Review: Apple iPod Mini 2nd Generation 6GB

iPod Mini 2nd Generation (6GB) Review

There's a lot of hype surrounding the iPod. It's unquestionably the most talked about MP3 player brand today, but, looking beyond the hype, how good is it really? I purchased a 6GB iPod Mini which I take a detailed look at in this review, and I'll give you my opinionated, no-holds-barred view of this product.

What's new with this 2nd generation mini compared to the first generation? There are only minor updates, no quantum leaps here. The hard drive size is a bit larger now, at 6GB. There very slightly better audio quality at lower frequencies. There are also some minor cosmetic differences: The color of the button icons now matches the color of the iPod, and the hard drive size now is shown on the back.

Design

From a design standpoint, it is gorgeous. It has a classy and classic design that looks beautiful and elegant. In the hand it feels nice- light weight but solid. One thing that you'll notice is how minimalist the design is- there are very few buttons and knobs and switches. The most notable thing is its round touch wheel which has 4 buttons embedded on it and a button in the center. The 4 clickwheel buttons have a nice tactile feedback when you push on them, however, they are completely flat on the touch wheel. In fact, it's so minimalist that there is not even an on/off switch (you have to hold the pause button down for several seconds and then flip the hold switch). There is no volume knob- you use the touch wheel (which also serves also to scroll through songs and also for rating your songs). Overall, I feel the touch wheel, clickwheel, used in all recent iPods, is inferior to their original mechanical wheel (only found of 1st generation iPods and not on any minis). Although it has advantages such as no moving parts and thus probably better reliability, it is much less precise to use and just doesn't feel as good as the older design.

The LCD screen is plain black and white. It's very good, but rather small. It is viewable in direct sunlight and in the dark (with backlighting turned on). On the top edge, there is one headphone jack and a hold switch. On the bottom, there's a custom connector which you can use a cable to connect to your computer's USB port. No docking station is included, a money-saving tactic on Apple's part. Speaking of money, the 6GB iPod mini is rather expensive, listing for $249. If you're looking for a good bang for your buck, look elsewhere.

Features

The iPod mini is fairly light on features. It plays music files in AAC format (used by Apple's iTunes music store) and plays MP3s and Apple Lossless format. Apple has been particularly lagging on the feature side of things. There is no recording feature, there is no FM radio, there is no video playback, there is no bluetooth wireless connectivity built in (you can buy extra 3rd party addons for bluetooth, but really, it should be built in), there is no 3rd party software support for applications to run on the iPod. I hope they'll correct these deficiencies soon. There are a few extras like an alarm clock which which is practically useless because the built-in speaker is so weak, and there are a couple of games.

Other extras include a contact manager, a calendar, and the ability to show text notes.

A newly added feature is support for Podcasts (if you have the 1.4 BIOS or later, a free update from Apple's site if you're on the older one). Podcasts have their own menu and also are bookmarked if you switch to something else in the middle of listening to one. One warning, if you upgrade to 1.4 from 1.3, due to bugs in version 1.4, adding songs to the "My Top Rated" playlist no longer works dynamically on the iPod right when you rate a song, but rather your top rated songs will only get updated after re-syncing with your computer.

In Use

With all this talk about design and features, we shouldn't forget, it's all about the audio. My opinion is, the iPod mini's audio quality is very good. Audio is clear and clean. I'm not an audiophile, so you may want to check for yourself if you're particularly picky. According to independent tests, the iPod mini's bass is a bit weak. In use, the iPod Mini works well. The 6GB hard drive is just large enough to hold my audio collection. The portability is great too- it's small enough that it fits in my pocket. The sound quality is good, though sometimes when changing songs there's an annoying static glitch (very short, and not too loud, but it is there).

Where the iPod really shines is on the software side. iTunes integration is fantastic. Keeping your music in sync between the computer and the iPod works really well. iTunes is great at managing your music, if you are willing to give it full control over organizing your music- I fought this for a while, but in the end gave in as it's just easier to let it manage and consolidate your collection. It has nice little features like finding duplicate songs so you can clean up your collection. The iTunes user interface and functionality is excellent.

Playlist management in iTunes is fantastic. It is easy to create playlists and rearrange music within playlists. In addition, playlist management is very good on the iPod itself as well. You can create on-the-go playlists on the iPod directly, which is one feature I really love.

This 2nd generation iPod mini is advertised as having an 18 hour battery life. Well, perhaps in ideal conditions you can get that, but, for my typical usage patters, I am getting around 10 hours, and this is after about 5 recharge cycles. Your results may vary. I was disappointed that it doesn't live up to its advertised lifetime as that was one of the reasons I purchased it.

Trouble in paradise

There is a very dark side to using the iPod and iTunes, however. Apple has been very consumer unfriendly by refusing to let iTunes protected AAC format music to interoperate with other software and other MP3 players. You can not play music purchased on iTunes using any other MP3 player on the market. Although you can burn the music onto CD and then rip it again, that is a rather annoying and time-consuming barrier. Furthermore, if you purchase music from any other online store such as Real's or one that supports WMF, you can not play it in the iPod. In fact Apple has threatened to sue Real for making their music files playable on the iPod. This level of anti-consumer monopolistic behavior is beyond comprehension, for a company that has so much going for it. They basically lock you into their system and keep you there through incredibly anti-consumer practices. There is no excuse for Apple's monopolistic behavior and consumer unfriendliness here. They have a good product that stand on its own merits.

A Note on iTunes Encoding Sound Quality

When ripping songs from your CDs, you need to think about what sound quality you will be happy with. The audio encoder and quality settings are found in the iTunes Preferences (under the Edit menu --> Preferences), and select the "Importing" tab. The general consensus is, the high quality 128K bps AAC setting is adequate for most purposes, though definitely not CD quality. In general it's a lot of trouble importing your entire CD collection into iTunes, so, I recommend picking a higher bit rate AAC encoding to get higher quality (select the "Custom" option). I experimented with MP3 encoding and it seems to be produce poorer quality audio in iTunes. I ended up choosing the AAC Encoder at 192 Kbps, which is a reasonable compromise in terms of space usage and audio quality. At this quality level, all but the most serious audiophiles should be satisfied. See A Report on Apple's iTunes AAC Compared to CD. See also the iPod Audio Page for more details on audio quality.

Conclusion

The iPod Mini 2G is a mixed bag. It has style and design that's unmatched, and works well with Apple's outstanding iTunes software. It is functional and works well for what it was designed for. Battery life in real-world usage didn't live up to Apple's 18 hour claims. Features are lacking, certainly lagging behind the competition, and you get locked in Apple's system. I like my iPod Mini, and plan to keep it for years to come (or until the next big thing comes along). It's a solid, good product with an elegant design.