Mossberg reviews new ‘better designed than original’ Apple iPod; recommends it ‘highly’

Walt Mossberg loves the new Apple iPod line. Mossberg writes in the Wall Street Journal, “Apple Computer’s iPod portable digital music player has become the gold standard for digital music fans. No other player has been able to match its combination of elegant design, small size and high capacity… They play the new music-file format Apple uses at its store, but can still handle regular MP3 files from any source. I’ve been testing the new iPod for several days, using a wide variety of music from different sources. I find it to be even better designed and easier to use than the original model. I can still recommend it highly, as I did the first version.”

Mossberg continues, “The new models are noticeably thinner, and the weight is way down. Even the highest-capacity new model weighs less than the lightest of the old models, and holds triple the songs. One striking difference is that the buttons controlling play, pause, backward, forward and menu functions have been moved from the edges of the famous iPod scroll wheel to a new row above the wheel; and they light up orange when the screen backlight goes on.”

One drawback of the new models is noted by Mossberg, “To reduce the size of the unit, Apple had to cut the size of the battery. So, the battery life of the new iPods, while still respectable, is significantly lower than it was on the original version. The old models claimed 10 hours of battery life, but mine got 12 hours. The new models claim eight hours of battery life, but my test iPod lasted only 7.5 hours — nearly 40% less than my old one.”

Read Walt Mossberg’s full review of the new iPod line here.