Sony NW-E307 Walkman Bean 1 GB MP3 Player Pink

by Sony

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 2.7 x 1.5 x 0.9 inches ; 1.6 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000AZ05TG
• Item model number: NWE307PINK
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #95,168 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)

Product Description

Color: Pink

Amazon.com Product Description

Sony makes it easy to take your favorite tunes with you wherever you go with the Walkman Bean NW-E307 (pink) flash memory digital audio player. Its ergonomic, bean-shaped design and screen orientation easily accommodates both left and right handed users for maximum flexibility. You'll be able to pack in 690 tracks (encoded at 48 kbps in ATRAC3plus format) on the integrated 1 GB memory. The Walkman Bean is compatible with MP3, ATRAC3, and ATRAC3plus formats as well as unprotected WMA and WAV files. Sony's ATRAC3 format provides higher sound quality with smaller sizes than other formats, and you can easily create ATRACT3 files using the included Sonic Stage software.

It features a unique built-in, hidden USB plug that pops out when the door is opened, allowing you to plug the Walkman Bean directly into your PC for transferring tunes and charging the integrated battery--no fumbling about looking for cables. It also comes with a USB extension cable for connecting to desktop PCs or hard to reach USB ports. The battery, when fully charged, provides up to 50 hours of continuous playback time, but if charged for just three minutes, you'll get three hours of use out of the Walkman Bean.

The Walkman Bean has a 1-line organic electroluminescence display, which offers a wide viewing angle, high quality display with a unique look, for viewing song titles, battery life, and time/date information. In addition to its digital audio features, the Walkman Bean offers an FM radio tuner and a time and calendar display.

Compatible with the Connect Music Store
Sony's Connect Music Store provides an easy method for downloading personal music to your Walkman Bean. The Connect Music Store offers access to an extensive online music library including many independent titles as well as featured artist and celebrity mixes.

What's in the Box
Sony NW-E307 Walkman Bean (pink), headphones, USB cable, CD-ROM with SonicStage software

Product Description

Let your favorite MP3 start your day off right with the new Walkman(R) Bean MP3 player. It is shaped like a bean. Its ergonomic shape slips nicely into your hand, making it the perfect travel buddy for a short stroll down to the store or a jet across the Atlantic. Want a change of pace? The NW-E307 also features an FM tuner so you can switch from your music to the radio at the flick of a button. A built-in USB connector allows for easy data transfer without the use of a cord, and the Super Quick Battery Charge gives you three hours of playback with just a three minute charge. Plays Back MP3/ATRAC3/ATRAC3plus Audio Formats. Time/Calendar Display. View current time and date. Supports unsecured WMA and WAV Audio Formats5. The Network Walkman(R) player plays back ATRAC3, ATRAC3plus format and MP3 files, and supports WMA and WAV. Transfer Personal Downloaded Music and CD Recordings. Between your CDs and your PC, creating your own music mixes for on-the-go enjoyment. Skip Proof Design - No Moving Parts Multi Language Display USB Connection Support Cable - Allows for easy connection option for those with desktops or hard to reach USB ports Ergonomic Design for use in both Left and Right hands

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good player for the price, February 1, 2006

By 

Moonwatcher (Earth) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sony NW-E307 Walkman Bean 1 GB MP3 Player Black (Electronics)

I bought my bean a month ago, and I chose this mp3 player mostly because it has a low price for 1 GB and I trust Sony to make good quality electronics. Overall, I am satisfied with it, although there are a few annoyances. This is my first mp3 player, so I don't have much to compare to other than what I've heard from others.

Pros:
-The battery life is amazing, and it doesn't take long to charge up (less than an hour for a full charge, which gives you almost 50 hours). I don't know how long the battery will last (I've heard horror stories about iPod batteries), but so far it's fine.
-If you use Sony's Atrac3 format rather than mp3, you can fit twice as many songs as you can on other 1 GB players. The sound quality of this format is supposed to be worse, but I honestly don't notice much difference.
-The controls are simple and take only a few minutes to learn.
-Sony's Sonic software is simple to install and use.
-I love the pop-out USB connector.
-The FM tuner is a nice feature and definitely an advantage over iPod.
-The design is very nice, which is very important to aesthetics-obsessed people like me.
-As always, Sony's sound quality is excellent.

