Apple iPod 4 GB mini M9434LL/A (Green)

So I pre-ordered 3 of them; one for each of my sisters and myself. They arrived about a week ago and I'm happy to report that Apple has done it again with the release of the iPod Mini. It totally ROCKS!

There are allot of things I like about this model, but before I get into them A VERY IMPORTANT WARNING TO THOSE THAT PURCHASE THIS PRODUCT:

YOU MUST CHARGE AT LEAST 4 HOURS BEFORE USE!

I, like so many I'm sure, was very eager to "plug and play". I did, without fully charging them, and they experienced all kinds of impossible to resolve errors.

Now, in the event you've already bought one, or simply can't help yourself, there is a little known "reset feature" on the mini that will come in handy whenever you have an issue.

TO RESET THE MINI, PRESS AND HOLD THE MENU AND SELECT BUTTON (the middle round button) FOR SIX SECONDS.

That'll bring your baby back to life.

The colors are awesome (I have the blue, silver, and pink), look very stylish, and will likely show less wear. If you have the patience, consider having Apple engrave them for you (looks very cool).

The sound is excellent. I don't have a testing lab, but I could swear that the sound quality is better; and I'm almost certain that they can play at a higher volume.

Another important improvement is the fact that when skipping forward more than a handful of songs the mini doesn't stall (for a second or two) like it's predecessors.

So, in conclusion, this is a wonderful new player that'll be sure to WOW everyone that owns it, and create envious spectators out of those that don't.

Hope this was helpful.

Christian Hunter
Santa Barbara, CA.


never thought I'd get the mini   March 10, 2004
305 out of 339 found this review helpful

I scoffed at the price of the mini when first announced like
the typical software geek "Why the heck would I buy this thing
when I can get the 15GB iPod for $50 more?". Then I went to the gym
while using my Nike PSA Play 120 with 128MB of flash. I'm tired of wrestling
with the crappy rio music manager software that always crashes, or
windows media player which sometimes will recognize my device
and sometimes won't. I want something that I can use at the gym as well as
use for walking around that is small enough to strap on my arm and fit in my pocket with
my phone.

I purchased this mini yesterday at the new apple store here in
SF (was surprised they had it in stock). The only problem I've
had (thus the reason for only 4 stars) is that it locked up twice
within the first couple of hours. It's been another day and while it hasn't
locked up again I think I'll still take it back and swap it out.
Other users have reported the same problem with the mini so beware.
If you do a google for "ipod mini diagnostic" you can find out how to run diagnostics and checkout
the drive and the disk to make sure all is OK.

At any rate, the quality of this player is very nice all things
considered assuming there isn't an epidemic with the lockups.
I haven't tested how many hours of battery I get but
I've had it on here and there all day today and am halfway
drained as I type this at 9:10 PM. The sound is of decent quality to me at least.
(I listen only to MP3s at 192 or higher bit rate and have a good quality stereo, HK AVR520 and Cambridge
Soundworks Newton Series MC300 speakers and P500 Powered
Subwoofer, and headphones (Sony MDR-V700DJ)) This gives a
reference for all you audiophiles out there so you know where
my opinion scales. For small audio buds the sounds is very
good (among the best I've heard, usually I throw the headphones
out that come with any portable).

The user interface is of course the best that can be had in
a portable device and better than the iPod due to the buttons
being integrated with the scroll wheel, meaning you never have
to leave the confines of the wheel searching for the right
button to press. I'll go for a run tomorrow with it to test
out the armband but I don't envision any problems. The
construction is very solid and though it doesn't weigh a whole
lot it feels very solid and of high quality.

ITunes is a great piece of software and you can have it just
pick a bunch of random songs to dump on to your player if you
have more than 4 gigs like I do. I get about 680 songs on the
player with my high bit rate rips. 4 gigs is plenty of room
and won't annoy me to change music every once in awhile.


Not perfect, but a good buy for some   March 17, 2004
Tony M. Phan (Iowa, USA)
86 out of 92 found this review helpful

Since the mini's introduction, people have had a lot to say about it, but actually getting one in your hands and using it is a whole new experience. It feels better in the hand than my 3G iPod, and is roughly the size of my Sony Ericsson T616 phone.

