Why my new iPod is a mini

I got a new iPod recently. Well, new to me: it's a second generation iPod mini, and it's wonderful.
I went for this one for two reasons:

• It's smaller, lighter and cheaper than an iPod classic.
• It can be easily upgraded to a high capacity flash drive.
• The second generation mini has a much better battery life than the first.

The iPod was from Ebay. I opened it up, took out the 4Gb mini hard drive (and sold it) and replaced it with a a 64Gb Transcend Compact Flash drive, which I had already formatted. I connected it up to iTunes, restored the firmware and loaded the iPod with some music. 

Results

The sound is great (better than the Touch), and it works very well. I haven't stressed it, but battery life is excellent so far, which may be the result of the CF card needing less power.
I have tried loading an alternative firmware, Rockbox on it. This also works well, and avoids the need to use iTunes to load music. However, I found the limited support for Podcasts a bit annoying, and the interface is rather idiosyncratic.

There are a few limitations of the Apple mini firmware when compared to later models -

• Can't easily switch shuffle / repeat on and off (like the nano can).
• No gapless playback, so small gaps between songs on the same album.
• Can't speed up / slow down podcasts (only audiobooks).