Apple iPod Shuffle 2011 user reviews (2GB, silver)

Pros Nice throwback to the 2nd gen design
Small AND Affordable

Cons Kind of too small, so, be careful so that this does not go through the wash!!

2GB, but that is kind of expected for how small the player is, but not bad!

Summary I was a bit skeptical of how last generation was going to turn out, and, to put it quite frankly, it was a downfall (but an ok) design compared to the 1st and 2nd generation design of the Shuffle.

I love the price of these! They are $49 USD for 2 gigabytes of flash memory. Overall, I think that the price point is great! Also, for such a small device, it also has a lovely amount of battery power, about 15 hours!

Onto the cons. First of all, it is a little small, so beware of it going through the wash on accident. Another thing is the size, but that is expected due to the size of the player. Not too much of a flaw, but hey, that's what it is all about, playing music

Over all, I give the iPod shuffle fourth generation model a 5 out of 5 stars.

Pros Easy navigation means you never have to see the screen
Compact design perfect for travel and bike riding.
The Buttons are back! (though thats not really a feature, and it was fixing a big mistake)

Cons There is a high risk of accidently putting through the wash, so buy a colour that stands out from your clothes. Only 2 GB, and of course, itunes, but thats irrelevant.
Voiceover is a bit robotic at times...

Summary I bought this to replace my nokia E63's music application, as the sound quality really seem to suffer on the thing. The shuffle has really good audio quality, not even a trace of background hissing clicking or popping.

Voiceover is seamless, and it really works well. I love it, unfortunatley, if you want to sync the thing with Linux, there is no voiceover.

But it is good player and works great...

Pros The buttons are back so you can use any pair of headphones on it.
Audio is better
VoiceOver
Clip sturdiness
Beautiful anodizing
Price
Durable
Better battery life

Cons The fact that the entire face of the shuffle is the click wheel poses a problem when using the clip since the user will hit the buttons.

Summary The new ipod shuffle design is a big improvement over the old one. The buttons are back so you can use any pair of headphones.

Other thoughts on the shuffle:
The capacity of the shuffle isn't meant to be large enough to carry your entire music library. It is meant for music on the go.
The shuffle is not supposed to have a screen on it. It was never designed so that the user could "see" their music.
The shuffle is designed to be the simplest music player out on the market.


For the future, maybe Apple will work on making the battery life and VoiceOver even better.

Pros The controls and the sturdiness of the clip.

Cons ITunes, iTunes, iTunes.

Summary On the previous shuffles, have used non-i-Tunes software from day one. All you need with a button navigating device like this is the ability to drag and drop and order/reorder content. Not playlists and sync. If i-Tunes is the only option on this device, it will not be worthwhile.