The casing is solid and looks very classy, with an aluminum finish that resists scratches and fingerprints in a way older iPods could only dream of. In the box you only get the basics; a FireWire cable, USB2 cable, earbuds (no remote), belt clip, and power adapter.

The touchwheel is truly a marvel, integrating the solid-state navigation wheel with pushable control points to save space. It makes controlling the mini easier than my 15GB unit, but at times the wheel can be too sensitive and adjust the volume as you're switching tracks.

Even though the mini has a lower screen resolution, it's still very readable, but the album name is now omitted from the Now Playing screen. The backlight is even brighter than my recently purchased 15GB unit!

As is the case with Creative's Muvo2, the iPod mini uses the 4GB Microdrive from Hitachi. Spin-up times are a bit faster with the new drive, so the delays when a song isn't in the buffer are reduced. However, file and song transfer speeds are noticeably slower over both USB and FireWire. The regular 3G iPods walk all over the mini in this respect, and since I use the data storage capabilities of the iPod quite a bit, this is a bit of a bummer.

You won't find a user-replaceable battery on the mini, it's sealed inside like it's big brothers. Apple does offer a battery replacement program for 99 bucks, or you can pick up 2 years of AppleCare for half that. The typical lifetime of a battery is anywhere from 18-32 months, depending on usage and charging habits. I'm sure that third-party vendors will come up with do-it-yourself kits like they have done with older units.

Price-wise, the mini isn't a bad deal considering the drive inside it goes for much more at retail. Compared to other iPods, it's not so great, since an extra 50 bucks will get you almost quadruple the capacity. I'm sure most buying it will be looking at the great form factor and the fact that it's the cheapest iPod though, I bought in for the size and scratch resistance alone.

The iPod mini might not be for everyone, but for those who don't have to have their entire music collections with them or people who want a more compact unit, the mini fits the bill nicely. It's not perfect, but the iPod mini is a pretty compelling product.


Great LITTLE ipod   April 30, 2004
84 out of 89 found this review helpful

The best thing about this ipod is how unbelievably small it is. Mine is exactly the size of my business card. It is also VERY thin and light. I understand it has all the features and benefits of full sized ipods with one exception - capacity. It only holds 4GB (really more like 3.5 of actual music). I was able to cram in about 30 CDs - granted these are mostly jazz CDs with lost of 10min+ tracks. The iTunes software is great. The battery lasts about 8 hours if you dont use the backlight too much. I sync with my Win XP PC using USB 2.0 and I can't believe how fast it uploads the songs off of my PC to the ipod. (CD to PC takes a little longer - maybe 3 or 4 min per CD.)

Others at the ipodlounge dot com have complained that there is an issue with the headphone plug losing its connection with the circuit board over time creating a lot of static and poor sound quality. After a week mine is still fine, but it is something you should know about. Apple is apparently aware of the issue and honors the one yr warranty. If mine has a problem, I will quickly reduce my star rating.

I give it 4 stars instead of 5 because of the capacity issue. I really wish I was able to get my whole CD collection on it, but I guess I would need the 40GB version to do that.

Anyone considering the Mini should also check out the 15GB version. For fifty bucks more you get more in the box and over three times the storage. You do give up the "coolness factor" of having a mini.

In my box along with the Mini was a USB 2.0 cable (which also charges it from the PC's 2.0 port), a firewire cable, the ipod, a belt clip (useless), earphones w/o remote, and a white square plastic box which can plug into an AC outlet which, when used with the firewire cable, becomes an AC adapter.

Laser engraving is available for about twenty bucks if you order directly from Apple - great if it is a gift.


Size does matter!   March 27, 2004
D
75 out of 78 found this review helpful

Sure, when you read the specs a 1/2 inch may not seem like it's that much smaller than the original white iPods, but when you hold it in your hand it really does feel Mini.

