Sony NWZ-S639F

...is my review on the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639.

I have up until now been an iPod fan, but I feel that Apple is dominating the MP3 player market and I am a bit confused as to why for the following reasons:

1: The Sony Walkman has FAR superior sound than the iPod, now this isn’t just my opinion but many reviews on the internet point this out too, this is partly down to Sony supplying good quality earphones as standard and also ...
...Nano, I instead purchased the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639, I paid £101 for the 16GB version. So I basically have double the storage, better supplied earphones (which are superb by the way), better sound quality and all this for less money than the Nano, it just goes to show that the iPod is too expensive.


2: Even with good quality earphones the iPod is far behind the Sony Walkman in terms of sound quality in my opinion. I know this ... more

Here is my review on the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639.

I have up until now been an iPod fan, but I feel that Apple is dominating the MP3 player market and I am a bit confused as to why for the following reasons:

1: The Sony Walkman has FAR superior sound than the iPod, now this isn’t just my opinion but many reviews on the internet point this out too, this is partly down to Sony supplying good quality earphones as standard and also Sony have different sound chips and sound technologies that the iPod doesn’t. The iPod comes supplied with the now familiar and to be honest poor earphones that do not have a good enough seal to give the user good sound. Also the iPod is too expensive, for example, the last iPod I owned was the new 4th Generation Nano. I paid £106 for a 8GB version. After returning this to the shop due to it having a faulty battery and the shop been out of stock of the Nano, I instead purchased the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639, I paid £101 for the 16GB version. So I basically have double the storage, better supplied earphones (which are superb by the way), better sound quality and all this for less money than the Nano, it just goes to show that the iPod is too expensive.

2: Even with good quality earphones the iPod is far behind the Sony Walkman in terms of sound quality in my opinion. I know this because I purchased a pair of Shure EC4 earphones for an iPod I owned, fair enough it improved the sound quality of the iPod massively, but when I use these same earphones on the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639, the sound quality is amazing and far, far superior to the iPod. I will add that I always imported the songs on to my iPod using the highest sound quality mode which is the Apple Lossless technology. I also have the exact same songs on my Sony Walkman NWZ-S639 that I had on my iPod, so the comparisons are fair ones. I continue to be simple astonished with the sound quality from the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639.

I must apologize for the two paragraphs of my rant, but I felt that this would add more information and more usefulness to this review. I will now start my review.

I will describe the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639 layout, buttons etc:
The Sony Walkman NWZ-S639 is of an all metal construction. The dimensions of the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639 are 9cm (3.5 inch) long, 4cm (1.5 inch) wide, 7mm depth, it feels extremely well made and sturdy. The upper part of the front of the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639 has the beautiful 2 inch LCD screen which is superb, it is very bright and beautifully clear/sharp and it is very fluid and can easily handle fast moving video. The Sony Walkman NWZ-S639 comes pre installed with 8 of this years new/hottest music acts, these can be deleted if you so wish. The other half of the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639 has two buttons, one is labelled BACK, this is used to go back a menu or if you press and hold it it will then return you to the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639 home menu screen. The other button is labelled OPTION, pressing this button while playing music, will show additional information about the track you are listening to, for example, playing time, file type eg MP3, WMA for example, music bitrate and also you can get a larger view of the cover art for the album, pressing and holding the button longer will switch the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639 off.

Last but not least is what Sony call the ‘5 way switch’. This is basically circular, and has a up, down, left, right operation which allows you to go up, down, left, right in menus and other lists. In the centre of the ‘5 way switch’ is a button that basically works as either play, pause when you are playing music or video, or when you are on menus, pressing it will work has an enter button. After using the iPod’s click wheel, I find Sony’s 5 way switch to be every bit has easy to use and navigate around with as the iPod’s click wheel, Sony have got it exactly right with the 5 way switch.

On the right hand side of the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639 is a rocker switch that is used to turn the volume up and down, I personally love having the volume control on this has it allows you to adjust the volume without needing to take the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639 out of your pocket as you can feel the rocker switch and you can determine which part you need to press to turn the volume up or down accordingly. I much prefer having the volume on the rocker switch to having it on the click wheel like the iPod has. Still on the same side is the hold switch, sliding this will lock all the buttons on the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639, this can be very useful if you have the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639 in a bag for example and you do not want it to accidentally be switched on. On the very bottom of the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639 is the headphone/earphone port (self explanatory) and next to this is the port where the USB cable goes into to charge it up or when you want to add music, videos etc on to the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639. I will point out that there is no mains adaptor supplied with the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639, to charge it up you plug the supplied USB cable into the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639 and then into a USB port on your computer, it takes approximately 3 hours to charge up and Sony quote a battery life of 40 hours (I will list the battery life that I found further down this review). You can purchase a Sony mains adaptor for around £20, but the shop where I purchased my Sony Walkman NWZ-S639 from did not have this in stock, but told me that you could use the mains plug power adaptor that Apple sell for their iPods. With me having iPod’s previously I had one of these and I used this to charge the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639, so a useful tip there if you have one of these Apple mains plug power adaptor lying around. I think that covers everything regarding the layout, buttons etc.

