The Best Shuffle Yet.

Author's Rating:

Pros: Playlists; Buttons; Excellent clip; Larger click wheel; Improved battery; USB; Sweat resistant; Battery check; Price.

Cons: No masculine colors; Clunky playlist selection process; Battery not user accessible; Max 320Kbps bitrate.

The Bottom Line: 
Apple wisely ditches the 3rd generation Shuffle's mysterious design and revamps the 2nd gen design.  The result is the best Shuffle yet.

Author's Review

The last generation Shuffle (the 3rd generation, or '3rd gen') was a train wreck.  Eliminating all buttons from the shuffle makeas much sense as omitting the steering wheel from a car; yes, it may look 'cleaner,' but it's not very functional.


For this reason, most of this review will compare and contrast the 4th gen Shuffle (the most recent) with the 2nd gen Shuffle (the last good one).  The 3rd gen Shuffle was just a nightmare that Shuffle fans had to endure.


In this, the 4th generation of the Shuffle, Apple gets it right by going both backward AND forward.  By streamlining an already proven form factor, Apple has birthed a nearly perfect product.


First, and most obvious, the 4th gen model returns to the tried and loved click wheel.  This obviously follows the form factor of the trusty 2nd gen model.  But Apple improved upon the 2nd gen model by making the wheel about 20% bigger.  I have average sized hands, but one of my few complaints about the 2nd gen was that the controls were a tad small.  The 4th gen is easier to operate.


The 4th gen has retained the attractive and durable aluminum case.  While not watertight (which would be a nice feature), the 4th gen seems every bit as sweat resistant as my 2nd generation model.  The 4th gen comes in a variety of attractive colors, but I wish that there was a greater selection of manly colors.  It is currently available in pink, orange, lime green, baby blue, and silver.  


The big news, and my biggest gripe about all Shuffles up to this point, is the addition of playlists.  After all, who cares that you can fit 15 hours of audio on your device if you can't find it.  Hoorah, Apple has finally fixed this dilemma by including a third button!  I'm sure the Apple techs tossed and turned at night debating whether to add another button and risk the unit looking 'busy.'


Now, I can have multiple playlists such as Fast Workout, Cooldown, Dark Side of the Moon.  I can even create a playlistfor each individual audio book.  With 2 gigs at my disposal, there's plenty of room for all my workout tunes.  If you want to keep copies of all your albums, a nano will probably be your best option.  The Shuffle was never meant to contain your whole music library.


But my praise for the new button, Apple calls it the 'voiceover' button, is not unqualified.  Unfortunately, Apple tries to make the button do too much.  One short push of the button causes the device to simply say the name of the song you are listening to.  This is an essentially useless feature.  With only 2 gigs of space, I'm not likely to throw an unknown song on my Shuffle anyway.  


In order to change playlists, one must push the button a little longer.  This is annoying because I'd like to flip through my playlists quickly.  Instead, I have to hold down the button and wait.  Call me impatient.  If you have more than a few playlists, this can become a chore, especially since the voice telling you the names of your playlists does so in a very leisurely way.  To avoid frustration, choose short playlist names and use no more than 3 or 4 playlists.


The voiceover button does have third, and usefull, feature.  Press it twice and a pleasant voice reports how much battery power you have left.  I like that it simply tells you what percentage of your battery power is left rather than a dubiously calculated 'time until empty' estimate.  This was another gripe I had with the 2nd generation unit that was fixed nicely in this version.


The 3rd generation had a clip, but its elongated form factor seemed to make it more wobbly when I clipped it to my shirt.  The 4th gen goes back to the square form factor of the 2nd generation model.  The clip is extremely functional and has been very effective thus far.  Despite clinging very tightly to my clothes, the clip never snags or damages my clothing. 

The 4th generation is a tiny bit smaller than the 2nd generation model.  The 4th gen is 1.14"H x 1.24" W x .34" D, the 2nd gen is 1.07 H x 1.62" W x .41" D.  The 4th gen is also a tiny bit lighter, .44 ounces (12.5 grams) vs .55 ounces (15.6 grams).  The only way for my eye to detect that one was bigger than the other was to compare them side by side.  Even then, the difference was negligible.  I also tried holding one in each hand, but could not feel a difference in weight (which is not surprising, 3.1 grams is a very slight weight difference).  In use, the 4th gen Shuffle is every bit as unnoticeable as the 2nd gen model.


The 4th gen model also uses an improved lithium ion battery instead of the lithium polymer battery of the 2nd gen.  The affect being that the 4th gen will run for 15 hours, two hours longer than the previous versions.  I haven't endurance tested the 4thgen yet, but I've found that Apple's endurance claims to be a bit optimistic.  The 2nd gen model was supposed to get 12 hours of playback, but I only averaged about 9.  I figure the new Shuffle will be good for about 10 'real world' hours.  The battery is internal and not user serviceable.


Another improvement over the 2nd gen is how the 4th gen model attaches to your computer.  You are no longer required to haul around that clunky 'cradle with a jack plug' in order to charge your Shuffle.  Any mini USB cable will do.  One less thing to haul around since my digital camera uses a mini USB cable too.  Thank you Apple.


The Shuffle now has Genius available.  I never use that feature so I don't care.  Supposedly, Apple will create custom mixes for you based on the music in you itunes library.  I hesitate to use this feature in part because of the difficulty of switching between mixes.


As with all Shuffles, the max quality of audio upload to the unit is 320 Kbps.  I realize that 320Kbps is very high quality, and that 2 gigs is not a lot of space.  But I don't like to compress 'Dark Side of the Moon' and would prefer to upload it in the Apple lossless format (which would take about 500 MB of space).  I know this won't be an issue for most.  I mean, how many people want almost half of the Shuffle's capacity taken up with a single album?  Not many, certainly, but I'd like the option.

Audiophiles are fairly critical of the headphones which come supplied with all ipods.  For most, the supplied headphones will work just fine; how do you expect to hear the subtle strings of Mendelsshon's #9 while stomping on the treadmill?  I think most ipod users are either satisfied with the sound, or choose to upgrade.  I chose not to ding this review a star for the pedestrian headphones simply because I can't think of another audio player that comes with premium headphones included.  'Premium' costs money, and this ipod only costs $49.


Despite its improvements, the Shuffle only costs $49.  Which I think is a real bargain for such a high quality product.


For those of you who clung to your 2nd gen Shuffles waiting for Apple to replace the horrible 3rd gen model, your time has come.  Not only has Apple returned to a proven form factor, it added some functionality.