Sony Walkman X Series 16 GB Video MP3 Player w/ OLED Display

Reviews Sony Walkman X Series 16 GB Video MP3 Player w/ OLED Display

Products by : Sony

Model : NWZ-X1051FBLK

Rating Reviews : 4.0

PROS:
sound quality
integrated digital noise cancelling
slacker internet radio
youtube app
responsive touchscreen
high contrast/ bright colors for video

CONS:
no on-the-go playlists
content transfer can be difficult
price
mildly useless browser


For this review, I'm going to compare the Walkman x to the Zune HD and the iPod touch, as these are the products i considered as well as the Walkman.

The iPod has innumerable apps, which make it invaluable to people who want a do-everything gadget. In my experience however (mostly with a 30GB iPod video), iPods tend to look great out of the box and then quickly acquire scratched cases, cracked screens and absolultly refuse to do anything other than what iTunes allows. Another downside I have noticed is that iPods tend to have only mediocre sound quality.

The Zune HD (or Microsoft's iPod) appeals to the same form factor: a portable music player with a subscription based music downloading software bundled. By my calculations, the Zune subscription service is a better deal than iTunes, if one downloads a song every day. The Zune has HD radio, an OLED screen and a better subscription service, but few apps. The Zune it seems to me appeals to people who want an iPod that focuses on music and download a lot.

Which brings us to the Walkman x, which I purchased. The Walkman has excellent sound quality. All the reviews say this, but it is truly something impressive, even from bundled ear buds. The touchscreen is very responsive and just fun to scroll around with. The screen is bright and sharp (with great contrast) without ever being harsh on the eyes and the player feels solid in the hand. For my money, it's a tank next to an iPod (the last Ipod i owned gathered scratches from the fabric of my pocket) as far as durability is concerned. The noise cancelling is a wonderful feature (It can make a lawnmower next to you inaudible or a car at highway speeds silent), even if it cuts the battery life like a shiv. There are a few pitfalls to it however: It will sync album art from windows media player, but not from iTunes (unless it is embedded, i believe). The content transfer app really just copies and converts music files. and there is no way to create playlists on the player itself. It will sync playlists from window media (although i could not get it to use the ones from iTunes.) The player occasionally does stupid things like separate the same artist into two different ones based on a difference of "The" and "the". the Walkman has several good points however: the slacker app and the youtube app being among the first. While playing a song you have the option to search yahoo or youtube for the song, artist or album you are listening to, which I quite like, even if the browser is fairly uninspiring (it only displays mobile versions of most webpages and it is a bit slow) Slacker however is another story. once you sync it with a normal slacker account (not very well documented, but not to frightening)you get unlimited slacker music (1 commercial per hour, 6 skips per hour) for free, cached to your Walkman.

Overall I would recommend this product to anyone who wants a music player first and foremost and who cares about sound quality above all. The Walkman is great at playing music and videos (I had no more trouble getting it to play video that I had with an iPod), and the radio is par for the course as portable radios go. The browser isn't impressive, and there is no app store for it. If you care about sound more than adding extra gadgets to your mp3 player, get a Walkman.

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Sony Walkman X Series 16 GB Video MP3 Player w/ OLED Display Details

• 16 GB capacity for about 4000 songs
• 33 hours of audio or 9 hours of video on a single charge
• 3-inch, 262,144-color OLED touchscreen display with 432 x 240 WQVGA pixel resolution
• Supports MP3, WMA, AAC and L-PCM audio formats; AVC(H.264/AVC), MPEG-4, and WMV DRM video formats; JPEG image files
• One-year limited warranty; 1 year parts, 90 days labor

Sony Walkman X Series 16 GB Video MP3 Player w/ OLED Display Description

16GB X Walkman Video MP3 -

Sony Walkman X Series 16 GB Video MP3 Player w/ OLED Display Complete

By marrying technology and portability, the new 16 GB Sony X series video Walkman player delivers a superb, on-the-go experience. With a 3-inch OLED display, digital noise cancelation, wireless connectivity, and a touch screen, all in a slim, sleek design, the X series takes portability to the next level.

A perfect marriage of technology and portability. Click to enlarge.

Watch video in landscape view. Click to enlarge.

Enjoy both touch panel and button operation. Click to enlarge.

Ultra-portable at less than 1/2 an inch thick. Click to enlarge.

Sound Quality
Enjoy ideal sound with digital clear audio technologies, S-Master digital amplifier, and a digital noise canceling function with Noise Canceling EX headphones (MDR-NC20).

Discover Music
Slacker radio offers free personalized music that uploads to your Walkman player when the player is connected to a wireless LAN and when you are in a WiFi zone (Slacker registration is required after 30 days).

OLED Video
OLED technology has a response time suitable for movie playback. A wide viewing angle of nearly 180 degrees gives consistent tone and stable contrast, as well as a wide range of color reproduction and a high contrast ratio.

Hybrid Operation
The benefit of both "touch panel" and "button" operation makes the X series easy to use while using its different features.

Internet Connectivity

• Podcast download, register podcast on browser and link to podcast web site
• "Related Links" function relates web content with music content playing on your Walkman X series
• Connect directly to "YouTube" and "Yahoo!"
• Internet Browser
• Wireless LAN (Wi-Fi) connectivity to Home Wireless LAN and to public Wireless LAN. Supports Wi-Fi Protected Setup

Drag and Drop functionality
Easily load your music, pictures, and video onto this player by dragging and dropping them into the video MP3 player on your computer.

Multiple High-Quality Video Formats
This player supports multiple high-quality video formats as well as a variety of audio codecs, giving you more freedom to download the kind of music and video that you want.

Long Battery Life
Equipped with a long-lasting battery that enables you to listen to up to 33 hours of music and watch up to 9 hours of video without needing to recharge.

What's in the Box
Sony Walkman X Series 16 GB Video MP3 Player w/ OLED Display, Earbud headphones (S, M, L), Quick Start Guide, USB Cable, Attachment, Audio input cable, Plug adapter for in-flight use (single/dual), CD-ROM (with Windows Media Player 11, Media Manager for Walkman, Operation Guide)

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*** Product Information and Prices Stored : Oct 01, 2010 16:11:30