port, the iPod software would not recognize it. It stated that it could not mount the iPod although the port was working correctly because the iPod shows up as a new hard drive and I could access its folders. I searched through Apple's support site and discovered that the Windows operating system had to be installed on c: drive in order for iPod to sync correctly. I couldn't exactly do that, so I had to work around the problem. My current solution consists of connecting my iPod to my notebook to sync. The problem with this measure is twofold. The first problem is that my notebook's firewire port is a 4 pin mini port. This is an unpowered port, so I can't use it to permanently dock my iPod when I want it to charge. The second annoyance is that my primary music collection is on my main computer. I currently have to use my wireless network connection (11 Mbps) to share my music from my main computer to my notebook. The speed of the wireless network effectively negates whatever advantages I might have obtained from the 400 Mbps transfer rates that firewire was supposed to provide. My only hope is that Apple will release a future software revision to iTunes and the accompanying iPod software that will allow proper syncing when the Windows hard drive is not c: drive.
If anyone has an alternate solution to this problem, I would be pleased to read it in the comments section. Ideally, I would like to be able to sync the iPod directly to my primary computer.
OPERATION:
The iPod does sound very good. The supplied ear bud headphones use neodymium transducers, which are a step above what most other headphones offer.
The user controls are also well designed. The touch controls and scroll wheel are very responsive and have a good feel to them. The LCD screen is also sharp, and the backlight does provide brilliant illumination to both the screen and the touch buttons.
This player also has a fairly large buffer. It can load several songs into memory and transition between them smoothly, so the user does not notice any lag time between songs when playing them. The only way to introduce lag into the player is to skip tracks constantly. This will cause the player to have to search the hard drive for the next song after it runs out of buffer space, and the user can slightly feel the iPod's hard drive spinning when it does this.
The battery life is supposed to be 8 hours, but I haven't run it to the point where it completely depleted its charge yet. It's a shame that the battery isn't user replaceable though. Out of curiosity, I looked at Apple's site and the battery replacement cost is $99.00. That could be enough to purchase another mp3 player (although of lesser quality).
The iPod also serves as a portable hard drive, and it can be used to store contacts and appointments. I haven't used these features though, so I won't comment further.
CONCLUSION:
The iPod is a very good player for people with standard computer hard disk setups. While I am ultimately satisfied with the player, I can't help but consider that I would have been left with an expensive paperweight if I didn't have my notebook.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 399.00
Recommended for: Music Lovers - High Capacity Storage for an Entire Album Collection
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Epinions.com ID:
psychictangler
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Reviews written: 9
Trusted by: 3 members
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