Customer Reviews

Sony NWZE464PNK Walkman MP3 player

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

We now own *3* of these units (mine is the step up 16 gig version, but basically the same). The other two units belong to our 7 and 9 year old. I spent 2.5 solid days researching mp3 players, iPod Nanos (5th and 6th generation), and iTouches. I learned a lot. Let me summarize our findings and help you understand why we purchased 3 of these great little units.

Needs: audiobooks with bookmarking, podcasts, music, video, voice recording for the occassional lecture/seminar, and pictures (nice to have)

Sony meets all of these needs with the best price on the market. iPod nanos were expensive: the 5th generation is tough to find for a reasonable price, the 6th generation is TOO small for any of us to enjoy, and the iTouch is far more than we wanted to spend - and was overkill for our needs (I really don't need an app for that.)

We use iTunes to manage our music (too many issues with Media Player). The mp3 player comes with the transfer software in the memory. Simply attach the player to your computer with the supplied cord (yes, it's proprietary - it is necessary to connect to their bases and speakers), surf out to the folder using My Computer, copy the file to your hard drive and install (then you can format the player from inside the player to give you back that space and ditch the preinstalled music). The Content Transfer software allows us to drag from iTunes (or Windows) over to the player and the software takes care of conversions, file smooshing, etc. File smooshing, yes, a technical term for reducing an 890 meg, 27 minute video file to 342 meg.

Bookmarking... let me educate you. The mp3 industry does not have a standard on what this means. For Sony, bookmarking marks the track (at the beginning) so you can easily find your favorite song or the chapter you were on in your audiobook easily. Bookmarking does NOT bring you to where you were IN the track. In music, no big deal. In an audiobook with a 30 minute chapter... nightmarish. BUT, don't be discouraged, I found a workaround to make this work BEAUTIFULLY. Read on.

I discovered that if you pause a Podcast, go listen to some music, turn off the unit, do some other stuff and come back to your podcast, you pick up where you left off - no bookmarking required, it just is smart like that. So guess what we did? We went into iTunes and made all of our Audiobooks podcasts (select the files, right click, under Options, change the media type to "Podcast").

There are 2 BIG benefits to having done this: First, I can pause my audiobook and come back to where I was without fast-forwarding. Second, my audiobooks are no longer in the music queue. I can randomize/shuffle ALL of my music and ONLY music plays.

Sure, I know. iPods do this nicer with podcasts being podcasts, audiobooks being audiobooks with pausing and holding your place in the track. Have you looked at the price of iPods lately? Especially when you compare feature for feature, an iPod will run nearly TWICE the cost of the Sony and you get a dinky screen on the Nano (6th gen) and frankly, as I said, an iTouch is overkill (and overpriced).

Other cool features: carrying around photos of my kids, FM radio with preset capability, language learning (if you are studying a foreign language, this ia very cool feature), audio recording for lectures/seminars, or even recording my own audiobook for our 2 year old.

We are MORE than pleased with our Sony for the kids and for mom. 8G is plenty of space for them.

If you aren't looking for frills, but a good solid mp3 player, you have found an excellent choice, and for the price, you can't beat it (besides, with 5 available colors - it is great the kids are never confused as to which mp3 player is theirs!).

For what its worth, I like the unit, the battery last long enough for me to make my 18 hours in flights. This unit has but one down fall, You can not create a play list with it. You have to create the play list on your computer and then load it in. I find this very inconvenient. I like to play music I am in the mood for, not plan on what mood I will be in. If this unit had that I would have rated it higher. Playing only one song or one album at a time really stinks sometimes, unless you want to hear the same one over and over just hit the replay option and you're golden.

First of all, there is not doubt that this is a great music player. This is light weight, portable and my 8GB model has a good enough of space for my songs which is use mostly at gym and at work. Sound quality of the headphones is not that great, but also not bad if you don't want every minute details.Screen resolution is good. As a simple music player and a good alternative to ipod shuffle/nano in terms of price and screen size,i think this will be a great buy if one can live with the below drawbacks.
--The player starts off with a light press of any buttons (mind you the buttons are big). That means when you keep it in jeans pocket and a light press on any of the button will start of the player. That means drainage of battery. Gave me around 20 hrs of battery life on my first charge. This might be because 90% of the time when i took this out of my pocket, i found this switched on accidentally. Wish sony has a dedicated on/off switch for this
--Headphone wire gets entangled easily
--No shortcut key to navigate to the current songs.

