iPod Mini Review - The iPod Mini

This is obviously the silver version. And it is VERY cool looking. The iPod mini is definitely mini; it's almost as small as a credit card, being only slightly longer, and is incredibly thin, which is probably its best characteristic. Its thinness allows the iPod mini to fit into a pocket easily and without causing any discomfort. Furthermore the casing is made out of anodized aluminum, which resists stains, scratches, and even thumb prints. The mini feels cool in the hand and is very solidly constructed. I have absolutely no worries of damaging the iPod by dropping it as I might with a PDA or something more fragile. Without a doubt, Apple engineers should be commended for their work on the iPod mini.

The back is relatively simple. (Note, all these pictures had to be taken without flash because the flash would reflect off the casing and simply be too bright. That said, the iPod mini appears much brighter, shiny, cooler looking, whatever you want to call it, in real life.)

At the bottom is the connector for either the FireWire cable or USB cable.

And at the top is the headphone jack, remote jack, and hold button. The Apple remote is not included but can be purchased separately.

Here are two shots of the iPod's LCD screen. The first is with the backlight off, and the second with the backlight on.

During the day or in a room that's sufficiently lit for normal reading, the iPod can be used without the backlight just fine. Of course if you're not worried about draining the battery, having the backlight on looks incredible. It doesn't simply turn on and off in a snap, but fades on and off elegantly. The backlight can be set to stay on for so many seconds after operation, or to be constantly off and only toggled on/off by holding the menu button down.

Remember when I talked about Apple's unique touch wheel? The iPod mini features a "click wheel," which is a touch wheel but with buttons beneath it at four spots. The different spots are indicated by the patterns: reverse, forward, play/pause, and menu. Of the course the center button functions the same as the center button on all iPods. The purpose of the Click Wheel is to conserve space. In fact, the iPod mini is a lot like the first generation iPod which had four buttons surrounding the touch wheel - except again, with the iPod mini, the buttons are now beneath the touch wheel.

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