3G iPod nano Product RED

Well, I'm going to give my previous nano to one of my relatives. She's happy with her 30GB iPod + winamp, but want something smaller for on-the-go. :D Time for a new toy for me while waiting for the Touch.




A quick video overview:


There are quite a bit of reviews out there already, so I'm just going to be brief.

Annoying things:
-Hold slider is too small, and at the bottom to boot! Docking the nano will prevent access to that slider
-I still don't understand the point of the headphone jack being at the bottom.
-Cover flow is flawed! It listed the albums by artists, and it doesn't recognize compilation albums. So I have repetitive listings on my albums in cover flaw (as you can see in the video). Hopefully Apple is going to fix this. Fixed in firmware 1.02.
-Click wheel touch area is kinda narrow. I have big fingers, so sometime I miss a "sweep" when scrolling on the click wheel. I guess this is the reason why I felt the menu UI to be "laggier."
-Chrome back full of smudges! :( I wish Apple used the whole aluminum design like the 2G.
-Small screen is not really meaningful for movie playback
-As usual, minimal packaging. Only comes with earbud, USB cable, quick start guide, dock adapter, and stickers.
-When the screen dims during playback, instead of showing the "Now Playing" screen, it goes into a "screensaver" mode, showing only the time, battery status, and a play icon. I can't find any option to turn this off.

What I like:
-Larger screen than previous nano: Album art and photos are more meaningful now. Plus the higher res screen allow better font sizes.
-Video playback is great for video podcasts
-Now you can access shuffle option directly on the "Now Playing" screen. On previous iPods, you are forced to go to the setting menu.
-Menu UI is not as laggy as I though (see big finger comment above)
-Gapless playback
-Unicode
-Unbelievably thin!

Not a must buy for previous nano owners unless you need video playback. I rank gapless playback and unicode feature higher than anything, so to me the 3G nano is an obvious choice. For my use, I rate it 92%.

The competitors: The Creative ZEN is definitely the main competitor, having larger screen, drag-n-drop, compatible with iTMS DRM free AAC, and divx support. Problem is video support is limited to 320x240 (so regardless of divx support, most videos will have to be transcoded anyway), no gapless, and no iTunes like experience.

I wish Apple would release a flash version of the iPod classic. Now I just have to wait for the Touch. :)