Customer Reviews

Sony NW-E307 Walkman Bean 1 GB MP3 Player Black

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

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.

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).

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!

The price for a 1 gb MP3 player is very good, but I was disappointed in the construction of this Sony product. I recognize the Sony brand for quality, and was therefore disappointed at the flimsy construction of the operating switch. It was quite difficult to switch back and forth between the FM radio player and the MP3 player functions. Many times the switch "slid" betweem these functions. Meaning you are listing to the radio one minute and a digital song the next. Perhaps I had a uniquely misfunctioning product, but in general I would stay away from the Bean. I returned this product within one week of owning it.

I received this as a gift just yesterday and fell in love with it. I had been searching for the right Mp3 player for months when I happened upon a walkman bean ad in a fashion magazine I was reading. Its look was unique, it stood out from the others I had looked at. Although pink is not my favorite color, (I would have preferred blue had it come in the one-gigabyte format) this pink is irredescent and pleasently between shouting hot pink and icky baby pink, and I have to say, I don't mind carrying around (and flaunting) my pink bean. Anyhow, onto more important specs. I was a teeny bit worried when I read all those "reviews" about the bean having hissy audio, but, after using mine non-stop for the past day, I can say that is not an actual issue. The only time my music is hissy is when it's supposed to be (Shiina Ringo). Another rumor being that it is made unusable by a two-foot drop is also false. Accidentally, of course, my bean fell out of my pocket (a good three feet from the ground), made hard contact with the floor, yet, with my headphones still on my head and attached to the bean, I could hear there was no halt in the music, nor degradation of performance. All the buttons still functioned. And I let out a sigh of relief. The screen is high-contrast and easily read from two feet away. My bean also has two "screensavers", quite a surprise to me, as they were never mentioned in any reveiw or by sony themselves. Yet it is one of my favorite things about the bean. The first screen has strawberries, cherries, bananas, grapes, apples AND oranges skimming across the screen. That one always puts a smile on my face. The one that really made my day though, was the sky screen. When you set the time on your bean, as the day progresses, you get a different screen. In the morning, you get a little sunshine with fat little birds flying past. At midday, the sun is shining with clouds and jet planes flying past. During the evening, the sun sets, with thin, foggy clouds floating past and seagulls flapping into said sunset. Once it hits 7 p.m., or 19:00 (depending on you preference), The crescent moon comes out and stars sparkle behind it as little clouds whiz by. The last screen is the time-and-date display, which are shown inside bubbles. The bean can repeat and shuffle, which I have mine set on all the time. However, now for the sad points. It is advertised as being able to hold 695 songs. Mine has 194 with enough room left over for four more songs, but that's on high-quality. I'm sure it can hold more if you're NOT an audiophile such as myself. Also, as I have read in other reveiws, the hold button is a pain. That's because it is not a button of its own, rather, it is the difference between closing the usb-port's cover most of the way and all the way. Not a major problem, but it can drive you buggy until you're used to it. Now, the only terrible problems I had in this experience were not about the bean itself, but what came with it (the earbuds included with my bean were lop-sided, the 5 free music downloads included had an illegible redemption code), and I have to say, I wouldn't trade it for anything! I love it more than the hi-fi cd player that it's replacing (believe it or not)! The SonicStage software needed to use the bean is an easy setup, not the best, but better than others I've sampled. Overall, I find this to be a great Mp3 player and reccommend it to anyone, who, like me, would rather not buy an iPod. This is the first, and probably the only Mp3 player that I will own or even want to own. I sleep with it under my pillow. If it wasn't so small, I'd give it a hug.

Clumsy buttons and complex menus mar an otherwise great product. Excellent sound reproduction and great FM reception. Just make sure you have a copy of the PDF manual handy till you get used to all the permutations and combinations needed for every mundane operation.

I had a Video IPOD $399 and the Irever player and then I bought this. I won't be buying another player coz im stickin to Sony Bean.

I hate the IPOD Battery life n Size. This is tiny player with an amazing battery life.

If you are looking for a player with features like "Slide Show", "Menu based browsing", Video, "Large Capacity", then you better look for a Hard Disk based player. This is an incredibly small flash player- high on battery- and good music quality player.

I gotta say the s/w is not as equiped as IPOD, but then an IPOD won't last for 40 hrs without charging, and video IPOD feels like a big cell phone in my hands. IPOD nano is susceptible to screen scratches.

Negatives to this player would be the 1) Small browsing button. 2) Not so trendy s/w. 3) Moving USB drive

If you are lookin for a high battery-small-good sound quality MP3 player then this is well worth the money.

This Bean should not be allowed to carry the legendary Sony Walkman title. This thing is awful! The proprietary software wont allow you to play the MP3 files on another computer, you can upload MP3s without using the software to transfer files, but the Bean wont let you play them. Also whoever signed off on the design should have their head checked, I dont mean the bean shape, I'm talking about the clasp/mode-selector/flappy thingy...its flimsy and breaks easily. When it gets bent outta place through normal use, it is ABSOLUTELY INFURIATING to try to find the files, folders and to even switch it off! Forget it and save your beans for something else.

i purchased a white Sony Bean about two years ago and have had great fun with it.....now i regret my decision to buy it. The flismy USB cover snapped off awhile ago,i can no longer adjust the volume,the headphones stopped working months ago and the latest development?I can no longer charge it because the USB jack has broken.....My advice?Save your money and buy a video IPOD or something more durable

I previously purchased a (white) Sony bean and was very satisfied with it. My son used it so much I gave it to him and purchased the pink one. I am a huge fan of Sony products - they never let me down. This product was no longer available directly from Sony and I was pleasantly suprized that Amazon had it.