When you switch the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639 on or when you press and hold the BACK button, this will return you to the home screen. The home screen is dominated by 9 icons which are in rows of 3 (very similar in appearance to a mobile phone menu layout and very easy to navigate around) which you can select for to access the various features the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639 has on it. I will list all the features that are available:

Starting from the top left of the home screen is the SensMe Channels. The SensMe feature needs to first analyze your music, from this analysis it detects the beat, tempo and sound pattern of your music. The SensMe has various options to choose from; you simply just go into the SensMe menu by pressing the play/pause/enter button that is in the middle of the 5 way switch and then choose on of the following modes. Firstly is the Energetic setting (this setting plays upbeat and lively songs and is ideal for example if you are working out in the gym. I regularly use this setting in the gym and it always gets the types of songs right). Next is the Relax setting (this setting plays relaxing and calm songs). Next is the Upbeat setting (this plays songs of an upbeat and cheerful nature).

Next is the Pop Ballad setting (this setting plays slow tempo songs and the like). Next is Lounge setting (this will play Jazz & Bosso Nova types of music). Next is the Acoustic setting (this will play songs featuring acoustic instruments). Next is the Electronic setting (this will play songs that have Electronic instruments. Next is the Classical setting (this will play classical music songs). Last is the Extreme setting (this plays loud and powerful songs). I will point out that I have only used the Energetic setting, so I cannot comment on how the other SensMe modes perform with other types of music, but it is amazing how well it picks out the ‘Energetic’ songs for my gym workout.

Next option from the home screen is the FM radio. This has all the normally features if a radio tuner such has manual tune, auto tune. The reception is surprisingly good, but you must remember that the wire from the earphones/headphones acts has the antenna for the radio, so the reception is very much dependant on how the cable is positioned. I will add that this is a FM radio and not a DAB radio.

Next option on the home screen is the Intelligent Shuffle. Now this has two modes, firstly it will randomly sort and play your songs in a totally random order, or secondly you can choose the Time Machine Shuffle, this mode will pick up the year of the song or album and after pressing the Time Machine Shuffle mode will randomly select a date and from there play all songs from that particular year.

Next option on the home screen is the Photo Library. With this you can put pictures on for example that you have taken with your digital camera, for example pictures of your children or your loved ones, also these pictures can be used has a wallpaper for your home screen.

Next option on the home screen is the Music Library. This is where all the music you have imported over is placed. On the subject of importing music over, there are a number of ways you can do this with the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639. When you connect the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639 up to your computer with the USB cable, it will show up in Windows Explorer, when you double click on it you will see that it has various named folders on it, Video, Music, Pictures, depending on what you are wanting to add to your Sony Walkman NWZ-S639, you simply just drag and drop the file/folder over into the relevant folder on the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639, for example if it were music you would just drag the folder over that contained the album/CD/MP3 tracks and then just drop it into the music folder of the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639. Another way is to use the supplied Media Manager software that comes supplied with the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639. Once this software has loaded up the screen is split into two, the top half represents your computer (and from there you locate where your music, video, pictures are located that you want to add on to the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639) and the bottom part of the screen represents the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639. At the very top of the media manager window are some icons which represent music, audio CD rip mode, video, pictures. Clicking on the music icon will open up your music folder on your computer and from there you locate your music that you wish to add on to the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639. Clicking on the audio CD rip mode icon will show the CD that you have in your drive and from there will use your internet connection to name the CD and the tracks on it, once it has done this you can import all or some of the tracks over on to the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639.

Clicking on the photo mode icon will open up your pictures folder on your computer so as you can add pictures/photos etc on to the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639. Clicking on the Video mode icon will open up your video folder (or you can locate where your saved video is located, this also applies to the music, pictures settings too), and from there you can import video over for example what you have downloaded from an on demand TV website, I regularly use the BBC iPlayer website for my source of videos. The Sony Walkman NWZ-S639 is one of a small number of media players that are supported for the BBC iPlayer service.

