Touch killer? Great Rhapsody player...
I bought this as an upgrade to my Sony Noise Cancelling NWZ738 which I was using as my Rhapsody to go player -- now it is my wife's Rhapsody To Go player. The Walkman X has performed admirably as a replacement. It syncs flawlessly with Rhapsody and has the fantastic Walkman sound that I have come to love so much. The basis of my comparison: I will compare to the other Rhapsody players that I've owned -- Samsung P2 iRiver Clix2 Sony Walkman NWZ738 -- and since this is obviously targeted at the iPod Touch I will compare that also. As well for full screen touch I am considering my Archos 604 605 and 5 units. Lets just say I have an addiction to PMPs!
Here's what I love about my new Walkman X:
1. Sound -- as with my other Walkman the sound is fantastic. I'm not exactly an audiophile but this is how I describe the sound: A powerful but crisp bass a very full sound stage very precise mids and highs and no distortion that I can detect at all (believe me with my UE 11 Pro earphones I can hear distortion on all of my other players!). To my ears the combination of my UE earphones with the Walkman sound is as good as it gets in the portable world. Comparison: Clix 2 is crisp you might even say bright but lacks power on the lower end Samsung P2 is a bit blurry -- especially with bass turned up the way I like it Touch doesn't have the same fullness of sound nor does it have the driving bass the Archos is not quite as crisp.
2. Display -- the OLED touch screen is beautiful to look upon. The colors are bright and vivid and the images are big and bold and beautiful. I especially appreciate the album art which is displayed at a large enough size to really appreciate. Comparison -- well the Touch and Archos both have bigger screens and the Touch does album art like nobody's business.
3. Dedicated buttons -- ok here we're killing the iPod Touch because this has dedicated volume button (which I can actually find --an improvement over the 738 volume button) and play ff rev buttons in a little metal panel on the top. However the 738 Walkman has the best dedicated play button I've ever seen nobody can beat that.
4. Operation by braille -- yes I can easily operate the unit without looking at it very important to me because I'm often wanting to stop the music or adjust the sound while my eyes are busy elsewhere. The design of the buttons and the way they protrude from the body makes it easy to find the play button and the volume buttons. Of course nobody compares to the wonderful big bumpy play button on the Walkman 738 -- but there's only so much you can do when you have a big screen taking up most of your face. It is quite easy to operate the play button using the touch screen as well. Comparison: the Touch has no dedicated play button and the volume button is not easy to find or use by touch.
5. User Interface -- its very intuitive I can drill down to the now playing screen very quickly. With a little practice I discovered the submenus accessible from the bottom of the Now Playing screen which allow me to access music settings playlists you name it. Overall I think its a sleek looking interface which allows you to get around quickly and effectively. It even has many of the fun feeling actions that the Touch has the lists go zooming by at the wave of a finger much like the Touch interface. Big improvement over many other MP3 touch UI's -- Archos perhaps being the worst of them where I go through quite a rigmarole to simply start playing a new playlist.
6. Portability -- I think it beats the Touch on compactness. Although the Touch is slim and sleek the Walkman X seems to be a bit more compact and easier to carry around in your hand. It has an interesting plastic edge which makes it highly grippable. Weight is probably about the same as the Touch -- it has a nice heft to it. The only full on touch screen player that can beat the X for compactness is probably the Samsung P2.
7. Esthetics -- I love the sparkly shiny black finish of the front and back. This has a very techno look they've definitely gone a different direction than the sleek rounded iPhone look. It's interesting and different but personally I prefer the Touch esthetically.
8. Rhapsody DNA -- lets not forget the reason I bought the X in the first place this will work with your Rhapsody To Go subscription (or Napster I hear). This is arguably the best of the players that I've found which support Rhapsody. Even better I can also load non-Rhapsody music onto the player using MediaMonkey and they all coexist happily together.
9. Touch Screen -- yes I love touch screens as evidenced by my Archos Touch P2 and on and on it goes. This is a very good touch screen quite responsive and easy to use. The touch interface is well designed I don't ever struggle with hitting the right button -- as has been the case with the Touch from time to time. Comparison: well I have to give the nod to Archos on this one I like a touch screen that will work with a stylus in a crunch.
10. Battery life -- excellent! I'm not seeing their advertised 30 hours more like 10+ unless I turn off all my sound enhancements which make it so fun to listen to. Comparison: seems to have a lot more juice than the Touch Clix2 or the Archos units for sure.
11. Fun stuff built in -- this has a really nice built in interface to YouTube and YouTube videos look fantastic on this screen. Also included is Slacker with free music (I believe you have to listen to commercials though). I think they are giving the Touch a run for the money on built in features.
12. Wifi -- hooked up to my home wifi no problem and was able to watch YouTube in a heartbeat.
13. Noise Cancelling -- nice feature but I don't use it much. The headphones are nice also Sony makes a very decent single driver earbud which is very comfortable.
So what's not to like? Here are a few of my minor critiques of the X:
1. Paucity of accessories -- its the endless story once you leave the apple happy place... good luck finding cases and such for your beautiful new player. However I was able to find a nice case through I-nique which I'm very happy with.
2. Price -- yeah this is kinda pricey for 16 GB player. If price is a concern you might want to go with the Walkman 738 which offers pretty much the same sound and Rhapsody friendliness at a much lower price.
3. No App Store -- need I say more?
4. Web browser -- I just tried it and it really does suck. Fortunately I don't really care I didn't buy this for the web browser. But if they're going to have one they should at least make one that is more usable.
5. Doesn't appear to support Rhapsody Channels. My old Clix2 did so I'm a little disappointed. Hoping to see this fixed in a future firmware release.
In summary: if price is no concern and you don't mind getting your accesories by mail order and you just have to have the best sound for your Rhapsody To Go subscription then this is the unit for you! Its beautiful it sounds great the screen is stunning and best of all... its NEW! On the other hand if you love your iTunes don't even know what Rhapsody is aren't that picky about sound and really want a leopard skin cover for your player then maybe you are better off with some sort of apple iPod.
7/28/09: Update -- this player started out good and has become my favorite in my small harem of mp3 players. Solid construction great sound and friendly to Rhapsody makes it tough to beat. The touch interface has grown on me (initially a bit confusing!) and I have to say I've had zero problems with this player with the touch screen or anything else for that matter. Still a very happy customer!
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