iPod nano review

Apple's size obsession continues.

It started earlier this year when the company introduced us to the MacBook Air, 'the thinnest notebook ever', and now it has added 'the thinnest iPod ever' to its range of ubiquitous media players. Given that the front face on this latest nano leaves little room for anything more than the Click Wheel and 2in screen, you wonder how much more mileage there is in making a virtue of its physical dimensions.

Whether it was this obsession or customer feedback that led to the u-turn in the shape is anyone's guess, but the short, fat After Eight mint styling we've grown used to over the past year has given way to something more akin to a Penguin biscuit that has been sliced in half down the middle. It's also curved. Where the iPhone and iPod touch have flat fronts and curved backs, the nano is curved all the way around. Look at it end on and it becomes an oval. Even the glass screen is curved.

There's no doubt that all this curved aluminium and glass make the nano aesthetically desirable. But at £109 for the 8GB model and £149 for the 16GB one, you're not likely to buy it to sit and look at it. And therein lie a clutch of problems. The portrait-style design of the nano means that to use Cover Flow or watch video, you have to turn it on its side.

Further, the only way to operate the Click Wheel, which feels flimsier than in previous versions, is to hold it in both hands; unlike last year's nano, you can't comfortably hold it in one hand and turn the wheel. In Cover Flow mode, if you're right-handed, flipping to the track listing and using the buttons on the wheel to navigate the track list means pressing up to go down and vice versa. For once, lefties have the rest of us at a disadvantage. Holding the nano in one hand when watching video takes some getting used to. Whereas the touch and iPhone nestle comfortably in two hands, the nano feels like it should be held in just one, but finding a comfortable grip isn't easy.

Watching video is made even more uncomfortable by the curved glass screen. Sitting on a train with lights above you, it's easy to tilt a flat screen device to avoid reflections and see what's on the screen. A curved display, obviously, picks up light from different angles, making avoiding distracting reflections much more difficult.

For all its faults, the iPod nano remains an excellent music player. It has never been a sensible choice for watching video - the touch is a much better bet for that - but as a device for listening to music, audiobooks and podcasts, it's unrivalled. The addition of support for Genius playlists adds to its appeal by allowing you to specify a song from which the nano builds a list of songs it believes are similar based on data garnered from the iTunes accounts of thousands of other iPod owners. And shake to shuffle works exactly as you would expect, picking a random track from the library when you shake the nano.

The nano won't tempt anyone who bought last year's model. However, if you're buying your first iPod or upgrading a monochrome-screen model, this nano is a solid buy.