iPod nano 4G Worth it?

Kostas

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Dear Green Place
I want to buy an iPod nano 4th Generation around January for my birthday.
276px-IPod_Nano_4G_black_crop.jpg

(Sorry for the big pic)

I had a Philips 1GB MP3 player for the last 3 years and it's not working anymore.
I plan on less than 150euros and I don't care about capacity(1.5GB is enough).
I don't care if it's "cool" or "sexy" I just want music.
  • Do you think it's worth it?
  • Is there any new generation of iPods coming that I should wait for?
  • Or any price cuts from uncle Steve?
  • I never had an iPod ,do you think that in 2009 iPods will be yesterdays new?
  • Please give me a list with pros & cons of iPods.
  • Is there any reason to hate/love them?
 
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Dear Green Place
Well, I've had my IPod Photo for more than 3 years now and I still use it. I'd probably buy a video one though if this one breaks down, but that's because I use it as an external drive as well, so space is important.
I would say the nano would be great for you since you don't care about space.
 
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I bought n85 smartphone (500€) for this use too. It has a ssd slot (8G basic, 64G max) so I can switch ssd cards meaning endless amount of space for music, audiobooks and other stuff. With full battery I can listen to music up 30 hours.

It also has all the other stuff too like radio receiver and even transmitter. I can transmit music with it and then i.e use car radio to receive it - meaning that I can play it wirelessly through car speakers. It also has normal headphone plugin and other wireless transmitters like bluetooth (for bluetooth speakers).
 
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I have the 3G Nano and I love it. It's easy to use and the iTunes software works well (I've yet to find a tune that the iStore doesn't have).

Tha only thing you will need to remember is that if you buy a tune from the iStores most of them have DRM so you can only play it on your iPod or your computer. (cannot transfer straight to mobile phone for example) (there are some DRM free tunes which cost a little more). This isn't a huge issue for me as I tend to use my iPod to play all my music and then connect it to my car radio or home sound system.

So to some up
Pros
- Easy to use
- Looks good
- iTunes Software is good
Cons
- DRM on tunes bought from iTunes
- Need to download iTunes everytime they release an update (not a problem if you are on broadband.

Personally if all you want is a music player (that can also store photos and play a few games) then I wouldn't hesitate to get an iPod.
 
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I think to buy an ipod is almost the most stupid thing you could do if the purpose is to listen to music. There are MP3 players with better sound and better capacity for half the price. You are paying a lot for that I- brand.
 
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Then give me some suggestions :)
 
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Dear Green Place
I think to buy an ipod is almost the most stupid thing you could do if the purpose is to listen to music. There are MP3 players with better sound and better capacity for half the price. You are paying a lot for that I- brand.

Ipod Classic comes with 120 Gb. The largest non iPod I've seen is Creative Zen at 32 Gb - and that cost exactly the same as the iPod where I buy things like that. Are there others?
 
The ipod classic is a media player in my opinion, I do not know which source you are using, for that, another media player with 120 GB of memory is microsoft zune for example. The ipod nano could also play video but it'd just break your eyes on that small display. For music he could instead for example buy a creative zen stone + which is half of the price of an i-pod nano, however creative is also a very well known and quite costly brand. If he does not care that much about brand other players also got good sound quality on tests.

SanDisk Sansa Clip 4GB Silver - that also has an FM radio. Less than half of the nano.

if he wants more memory and video possiblity a D-Jix M372 8GB Black that's costs about 1/5 of an ipod nano here, granted the nano might have a little better audio quality.

Infact while searching I couldn't find any player that was more exspensive than the ipod nano with the same specs. Except a designed one made in gold which costed a lot more :p
 
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I'd recommend an iPod Shuffle (no display) or the equivalent from another producer (Creative Zen, IIRC?) - much cheaper, plus you're bound to know your playlist by heart anyway, why have a display? Capacity also shouldn't be a major concern, because unless you're a really big audiophille, everything over 2 GB or even 1 GB is mostly pointless (take it from me, I've got 250+ hours of music and still did fine with a 256MB player 'till it broke).
 
