With many brands delivering sought after and nifty little MP3 devices, i expected that Sony would be up there with the best of them- after all, the popularity of a certain fruit-named company has taken the global market by storm. I'm sorry to report that this is the second Sony product i've reviewed in a short space of time (the other being their latest sat-nav device) which has not lived up to the hype.
At a first glance the walkman looks great- a little plastic-like but shiny and modern all the same. The colours come in silver, blue, pink, lime green, black and this one- violet. The appearance itself is less minimalistic that the iPod shuffle which i suspect was the inspiration for the NW-E005
(and was the player i used prior to this).
If the problem with iPod is that you can only use it with iTunes, the same applies for Sony Walkman where it is only compatible with the Sonic Stage V3.4 software that comes with the product in the £90 price bracket. The reason for this is that Sony convert the file formats of your music to fit their software which rather than "protecting copyright" seems to smack of market domination. If this doesn't bother you then you'll be pleased to find that the software package itself is easy to install and use, although you are not permitted to 'drag and drop' songs which if you're in a hurry can be a tad frustrating. Sony recommend an online music store if you wish to purchase more music for your player, which reminds users once more of another brand...
I use Windows XP and while the software seems slow and buggy at times (my screen has frozen on a few occassions), there is no major problem. I've read that it works less well on Windows ME and various other operating systems but i cannot be the judge of that.
The hardware itself does not run like a mini hard-drive as lovers of the USB stick would hope so you cannot use it to transfer files to and from work or university, it is purely for music. It's a very light product and fits neatly in your pocket. The main thing i liked about the NW-E005 was the inclusion of a screen. It only displays one line at a time so you can't view a playlist, but there are bigger music players on the market if that's what you're looking for. Music players with no screen leave you waiting until the song gets going before you realise what it is and change it and this becomes infuriating, so Sony scores here. However, there is no setting to change the appearance so if you need a bright screen then you may be disappointed. There aren't really any accessories to add-on but headphones and an instruction manual are included in the price.
The versions with larger storage space (512MB and up) have a built in FM radio tuner, and all versions have a clock, a stopwatch and a calender, which are nothing special but may be useful to some people. The sound quality is fine although not as crisp as other players, but there is a a huge 28hours of playback which is more than enough, if you set it to 'power-save' mode. The lithium battery is rechargeable and all that needs to be done is to plug the player into your computer via the USB port- three minutes of charging leaves you with three hours of playback according to Sony, although this wasn't true when i tried it.
The good news for those of you who travel on trains is that the maximum volume on the Sony Walkman is not as loud as some may hope, meaning that if you're the person who has to sit next to someone using this product, your reading won't be disturbed- and if you're the person who buys the product, you can't crank the volume all the way up but at least your ears will be healthier.
All in all, this is an excellent product if you're not looking for anything that hasn't been done before, but for those of you who want more freedom in how to listen to music, i would recommend something else. In summary- great appearance, great idea bringing the screen back and great battery life. The software lets the product down and as the two are so closely interlinked, it really brings my rating down. I'm trying to be as positive as possible however, and i think if you like the idea of the iPod shuffle but want to get away from Apple, this is for you.
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Jan 8th, 2007
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