Still worth the price premium - and I'll tell you why.

With the increasingly wide spectrum of portable listening devices available to consumers today, it can be difficult to choose the product that's right for you. Nearly every option imaginable is available at the right price - music is no longer the selling point of an mp3 player. The key to making the right decision is realizing what you want and what you only think you want.

Inside the box
The ipod nano is proof that good things come in small packages. Although small, the clear plastic box, along with its contents, are designed in a way that is genuinely pleasing. In addition to the neatly positioned iPod, the small package yields a pair of the ever-present Apple earbuds (white for all models), a usb cable (which plugs into the iPod's 38-pin dock connector), an installation CD (with iPod firmware and iTunes), and a thin instruction manual.

Syncing and ripping
Copying music over to the iPod Nano is arguably the easiest task known to man. Songs can be purchased through the iTunes music store for 99 cents each, and copying CDs to your computer's hard drive is a task of only one click. (Be warned, however, that it is difficult to keep music on your ipod without also having it on your computer.) After songs are on your computer, the device can be loaded to its capacity of 500 songs in several minutes (via USB 2.0). If you use iTunes to manage your ipod, all music, playlists, playcounts, and settings are updated automatically each time you plug your ipod into your computer.

Playing music
The music quality from this device is superb - no complaints whatsoever. The user interface is of similar quality, unparalleled by any I have yet seen in a listening device. Controls (using the Apple-patented click wheel) are intuitive and easy, as are the menus. When it comes to operating this little guy, I would be hard-pressed to voice a complaint.

Exterior
Probably the most amazing feature of the iPod Nano is it's distinctly small size. Because it uses flash memory, this iPod is capable of packing 2 gigabytes of data (and actually up to 8 in more expensive models) into a device the thickness of a pencil. This thing is small. It seems that people are always seeking to make technology smaller, but I can't imagine why anybody could even want something smaller than this. The finish of the iPod nano oozes quality, and the new brushed aluminium exterior promises durability, something that was lacking with the easy-to-scratch previous-generation Nano.

Extras
This ipod boasts the ability to display photos, however the screen is just plain too small to make looking at pictures the least bit enjoyable. It serves well to display song titles and album art, but the photo feature is not exeptionally useful. The games (Parachute, solitaire, and brick), while entertaining the day of purchase, are rarely utilized by most users, likewise the calender, notes, stopwatch, and world clock tools. One useful feature of the iPod nano is the Alarm clock and sleep timer. The iPod can be set to play music for a set number of minutes before turning off, or can be programed to act as an alarm clock and begin playing music or beep at a set time.

Why it is worth it:
The 2 gb capacity, intuitive controls, color screen, and sleek exterior make the ipod Nano a tempting option for the $149. Although other mp3 players with even more capacity can be purchased for about the same price, the ipod offers something that the competitors do not: Incredible all-around design. Everyone knows that half the fun of having electronics is just having them, and this fun is greatly diminished when the product has not been engineered as best as possible. When you buy a product from Apple, it is incredibly difficult to find design flaws, and the iPod Nano is no exception. The user interface, as well as the "sexy" design, is not matched by any competitor, and this alone is worth the extra price premium associated with the iPod benchmark.
Recommended:
Yes