iPod Mini Reviews

[NicktheNorse]

Please put all links to reviews of the ipod mini in this thread as they are written and released over the next few weeks. Perhaps if it becomes popular enough it can be stickied :)

Reviews:

CNet (http://reviews.cnet.com/4505-6490_7-30657036.html?tag=cnetfd.ld)
Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41488-2004Feb14.html)
SiliconValley (http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/7965018.htm)
PC Magazine (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1528587,00.asp)
CNN (http://money.cnn.com/2004/02/18/technology/ipods_0403/index.htm)

Video Review at MikeseJournal (http://www.mikesejournal.com/ipodmini.html)

[Commodus]

The Washington Post has an early review (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41488-2004Feb14.html) of the iPod mini. It's pretty much an Apple love-fest, with little in the way of negative things to say. The description of the "clickwheel" is actually very useful for a prospective buyer... I was wondering how well that would work! It makes me want to buy a mini - when the price goes down. ;)

[CTerry]

CNET has one.

http://reviews.cnet.com/4505-6490_7-30657036.html?tag=cnetfd.ld

10/10 on design. Which I think somes the iPod mini up perfectly. The iPod mini is not for people with 1,000s of songs, it is for people with a few hundred who's lists are not likely to grow exceptionally quickly, and who want something small (Apple is notably targeting joggers and fitness freaks with the iPod mini with such things as its optional armband), and for people who want something with a really really cute design.

My girlfriend is getting one when she can afford one, she cant wait ;)

[enzo]

SiliconValley review (http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/7965018.htm)

more reviewing going on there :)

edit : and another one :

Wallstreet Journal Review (http://www.google.nl/search?q=cache:Pf1grl2TYQwJ:ptech.wsj.com/solution.html+wall+street+journal+ipod+mini&hl=nl&ie=UTF-8)

[red devil]

Cool, getting some great early reviews. A couple saying the price is a bit much, but everyone seems to love the form factor and clickwheel. Great to see such a high score from CNET.

[sparks9]

From the SilliValley review:
"That's 18 hours of music, iTunes informed me, yet it filled only 1 gigabyte of the Mini's 3.7 gigabytes of available space -- the other 0.3 gigabytes is taken up the Mini's operating software."

That's not true...
It's because of that stuff about one gb being 1024 mb.

[tgunby14]

"The other concern is whether the Mini is prone to locking up. My Mini froze, responding to none of its controls, for no apparent reason while I was demonstrating it to a colleague. I had to perform a reset on the Mini, a button-pushing process explained in the user's guide."

[AndyH]

Originally posted by NicktheNorse
Please put all links to reviews of the ipod mini in this thread as they are written and released over the next few weeks. Perhaps if it becomes popular enough it can be stickied :)[/URL]

PC Magazine's iPod Mini review:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1528587,00.asp

[red devil]

CNN/Money Magazine:
http://money.cnn.com/2004/02/18/technology/ipods_0403/index.htm

Sort of a review of digital music in general, but talks about the iPod mini and its relation to digital music.

[pufftissue]

Well, here is my review:

Data:

Silver ipod mini
$249 + tax + 2 yr warranty protection plan $39 at Best Buy in California
No accessories purchased

Presentation:

Perfect, elegant, exactly what you expect from Apple. When you open the inside box, it gives you the good ol' "Proud to be an American" vibe when the box reads: "Designed by Apple in California." Then you open the next layer and it simply says, "enjoy". Classy. Everything is also carefully packaged as Apple truly believes first impressions count.

Accessories:
usb 2.0 and firewire cable
headphones
NO REMOTE
ac adapter (must use firewire cable to connect to ac adapter)
no dock
Belt clip

Looks:

In a word, beautiful. The silver color is "built" into the aluminum case, so it's not going to scratch off. The case does not pick up finger prints.
The aluminum case is entirely one piece, and that's really impressive.
Nothing protrudes the outside of the case, so there's no way the mini will get snagged inside your pockets.
The mini is totally sturdy and inspires confidence.

Design:

It all starts with the size. Somehow, it feels smaller than the numbers would indicate vs the 3rd gen ipod. The screen is smaller for sure, but I got used to it immediately, and it does not seem illegible. It is quite sharp as well. The mini is definitely light enough for it to slip unoticed while i run and it is able to feel very unobtrusive in my pocket. There is a noticeable difference in size, which of course, is the whole point of the mini.

