How do you guys like the Ipod Mini?

[Maximilian]

Originally posted by: Oyeve
I love my 40gb 4g ipod. To all you ipod haters I have this to say: all portable media players suck to some degree. The ipod is just the less suckiest.

Good way to put it

Ipod is great at what it was designed to do..... PLAY MUSIC, forget all that other crap like photo viewing, color screens etc. Not gonna matter too much if it spends most of its time in your pocket.

 

[Gurck]

Originally posted by: Heen05

Originally posted by: SNM
iPods may be overpriced, but they're also useable. Seriously. I've tried other HD players, and the interfaces tend to suck.

Exactly.

I could see this argument holding water anywhere else.. but on a tech board?

Originally posted by: twitchee2

Originally posted by: Heen05
ipods dont play wma!?

itunes converts wma automaticly. just import it

Read the thread sport, this was brought up & answered with a counterpoint.

Originally posted by: copperbottom
ipod mini has problems and sound issues

Yes it does

Cliffs: Forced to choose between a decent headphone jack and more TV ads, Apple chose TV ads. Hence the headphone jack on the mini has a tendency to break internally, leading to crackling audio.

Originally posted by: Soviet

Originally posted by: Oyeve
I love my 40gb 4g ipod. To all you ipod haters I have this to say: all portable media players suck to some degree. The ipod is just the less suckiest.

Good way to put it

Ipod is great at what it was designed to do..... PLAY MUSIC, forget all that other crap like photo viewing, color screens etc. Not gonna matter too much if it spends most of its time in your pocket.

How do you figure? I find it amazing that ipod fans' argument is always "it's good just because". How about some reasons why? I can give you some reasons why it sucks, quite a few actually. Sad to see people who should know better fall for advertising & image :roll:

 

[ribbon13]

If it don't play FLAC it don't get my vote.

 

[ManBearPig]

The interface is so much easier to use than anything else. Ive seen alot of people who like theirs...what exactly is so bad about it? people say there are no good, but no one ever posts a decent alternative.

 

[Gurck]

Originally posted by: Heen05
The interface is so much easier to use than anything else. Ive seen alot of people who like theirs...what exactly is so bad about it? people say there are no good, but no one ever posts a decent alternative.

*any* player is a decent alternative. What's so bad about ipods, you ask?

Low sound quality (high THD, bass attenuation, bad EQ)
No support for flac, ogg, wma
Doesn't allow drag & drop in file manager
Most expensive
Lowest battery life (though they're working on this, I'll give 'em that much)
No features (radio, recording)
Ugly; looks like a childrens' toy
Makes a statement: "I'm a sheep"
Some models have no line out
Requires choosing between buggy software which includes malware (itunes installs quicktime, you have no choice) or buggy unsupported third party software to transfer music to/from it in a listenable format

The only things it has going for it have caveats:

Small size - this is due to the tiny, short-lived battery. To extend the battery life, they attenuate its bass output (see above), resulting in a tinny sound to the music (though there's more to the low sound quality than just this). Iaudio makes a smaller hdd player which doesn't suffer from these maladies.
Firewire support - Roughly as fast as USB2.0, but allows for using & transferring files while charging... which you have to do often because of the awful battery life. How often do you transfer files to a player which holds multiple GBs? And why would you use it to play music when your PC is right there? At any rate, transfers are too fast for this to be a useful feature.
Ease of use - this is a tech board, c'mon people, I know you're smarter than this. Besides which, it's easy to use in part because it has no other features. No radio button or recording button to confuse the average user, etc.

Seriously, ask yourself why you want it... Are you in middle or high school? Would your friends think you were "kewl" because they saw the commercial on MTV just before their favorite Britney Spears video? Do the bright white plastic and garish lights attract you like the gaudy colors on Fisher Price toys attract a somewhat younger crowd? ... It's the marketing & image. Strip that away and you can easily see it for the PoS it is.

