Sony NW-E99 Network Walkman 1Gb - Chrome

I had a Sony MZ-N10 minidisk walkman for about a year and never really got any use out of it, and decided to sell it and buy an MP3 player. I'm a Sony man and therefore it had to be a Sony. After going around the block and looking at other makes, including the iPOD, I came to the NW-E99. Its the latest from Sony and it has 1GB of memory.

Pros:
1. So small and dead sexy. Don't be fooled by the pics here or anywhere else, its much smaller in real life! Which is a good thing of course.
2. It has 1 GB of memory, plenty for me to store all my favourite tracks. It has a group function which allows you to sort all your music out in folders and you can name them whatever you like. I sorted mine into Soundtracks, R&B, Indie, Pop, etc.
3. Battery life is a ridicolous 70 hours from 1 AAA battery, if the music files are converted to ATRAC3. 60 hours for ATRAC3plus and 50 hours for MP3 files without any conversion.
4. Sound quality is excellent and I was shoked at how loud this thing is. The loudness issue was the only thing I was worried about before I bought this, but now I am going deaf!
5. This baby is so easy to use. The shuttle switch makes it so easy and pain free to navigate between tracks and groups. The volume is nicely situated at the side and can be easily operated when inside a pocket or underneath clothing.
6. It has a 1 line display with back light. Has all the usual perks you'd expect from the walkman brand - options to choose different display info, sound options with base & treble contol, AVLS, an internal clock, backlight options, beep options etc. you get the picture.
7. A cool kneck strap is also provided so that you can have the NW-E99 hanging from your kneck. Nice.

Cons:
1. The finish is very nice but it has one flaw! Finger prints get smudged all over it. Not a problem but a different finish would have been nice.
2. Although the shuttle switch is a great touch, the other buttons aren't. There are 3 small black buttons which control Menu, Group, Repeat & Sound. It's these buttons that feel rather stiff and just dnt seem right. Not easy to operate these buttons when you have it beneath clothing. To save frustration, I have to use both hands!
3. The 1GB of storage is divided in to 2 lots of 512MBs. This again is not a major drawback but just makes transfering a bit more time consuming. I'd have preffered just one drive with 1GB.
4. No radio.
5. The earphones provided are rubbish. To truly appreciate the sound this baby has to offer, you should get yourself some proper Sony earphones like the Sony MDR-EX71SLB Fontopia Headphones. They will cost you another £25-£28 though, but well worth it.

So all in all, I love this gadget. Its got a great sound quality, very small, huge battery life (the best on the market, this is where the iPOD eats dust!), and its so cool and its a SONY. }:o)

If you need more memory, then go for the other Sony 20-40GB players. Sony cause nothing beats its sound qulity and battery usage. If you dont like Sony, then look at other makes like creative, Iriver etc. They are all good too.

Hope this helps.

A happy new year to all you Amozonians.

- 70 hours battery life on one AAA cell. No worries about having to continually re-charge a battery that begins to lose its capacity. (Haven't had to replace it yet, but I anticipate getting about 50 hours as a result of using the 64kbps ATRAC3plus format, which is still ideal for the length of journeys I make)
- very small and convenient to slip into any size of pocket (or worn unobtrusively round the neck)
- high storage capacity (in relative terms), being able to store up to 45 CDs at 48kbps or 34 CDs at my preferred 64kbps ATRAC3plus format (some tracks sounded just a wee bit 'scratchy' at the 48kbps rate)
- excellent sound quality (see below re: headphones)
- easy to operate
- easy to transfer CDs to PC to device

Only downside (hence the 4 out of 5) is not so much the quality of headphones but the fact that there were no foam earbud covers! Without them, the earbuds don't sit snugly in the ear and tend to slip out of place. I used the foam pads from another set of personal Walkman headphones and the sound quality is now excellent. Don't feel the need to buy the Fontopia headphones as recommended by others.

As another reviewer mentions, there is no facility to create playlists from tracks on the Walkman, but compilations can be created in Sony's SonicStage which can then be transferred. With regard to SonicStage, I downloaded and installed SonicStage 2.3 and the drivers for the device, rather than install SonicStage 2.1 from the CD, and have had no problems. The software does a perfectly adequate job of recording tracks on PC and transferring onto the device.

As for appearance, I much prefer the professional and sleek design of the NW-E99 to the plastic look and feel of the iPod Shuffle, but that's a personal choice.

No regrets about buying this.

Take this beauty. Its the size of a box of matches, and you can fit over 600 songs on it. Thats dog loads of musical pleasure for your ears to keep you rockin to where your going.

Build:
When this thing arrives from Amazon(evenyually, but more on that later) it comes in a deceptivly bug cardboard container, about the size of a phonebook, but wider. You open it up to find a tiny black box simply with the Sony trademark and the picture of your new piece of kit. When you first open the box it takes a few seconds just to realise that that's all you get for your money. But size is deceptive, as the dark aluminium and clear acrylic houses some truely awesome power. The shuttle switch fits neatly to the side and the small black buttons are just about the right size, and provide tactile feedback. The USB and battery covers could be better attached, but its not like you have them hanging open all the time.

Features:
When you by an mp3 player, you dont by it to be able to arrange contacts and play solitaire(not mentioning any names, IPod), so dont expect it to be able to make your breakfast for you. You can chnage the time and date, sound levels (bass and treble) and thats about it. It does, however, play music at seriously high quality.

Capacity:
As my friends all have HD players like Ipods and those in the Sony range, I was tempted by the evils of high capacity portable audio, but opted for this one. Because of the Atrac3+ compression, you can fit over 600 songs onto the 1GB flash memory. Its divided into two 512MB drives, which I dont see as a problem, and is usefull for being able to show off how many songs you can fit on the memory. An the quality is the same as that of at least 128kbps mp3's, so dont let the reduction to 48kbps put you off.

Conclusion:
This things a beast! So many songs in such a small form factor.

Pros:
High capacity thanks to good compression
Tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny.........
Nice colour, very cool
Great sound, but get youself some new phones to really appreciate it

Cons:
Small hiss when backlight is on, but can't hear it when musics on
No radio, but most of its s**t anyway
The bag it comes with is too big
Supplied headphone chord is to short
Ummmmm..
Thats it

So, if you want to carry crazy ammounts of tracks around with you in something real small, and make you friends with HD players or regular 1GB players jealous, buy this beauty and you wont be dissapointed.