Any reviews from "real" ipod shuffle/mini owners??

Hi,

I've beening eyeing the ipod shuffle for the last two weeks. I know it's relatively new to the market, but from people who own one, how do you like it?

My girlfriend has the 40GB, and simply loves it! I will mainly use my ipod for running, jogging, working out, and with my pc (I was going to purchase the armband for all outdoor activities).

I was debating between the ipod mini or the shuffle. Since the shuffle doesn't have a screen, do you see that a major disadvantage? Which one would be better at putting up with everyday abuse?

Your input would be greatly appreciated...

Regards,

VJ

I like my mini, I take it everywhere, it holds up just fine. I don't have a lot of music so my mini can hold it all, but I have enough the shuffle wouldn't, plus I listen to different types of music, I wouldn't want them all shuffled together. The mini would probably be more fragile than the shuffle because of its hard drive.

I have the shuffle and its perfect for my needs. Im never really to far away from my music to need a bigger iPod to hold all my music as i mainly use it at the gym and on the train etc... if i get bored of the songs on it, i'll just change it one evening. it all depends on your needs really, if you need a screen get a bigger iPod, if not get the shuffle should be perfect for your needs.

VakeJ said:

Hi,

I've beening eyeing the ipod shuffle for the last two weeks. I know it's relatively new to the market, but from people who own one, how do you like it?

My girlfriend has the 40GB, and simply loves it! I will mainly use my ipod for running, jogging, working out, and with my pc (I was going to purchase the armband for all outdoor activities).

I was debating between the ipod mini or the shuffle. Since the shuffle doesn't have a screen, do you see that a major disadvantage? Which one would be better at putting up with everyday abuse?

Your input would be greatly appreciated...

Regards,

VJ

Click to expand...

My wife has a 20GB, and I have a 1GB shuffle.

Personally, if you're going to use it for outdoor activities I'd go with the shuffle. It's MUCH less delicate than the standard iPods; the thing is so lightweight you could whip it across the street and it would probably be fine.

I use mine in the car and on the treadmill, and I don't bother with the lanyard or anything. It just hangs off the headphone jack (it does rest in the treadmill's cupholder).

One thing though, I wasn't happy with the pack-in headphones. I have a pair of Sony EX71s from buy.com on order (31.99, best price i could find). i was astonished how great the sound was when I plugged it into my car's Eclipse head-unit, which was my clue to get better headphones.

I was so tempted to get the iPod Mini back before Christmas but decided not to because it was a bit expensive. I had the money to simply just walk into the Regent St store and buy it but I just didn't think it was worth paying £180 or whatever for an MP3 player, since my Sony Minidisc was still able to do everything I needed it to. Anyways, I'm glad that I waited because now I can get the iPod shuffle instead which will allow me to store more music than my MD discs (which is so much more fussier because of crappy SonicStage) but won't force me to spend too much. I'm actually thinking of buy 2, a 1GB one for myself and a 512MB for my sis' birthday.

It's MUCH less delicate than the standard iPods; the thing is so lightweight you could whip it across the street and it would probably be fine.

Click to expand...

Thanks everyone for responding to my post.

I thought the shuffle would be more delicate than the regular ipods. But I guess the regular ipods have more working components inside. I'm actually leaning more towards the 1GB shuffle. It just seems so convenient. I can't believe it weighs less than an ounce

VakeJ

I have a 512mb IPOD shuffle and love it! I did the apple survey and got 10 bucks off so it made it 89 bucks. I didnt care for the 1GB becuase 120 is fine for me, and it shuffles up all my music from my computer when I plug it in and I plug it in every other day. I dont have a normal ipod but all my friends do, but I dont use the ipod shuffle for my main music listening, I use Sirius Sattelite radio (which I LOVE by the way). The shuffle is nice becuase you can truly bring it anywhere and its great for running, outside work, etc. Its so freaking small and lite its amazing.
Even if you have an ipod this is worth picking up:

Ipod shuffle =

mangoSharingan said:

Anyways, I'm glad that I waited because now I can get the iPod shuffle instead which will allow me to store more music than my MD discs (which is so much more fussier because of crappy SonicStage) but won't force me to spend too much. I'm actually thinking of buy 2, a 1GB one for myself and a 512MB for my sis' birthday.

Click to expand...

Ugh, SonicStage, I feel your pain.

