Sony NW-E005 2 GB Flash Digital Music Player (Black)

by Sony

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 1 x 1 x 3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000GIPHNQ
• Item model number: NWE005BLACK
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (55 customer reviews)

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description Weighing less than 1 ounce and featuring a built-in FM tuner with programmable presets, the Sony NW-E005 is the prefect MP3 player for the gym, the daily commute, or traveling. The unit, which offers 2 GB of built-in flash memory, stores up to 1,350 of your favorite tracks--more than enough for most applications. Listeners who already have extensive music libraries can use the included software and hardware to play back their collection of MP3s, while newer listeners will find plenty to like in Sony's ATRAC format, which provides higher sound quality while taking up less space on the flash memory.

Memory stores up to 1,350 of your favorite tracks.

In addition, the NW-E005 supports the playback of WMA and AAC (non-DRM) audio files, a great feature if you have a large catalog of audio on your PC that was ripped from personal CDs.

Navigation is straightforward thanks to the player's one-line, rotating OLED display, which shows the song title, song length, and remaining battery power while swiveling to accommodate both right- and left-handed users. Other display details include a multilingual interface, support for CD text and ID3 tagging, a wide viewing angle, an internal clock, and a calendar. The built-in FM tuner, meanwhile, delivers accurate, drift- free tuning of all your favorite FM stations, with 30 station presets making it a breeze to quickly switch from one favorite to another. And when it comes time to transfer data from your PC to the NW-E005, simply remove the end cap and insert the MP3 player directly into your computer's USB port--no cable required.

The NW-E005 comes with a copy of Sony's SonicStage music management software, which lets listeners manage their music, create playlists, burn CDs, import digital files, and easily transfer songs from one location to another. It's also a breeze to customize the sound, with a five-band equalizer that includes heavy, pop, jazz, custom, and manual modes. Additional features include a skip-proof design (the MP3 player has no moving parts), a quick battery charge function that delivers up to three hours of playback with just a three-minute charge, a stylish black housing, a USB connection support cable for desktops with hard-to-reach USB ports, and compatibility with Sony's Connect Music store.

The NW-E005, which provides up to 28 hours of continuous playback per full charge, measures 3.11 by 0.96 by 0.53 inches (W x H x D) and is backed by a 90-day warranty on labor and a one-year warranty on parts.

What's in the Box
NW-E005 MP3 player, headphones, SonicStage 4.0 software CD-ROM, quick-start guide.

A skip-proof design and quick battery charge function allow you to take your music on-the-go.

This ultra-portable Sony MP3 player comes in a variety of stylish colors.

Product Description

2gb flash digital music player

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great little product with plenty of space, September 5, 2006

By 

LynneSin (Delaware) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sony NW-E005 2 GB Flash Digital Music Player (Black) (Electronics)

I first got a Sony MP3 player back with the Mini-Disc player and them moved on to the 1gig MP3 player because of the promise to hold 695 songs (4min songs compressed to Sony's Altrac3 at 48bits). Sure enough I was able to get just over 600 songs on that player (hey, I had about 12 songs that were 10+minutes). It was easy to use and even the Sony software was pretty easy to use once I figured it out.

So when this product came out with the promise of 1350 songs on a 2gig HD, I thought - why not, only $130. Even a 4gig Ipod couldn't hold that many songs and those run around $250 dollars.

Pros:

I found that this had the same high quality sound even at 48bit Altrac3 compression. Friends with IPODs could not distinguish any noticible difference in sound quality.

This thing is even smaller than the 1gig Sony I previously owned and I was able to get 1244 songs on the unit. (again, I've got a slew of 10+ minute songs which would limit me getting anywhere close to 1350 as the unit stated).

I also liked the fact that there was no additional cable to charge the unit. If the battery runs down just plug it into any computer USB port and it'll recharge in about 10-15 minutes fully. I even have a USB adapter for my car so I can charge while I'm on the go.

The unit also includes a 5-band equalizer and an FM radio that gets great reception. They also improved the headphones just a bit. It's still that quirky earbuds where one side is clearly longer than the otherside; however, they added a few feet to the length so you don't have to worry about using an extender if you want to toss your Sony in your pocket and head out.