The last icon on the Media Manager software is the settings icon. This allows you to alter the KBPS that it will use when you import music off of CD, I would recommend using the highest KBPS that Media Manager allows which is 256 KBPS, basically the higher the KBPS the sharper and clearer the sound will be, and believe me the sound quality is absolutely stunning from the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639, even with the superb supplied earphones. I will point out that if you use Windows Media Player you can import music at an even higher KBPS rate of 320 KBPS (personally this is what I use to import my music). I will also point out that the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639 comes supplied with Windows Media Player 11, it is recommended to use this version and not earlier version of the Windows Media Player has there are certain file types and also certain features that cannot be used with earlier versions of it. The last way to import music on and my preferred method is by using the above mentioned Windows Media Player 11. I find this is a more powerful and more versatile program but maybe a little bit more complicated of a method of importing (but the method/procedure is easily picked up I will add).

On Windows Media Player, when you go into the Tools/Options/Rip Music, further down this little window you will see Rip Settings, you can drag the slider across to select the KBPS rate Windows Media Player will use to rip CD’s, as I mentioned earlier I use the highest (320KBPS) setting as I want the best sound quality I can get, and at 320KBPS the sound quality is simply stunning. Once you have put a CD in the drive, Windows Media Player will use the internet to name the CD and tracks and also the CD cover art, which will then be also imported/embedded when you sync the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639 with Windows Media Player, so basically on the screen of the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639 when you are listening to music you will see the track name, album name and also a picture of the CD cover art too. Has far as I can gather, the CD cover art is only imported/obtained when using Windows Media Player 11, that is another reason why I prefer to use this program too.

Next option on the home screen is the Video Library. This is where all the video will be stored and also the pre installed (you can delete if you so wish) videos are stored, the videos are of various popular music acts and a few movie trailers too. I found it to be a good idea to have this pre installed as it allowed me to see what the video playback was like from the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639 before I purchased it. I was lucky in the store that I purchased my Sony Walkman NWZ-S639 from that they had a special Sony Walkman demonstration unit that had 3 different models of Sony Walkmans in, and a pair of headphones, so that I could press a button and listen to the Sony Walkman of my choice, the headphones that were connected into this unit were just your run of the mill headphones but I found the sound from them to be good, so I knew that the earphones I had would be even better still, like I have said I was lucky to have had this Sony Walkman demonstration unit in the store where I purchased the Sony Walkman from has it was a MASSIVE help. When you are playing a video, pressing the OPTION button brings up some settings on the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639 which allows you to choose if you want to have the video shown vertically or horizontally (I personally preferred horizontally), you can get detailed info about the video such as video format, video size, zoom settings (this will has 3 modes, on, off, auto, on means it will remove the black bars at the top and bottom of some videos, off means it will play the video how it was made, auto will switch between the modes according to the video you are playing), you can also delete the video from within the OPTION button menu too.

I find that video on the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639 is amazingly sharp and very fluid too. The video I mainly play back on my Sony Walkman NWZ-S639 is video downloaded from the BBC iPlayer site, the Sony Walkman is one of not many supported media players so once you have downloaded the video off of the iPlayer site, I find the easiest way to get it on the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639 is to just drag and drop it into the video folder of the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639. I can remember trying to get iPlayer video to play on the iPod and it had to be converted and also had to be a certain file type, conversion rate or else it would not play, it was a nightmare. I am also seriously surprised at the quality of the video on the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639, the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639 is seeming to be a jack of all trades and a master of them all in my opinion.

Next option on the home screen is the settings option/icon. Once you enter into the settings the first menu is the Play Mode, this allows you to choose if you want the music to play in the order they were imported on to the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639 or if you want to shuffle them and have them play in a random order. Next menu is the Equaliser, this is exactly like a graphic equaliser that you would get on a HIFI, this allows you to adjust the frequencies of the music for your personal preference, there is also a setting in the equaliser for Sony’s CLEAR BASS, this is basically a bass booster, but Sony have managed to have the bass boost to not distort the sound which I think is extremely clever, the CLEAR BASS adds real punch and depth to music that has a strong beat, again the sound is fantastic on the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639. Next is the VPT Surround. This has various modes such as Arena, Live, Studio, and Club. Depending on the type of music you listen to it can give the music more of an effect, for example if you are listening to a song that was recorded live, the Arena or Live modes adds more realism to the music. Next is the DSEE setting, this is a feature unique to Sony which enhances the sound of compressed music files to give them a sound comparable to the original, this is useful if you have some MP3’s that are of a low KBPS rate, I have some of these and I use the DSEE settings and to be honest I cannot hear the difference from the higher KBPS rated MP3’s that I have, which just goes to show how good the DSEE feature works.

