The iPod Mini line used the touch-sensitive scroll wheel of the third generation of iPod. However,it did not use the four touch buttons situated above the wheel, but it was redesigned to have four mechanical buttons beneath the wheel. In order for one to use the four buttons of the wheel, he/she must physically push the edge of the wheel inward over one of the labels. Like its predecessors,the click wheel on the iPod Mini was developed for Apple by Synaptics.
The click wheel is available for all fourth, fifth and sixth generations of iPods,as well as all generations of iPod Nano, from first to fifth. However,the click wheel on the iPod Nano and the ones on the 5G iPods have been developed by Apple. Above the wheel, Apple added a 138x110 monochrome LCD which displays information on the selected track. Beginning with the iPod Mini, all iPods have had colorful screens. Both the first and the second generation of iPod Mini are identical in what concerns their external design, except for few minor details, like the fact that on the second model, the labels on the click wheel are colored the same as in the case of iPods, whereas the first iPod Mini presented only gray labels.
Another detail is that second models have their GB capacity carved on the back of the device, whereas first models do not.The important changes having been made from one model to another refer to their battery and storage capacity. Both models present 3.6x2.0x0.5 inches dimensions and their casing consists of anodized aluminum. The available colors for the case were gold, silver, pink, blue and green.Since the second model,the gold model was dropped due to its unpopularity,and the pink,the blue and the green casings were replaced with higher hue versions.The silver casing remained untouched.The iPod Mini used micro-drive hard drives developed by Hitachi and Seagate. While the first model was only available with a 4 GB capacity,the second generation iPod Minis were available in both 4 GB and 6 GB versions. Beginning with the second models, Minis had their capacity etched in the aluminum case.The 4 GB model roughly stores 1000 songs and the 6 GB version is known to present a storage capacity of 1.500 songs.
The battery life is in the case of the first iPod Mini of about 8 hours, and it was very criticized by users for that. Therefore,Apple increased the battery life of the second model of iPod Mini to 18 hours between charges. However,the second model no longer came with a FireWire cable or an AC power adapter.They were left out to reduce the selling price of the new iPod Mini.