Apple iPod nano (with video, 4GB/8GB)

Three weeks before publication of this review, the world was absolutely convinced that Apple’s third-generation iPod nano ($149/4GB, $199/8GB) would be a massive failure. Leaked shots of the device revealed that it would give up its flattened tube-like shape for a nearly square enclosure with bizarre screen and Click Wheel proportions, and its rounded edges looked more like a cheap Chinese calculator design than something the world would expect from Apple’s vaunted industrial design team. Similarly, early estimates of the nano’s size suggested that it would be nearly equivalent to a Hobbit-like 5G iPod, only thinner.

Everyone was wrong. And, as was the case with the iPod mini and the past two iPod nanos, Apple got it right. With a 2-inch, 320x240-pixel display and twice as much storage as last year’s $149 and $199 iPod nanos, the third-generation model might not photograph well, but it is shockingly excellent when you see it in person—precisely the right combination of features for Apple’s asking prices. Even we’re surprised that it’s the first iPod since 2005 to earn our flat A rating.

What’s the new nano’s appeal? It does virtually everything Apple’s new iPod classic does—and thanks to the Nike + iPod Sport Kit, a little more—in a much smaller package, with your choice of five body colors. For the first time in nano history, it plays both videos and games, using the same files that work on the iPod classic. And it remains a strong audio player, if not quite the equivalent on quality of the larger, more expensive iPod classic. Though you sacrifice storage space and a bit of battery life, what you get is a truly awesome “take it anywhere, do anything” iPod, at an entry price that can’t be beat. Whether you’re looking for a gift, a second iPod, or just something to tide you over while you wait for the right new big-screened iPod to arrive, the new nano is likely to be your best possible purchase today.

Unlike the iPod classic, which saw a noticeable change or two in audio performance from its predecessor fifth-generation iPods, the new iPod nano hasn’t changed much from the second-generation nano in sound quality. When used with premium earphones, there’s a more instantly apparent base level of noise than in the iPod classic—basically equivalent to the second-generation nano’s—and as a consequence, careful listeners with top-quality earphones will still be able to hear a little hiss overlapping the silent parts of audio tracks. But this sound is relatively slight, and not only hard to hear without using great earphones, but also less likely to be heard by users of the less expensive, lower-capacity nano. In other words, unless you’re an audio snob, you’re unlikely to notice this, or even care.
Entirely new to the iPod nano family is video playback functionality, so in one sense, anything the nano can do here is an improvement over what came before. Like the iPod classic, the new nano can store 640x480 videos in MPEG-4 or H.264 format, displaying them at 320x240 resolution on its own screen, and at full resolution (up to 480p or 576p, actually) on a separately attached display. Unless you already have Apple’s Universal Dock for the iPod, you’ll need to buy all-new video accessories to take advantage of video-out on the iPod nano, as the device’s TV Out feature is locked. The implications of this limitation are discussed further here
The good news is that Apple hasn’t skimped at all on its on-iPod output: the nano plays back the same video files as the iPod classic, and just as well. There’s an ever-so-slight tradeoff in crispness, akin to the difference we mentioned in the iPod classic review between the enhanced iPod 5G screen and that of the classic; the nano is closer to the enhanced iPod 5G, and thus a hint softer. Again, most users will never notice the difference, and will be blown away by the fact that the nano plays videos as well as it does.
Apple has preserved the same video settings and layout on the new iPod nano as it features on the iPod classic, rather than using the more refined displays of the iPod touch and iPhone. Consequently, you need to pre-select whether a video will take up the entire screen or display in letterboxed widescreen mode. Rather than fading in as white overlays on top of the video, status bars—title, battery life and play/pause status on top, volume, time/chapter scrubbing, and screen brightness on bottom—slide in and out on bars that appear from off-screen.
There is also a new option, Captions, in the Video Settings menu. Closed captioning will be available in certain videos sold through the iTunes Store, so you’ll be able to have this text appear as an overlay to the video if the Captions option is selected. Widescreen has also been renamed Fullscreen in this menu, emphasizing what the iPod nano has rather than what it lacks. Turn on Fullscreen mode to crop the sides of a widescreen video and fill the iPod nano’s entire 4:3 display with what’s left.
When Apple introduced downloadable iPod Games as a new section of the iTunes Store last year, one comment appeared over and over again from readers: “why can’t we play these on the iPod nano?” The answer was simple: the nano lacked the graphics chip and screen that would let it play the same games as the 5G iPod. This year, Apple’s changed that, markedly improving the nano’s video hardware to enable it to play the same games iPod classic can play.
On a positive note, this is a major upgrade for the iPod nano, which used to play only four drab built-in titles. Apple has thrown them away, replacing three of them with new and improved alternatives. Music Quiz and Solitaire have been replaced by the 5G iPod game iQuiz and a refreshed solitaire game called Klondike, which are much-improved visually over the old iPod’s built-in games.
The old-fashioned Breakout clone Brick has been replaced by the 5G iPod game Vortex, which wraps bricks around the inside of a tube for your paddle to break with a ball or upgraded weapons. Apple appears to have mostly preserved Vortex from the 5G iPod original, but it’s lost some of its transparency effects, which is a bit of a bummer. Still, these three games are better than the four that used to be on iPods; no one will miss the Missile Command-like Parachute.
Unfortunately, the 5G iPod’s downloadable games won’t work on the iPod nano, which is a major bummer for those who spent $5 per title to build up the prior iPod’s libraries. All of the games will have to be updated for use on the iPod nano and classic, a process that is starting slowly with only three downloadable titles, Tetris, Ms. Pac-Man, and Sudoku. Apple hasn’t yet said whether past iPod 5G customers will have to pay again to play the same titles on their new iPods. We certainly hope not.
Though no one gets excited about such changes, Apple has visually updated each of the iPod nano’s Extras applications to take better advantage of the 320x240 display. They’re identical to what’s on the iPod classic, and as a result, steps up from what used to appear on the iPod nano.
Clock now fits three nice-looking transparent clocks on screen at once instead of the second-generation nano’s two black and white ones. They’re displayed on top of a gray map of the Earth, and add the words “today” or “tomorrow” to let you know what day it is, as well.
Alarms has now been broken out into a separate Extra. You can now set alarms to go off once, every day, weekends, weekdays, every week, every month or every year. Each can be labeled with one of a handful of names picked from a list. Multiple alarms can be set up for your current location.
Stopwatch now has an image of a stopwatch on the screen alongside a digital timer. You can peruse past records, with computed total, shortest, longest, and average times kept in a log. Multiple timers can be run at once, as well.
The Calendar interface has been taken from the 5G iPod, offering the same monthly on-screen display, but much better detailed numbers and day separators than before. A predominately gray color scheme is used instead of the brighter blue and gray one from the prior nano. Blank days now say “No events for this day” rather than appearing blank when you click on them. They’re not editable on the nano; you need to update content on your PC or Mac.
Contacts are laid out with slightly different fonts and all-white backgrounds; you now get icons, though small ones, for each of the contacts you’ve set up with photographs or other pictures. The layout is also better on screen. Again, contacts are not editable using the iPod nano.
Screen Lock works the same as before to prevent others from accessing iPod nano’s contents. There’s now a nice new brass lock icon, but it’s otherwise the same four-digit system.
Notes are mostly the same “light HTML documents” as before, only with smoother font edges and more characters per line than on the prior nano. The perceived height of characters appears to be smaller, but the text is still readable.