Apple’s iPods have remained largely unchanged since launched. Incremental updates to capacity and design are really the only major changes the line has been subject to. After all, why change an icon? We are pleased to see that this time around the iPod has had a more drastic overhaul.

The user interface has undergone the most notable change. As you wade through the menu items, you’ll find that the first layers are presented with a vertical split. The structure of the menu panel on the left is much the same as old iPods, however cover artwork is scrolled through the right panel.

Open the music folder and the entire screen will change its display to full screen to accommodate lists of text. You can scroll through album artworks by cover with the coverflow option and if you sort by albums, the display will use two lines per album and display a thumbnail on the left. The information backgrounds are also prettier; even the Apple logo during startup is against a gradient.

H.264 encoded video playback has been added to the Nano, although at 8GB you’ll have to be a bit choosey about which videos you load. The matchbox sized 4:3 screen has pushed the Nano’s dimensions outward and shortened it to make it roughly the size of your palm. Nonetheless, it doesn’t feel cumbersome, although one complaint we recieved as we passed it around the office was that the seams in the chassis formed sharp corners.

The iPod Nano is available in 4 or 8GB capacities and is available in 5 colours. It requires iTunes 7.4 or later to run. Apple’s claimed battery life is 24 hours of audio or 5 hours of video, claims we are testing.

We will present present in our full review in the November issue of PC Authority, on sale October 3.