Digital Trends

Apple iPod Nano 16GB September 22nd, 2008 | by Ian Bell

Features and Design

Even with the capacity bump, the 4th-gen nano still lags behind players like Creative's Zen line and SanDisk's Sansa View in the flash memory department -- both of those max out at 32GB. But the blade-thin nano, which is now available in a rainbow of nine metallic colors in both 8GB and 16GB flavors, slides into your pocket like no other device out there.

Measuring 3.6 x 1.5 x .24 inches and weighing 1.3 ounces, the player has dropped the 3rd-gen's "fatboy" look and returned to the first two generations' long and tall design. Its aluminum body is contoured at the sides, making the player feel stunningly small in our hand.

The click wheel is farther from the bottom this time around, making for better ergonomics and easier thumbing for those with large hands. The dock connector on bottom is once again offset to the left next to the headphone jack, and the hold switch is now located on top for easier access. The 2-inch screen is made of curved glass, following the curve of the body, and it's oriented in portrait (240 x 320 pixels), which is better for looking at long lists.

The interface has been redesigned as well, taking better advantage of the screen's size and shape. Replacing the split-screen main menu is a more sensible banner along the bottom that shows previews of whatever you've highlighted. For music and photos, that means a steady stream of thumbnails going by, which is much less distracting than the Ken Burns-style previews of the previous nano.

The ability to make the menu fonts bigger is a great new addition, which would have been tough on the old split screen. And the new interface supports spoken menus for the visually impaired -- or for those too lazy to take the player out of their pocket. Another nice touch: Turn the player sideways when you're browsing music to activate CoverFlow, so you can browse by flipping through album covers. In list-browsing mode, when you drill down to Albums, you now get thumbnail previews next to each album name.

One handy new aspect of the revamped interface is the contextual pop-up menu that appears when you hold the center button. In Music mode, this is how you access the new Genius feature, which analyzes songs and generates playlists of tunes that supposedly go well together. You can also enable Genius by pressing the center button twice from the Now Playing screen, which brings up a Genius slider that you move with the click wheel.

Image Courtesy of Apple