Second is the revamped scrollwheel. The buttons are underneath the touch-sensitive wheel, or built-into the scrollwheel. It saves real estate, and is also effective. This is a huge difference from the gen 3's button placement. I never knew why apple messed with the buttons in gen 3, because now I navigate this mini easily and without fear of accidentally pressing the wrong buttons that are too touch-sensitive.

The hold switch is not too small, and it is easily reached, but thankfully not needed nearly as much anymore b/c of the new scrollwheel.

Sound:

If you like gen 3's sound, then you'll love the mini's sound, b/c it sounds the same to me. It is also equally as loud in my opinion. I am very pleased with the sound quality.

Battery life:

I am impressed with the battery life. I've only had it a day, but it clearly seems to be longer than gen 3. All reports indicate that it is likely 8 hours with "normal" usage, which is adequate for my needs. I'll have to give a final answer on the battery life later.

Screen:

Excellent. Sharp, clear, and even backlight.


Value:

Believe it or not, I'm going to give it an excellent rating. The competition is selling their 4 gb mp3 players for $199. I know $50 extra ($249) is a lot of money to some, but I think the mini is the best of the 4 gb bunch by $50. And the mini is still the cheapest ipod ever to come out. The appropriate comparison for the mini is not to the regular ipod, but to the high-end flash memory-based mp3 players b/c of the size similarities. Taken from that point of view, the mini is definitely reasonable.

However, for the accessories, I have to cry highway robbery. $39 for a mini-dock is just absurd. $29 for an armband is even more ridiculous. I actually saw it on sale at Fry's for $34. I'm boycotting these accessories for now.

Shock protection:

It's allegedly 25 minutes, which would make it 32 mb like the regular ipod. This is excellent, and while jogging to the ocean for 40 minutes (I walked part of the way), but it did not skip once. And I had it on the belt clip, not on an armband, or in my hand. And clipped to the jogging pants via belt clip, it was practically weightless. This is in stark contrast to the regular ipod.
To me, the mini successfully competes (and bests) the flash memory-based portable mp3 players that it is supposed to be competing against.

Critiques:

1. You can never have too long a battery life. I would take even an extra .1" thickness if the battery life were increased to say, 10 hrs reliably. It still lags behind the competition, though it's adequate.
2. Storage size. 10 gb would give me some breathing room. This will of course happen in time.
3. I'd like to see additional colors.

Pearls:
1. I can charge straight from my laptop's usb 2.0 slot (ibm t41) even if my laptop is only on its own battery power. Neat and highly useful.
2. You can't use the regular 3rd gen's dock. Apple is money-hungry and I dislike that move by them because it's too blatant.
3. The screen is recessed a little bit in order to cut down on scratches should you lay the mini facedown.
4. The backlight is brighter than on the 3rd gen, and it's a milky light blue color. I like it a lot.
5. The screen is not too small for me, and in fact, there are no contrast problems like there were for me in gen 2 and gen 3. Optimum contrast for both normal viewing and backlit viewing is 50%.
6. The screen resolution on the mini is 138 x 110, compared to 160 x 128 on the regular ipod. That translates out cutting out 2-3 characters horizontally. And of course you lose the album title b/c of the lesser vertical resolution although with a little better screen usage, you could squeeze in the album title easily and still not make the screen look crowded. I wish they would fix this.
7. The actual capacity is 3.7 gb
8. For the record, I had to reformat the mini with the 1.0 firmware when I first got the mini in order for itunes to recognize the mini for the first time.
9. Throw out the measurements, really. It really will feel smaller in your hands than you thought it would be when compared to any pictures posted online.
10. The center select button in the scrollwheel is a real button, unlike the gen 3's select button, which is also touch-sensitive.
11. The battery doesn't "overcharge", which is inaccurate I know, but by this I mean that if you just charged the battery 5 minutes ago, and recharge the mini again, the battery will show a "charged" status right away. Whereas with my 3rd gen ipod, it just blindly charged the battery every time you connected the ipod. Whether this ultimately affects the long-term battery life I am not qualified to say. It's just nice to actually have your ipod's battery meter tell you if it needs to be charged or not.
12. The belt clip does not allow you to rotate the mini in any direction like some cell phone holsters do. The mini sits parallel to your body.

Conclusion:

The mini is exactly what you think it is: the full-sized ipod experience, except on a smaller scale. This is much easier said than done, yet it has been done.

Outlook:

The mini will be a smashing success for Apple, and the mini is here to stay and be developed over the coming years. I think it'll be as prominent as the full-sized ipods in the coming years, and eventually many of us will own both types of ipods.