Digital Trends

Apple iPod Shuffle (512MB)

March 15th, 2005 | by Ian Bell

Conclusion

Apple's iPod Shuffle is an audio player meant for anyone that wants a single purpose; to simply play music. If you are a serious audio enthusiast and want a player that has multiple roles, then we suggest that you look at offerings from iRiver and Samsung. A lot of people will most likely purchase the iPod Shuffle to complement a hard drive based audio player. You can use the iPod Shuffle in environments that are not suitable for the larger players such as working out.

We love the design of the iPod Shuffle and the way it sounds, but feel that it could have offered more to the consumer. The iTunes software works great but you are stuck with it as your only choice of software making this a very non-versatile product. The iPod Shuffle is good at what it does, but it will have you begging for more. $99 dollars for a 512MB flash player is a good price for an Apple product, but you are forgoing features in favor of the extra memory. Just ask yourself which is more important to you.

Pros:

-          Great looking design

-          Very lightweight

-          Easy to use

-          Good sound quality

-          Comes with 512MB or 1GB of memory

-          Affordable

Cons:

-          Lacks features common to this product category

-          Only support Apple iTunes software

-          Only supports Apple DRM protected music (but can play other non-protected music formats)

-          Slider bar can be tough to move sometimes

-          Battery life is below average

-          Battery is not removable