Apple iPod shuffle (3rd Generation)
Apple’s smallest ever MP3 player is also possibly its most controversial – and this is why…
The preamble: My cult and contentious reviews’ system. Designed as a time saver to highlight the potential deal breakers in a product before you commit to reading lengthy reviews on your favourites sites and/or magazines. For a more detailed description please read: the Rules
iPod shuffle 3rd Generation
Just the Bad Points Review: iPod shuffle (3rd Generation)
- Removal of on-player controls renders your existing third party earphones/headphones useless without cost of a separate adaptor
- Positioning of inline controls on the new earphones is just below the chin, not ideal during exercise
- Positioning of inline controls on adaptor too low with existing third party earphones
- Clip and on-player controls of its predecessor meant you could position them wherever convenient
- Reduced battery life (10 hours compared to 12 hours on 2nd generation shuffle)
- No display unlike all major rivals in its price range
- No track selection functionlity
- No FM tuner as on rivals
- No voice recorder as on rivals
- VoiceOver text-to-speech prone to mispronunciation
- Heralded minimalist design is surely just an aluminium coated memory key
- Improved 4GB storage still only half that available on some rivals
- Requires new iTunes download
- Were adding 5mm to its height, dropping 10mm in width, 2mm in depth and 5 grams in weight from shuffle 2G worth all this?
- Price (£59) is a lot more than an 8GB Sansa Clip (£39) which also has a display, FM tuner, voice recorder, track, album, artist and playlist selection, 15 hours of battery life and drag and drop content
If there ever was an iPod who was so bested by the competition this is it! Sansa Clip for the win!
Spot on. I do not think I’ll be buying this one… no matter how much I love Apple products.
Some piece of crap. Bought this as my creative stone’s display had stopped working (after 2 years of flawless service, offering 12 hours of battery life per day). I was looking for a creative product, but was at an airport, and all they had was the shuffle – i had the previous shuffle, and thought it was ok, despite the fact that i generally hate apple products/mentality, and being unable to use wma format songs and being forced to use apple software to transfer songs etc, and generally feeling part of the dull multitude who respond to “wow” “fun” apple type products and advertising.
so i bought the shuffle, as wanted some type of music system, on arrival at my holiday destination. after around 2 days, the earphones started crackling – it was at that point that i discovered that i had no control over this device unless i forked out another 20 quid for apple earphones! so not prepared to do this, i was now forced to just listen to whatever sequence of songs was on it – without being able to adust volume , skip etc. Then after another 2 weeks or so – the advertised 10 hour battery life, started performing in real-life at a maximum performance of around 90 minutes! no sooner was i out the door in the morning, and just getting moving, than the dreaded “low battery” voice-over would appear! in the end i just wished to god id picked up one of those 5 year old battery operated mp3s out of china or anything other than this crap – other than a philips gogear that is – which is about the worst mp3 player ive ever invested in.
my pc wouldnt even recognise the mp3 player and philips support is non-existent – dont even consider purchasing gogear products – the web is littered with frustrated buyers, who have had to spend around 40 hours updating drivers and downloading patches, just to be able to charge the damn thing!
so far my experience would recommend a reliable creative zen, or one of the basic battery operated, ultra low cost, chinese mp3 players.
@Jack – I can understand the frustration. Apple has gone too far down the minimalism route here and there has been a widespread backlash. I would recommend a Sansa Clip+