- Store up to 1000 songs 2400 photos or 12 hours of video
- Memory card slot for pre-loaded cards
- Digital FM tuner with 40 presets
- Rechargeable battery lasts up to 15 hours
- Built-in clip for easy carrying
SanDisk Sansa Clip+ 4 GB MP3 Player (Black)
Sony NWZB103FBLK 1GB Walkman MP3 Player (Black)
- USB Direct Connect
- Multiple Audio Codec Support - WMA and MP3
- 3-Line Color LCD Display
- FM Tuner with Recorder Functin and 30 Station Presets
- Up to 12 Hours Battery Life
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Sony 4 GB Walkman Video MP3 Player NWZ-E436F (Black)
- 4 GB capacity for up to 925 songs or 15 hours of video
- Enjoy up to 45 hours of continuous music or 8 hours of video on a single charge
- 2-inch TFT color display with white LED-backlight QVGA (240 x 320 Pixels) resolution and 262144 colors
- Supported audio formats: MP3 WMA AAC-LC and Linear PCM; supported video formats: AVC(H.264/AVC) MPEG-4 Windows Media Video 9
- 1-year limited warranty
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Sony NW-E005 2 GB Flash Digital Music Player (Black)
- Compact black MP3 player with 2 GB of built-in flash memory
- Supports MP3 WMA AAC and ATRAC formats; built-in FM tuner
- 1-line rotating OLED display shows title song length and battery power
- 5-band equalizer with heavy pop jazz custom and manual modes
- Measures 3.11 x 0.96 x 0.53 inches (W x H x D); 1-year parts warranty
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Sony Walkman NWZ-E354BLK Series 8GB Video Mp3 Player (Black)
- 8 GB capacity for about 2000 songs or 12 hours of video
- Enjoy 50 hours of audio or 10 hours of video on a single charge
- Two-inch color QVGA TFT display with 320 x 240 pixel resolution
- Supports MP3 WMA (DRM) AAC and WAV audio files; WMV (DRM) video files
- One-year limited warranty
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Sony 2 GB Digital Music Player (Black)
- 2 GB capacity for about 500 songs
- Enjoy 11 hours of audio playback on a single charge
- Unique cord-free design -- one-piece player comfortably floats back of neck
- Supports MP3 AAC WMA (DRM) and WMT audio files
- One-year limited warranty
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Sony Walkman NWZS545BLK 16 GB Video MP3 Player (Black)
- 16 GB capacity for about 4000 songs
- Up to 42 hours of audio or 6.5 hours of video on a single charge
- 2.4-inch 262144-color LCD with 240 x 320 QVGA pixel resolution
- Supports MP3 WMA (DRM) AAC and Linear PCM audio formats; AVC MPEG-4 and WMV (DRM) video formats; JPEG image files
- One-year limited warranty; 1 year parts 90 days labor
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Sony 8 GB Walkman Video MP3 Player (Black)
Old Guy Review
Being 67 years old and wanting something simple to use I used previous reviews to settle on the Sony 4GB Walkman MP3 Player.
I couldn't be more satisfied.It comes with a cd that allows dowloading an excellent tutorial along with Windows Media Player 11. Instructions are clear and concise. I had read in one review that you couldn't delete songs. This was untrue as its simple but does require being hooked to your computer.
If I can use this anyone can and they will be very satisfied with the quality ease of use and sound quality.
I bought another Sony for my wife !!More detail ...
Sony Headphone-Style Walkman MP3 Player (Black)
Best sport option
Background: I have been looking since what seems forever for the perfect headphone/mp3 solution for the gym. I exercise mostly at the gym for strength training (use my own music) and for cardio (I use guided interval training mp3 workouts). I use cardio coach (www.cardiocoach.com) my absolutely favorite cardio option and itrain (www.itrain.com) which is pretty neat too.
Traits I look for in the perfect mp3 player for the gym:
- Should be light unobtrusive and rugged. I do not want to worry about scratching dropping or damaging the player.The player should not get in the way when I workout.
- No headphone wires. Headphone wires get in the way and sometimes I have even yanked them accidentally out of the player while working out.
- Should be easy to navigate to and find what I want to play (exact Cardio Coach Volume or playlist for my strength training)
- Decent sound quality
I dont mind not having a whole lot of storage-capacity because I am OK with transferring music/workouts frequently to the player. About a couple of weeks worth of content is all I expect it to hold.
