I love Sony products and when I have the option I choose their electronics. One of the common problems with Sony is they like to use their proprietary technology. This was one of the flaws in my late 1GB Sony music player. You had to use their software to load your songs onto the player. You couldn’t just drop and drag your MP3 file and expect it to play. There was no real option to use the 1 gig player with a MAC. That is the other problem with Sony, they do not support Mac. Since I converted earlier this year, I have been unable to use my old player on my Mac.

So I almost didn’t buy another Sony for that reason alone. But I did a little research on this player and found you can finally drop and drag your music into the player. In fact I just drag directly from Itunes on my Mac. Very easy and simple to use.

I was going to buy the IPod 120 GB MP3 player originally for my 80+ gigs of music. But after some research I have found that people have been displeased with the audio output quality of the newer players. So I dismissed that as an option. I knew that Sony had good audio in past products so I was confident that this would not be a problem with this player. After listening to it through different speaker systems around my house, I have not found any major flaw with the sound quality output. Yes they are MP3’s and have some quality loss that doesn’t compete with Vinyl, but I have no real complaints.

So is 16GB big enough for someone that converts all his CD’s to 320 kbps? Yes…so far.

How about the size? Well the one thing I really liked about my old 1Gig Sony was that is was very small and barely noticeable due to it’s dimensions. The main problem is the screen was only useful for text. I don't watch videos on the small players so the screen wasn't a priority. So size is a small complaint. Why? Because it is about twice as big as my 1 gig player. But this player fits in my pockets well. It is about half the size of my cell phone which when you really think about it isn't that big. In regard to my work pants, I have no problem with it fitting in the same pocket as my wallet. So it is small enough.

One thing I love about this unit is all the different ways I can pick my song list. There are…
-All songs
-Album
-Artist
-Genre
-Release Year
-Folder
-Voice recording
-FM Recording

Sound quality
The quality is very high.  While not perfect, or as good as Vinyl, the sound quality is as good as you can get.  The range is there and with the right speakers you get the full range of sounds.  The sound is not limited by the quality of the output of the MP3 player, rather the sound quality limit is imposed by the sound file itself.
The speakers are bad, just plain bad.  The sound is very tin-ey and lacks any real bass.  Also the high end sounds are not very clear with these speakers.  But if you have nothing else, it works.  But even cheap $10 headphones are far superior to these speakers.

Adding songs
All you do is pick your songs and drag-drop into the music folder of the player. It acts just like a flash drive. You have the option of use their software if you use Microsoft's OS.
It also has USB 2.0 and it load songs as fast as my 4 gig flash drive.
The USB cable provided is 3.5 feet.

Voice & FM recording
I have not used either of these features except to test it for this review. I just don’t find any need for it but I can see its usefulness in a classroom or for personal reminders.
The voice recording can only record up to 160 kbps. The microphone is pretty good. My voice was clear and I did not detect any added noise to the recording. For all intensive purposes the recording was perfect.
The radio recording also has a max of 160 kbps. I recorded it and the play back was the same as the original airing of the music (which was a little scratchy.)

The screen
The screen is pretty good. Easy to read, plenty of backlighting. You can set the backlighting to low, or if you are in the sun a lot you can set it to high and read it in direct sunlight. It is listed as 320 x 240 resolution

The inputs.
You just have a 1/8 inch port for audio and a USB port.

Photos
I’ve loaded some family photos and they display with no problems. You can set the orientation if you wish so that is fills up the whole screen. I don't care about showing people photos so I don't use this feature.  It allows you to orient the photos and video so you can watch it vertically or horizontally.

Videos
I had a lot of trouble at first in getting different video formats to show. I'm not sure why. Yes I have gotten some WMA videos to show but that is it.  It is really picky about what it shows, so this has been my biggest disappointment with this device.  But I didn't buy it for videos though.

Music formats
MP3, WMA, (DRM), AAC, Linear PCM
I use MP3's exclusively and I have not had any problems with any of my music on itunes (which includes stuff bought from Itunes, Amazon, and ripped from my CD's.

Video formats
AVC, MPEG-4, WMV (DRM)

Speakers
Yes it has speakers. Yes the speakers suck. The audio quality is so bad that I can’t even bear to listen to it. It also isn’t very loud. If you are driving then you need to have the air off and the windows rolled up or you can’t hear it.

Alarm clock and sleep timer
Both are very nice features but they cannot be used in combination. The sleep time gives you up to 75 minutes of music before it shuts down.
The alarm has to be set. Once you set the alarm, the unit shuts down.

The headphones
It comes with headphones and the USB cable. The headphones are pretty nice for stock ear buds. I would estimate their retail cost at $20-$30. My dog destroyed one of the buds and I replaced it with a pair of $10 ear buds and I instantly noticed a decrease in audio quality.  I do recommend getting a nice pair of $100 sony headphones.

Cleaning
Just use a damp or dry cloth to wipe it off.

Durability
First off, my screen is completely scratched up. This is due to me mishandling, leaving it in a pocket with keys and other junk, etc. It is still usable and I don’t care about the marks. But for someone that uses this for video, they should get a thin screen protector.

Software
They only support Microsoft OS, which I no longer have. But the player works just fine on a mac acting just like a flash drive. You just drag your MP3’s from Itunes into the music folder.  Videos are loaded the same way, just click and drag into the appropriate folder. Nice and easy.

Taking out the trash
When I delete the mp3 files I found that they hung around some how.  The first time I delete the entire player and loaded from scratch.  Well I got the same thing again and I decided to "delete trash", and wow it worked.  Another problem solved.

Battery life
I usually charge it every 2-4 days. The documentation states it can run for 42 hours for music (with the screen off the whole time) or 6.5 hours of video on a single charge charge.

Weight and dimensions
Weight: 2 3/8 ounces
Length: 3 7/8 inches
Width: 1 15/16 inch
Depth: 3/16 inch
Capacity: 16 MB

© Common Loon Productions



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Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 110
Recommended for: Music Lovers - High Capacity Storage for an Entire Album Collection