When Apple refreshed its product range in September the iPod Nano got a significant makeover. It still uses flash memory, rather than a mini hard drive, but it's gained some of the curves of the iPod Mini and looks less slab-like than the original Nano.

The 1GB version has been discontinued so the silver 2GB model is the entry level version at £99. In the middle of the range the 4GB model costs £129 and is available in blue, green, pink and silver, while the new 8GB option is available exclusively in black at a cost of £169 which is approaching the price of a 30GB iPod.

The new Nano is the same size as the original at 90 x 40 x 6.5mm, the weight is unchanged at 42g and the screen measures the same 1.5inch/38mm on the diagonal. However, the screen brightness has been increased by 40 percent which makes it easier to read whether you're indoors or on the street.

Somehow Apple has managed to increase the maximum battery life from 14 hours to 24 hours which is an impressive feat. We doubt that Apple has crowbarred a larger Li-Ion battery into the tiny casing so presumably this gain has been achieved with optimisations in the electronics.

There are a couple of ergonomic changes as the Lock slider has been made larger and easier to operate, while the Enter button in the centre of the click wheel is dished which makes it easier to locate. Apple has added a search function that allows you to hunt through your music by name, much like you find a name in the contact list on your mobile phone, but provided your music and photos have a semblance of order you don't really need this feature.

Those of us with large libraries will, however, be impressed by the second aid. When you use the click wheel to scroll through your library the list blazes past in a blur, but now a large letter appears on the screen to show where you've reached in the alphabet. It sounds weird but it works incredibly well.

The other change is that iTunes is now at version 7 and it is both more extensive than version 6 and also easier to use. Most of the functions remain the same but the software now includes Apple's new movie store, although that is irrelevant to Nano owners as the player supports only music and photos.

The pane where you control the iPod has been radically overhauled so you no longer use a separate utility to update the firmware on your iPod as this function is now integrated into iTunes. It is also far more straightforward to designate the location of the photos that you wish to transfer to your iPod with version 7.

Is the new Nano any good? No, it is very, very good indeed. There are one or two players that have better audio quality but nothing approaches Apple's ease of use, quality, style and now, for the first time, value for money. That's right; not only is the Nano a superb player but it is also competitively priced.