About the Sony W202: This is an incredible idea. A pair of great sounding wireless headphones with a 2GB mp3 player integrated right into the headphones.
Overall impressions:
- Better than jaybird gear the previous bluetooth wireless headphones (for use with ipods or any mp3 player) I had reviewed here (http://www.amazon.com/review/R2VP6138TP6JQ6/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm). But the perfect gym mp3 solution has not yet been invented. (I used the jaybird gear headphones with an ipod nano. Wireless freedom and no need to wear the nano on my person either...it can be kept in a corner of the gym....was quite happy...I am dumping them now and switching to this Sony W202.)
How it scores over jaybird gear:
- I have come to realize that with in-ear style sport headphones (headphones that are sweat resistant comfy and wont come out when you are active) fit has a lot to do with shape and size of the ear canal. I was lucky to get decent fit with jaybird gear. They dont work for my husband as they keep falling out when he runs. From online reviews this is what I gather too. Either they fit you or they dont. Sony has a less ear-shape dependant construction and is likely to fit more people though it is by no means universal. It has three sizes of ear bud adaptors to provide flexibility for ear canal size.
- Sound quality is better than jaybird. Jaybird uses bluetooth - bluetooth compression affects clarity of sound. Jaybird sounds decent ( better than a lot of regular non-bluetooth cheaper headphones) but is not on par with higher end headphones.
The good:
- Meet the need so well on being comfortable unobtrusive and secure-in-fit (the last being for me...your mileage may vary based on your ears). I did a 40 minute elliptical workout a ten minute treadmill run and some core training on the stability ball and they stayed put and out of the way. I did not have to as much as touch the headphones to adjust the fit except once in the first five minutes of the workout when I fiddled for a better angle in the fit for a few seconds. They then stayed completely out of the way and secure. (For me the fit is more comfy and secure than jaybird.)
-The controls seem difficult when you look at the player but when you actually use them they are surprisingly easy to operate. I had no learning time. I did not fiddle. I could very easily control the player during the very first time.
- I like the Zappin feature for ease of operation. When you press the jog wheel and keep it depressed you hear "Zappin in" and then the player scrolls through all the music on the player by playing brief snatches of each song When you find the song you want you just press the jog wheel again and it will play sequentially from that point on. To exit "Zappin" mode all you do is press the jog wheel lightly again and you hear "Zappin Out".
- For $ 69 they are very cost effective. That is less than a high end pair of headphones and less than quite a few mp3 players as well.
- It has a optional shuffle mode if you want it to play music in random order.
- Great battery life and a 3 minute charge option for 90 minute playback.
What could have been better:
- You can use two modes to transfer music to the player. The first is with the inbuilt software called "content transfer". Content transfer works with iTunes or Windows Media player. After you install Content Transfer on your PC you can drag and drop music from iTunes or Media player on to Content Transfer. It will analyse each track to recognize the chorus as it transfers music to the player. Then should you use Zappin during playback of the player it will play the most recognizable bit. Issues with Content Transfer:
a. Not eactly as easy to set up and use as itunes. OK for people who are techno-patient and dont mind reading manuals but not as intuitive as itunes.
b. The auto-recognition of the most recognizable bit may not work very well for workouts (workouts tend to have longer mp3 tracks some of which reuse music). It works most of the time but not always for music. I could not recognize most of my workouts and a also few songs using this feature.
c. The "announce" track-name feature to overcome lack of a screen in the latest iPod shuffle is a better way to navigate a screenless player. Too bad that the Shuffle still needs wired headphones. (Except for the navigation ease I consider W202 a better sport option than the shuffle).
- You can also simply treat the player as if it were a detachable hard-drive on your PC and manually copy songs. Whe you use "Zappin" it will then play a snatch from the 45 second mark within the track. I think this feature is better because it allows you to organize the music exactly as you want within folders on the player unlike Content Tranfer mode that organizes its own folders on the player. However there is no way to scroll from Folder to Folder during playback. The player will go through your music in alphabetical sorting order - by folder and within each folder by track name. You can easily organize the music so that you put in a preceeding number (like 01. 02. 03. ...etc) before each Folder name or track name to ensure it plays in the right order. The ability to scroll not just through tracks but also at the folder-name level whould have created the equivalent of playlists on the player and brought it pretty close to perfection in my opinion.
