Yay! I finally got my Nano as a reward for putting in some serious hours at work and getting our product out on time! It is certainly a fun little toy, but it does have a serious drawback, which I’ve hopefully outlined in my mini-review below:<br/><br/>[b]First Impression[/b]<br/>Holy cow, this thing is small, [i]really[/i] small, almost too small, way smaller than I expected after seeing it online that first day it was introduced. It is pretty neat to think about the days not too far past where we all had bulky Walkmans and now here we are maybe a decade later and we can fit 1000 songs on to a device that can fit in the small pocket of your jeans (not recommended, keep reading) and has a battery that plays back for more than half a day!<br/><br/>[b]The Sound[/b]<br/>I’m a phile. I get serious about everything that even somewhat interests me. In this case, I am an audiophile. I pulled out the <a href=”http://gradolabs.com/product_pages/sr80.htm” target=”_blank”>Grado SR80s</a> and got to listening. The Nano has very good sound reproduction considering this is compressed music (I only use MP3s at 192kbps), but it could use some minor tweaking, which can be supplied by an EQ. I get to looking, find an EQ in the menu, but there is no custom choice! I cycle through all the presets, which really mean nothing to me, and finally settle on “Electronic.” Would it have been really hard for Apple to implement even a 5-way EQ? I think not.<br/><br/>Oh well, so the sound is pretty good, but the Nano does fall on its face a little bit when you need that extra level or two of volume out of it. Simply put, the maximum volume isn’t all that high. With the top down in my car and the Nano plugged in to my FM modulator (all of these suck by the way), which uses line-out, I have to crank my stereo to the max. For every day headphone use you ought to be fine. That all said, I don’t really think I could bash the Nano for this limitation too much because there is only so much of an amplifier you can fit in to a unit this small.<br/><br/>[b]The Interface and Layout[/b]<br/>Apple has managed to save their business with iPods. How? Catchy marketing and a great interface; this unit is no different than its big brothers. I had never really used an iPod before this for any extended period, but I was on my feet and comfortable with the interface in minutes. <br/><br/>The touchpad is a little sensitive, but that may just be a product of my clumsy fingers. It still beats your typical button array by a mile.<br/><br/>The headphone jack at the bottom of the player struck me as a bit odd. When walking around with the Nano in my pocket (hehe, I can see it now “Is that a Nano in your pocket or are you happy to see me?”) the unit is upside down. Odd, yes, but when you’re sitting at your desk the design begins to make much more sense. Rather than having to curl the headphone cord 180 degrees to head back at you it is already facing the right direction. Nifty! A nice reward for the small price you pay by having to keep the unit upside down in your pocket.<br/><br/>No AC adapter? Can only charge via USB out of the box? Odd indeed. I’m around computers just about 24/7 so keeping my Nano charged is a non-issue, but someone going on a trip overseas, for instance, where they may not have access to a computer is a bit out of luck unless they spend even more money a docking station or similarly functioning device.<br/><br/>[b]The Construction[/b]<br/>Uh oh, I went there. Out of the box, the Nano feels rock solid. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the crappy headphones, which should meet your garbage can within minutes of you opening the box. Not a biggy, a true audiopihle (me, pretending) has their own headphones already. Now I said the unit felt solid, right? Well it is, but the polycarbonate used for the face is AWFUL! <a href=”http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/09/25/1315224&amp;tid=176&amp;tid=1″ target=”_blank”>There are threads all over the place regarding this</a> and I’m eagerly anticipating Apple’s response. This is a serious issue; I have had mine for a week now, and it already has some small scratches over the screen which affect visibility. Sure, you might think I was rough on it, but go take a look at the Nanos on display at your local electronics store; same thing. Sure, all those people checking them out were really rough on them. Go ahead and buy one, use it for a couple days, make sure to leave it in an object free pocket or somewhere else that should be safe from scratches, and then tell me you don’t notice a bunch of scratches covering the face. Apple needs to do something and do it fast. Consumers will not go with the common response I have been hearing, “you have to buy a case for it.” Mine was free, but if I had paid $250 for an item that was meant to live in a pocket I should not have to shell out another $20 to protect it from cotton.<br/><br/>My solution? I stole this from a thread I found somewhere on the vast internet, but I picked up a box of LCD screen protectors (for PDAs or digital camera screens), washed my Nano with lens solution and a lens cloth, cut a piece of the clear plastic protector to fit the screen, and voila! Protection. Not 100% ideal as it affects visibility under certain lighting, but at least my Nano will be usable two weeks from now.<br/><br/>[b]Conclusion[/b]<br/>Apple has created a very nifty product here, but it suffers from a [b]severe[/b] design flaw. I really love the device, but if I were to buy one I’d wait a few weeks to see how Apple responds to this issue. In my opinion, a replacement is not a good answer as it will only become scratched just like the original did. Apple needs to come out with a new version and somehow replace all the Nanos built before that. It will cost them money initially, but they can recycle parts, and will certainly retain customers (make money) in the long run.