Obviously the only drawback is the lack of storage (in comparison to the other iPods anyway. 4 gigs is still a lot of space for a device that small). I have about 8 gigs of music, so I need to stick with my 10 gig model for a while, but if they release new Minis with say a 8 or 10 gig hard drive soon, I will definitely sell mine and go for the smaller size.

Not only is the iPod Mini fiendishly small and cool looking, it's also a lot more functional than the "big" iPods in my opinion.

Controls

As you may know, the "big" iPods feature four buttons across the top of the device that control the menu, play/pause, and next/previous tracks. They are also extremely sensitive, and can be pressed on accident just by trying to pick up the unit. It's also easy to press the wrong button when trying to find it by touch with your thumb. There is no click when you press the buttons, they are instead activated as soon as you lightly touch them.

The iPod Mini has the buttons built into the scroll wheel itself due to size constraints (it's really small!), but they also make an audible and "feelable" click when pressed. The scroll wheel is still touch sensitive, but all of the buttons click when you press them. This makes it a ton easier to navigate and use the iPod Mini without looking at it.

The hold switch (on the top of the unit, to keep the buttons from being pressed) is also much easier to use than on the "big" iPod in my opinion. On the big one you have to slide the switch with your fingernail or press down really hard to get it to move because it is almost flush with the surface of the iPod. But the hold switch on the iPod Mini sticks up a little more and has sharper edges, allowing you to easily "catch" the edge of it with your thumb and operate it.

Casing

The case of the iPod Mini is much nicer than it appears in pictures. I was a little unsure about all of the wacky colors when the Mini's were first announced, but when you see it in person it is actually quite nice. (I still don't like the looks of the gold one though!) The back of the case is the same material as the front, so it doesn't scratch and show fingerprints like the shiny chrome backing of the original iPods. Since we ordered directly from Apple, we got free laser engraving on the back as well, which looks like it was done with the same machine that does the etching of the Apple logo and other wording, so it matches perfectly and blends right in with the rest of the design.

Software

As far as I can tell the software for the iPod Mini is exactly the same as the originals. One difference I noticed is that when the iPod is ready to be disconnected from the computer, it shows a big check mark on it saying that it's ok to disconnect it. I don't think the originals had that.

One irritating thing is the reset controls of the Mini though. According to Apple, you have to plug in the iPod to a wall socket in order to reboot it, which seems a little silly. My wife's has gotten stuck once since we've had it, and we couldn't figure out how to reset it. I'm not sure if she ever figured it out or not yet (she's out of town so I could only walk her through it over the phone while she was at the airport). Hopefully the lock-ups will be very infrequent, or we may be calling up Apple to see what the problem is.

Extras

The Mini comes with a nice belt clip, which is easy to slide on and holds the device pretty tightly. You of course still have to be careful not to brush up against something when it's on your belt and scratch the screen or metal casing. It also comes with a Firewire cable, as well as a USB 2.0 cable which most Windows users will use. The original iPods only came with the firewire cables, forcing you to either by a firewire card for your PC, or buy a USB 2.0 cable at an extra cost if you had a Windows machine.

There is also a wall-plug included in the box. You just plug the firewire cord into the little power adapter, and plug it straight into the wall to charge it. You can't plug the USB 2.0 cord into the power adapter to charge it, so if you use that cord to sync to your PC, you'll have to carry the firewire cable as well if you want to charge the iPod without plugging it into a computer.

Value

A lot of people complain that the iPod Mini is too expensive in comparison to the 15 gig model that is only $50 more. This is a valid concern if you have 10 or 15 gigs of music in your collection, but if you are just a casual music listener, or don't mind manually managing the songs on your iPod rather than storing your entire collection on it, the iPod Mini is definitely an option to consider.

The size difference is significant, despite what you may first think after reading the specs on the Apple web site. If possible, look at an iPod Mini in person before saying "Oh, it's just a 1/2" or so smaller than the original iPod, that doesn't matter".

The iPod Mini also comes with more accessories than the 15 gig model, including the USB 2.0 cord, and the belt clip.

Overall this is a completely incredible little device, and is worth every penny of that $250.

Leave it to Apple to make something as incredible as the original iPod look obsolete and "huge" in comparison to the new iPod Minis.