Pretty in Pink

First and foremost, this thing is gorgeous! I get more compliments about my mini than I do about most of my clothes...*sighs* It seems pretty durable, too, with the anodized aluminum finish. Although, an eight foot plunge put a bit of a dent in mine (long story, don't ask). But even after it's terrible accident, it works perfectly fine. The aluminum seemed to absorb most of the blow, and it's not very noticeable, anyways. The size is wonderful, almost miniscule compared the mammoth iPod classics. It fits great into a pocket, or the palm of your hand. Style-wise, it's designed very well. Minimalist, simple, and very modern, yet still beautiful.

The battery life on this thing is awesome! I suspect I could get close to 20 hours on it if I really tried. A day at school, and the trip to and from there drained the battery what looked like barely 20%. Bravo. This was one of the major selling points over the regular iPod, which had only 12 hours -sometimes less- of battery life. Not including the AC adapter cuts costs, but I find only being able to charge over USB at the moment a bit inconvenient. For one, I need a computer around to charge. Secondly, if I put my computer to sleep because I'm not using it, the iPod will stop charging, because no more power is being supplied to it. I therefore have to leave my computer on for the entire duration of the 4-hour charge.

The sound is pretty darn good, matching the 90+ DB S/NR of its competitors. I've heard that the new audio processor (responsible for the better battery life) also improved sound quality over the last generation minis, and even the current classics, though I've yet to confirm this. It's not terribly loud, but I don't want to kill my eardrums, anyways. It's loud enough to enjoy a good song to the fullest. Sound is clean, with little distortion. My only complaint is the crappy included earbuds. For the $319 CAD I spent on this thing, I could at least get a decent set of earbuds, like with the Olympus m:robe 100, or Creative Zen Micro. Clean sounding, but a bit hollow, with poor bass response. I think I'll pick up a pair of white Sony MDR-EX71SL, or maybe Shure E3-C if I win the lottery. A neat thing worth mention is that if you unplug your headphones, the music stops playing. Handy, ain't it?

The interface is simple, clear, and easy to use; another major selling point for me. The menus are even customizable, to make frequently used features even more accesible. The click wheel is great to use. Scrolling through 6GB of songs was never so easy. Placing the buttons under the wheel was also ingenious. Apple, however, takes simple to a whole new level, skimping on features that one can find at this price point: voice, FM, and line-in recording. You can use it as a portable hard drive, store text notes, contacts, and even reminders, but they're all just kind of gimmicky. People who need those kinds of things for business and such will probably just buy a PDA. But what it was designed for, it does well, and that is playing music. Speaking of music, it plays MP3s, Audibles, AAC, Apple Lossless, and music from the iTunes store (protected AAC, I believe), and, well, not a lot else...You're pretty much stuck with iTunes. Funny, they're trying to stop piracy, and yet don't embrace any other online music format. Oh well, my whole collection was already AAC, anyways, and the iPods are pretty much the only player that will accomodate that.

Speaking of iTunes, it's a great program. It's simple and easy to use, much like all of Apple's products. You can burn and rip CDs with it, manage and organize your collection, encode music in different formats, listen to the radio, and buy music all in one place. Oh, it plays music, too. It interacts with the iPod almost autonomously, very handy. Transfer speeds are blazing, moving all of my music to the iPod in a matter of minutes. 6GB was plenty of space for my collection, with room to expand. I'd never fill up 20GB, unless I listened to only uncompressed audio. But I'm no audiophile. (Audiophiles may also have gripes with iTunes, as it changes the original encoding of the music, unlike programs such as Winamp, which maintains the original sound.)

All in all, it's a purchase I don't regret making. I have my entire music collection at my fingertips, don't have to carry around CDs, and this thing is smaller than any discman. If I did more exercise with music, I would have bought a flash based player, but the 30 minute anti-skip with this thing should be fine for a lot of people. If you want a good, quality MUSIC PLAYER, then this is the product to buy. The Creative Zen Micro, and Rio Carbon are both good contenders; all three have something for everyone, and ultimately it's going to come down to which suits you best.

Top drawer, really.