As I said, any player is an improvement. If you want a suggestion you'll have to list your priorities, are you willing to pay extra (though still less than the ipod's price) for features? Are you willing to give up features for sound quality? Is price a big concern? How much do you value space? ie. would you rather spend a few bucks more to get 20, 30 or 40gb rather than 4-5?

 

[ManBearPig]

Hmm...before i list everything i want, i'd like to thank you...seriously, appreciate it. I was wondering what you think of the zen products (not sure which). They are around 20gb, and pretty cheap. I hear they are pretty good. I think anything between 10-20 gigs is good, and id like to not spend over 200-250. Thanks!

 

[shoRunner]

i'd never buy one, see more break than all other mp3 players combined.

 

[crisscross]

The Samsung Yepp YH-820 looks really good.. it has all that i want-ogg playback, color screen, 6GB storage... too bad it hardly any reviews..

 

[Gurck]

Originally posted by: Heen05
Hmm...before i list everything i want, i'd like to thank you...seriously, appreciate it. I was wondering what you think of the zen products (not sure which). They are around 20gb, and pretty cheap. I hear they are pretty good. I think anything between 10-20 gigs is good, and id like to not spend over 200-250. Thanks!

They're basically what the ipod is - no-frills players. Not much in the way of features, no drag & drop support, not the best sound quality (though not bad). They're a very good value, the 40gb Zen Xtra can be had for as little as $200 - that's half of the 40gb ipod's price.

 

[mwmorph]

Originally posted by: Gurck

Originally posted by: Heen05
Hmm...before i list everything i want, i'd like to thank you...seriously, appreciate it. I was wondering what you think of the zen products (not sure which). They are around 20gb, and pretty cheap. I hear they are pretty good. I think anything between 10-20 gigs is good, and id like to not spend over 200-250. Thanks!

They're basically what the ipod is - no-frills players. Not much in the way of features, no drag & drop support, not the best sound quality (though not bad). They're a very good value, the 40gb Zen Xtra can be had for as little as $200 - that's half of the 40gb ipod's price.

sq is suprisingly good. but the controls are utter crap. worst of all the daps.(except for the karma if you're left handed)

as for the mini, i've been spoiled by the rio players. ill never go bac to players without gapless palyback. try playing a live album without gaps. it's incredible.

 

[ManBearPig]

I also want whatever i get to be really small, i need to be able to workout and jog with it. Thanks...seems like nothing is really good lol.

 

[AustinMatherne]

I have to recommend the iRiver H320 here. Color screen 20GB of space and with a little playing around with you can watch movies on it. It still has a small screen like the iPod so you may not even want to watch movies on it. And it cost a little under $300 shipped at Newegg.

 

[mwmorph]

rio carbon(5gb). gapless, many codec support. small. great sound quality.

go to dapreview.net for some reviews.

 

[ManBearPig]

Wow, the iriver seems AWESOME.

i think iriver is quality, this flash mp3 player ive had for 3 years ROCKS.

 

[daniel1113]

I had a 40GB Zen Xtra which I sold since I didn't use it enough to justify keeping it. However, I recently purchased a 40GB iPod photo because of the numerous ipod to car stereo cables on the market now. Here is my take on the two:

First of all, the ipod is gorgeous. If there were no other differences between the two other than appearance, the ipod would win (and apparently has won) hands down.

Along the same lines, the single touch wheel input mechanism on the ipod is pure geneous on behalf of Apple's engineers. One can easily navigate through a huge music collection without issue, using a single hand. On the other hand, the buttons on the sides on the Zen Xtra were well placed, but not nearly as inuitive, and the rocker scroll input was atroceous. It was nearly impossible to find an item in a huge list without passing it a few times first. Even though the user input is one area where the ipod really shines, it is also one of the shortcoming. Once inside a pocket, it is impossible to control the ipod without removing it completely or purchasing a separate remote (assuming one wasn't included). Whereas with the Zen Xtra, once the button locations were memorized, one could easily reach into a pocket and switch songs or adjust the volume, sans remote control.