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Well,I'm not really interested in shuffle cause its a simple player one thing I like about iPods is their display and the way the library is organized.

About the price :Many friends of mine have cheap MP3 players about 20-40 euros ,the thing about them is that their quality is very low (sound,battery,easily break etc).On the other hand another friend of mine has iPod nano 3g , she absolutely loves it,she kinda talked me into buying an iPod.

I'm no Apple fanboy or a sucker for trend it's just that after countless hours of reading forums and articles those Apple fanboys convinced me that OS X is good a OS,that iPod is great etc.

It might be like iPhone there are many cellphones with better specs but there's nothing like it (I guarantee that).

I don't need a cheaper I want a good one and a one that "works".
 
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Dear Green Place
The ipod classic is a media player in my opinion, I do not know which source you are using, for that, another media player with 120 GB of memory is microsoft zune for example. The ipod nano could also play video but it'd just break your eyes on that small display. For music he could instead for example buy a creative zen stone + which is half of the price of an i-pod nano, however creative is also a very well known and quite costly brand. If he does not care that much about brand other players also got good sound quality on tests.

SanDisk Sansa Clip 4GB Silver - that also has an FM radio. Less than half of the nano.

if he wants more memory and video possiblity a D-Jix M372 8GB Black that's costs about 1/5 of an ipod nano here, granted the nano might have a little better audio quality.

Infact while searching I couldn't find any player that was more exspensive than the ipod nano with the same specs. Except a designed one made in gold which costed a lot more :p

I didn't know about Zune. Maybe it's not marketed in Norway.

As for the other iPods, I agree with you about price/performance. I would buy other players if I wanted one with limited capacity (capactity is the main/only reason I have the Classic). Not being dependent on iTunes is another issue. Before I got the iPod I had a Creative Muvo player, very pleased with that one.

And Veric: I like having all my music available. With limited capacity I have to decide in advance what music I want to play. Almost like D&D where you have to memorize a selection of your spells before resting.
 
I'd recommend an iPod Shuffle (no display) or the equivalent from another producer (Creative Zen, IIRC?)
Many friends of mine have cheap MP3 players about 20-40 euros ,the thing about them is that their quality is very low
Here the creative zen stone + has a display and costs much less than the IPOD shuffle both with 2 GB of memroy.

the sanDisk sansa got good reviews, I do not think it is a low quality player at all, even the brand is not that famous.

As for the other iPods, I agree with you about price/performance.
In that case we are in agreement.
 
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Even the site 'anythingbutipod' talks about the superior iPod build quality compared to the Sansa ...

iPods are 'premium priced', but not by much - at least in the US. The tight integration with iTunes is a mixed bag, but I personally love it. Mac support for Zune?
 
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I think the ipod is much cheaper in the US than here. If the "build" quality of the sansa is not enough I would get the creative zen stone +, but again US pricing might differ much from here. I could get a zen stone + for 30 euro the nano here costs 120 euro. Who cares about mac support :p
 
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Even the site 'anythingbutipod' talks about the superior iPod build quality compared to the Sansa ...

iPods are 'premium priced', but not by much - at least in the US. The tight integration with iTunes is a mixed bag, but I personally love it. Mac support for Zune?
Hey Mike any comment on my "case"?
 
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Dear Green Place
Well, it has been shown that for audiophiles the iPod has slightly lower audio quality - at least a couple of years ago. I dispute that using cheap earbuds or listening through a car adapter that you'd hear the difference - I have a direct hookup in my car, and listened to a iPod Nano, iPod Touch, Zune 4GB, HP iPaq PDA, PSP, and my Moto cell phone and the audio quality was pretty uniform.

If you use a Mac, the iPod is really the way to go. If you have windows, it is a more open choice. I like iTunes, but the Amazon store is pretty good as well.
 
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