Why My iPod Nano Sucks

2006-09-16T01:49:00.000-07:00

As soon as I read about the new iPod nano, I ordered one straight from Apple. I liked the Mini with its all-metal body, and have been wishing I could get a Nano like that since the Nano came out. However, I'm somewhat disappointed with the diminished quality of this new iPod compared to the previous iPods I've owned -- the a 20GB 4G (I've owned two) and the first-generation Mini.

A lot has been written about the great new features of this new iPod, so I won't get into those much. Other than the nice small form factor and the 8 gigabytes of space, I like the new volume lock feature the most.

This list is grouped into several categories.

Design Flaws

The center button is now slightly recessed instead of being slightly raised like in previous models. When the button was raised, it was a lot easier to follow around the scroll wheel with my thumb.

The screen is hard to read without backlight. With older monochrome screens, which work just fine for reading what song I am listening to, I could read it without the backlight in all but the darkest environments.

The GUI is often jerky. My hypothesis is that previous iPods used separate chips for the GUI and for the audio decoding and the GUI, while this one uses the same one.

The "Now Playing" screen displays some titles center-aligned, some left-aligned. I haven't figured out what the deciding factor is.

The headphone jack being on the bottom is very inconvenient. This is obviously a personal preference when you are talking about just walking around with the iPod. But this also makes it virtually impossible to unplug the data/charging cable without first unplugging the headphones.

Software Bugs

Apple has already released firmware version 1.0.1 for this iPod. I have installed this firmware. Despite this, I have already discovered several bugs in the software:

Album sorting seems to happen based on several factors other than the track number. In one nine-track album, the first track was actually listed and played last. I was able to remedy this by clearing all the tags other than artist, album, year, and track number for all tracks in this album.

It seems to choke on certain files that play fine in other players. I have yet to figure out a pattern.

Quality Flaws

The screen in my iPod is slightly crooked. This is, in my opinion, unacceptable from a "premium" music player. I admit that this would not bother everyone.

The hold button has some play, and often the orange hold indicator shows through despite the hold switch being off.

The center button (and the entire scroll wheel area) also has a lot of play. I imagine that, beyond communicating a lower quality level, this would also invite dust and dirt inside of the iPod.