My wife had wanted an MP3 player for years, and a year and a half ago I bought her a Sony discman device that read Sony's proprietary format. She ended up giving up on it because SonicStage was such a piece of crap, so I bought her the 20G iPod for our wedding anniversary.

So, like my other broken Sony products, it either collects dust or is in the landfill.

VakeJ said:

Thanks everyone for responding to my post.

I thought the shuffle would be more delicate than the regular ipods. But I guess the regular ipods have more working components inside. I'm actually leaning more towards the 1GB shuffle. It just seems so convenient. I can't believe it weighs less than an ounce

VakeJ

Click to expand...

Right, the shuffle has no moving parts and nothing particularly fragile, whereas the regular iPods have a spinning disc inside as well as the display which can obviously crack.

I saw your other post where you said you ordered a Shuffle, so congrats!

I bought a 1GB Shuffle completely on impulse last week. (They had them on the shelf at the Apple Store in Chicago.) I already have a 15GB 3rd gen iPod and although it's great for my commute it's still too big for working out-- plus I was very worried about dropping it or getting it crushed at my health club.

The Shuffle is awesome. I've created a few different playlists for the various, uh, activities I may be doing while listening to it, so all I need to do is sync to iTunes and away I go.

I also connect my iPods to my Tivoli Model Three clock radio and the sound totally blows me away.

This ranks as one of the best impulse buys I've ever made.

I actually purchased it from EBay (made sure it was respected powerseller). I couldn't believe that some of the 1GB Shuffle's had a "Buy it Now" price of $220. Talk about a supply and demand mark-up.

I called around a few Apple stores (4 in my area!)....they are totally sold out of the accessories!

vakej

The shuffle is also a flash drive (sorry if someone already mentioned this, I didnt read all way thru!) So I wouold opt for the mini coz its a hard drive.

Your better off.


....Dont flash drives get damaged easily???

iRock said:

....Dont flash drives get damaged easily???

Click to expand...

Well, yeah... if you sit on 'em, twist 'em, forget they're in your pocket when you throw your jeans in the laundry...

I would submit a flash drive is less susceptible to damage than a hard-drive-based one. I am much less concerned about the fragility of a solid-state music player than one with a piece of spinning hardware inside.

I just got my 512MB Shuffle tonight from Best Buy and I love it. I think I'm going to start using it more than my 4Gen 40GB iPod. And the Autofill function rocks!

I got my 1 GB shuffle about a week ago. I like the sound and the style, but it doesn't seem too durable. The neck lanyard is way lame--It should have a clip or something. Apple accessories are so overpriced; I am waiting for third-party accessories.

I would have paid more for a metal iPod with water-resistance.

I don't like being tied to using iTunes, but I can live with it.

I got one 3 weeks ago. Im probably returning it though.

Pros
-Long batt life
-Simple to use
-Tiny
-512-1GB IS enough for most people who would consider this
-Can be used as USB Key
-Perfect for just keeping in your gym bag
-No moving parts means less likely to get damaged

Cons
-No screen
-iPod Mini 4GB is only $50 more
-3 weeks in and the corners feel like theyre peeling off
-Fast Forward/Rewind functions are very slow
-Necklace "seems" useful but my headphones keep getting tangled with it
-Audiobooks or Podcasts just dont work well in a shuffler


Im probably going to return it because while its competetively priced with others this size, the ipod mini offers so much more for just $50.

Are you talking $50 more than the 1GB? Cause a mini sure isn't $50 more than the 512MB.

Man, they just lowered the iPod Mini 4GB to £130, only £30 more than the 1GB iPod Shuffle. So now it's back to the Mini, like I was thinking getting before Christmas. More space, more durability and a screen. I normally wouldn't bother with a screen since I only look at my MiniDisc player screen like 1% of the time I use it, but since the iPod Shuffle doesn't allow you to sort out your songs into groups, then it would probably become quite annoying when you wanna skip from song 9 to song 61 for example. With my MD player, even without looking at the screen, I can still tell where a particular song will be if I can narrow it down to which group it is in first before I scan for it.

Still, an excellent value for money compared to other flash-based MP3 players though. I would probably end up getting the 512MB one for £70 as a present for someone.

Got my shuffle a few days ago. Sooo sweet. I love it. I would recommend it to everyone.

Sorry double posted