Minimalism has always been a guiding principle at Apple, and the new iPod shuffle is an outstanding example. The slim white shell encases a 512MB or 1GB flash-based player, with nothing more than a four-way rocker ring and play/pause button on the front and a power switch and battery-check button on the back. You pull off one end of the 0.8-ounce player to expose the USB plug. The shuffle has no display to tell you what song you're listening to, no playlists, and no EQ settings. Instead, you get a new version of iTunes that can randomly load the shuffle with songs; two positions on the power switch let you play them in order or randomly. The big idea here, such as it is, is that shuffle owners want to be continually surprised at which songs pop up from their music collections.

The shuffle achieves its random-play design goal. It's also highly competent as a music player. It has dead-flat frequency response, less harmonic distortion, and most notably, better bass response than its bigger siblings. The older iPods, especially the Mini, have been rightfully criticized for being somewhat deficient in bass, and although the bigger players have flat frequency response, they have trouble sustaining big bass notes. Not so the shuffle; it drives its earbuds well and hard without resorting to artificial bass boost. Though most digital audio players have moved past the Apple players' audio quality (by virtue of learning from Apple's mistakes and being fresher designs), the shuffle does them one better.

We did our usual critical listening through the supplied earbuds, our Sennheiser HD280 Pro headphones, and studio monitors. The shuffle had no sonic flaws that we could detect. Harmonic distortion does show up in the last two clicks on the volume control, but to run it that loud, you'd have to be deaf or crazy. For such a diminutive player, the iPod shuffle was extraordinarily loud. We measured an in-ear music peak of 106 dB, and the shuffle had no problem sustaining 100 dB levels on loud rock tracks. At that level, extended use of the shuffle could damage your hearing, so be prudent with its power. We managed to drive the shuffle into thermal shutdown with our high-volume tests, but we doubt that any user will ever experience this.

The shuffle uses the latest version of iTunes, which has the random-load feature built in. It coexists with a hard-disk iPod without difficulty and plays most of the same file formats. AAC lossless compression is not supported, but VBR, AAC, and MP3 up to 320 kilobits per second are.

And what of the minimalist interface? The shuffle communicates through two LEDs on the front and one on the back. A wallet-size cheat sheet tells you what the colors and codes are saying about play status, connection status, and battery life. You can skip to the next song, play the same song over again, or go to the previous song, but you'd have to have the list committed to memory to find a specific track—and do a lot of repetitive clicking to get there. We admire the functional simplicity of the shuffle, and recognize there are times (such as during a workout) that you won't miss the display (and will be happy to do without the extra weight it necessitates). Still, overall we prefer a player with a navigation window. When we use random play on our personal digital audio player, we often find that it stimulates a musical mood; we'll then switch to a specific playlist or group of albums.

The shuffle's value is interesting. Though the $99 price for the 512MB player ($149 for 1GB) is low, it isn't unique. For example, the 512MB SanDisk Digital Audio Player can be found for $99 and has a functional navigation window, voice recording, and FM radio. Of course, it isn't as tiny, light, or sleek as the iPod shuffle. So if you want a low-cost player that stores just hundreds (as opposed to thousands) of songs and don't need to see what's playing, the iPod shuffle is a very good choice.