- There is no way to mark tracks to exclude them in shuffle mode as you can with ipod models (I can mark workouts audiobooks and podcasts to be excluded in shuffle mode on my ipod and just listen to my music in random order).
The bad:
- You can skip to the next song or the previous but you cannot forward or rewind within a track.
- The USB connecter on the player is not covered. During active use that represents an issue because sweat could get in and cause damage. The positioning of the mini-USB connector port isnt exactly where sweat is likely to reach but still...if you work out hard the player coud be at risk.
Should you get the player?:
- Only if you are thinking of getting a new player specifically for the gym or for active use. Otehrwise get something with a screen to help navigation.
- If you already have a player or wireless bluetooth headphines wait for the next Sony Walkman W202 version which (based on how vendors release upgraded models of popular mp3 players) should be about April 2010. I bet the player will overcome many glitches in its next avatar.
- If you buy make sure you buy from a place that has a return policy in case the player does not work for you during the first couple of exercise sessions.
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Sony Walkman NWZE345BLK 16 GB Video MP3 Player (Black)
Not bad decent value but a few flaws
[Edit: Upgrade from 3.5 to 4.2 stars; see below]
After my poor experience with the Phillips GoGear mp3 player (reviewed here last week) I thought I'd see what Sony can do with an mp3 player.
I bought their first (excellent) FM walkman in 1980 but haven't used one of their portables since. I am in general a Sony fan and my 1986 Trinitron is still running like new. Gotta love that kind of quality! But do they still have it?
First the good:
-Excellent battery life: 30 hours for music and it does get close to that if you don't do much scrolling. Nice.
-Lots of gigs for a c-note: about 6 bucks per gig once you realize that it's only 14.4 gb. I hate the way companies do that btw. Don't tell me I'm getting 16 gigs and then give me ten percent less. Be honest! Stuff like that loses customers savvy ones at least.
-Good sound...but with that traditional Sony eq curve: very flat. I've had a few Sony receivers and cd players and tape decks over the years and they are all very flat across the ranges. This makes for nice tight bass and decent mids but the top end is always a little compressed and lacks shimmer and overtones.
Still a solid tone not tinny.
-You can use folders saves a lot of scrolling time. Put jazz metal etc into their own folders. Nice. Any smart mp3 player does this.
-Nice simple drag and drop of files right out of the box with no need to install the software. That's sweetness because almost every problem I've had with mp3 players stems from badly written software and avoiding the need for it altogether is preferable. If you can avoid installing your included software for any player do it; it only causes hassles in the long run unless you need a certain feature. Drag and drop is where it's at: quick simple efficient. And no adware etc installed surreptitiously by the software cd a newly common scam.
-Gets good and loud. Helps with certain headphones. Sounds good on my Koss PortaPros and great on my AKG K701s. The phones that come with this are cheese as usual. Buds will never compare to real cans.
-Excellent for running my main use for mp3 players. It hasn't skipped on me once and can take all sorts of shaking and bouncing. Very nice.
-Very thin light sleek. Takes up almost no space in any pocket purse etc.
-A strange design touch that I haven't seen anyone mention but which struck me right off: the control buttons on the front panel are shaped almost precisely like Mickey Mouse's head! This can't be coincidence; surely someone in design did this on purpose. So is Sony in bed with the Mouse or what's up? In any case sometimes I see it and hear Mickey's estrogenic squeal in my inner ear saying "Pluto! Punch me in the nose and let's get this party started!"
-Along with the essential external volume buttons there's a manual lock switch on the side of the unit. Very useful to not have to scroll to make this go on and off. A good design feature that all mp3 players should have. You might want to use this when it's off and in your pocket as the unit turns on with only minor presssure on the front panel button...but that leads to:
-Another major plus this unit starts playing exactly where the last tune you were playing stopped in about a half second after the button is touched. Some players take ten seconds. This baby rips right into the music in a flash (literally; flash drive players have so many advantages). Excellent.
But the bad:
-the screen is waaay thin; it's already covered with scratches after only a few days in my empty pocket. Not good. I don't care about the aesthetics but do need to see the screen!
-to ff or rewind quickly you must first pause the track: took me a while to figure this out. Not a big con but could have been been done without needing to pause.