Next is the CLEAR STEREO, this basically gives you a more of a stereo effect than would normally would be possible, I could not tell a great deal of difference so I have this turned off. Next is Dynamic Normaliser, you may have some songs that are louder than others and you then need to adjust the volume accordingly, with the Dynamic Normaliser feature it will adjust the difference in volume for the songs so as to minimise the effect, I found this feature to work very well in use. Next is Album Display Format, with this you can choose whether to have the title only, title and cover art or just cover art displayed.

Next in the settings menu is the video settings, this has some of the features/settings I described earlier such as zoom settings, video orientation (this allows you to either play the video back with it played horizontally or vertical depending on your preference). Next in the video settings is the Display setting (this toggles the on screen display either on or off when playing back video).
Next in the settings are the photo settings. In here you can choose the orientation of how the photos will appear, either vertically or horizontally (the same as in the video settings). Next is the photo settings is the slide show settings, you can choose the time it takes for the next picture to appear after the last one and also have the slide show either switched on or off when you view photos, next is the display setting, again it is the same as for the video setting in which it will toggle the on screen display either on or off.

Next is the radio settings, in here you choose whether to listen to the radio in stereo or mono (mono can be clearer for some weaker signalled stations). Next is the scan sensitivity, this is where you can choose either low or high depending on if you are in a good reception area or not.

Next are the language settings. You can choose from German, English, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, Korean, traditional Chinese and simplified Chinese.

Last but not least are the Common Settings, these allow you to do the following:
Unit information. This displays the number of songs, videos, photos that are on the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639. It also shows the version of the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639 software.

AVLS (volume limiter). This will limit the volume level. I do not have this switched on as I do not have my music of loud. A big complaint of the iPod is that the volume does not go up far enough for some people, I did sometimes find this on quieter songs on the iPod and would sometimes need to have the volume full, but the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639 I usually only need to have the volume set to 15 or 18 (the volume goes up to 30 maximum on the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639, which must be unbelievable LOUD!). I would be very, very surprised if someone found the volume level on the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639 too low.

Beep settings. You can turn the beep on or off for when you press buttons on the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639.

Theme setting. With this you can choose from a selection of backgrounds (themes) for the home menu or when music is been played and this also colours the icons on the home screen too.

Wallpaper. Similar to theme but it does not change the colour of the icons and also if you have photos on the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639 you can use these has wallpaper which I think is a nice touch.

Screen Saver. You can choose from here a screensaver or have a blank one (which is supposed to extend battery life) you can also choose the duration of time which has to pass for the screen saver to be activated.

Set time & date. In here you can set the time and date of the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639. Next is time & date display format. With this setting you can choose which display format you want the time, for example 12 or 24 hour clock and also the date format, for example date, month, year, month, date, year.

Brightness. With this setting you can choose the brightness level of the display on the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639. Sony really have chosen a gem of a screen for the NWZ-S639 as it displays everything with pin sharp detail and brightness.

The next setting on the home screen is the Pod Cast Library. I have never used this feature so I cannot comment on it; I must confess I don’t really know what a Pod Cast is.

Last but not least of the icons/settings on the home screen is the Now Playing. This basically returns you to the song, video, photo that you were using previously before going into the other setting on the home screen.

Regarding battery life. Sony claim a battery life of 40 hours with music at 128kbps, in my usage I got 18 hours 45 minutes, the reduction in the battery will be probably down to my music been at 320 kbps. But at almost 19 hours battery life, it will be more than long enough for the longest trip or nearly 3 weeks use in the gym (based on 1 hours use per visit) before needing charged again.

Well I think that about covers all the feature and settings of the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639.

I am absolutely over the moon with the Sony Walkman NWZ-S639 performance; the sound quality in my opinion beats the iPod by a large amount. I know I keep bringing the iPod up, but I think it is necessary to do so because the vast amount of people out there seem to purchase the iPod when there in the market for an MP3 player (I used to be one of these people), but now that I have used another brand of MP3 player I have saw just how over priced, how much poorer the sound quality was on the iPod. You have got to remember that Sony were the first to bring out portable audio way back in 1979 with the Walkman, I think that this counts for something when it comes to manufacturing modern day portable audio devices. I know now that I will never purchase another iPod and will instead choose Sony Walkman instead. I am not going out of my way to slate the iPod, the iPod is still a good choice for some people and has acceptable sound quality and is an easy device to use because of the Click Wheel, but in my opinion there are better MP3 players out there and also cheaper and better equipped than the similarly spec iPod.

The only criticism I have with Sony Walkman's is the lack of support in accessories, not just Sony branded accessories, but third party manufacturers too. I think this needs to be addressed by Sony and other third party manufacturers, and needs to be improved upon. 

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