133 of 135 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
excellent machine provided all you want is music, 15 Oct 2007
This review is from: Apple iPod Shuffle 1GB - Silver (Electronics)
At the time of writing this review there are 68 others already on here, but I thought I would tell you of my own experience with the ipod shuffle.
I go the gym and used to have a MP3 player - just a basic "memory stick" type that I plugged into my computer to recharge and I could drag & drop songs onto. Unfortunately it died so it was time to look for a new one. Now I was undecided whether to buy a basic model by a less well known company, or go for a leading name. It seems to me that if you're prepared to go for a relatively unknown manufacturer you can get a basic mp3 player for half the price with twice the memory, but eventually after much deliberation I plumped for the apple ipod shuffle, swayed by a combination of the reputation of apple & (hopefully) a better build quality.
I have had it just over a week now and I think I have made the right decision.
Yes, there is no screen, but I knew that when I bought it. I know from my prior experience at the gym that I just tend to switch it on and let it play so I didn't really need one. Also, I have a mobile phone that takes pictures, plays videos, games etc and I hardly use any of those features so I figured I wouldn't need a screen to watch tiny videos on. The earphones are great - several reviwers say they fall out but I've used mine on the treadmill, rower, cross trainer, exercise bike and wave machine and they've stayed in throughout! I've got about 14 hours out of it before I had to recharge which is impressive, and although initially I missed the simplicity of the "drag & drop" method of my old mp3 player, its just a question of getting used to itunes and once you have it seems simple enough.
All in all, an excellent purchase and having never had any previous experience of apple or ipods I am very pleased with my purchase.
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130 of 132 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very easy to use, 16 Dec 2006
This review is from: Apple iPod Shuffle 1GB - Silver (Electronics)
Now, to start with, if you want a player which is multi-purpose, and can play videos and view photos - look elsewhere. This is strictly music only (with the exception of using it as a data drive). It doesn't have a screen, but for me this is perfect. I'm tired of waiting for my other player (Sony NW-HD3) to load up, then I have to troll through various menus, select the song, wait for the hard-disk to spin up before putting in my pocket, and having to take it out every time i want a song change. This for me does exactly what I need. I use it primarily in College and at the Gym. Its great because it just clips on, you turn it on and music plays literally straight away. There are no loading times, even when skipping tracks, and it is very easy to use. There's 5 buttons, all operated by the thumb, and the great thing is, if its clipped to your trousers, you just press the next track button to change songs. Theres no faffing about with menus and selecting albums.
However, it won't be perfect for everyone because of this. If you want all your music in albums, this wont work, because you can only skip through tracks, but ive made a playlist of my favorite songs of the current time, and put that on. I know whats on there too - because they are my favorite songs. iTunes is easy as you'd expect, and the sound is good too, on par with its bigger alternatives.
Now, to clear it up, there is hiss if you use in-ear headphones. I sometimes use my Sony MDR-EX71's, and there is some hiss, not particularly noticeable. But i use the headphones which came with it, which are fine, if lacking in bass response.
This thing looks and feels great, and well put together. Its tiny, smaller than the size of the 'Enter' key on your keyboard, and light too, so if it drops, it just dangles from the headphones and doesn't detach, so it wont hit the floor. Its not noticeable, unlike bigger players which you can feel in your pocket. Some people say it may get lost, but keep it attached to your headphones and there shouldn't be a problem.
Of course, with the dock, it looses portability value for data storage, but to be honest, if i wanted to transfer my data/work files, i use a USB dongle, and not a £50 music player.
Whats more, its cheaper than any previous Shuffles, and at only £55, a cheap way to get in on the iPod market, and noone will call you a cheapskate because it looks fabulous.
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31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant design, but sound quality is flatter than I wanted., 8 Dec 2007
This review is from: Apple iPod Shuffle 1GB - Silver (Electronics)
First the good. This player is the smallest yet most robust piece of electronic equipment I've bought in a while. It is so small is reminds me of some of Ben Elton's rambling's in Stark where he suggests that Japanese led electronics are becoming so small that we can barely find them half the time, let alone use them. Thankfully, Apple negate this problem with the ingenious clip, which seems strong and highly practical, bravo Apple - yet another innovation in the smallest of their devices to date.
So why only 3 stars? The sound quality. It is loud, yes. Quite full, there is a lot of detail there, but ultimately it just sounds a bit flat. This has caused me to send mine back - I'm a bit of an audiogeek, I use the Shure e2c's and expect a decent sonic experience. Instead, I'm going to buy the 1st gen shuffle - since from what I can gather, the sound quality on that device was applauded at the time. Indeed, if you do a quick search on some of the mac forums, I'm sure you will find questions over the sound quality on this 2nd gen as compared to the 1st.
So in all then, a great player, if you can live without brilliant quality sound. It seems to me that a lot of the work at Apple went into the design and aesthetics with this device, at the expense of a 'iPod quality sound' that they managed to maintain in the 1st Gen shuffle.
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