-and the one thing that will make me return this item next week: you can't delete songs or files from the player. You must first hook it up to a computer! Terrible design. My years-old Muvo deletes on the fly as do my Dell DJ and other players. This is a huge mistake: with 4000 songs how can I remember all the ones I need to dump? Very major flaw and a deal breaker for me.
But for those who only transfer stuff they already know and love this is a pretty darn decent player. I don't know who wants to watch movies or vids on a thumbnail-sized screen but as a music player this offers good sound and plenty of storage for a good price.
At this rate we'll get a terabyte for a c-note within a couple years.
Can't wait! Then we can put everything on in lossless FLAC files the only real way to go. MP3 is okay but still a compromise.
Hey Sony: not bad...but how can you leave out such a huge feature as deleting on the fly?
[Edit: 12/30/09. I now have to give this little thang a little more than four stars...and hooray to Amazoon's code writers: we can now finally change our ratings after the original review. I returned my original to the mallwart (so nice of them to let us try stuff out! And so unfortunate they can't pay living wages so I might feel bad about costing them restocking fees...) but after looking around for a few weeks I realized this Sony unit offers far more bang for the buck than any other mp3 player out there. So I picked one up here saving twenty over the mallwart price and am very happy with it barring the above caveats.
The best way to deal with no delete feature seems to be to mark the tracks you don't dig with the "wishlist" feature on the options screen and then when you charge the unit you can open the files and delete tunes you've wishlisted. Much more hassle than deleting on the fly but at least a workable solution to my main negative about the product.
If Sony releases a firmware update that lets us delete on the fly (not sure if that's possible or not; hope so) then I'd have to give this thing an almost perfect rating.
Pair it with Koss Portapros and you will be blown away by the sound.]
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Sony Walkman NWZS545BLK 16 GB Video MP3 Player (Black)
Solid Performer
When searching for a new mp3 player the trail always leads me back to Sony. Its more about overall quality then brand loyalty. Over the years Sony's Walkman line has gone the distance and more. The all new Sony S Series Walkman adds to the legacy.
The S-545 16gb Walkman brings it on with a crisp color enhanced 2.4" LCD screen that is easy on the eyes. At 2" x 4" x .4" it comes in a bit larger then its older cousin. A larger body undoubtedly is required to provide support for the external speaker system. The speakers won't get confused with my home system anytime soon but they do provide an excellent source. With headphones on this mp3 player delivers a cornucopia of sound. Missing but not that noticeable is the noise reduction feature. The on board equalizer can be tweaked to one's own preferences or users can choose one of the six presets.
The Navigation pad located directly under the screen is a breeze to operate. Three controls are located on the right side of the unit. One locks in the controls. The second one allows for easy switching from speaker to headset. Volume is the third control. The standard headphone jack and a USB port can be found on the bottom of the unit. The detachable flip out stand is an okay feature that allows for easy standing on my desk or shelf top. I would have preferred that it was permanently mounted.
The S-545 supports mp3 mp4 AAC AVC WMV WMA and PCM. PCM is Sony's version of WAV. It pairs well with Napster To Go. Its hit and miss with Rhapsody To Go. Sometimes its a smooth transfer other times its not. Downloading my playlists from Windows Media Player was a breeze without the usual hiccups associated with older mp3 players.
Amazon video is a new option that is also supported. Video can be synced from my computer as well. I've never been big on downloading video to my player. I did download a couple of photographs on this model. The display was outstanding. Unlike my older Walkman this model doesn't offer the wallpaper photo display option.
The built in FM tuner picked up all ten of my stations. With auto scanner functionality thirty preset slots are available. The FM radio is crystal clear when using the headset as an antenna. The alarm and timer features are a nice add on. This model also has an impressive on board microphone located on the bottom of the unit. There are three voice settings. Voice playback quality was excellent. Battery life has always been biggie with Sony. On a full charge I got almost a full thirty five hours of music.
The Sony Walkman S-545 16gb Mp3 player comes packed with a USB cable flip stand ear buds installed operating manual and the standard one year warranty. Body finishes include; black and red in the 16GB model. Pink and violet are additional choices in the 8GB model.
Economically priced this latest edition to the Walkman line is a durable and reliable product that delivers. Easy to use and loaded with features the Sony S-545 is a prime time performer.More detail ...
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