Although the first two generations of iPod nano differed significantly in styling, those differences were minimal in comparison to the facelift the nano has seen in its third generation. The new iPod nano is shorter and thicker left to right, and now sports not only video playback and games, but also features a new operating system which includes cover flow and a new split-screen interface.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs demonstrates the new iPod nano during his 9.05.07 presentation
While retaining the now-familiar click-wheel as its physical interface, the nano has seen major fundamental changes to the rest of its physicality. Gone is the white plastic on the nano’s top and bottom, with the front and back metal meeting each other directly on the top, bottom, and sides. The iPod’s traditional mirrored chrome backside, which was phased out with the second generation nano, makes a return here. But the brushed metal aluminum of the 2G nano is retained on the new nano’s front face. The Hold switch is now located on the bottom of the nano, and the design of the switch is borrowed from the 2G iPod shuffle. This move results, for the first time, in the nano’s top having no ports or controls whatsoever.
The new iPod nano up close
The new nano from the back
The third generation nano comes in a choice of five colors, but the bright red, blue, and green of the previous generation have been replaced with comparatively subdued pastel shades of those three colors. The black and silver models remain, but pink has made its exit from the nano lineup. The $149 silver-only model has doubled in capacity from two gigabytes to four, the $199 model has doubled from four to eight and can be had in any of the five new colors, and there is no longer a $249 model.
Two of the new nano’s five colors
The nano’s Hold switch is now on the bottom left
In the brief amount of time we were able to spend with the nano’s new interface at the Apple Event, it looked and felt like something of a hybrid between the iPhone interface and the traditional iPod interface, with no definitive indication as to which of the two the new interface is based upon. While the much touted cover flow interface has indeed been ported from the iPhone to the nano, perhaps the more significant (and useful) mode on the nano involved a split-screen view, with the track listing on the left and the preview artwork on the right.
For size comparison, the new nano next to a credit card
Eight gigabytes either way: the iPhone and the new nano
The nano continues to offer twenty-four hours of battery life for audio (which in our hands-on tests of the previous generation held true in the real world), and Apple reports that the new nano will offer five hours of battery life while watching video. An Apple representative confirmed that the screen on the new nano is made of the same material (and thus the same level of scratch resistance) as the old nano, and does not in fact employ the more durable screen found on the iPhone.
KT Tunstall, Steve Jobs, and the Chairman of Starbucks examine the new iPod nano
iProng will have the new iPod nano in-house this weekend and will have a full comprehensive hands-on review published on Monday, so we’ll keep this brief, but we did want to bring you a hands-on first look on the day the product was released. Our key questions during testing will be the relative usability of the new on-screen interface, the practicality of the new physical dimensions in real-world use, whether the return of the mirrored backside means a return to complaints of being too scratch-prone, and the practicality of watching video on a screen that’s a half inch smaller than that of the video iPod.
More photos from Apple’s Media Event can be found here.
Pricing and availability: currently available for $149 to $199.
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