CONS:

Sonic Stage is still a bit quirky to use; although now having owned Sony MP3 players of some sort for 3+ years. When you have 6000+ songs uploaded into your system, you can't just push songs over on your MP3 player from the list. You really need to create the groups first and then transfer.

Controls: I have no problems with the controls but they are tiny and could be a problem for anyone who has any kind of problems with manipulating small buttons

Display: WHERE THE HECK IS THE BAND NAME??!!! The other quirks I could live with but why the heck is there no band display available to view. I have plenty of songs on my MP3 player from lesser bands not normally recognized. It would be nice to see the band name on the display. Hopefully Sony will put out a firmware update to fix this problem. It's the main reason I gave it 4stars instead of 5.

Carrying Case - there is no carrying case for this player, not even a velvet bag. There is an armband carrying available for purchase but sony isn't releasing it until Sept 15th. I would have rather paid an extra $10 for this device just so I would have a carrying bag.

Personally, I think Sony has some great products in the MP3 market and with Altrac3 compression, they can give you smaller product with less storage space and STILL allow for more songs to be loaded on it. Why would I want to spend twice as much for a 4gig Ipod that holds 1000 songs when I can get a Sony for half that price and have 1300 songs instead

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars You HAVE to use their software, January 12, 2007

By 

R. Mullins - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sony NW-E005 2 GB Flash Digital Music Player (Black) (Electronics)

You HAVE to use their lousy SonicStage software to transfer songs to it.
That is just stupid. Well, not just stupid, arrogant also.

I was attracted to this thing becasue of it's size, battery life (which is exaggerated by at least 50%), radio tuner, and most of all its support of AAC encoded files. Apple's products have no radio tuners, and if you've chosen AAC as your audio codec, you haven't been able to get a flash based player which will both play the radio and play your AAC files.

Kudos to Sony for allowing it to play AAC audio files, it's about time someone besides Apple implemented this MPEG standardized codec in their "MP3" players, but why force poorly written software (SonicStage) down our throats? Why force any software down our throats? With almost all flash based mp3 players you can just drag and drop your music files via your operating system; you just connect it as an external hard drive and drag and drop. Then also you can use them from Windows, Macs, Linux, whatever.

And why are they still pushing ATRAC codecs? It's a waste of their time and money, and the world does not need Sony trying to push its own proprietary codecs. It's by no means superior to the standardized MPEG AAC codec or Microsoft's proprietary (although basically free) WMA codecs. Dear Sony, your codec is not significant, it is not a player in the audio codec world, and the world is better off without you trying to push it on us. The same can be said about your other proprietary variations on standardized technologies, e.g. betamax and Memory Sticks. You just make the world more complicated, in the end you lose, and your market share goes to zero. (Although I did think MiniDiscs were a good idea.)

It's a good piece of hardware, but in order to use it you have to jump through Sony's hoops. Just say no.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sleek with a few negative things, August 25, 2006

By 

baf10 "baf10" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sony NW-E005 2 GB Flash Digital Music Player (Black) (Electronics)

I have been using Sony sonicstage for more than a year with the NW-HD5 and the black bean. I do not have a problem with the software. It is faster than itunes to rip cd's and the altrac quality is very good. In blind listening tests with 3 people everyone said the Sony sounded better at 64kbps that an Ipod at 128 kbps.
I bought the new NW-E005 because I loved my bean but 1GB was limiting. The NW-005 is very small and sleek. A problem with it is because it is so shinny it always has fingerprints on it. It also looks like it will scratch easily. Another problem is because it has so few buttons you have to go through the menu to change most things. Another annoying thing is when you are listening to play lists it does not show you the artists name. Also the battery life is below par for a Sony devise. There is no way you will get what Sony states. Sony USA is also not selling many accessories for the devise. They sell a clip overseas for about $20 that should have been included. Sony also should have included a soft case to protect it. For $129 for 2GB it's a pretty good deal