iPod Shuffle Reviewed: The Best Music-Only MP3 Player $49 Can Buy

When Steve Jobs unveiled three new iPods two weeks ago, the nano looked drastically different than its predecessor, while the touch ushered in all of the evolutionary changes we’d been predicting.

The pint-sized shuffle, priced at $49 and designed to hold only music, is in its own category: it looks a lot different from the last-generation shuffle, which was so minimalist it didn’t even have buttons, but is very similar to all the ones that came before it– namely, the square-shaped ones with buttons. Now, though, it has VoiceOver, a feature introduced in the last generation, which speaks the names of playlists, tracks, and artists to you.

All told, the shuffle is one of our favorite MP3 players, and in some ways we like it even more than the snazzier-looking, more feature-packed nano. Read our full review to find out why.