The biggest weakness I have found this far with the ipod is its dependance on itunes. Many of its features, such as album art or EQ settings, must be adjusted within itunes. For those of us that do not use itunes, or that would like to make changes to these settings on the ipod, there is no alternative (yet). It's obvious that Apple intended for the ipod to be an extension of itunes rather than a standalone music player, which is unfortunate in my opinion.

Similarly, the Zen had a removable battery, whereas the ipod's battery is fixed and notorious for causing headaches during failure. However, I never once removed the battery of my Zen, so it's hard to say if a removable battery is really all that useful. After all, it's not that difficult to pop open an ipod and replace the battery if need be.

In the end, my choice is without a doubt the ipod. The build quality is of a much higher grade than the Zen, it is smaller, much better looking (albeit this is highly subjective) and overall a much better designed device, even with it's many shortcomings. Plus, the ipod has the ability to charge via usb/firewire, compared to the extra power cable that must be used with the Zen.

I hope this helps you out.

 

[ManBearPig]

It does indeed, thanks. Is this the 4th gen? How did you like the sound quality of the ipod, alot of people say its bad, personally i doubt theres a real diff.

Thanks buddy!

 

[daniel1113]

The sound quality is fine; however, since the ipod lacks a user customizable EQ, it does suffer some audio problems. I've found that most of the sounds issues that occur can be eleviated through the use of the SoundCheck feature, which elminiates most of the clipping, especially with the bass. It's been a while since I had my Zen, so I can't really provide a solid comparison, but nothing thus far stands out enough for me to say that the sound quality is any worse on the ipod than the Zen, especially if you plan on using the included earbuds or another cheap set of headphones. Along this line, I thought that the earbuds included with the ipod sounded great for a stock set. When I can't pack a good set of headphones, or I need to be able to throw them into a backpack, I always use the stock Apple earbuds.

EDIT: I have an ipod photo, which is nearly identical to a 4g ipod, so all of my observations will most likely apply to any 4g model.

 

[jjsbasmt]

I would phrase it this way - The ipod is the Mercedes or BMW of the players and everything else falls some where between the Suzuki and the Lexus. Any Questions??

 

[Gurck]

Originally posted by: jjsbasmt
I would phrase it this way - The ipod is the Mercedes or BMW of the players and everything else falls some where between the Suzuki and the Lexus. Any Questions??

Shining example of what I was talking about earlier, unable to provide any examples nor admit being a slave to advertising, they come up with completely unhelpful one-liners. It's not even accurate... Accurate would be saying the ipod is a $100,000 skateboard with other mp3 players offering great variety for different peoples' different needs - anything from $15,000 economy cars to $80,000 sports & luxury cars.

 

[Eug]

I just sold my 15 GB iPod for a 6 GB iPod mini.

I wouldn't bother with any other player. The current iPods have by far the best interface and usability.

 

[Locut0s]

If you want an "MP3 player" there's no contest it's got to be iPOD. The big question is though "If you want an MP3 player" for me thats a definite no.

 

[helo7050]

i don't understand people on this board... how could you bash the ipods. I have a Ipod mini and also have a Creative Muvo and would choose the Ipod mini in a heart-beat.. Its nice, i love the touch scrolling and looks best out of any MP3 player. I have yet ro run into an interface problem on my ipod and have over 700songs on it... and the sound quailty is perfect...

Mabe you guys are just bashing them because you can't afford to own one...

Go out buy an ipod and come back on this forum and complain about it..(i highly doubt you will).

 

[Gurck]

:roll: Let me guess, do you use the stock headphones to determine sound quality?

At any rate, this is getting rather silly, people of the type who can't even be bothered reading before posting now are doing exactly what I've mentioned not 2-3 posts back. It's fascinating to watch the power of advertising & image in action, about as close as we can come in the real world to a magic spell.

 

[Dennis Travis]

So Gurek, the people on the site you quote know more about accurate sound than Stereophile? Audiophiles know what accurate sound is. You can bash the Ipod all you want but those are the facts. You seem to hate anything apple. You ought to come here. Unless you are very closed minded I could show you that all Apple stuff is not the garbage you say it is.

 

[mhillary]

I think its cool.