Cons:
-The packaging is misleading when it says you can fit 695 songs. That's only if you use the Atrac3 format. I initially used mp3 and was surprised when I filled it up with only about 200 songs. I was forced to go back and reload everything in Atrac3, which is a smaller and less-quality format.
-It takes a long time to load the songs onto the player.
-I hate having to use proprietary software to upload songs, although I know there are very few mp3 players that actually let you drag and drop, so this isn't any worse than other players.
-The headphones are terrible; they simply wouldn't stay in my ears, especially when I was exercising. And the white *does not* go with the black bean, in my opinion. So I picked up some over-the-ear headphones for $10, which are much better.
-the USB cover is flimsy and feels like it might snap off, but so far I haven't had any problem with it.

The bottom line:
For the price, this is a pretty decent player. If you want to use mp3s and not Atrac3s, you might want to look at something else. But if you're just looking for a no-frills, cheap mp3 player that will hold a lot of songs, this is a pretty good one.

82 of 92 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Unbelievable Battery Life, But...., November 15, 2005

By 

I. Hayles (Seattle) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sony NW-E307 Walkman Bean 1 GB MP3 Player Black (Electronics)

Let me start by saying that: (A) I'm not a big fan of Apple and (B) I've had a good experience with Sony Walkmans. However, its apparent to me that NO company that makes MP3 players is getting it quite right.

Anyways, perhaps I'm a little biased towards Sony (Sony is a music company, Apple is a computer company...barely), but I have to say that this is by far the best MP3 player I can find. Most notably, the battery life is unbelievable. It's specified at 50 hours with [ATRAC3] 64 kbps. My girlfriend is using it at [ATRAC3] 128 kbps and it's been going for 30 hours so far. That's twice as long as even the other FLASH players out there, not to mention the HD players. Clearly, Sony's years of experience building portable music players has taught them how to get battery power right.

Other pluses:

The software is very easy to use, but like all other software-managed players, you're going to be tied into using the software. If you want drag-and-drop loading, you've got to go with a Creative player and they seem to be abandoning their line of FLASH players.

The price? It had to come down sooner or later. Creative wanted $199 for 512Mb. The Bean offers 1Gb for $149.

Now for the minuses:

User interface? A little less than intuitive. I needed the documentation to figure it out (I'm a degreed engineer, by the way) but only to clarify a point or two. It's a little awkward moving up the directory structure, moreso than moving down.

Mechanical? Well, it's a FLASH player, so you should be able to punt kick it, right? Well, it's got a delicate little cover for the USB plug (the USB plug is spring-loaded and pops out for use when a cover on top of the player slides back) and a five-position hat switch (like the figher pilots use to trim their jets out) that seems like it could snap right off. You can buy an accidental damage protection plan and I have a feeling I'm going to need it because of these two mechanical design decisions.

Overall, it's a great value for a 1 Gb FLASH player and as long as you don't drop it (who knows, maybe you can drop it, I haven't tried to yet, but I BET you can't...), it's pretty darn easy to use and you REALLY WON'T RUN THE BATTERY OUT...EVER (seemingly).

34 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I love my Bean, December 28, 2005

By 

Robin T. (Maryland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sony NW-E307 Walkman Bean 1 GB MP3 Player Black (Electronics)

This past Christmas weekend, I had the opportunity to set up both a 2GB iPod Nano (for my daughter) and the 1GB Sony Walkman Bean (aka Network Walkman) for use on my computer.

These are some random observations with regards to the Bean:

- In my opinion, setting up SonicStage (Sony's music service) is a little easier to set up than iTunes. The interface for transferring your music is very intuitive.

- You are required to register your Bean through SonicStage before you can use it. (Very easy to do.)

- 5 free music credits came with my Bean, but you have to register a credit card with the service (same as with iTunes, I believe) before you download your 5 songs.

- I purchased new headphones. The headphones that came with the Bean are not as good as those that come with the Nano. I don't like the earbud-type of phones anyway.

- There is no "hissing" noise during playback, unless your music has the noise in it before you transfer it to the player. Music quality for all of my songs is crystal-clear. Being able to hear solid and thumping bass with no "tinnyness" is a must for me when I'm listening to my music, and Sony does NOT disappoint! (The Nano has fantastic sound quality too!)

- You *CAN* transfer your music in mp3 format to the Bean, as opposed to Sony's proprietary format. Simply click the Settings button before you start the transfer and chose mp3 as the format.

- The interface on the player is pretty simple to understand. As with any player, you just have to scroll through the options in order to see what the thing is capable of. (I'd make sure to set the volume settings to manual instead of using the preset volume settings.)

- Sony allows you to use the SonicStage service with your Bean on up to 5 computers. You are required to register each location. May seem restrictive or invasive to some, but isn't a problem for me, since I only use my Bean at home and at work.


Overall, I am very pleased with the Sony Walkman Bean (price, setup, transfer interace, music quality) and am loving showing it off to people!

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