Apple iPod nano 6th generation is the only Apple product so far that we can wear as a watch. the form factor is square, with crisp color display capable to detect multi touch. It does not have accelerometer. Instead, we need to use two fingers rotating the screen to an orientation we prefer.
I like the overall look of this little gadget. It’s small and super compact, yet the build quality feels solid. I bought this with an initial idea to wear as watch (need additional accessory to wear it as watch, sold separately). Wearing iPod nano as a watch does look very cool. However, as soon as I try it, I realized that the size is too big for my hand. Asian people tend to have smaller hand compared to Caucasian anyway (no intention of racism at all, just pure fact of human anatomy).
As a watch, this iPod will display a clock when it goes idle. There are 18 watch-faces we can choose. As far as I know, there is no way for users to create its own custom watch-face. To save battery, the clock display will turn off when not used. So we need to press the power button to see the time every-time we need it.
The back side of this iPod has a built-in clip so we can attach the iPod to our clothing or bag. The idea is sound. The clip itself is well built. But to my opinion it contradicts Apple’s strategy to market it as a wearable device. When used as watch, the clip stays behind the iPod, making the thickest watch I’ve ever worn.
It’s been 2 months since I bought this iPod. After the initial trial-and-error to wear it as a watch, this iPod now mostly stay in my bedroom, in pair with a Philips speaker with 30-pin dock, and serves as my night-time media player. When considered as a music player, this iPod IS indeed a good one. Just like other Apple devices, all we need to do is attach it to our computer, open iTunes and let it sync our songs. The next minute, we’re ready to enjoy some tunes.
There are 3 physical buttons: power, volume up and volume down. Pressing the power button twice will skip the song to the next track. Quite handy, no complain at all.
The sound quality is good, as I expect from an Apple music player. Menu navigation is somewhat frustrating for me. Everything is based on touch and swipe. To go back to previous screen, we need to make swipe movement from left to right. When going back and forth from Music app (to choose playlist, to choose songs, etc) to Clock app (to set sleep time), we need to make a lot of swiping gestures. Every-time we choose something from a menu through a sequence of screens, to go back to the home screen, we need to swipe back as many times as the screens we already choose.
Other notable features are FM radio and Photo app. The FM radio is fine. It needs an earphone attached to act as antenna. The Photo app is kinda useless. Who would want to store and display photos in such a small screen?
What Apple needs to change from this iPod model is to make the back clip detachable (so we can wear it as a watch without the extra thickness) and add a home button or another mechanism to allow us to go back to home screen quickly.
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