Summary:
This is not a bad player, but there are some very annoying quarks. However, it is significantly cheaper than the iPod Nano. Plus, unlike some players, the case does not feel like it is cheap or will easily break. I have used the device for a month and have not noticed any quality issues.

Note: I use this for listening to music at work. I cannot comment on how the unit handles podcasts or audio books.

Good
- Feels solid
- Small and light
- Bright screen
- Good sound quality
- Gets good reception on the FM radio
- Can handle playlists of over two thousand songs
- Random mode seems to truly play the songs randomly (some players do not seems to truly randomize the song order)
- Can return to a playlist were you left off after listening to the FM radio for a while
- Can play unit for multiple days without recharging the battery
- Charges quickly

Bad
- Cannot turn off the player. It will only turn off when left idle for 24 hours.
This is a big issue which impacts the battery life if you do not use the device heavily. Do not expect to use this device for a few hours every week and still have it last for 24+ hours of usage.
- When left idle for 24 hours device can no longer resume playing the pervious song.
- Have to learn the Sony media player (Media Go)
- Cannot integrate with iTunes (despite Sony's description of the unit). The Sony media player (Media Go) can read iTunes files however.
o Cannot read AAC files purchased from the iTunes store.
o Cannot use iTunes features such as autofill
- Cannot customize radio present numbers. They are sorted in the order they are found on the dial.

As usual, sony is the best. The sound is far superior to the Ipod touch that i have. So much so, in fact, that the ipod is a piece of junk in comparison. Throw it in the garbage. Next, It's very simple to load music. I have a mac, and all i do is open the disc image, mounted to my desktop, and drag and drop music files into the player. Beautiful, simple, awesome. It has a voice recorder and a radio as well. Both very handy. Get this now if you want a music player.

This little baby delivers great sound quality and the bass is booming. The headphones that came with this product fit my small ear canals better and never fall out like many others have. So far I have just used the music and FM radio features and I am very pleased. The drag and drop feature is great. Who needs an Ipod?

This is my 2nd sony mp3 player. My last one lasted 3.5 years before the battery started not wanting to hold a charge.

If all you want is something to listen to music on then this is an awesome player. I don't do audiobooks so for me thats not an issue

I've had it for 2 weeks and have dropped it twice...still works perfectly. It has an amazingly long battery life....I've owned 4 previous mp3 players (2 creatives, a previous generation sony and a sansa) and this one blows the others away with how long a charge lasts

I have two complaints...the screen scratches easily and its had to make a playlist atleast without using the sony software

This is a decent mp3 player.

Like:
1. Good battery life. Have it running for over 12 hours and there are still 2 bars left in the battery indicator. I assume I can get 20 to 30 hours playing time. Not sure if it is possible to get to 50 hours, as sony advertised. Also there is a "battery saver" feature in the options. Not sure what exactly it does. My impression is that it will prevent the battery from charging to 100%, so as to slow down the degradation of battery over the years. Only time can tell if it works.

2. Good sound quality. The caveat is that sound quality has a lot to do with the the type of mp3 file played (encoding quality) and the type of earphones (I used my good old Sennheiser) as well. I have seen some "scientific" testing on the frequency responses of various mp3 players, the differences are very small and probably not noticeable by humans. Also this is intended for a daily commute on a noisy subway train, not an audiophile device. There are also quite a few digital "gimmicks" to enhance the audio profile.

3. Drag-and-drop file transfer. The device has to be mounted as a MTP device. Not as convenient as itune, but you don't have to rely on the integrated management software (MeGo? why should I bother to install another piece of crappy software on my computer)

4. Bright and responsive screen. It can show photos and play videos. But I really don't see any use of that: the screen is just too small.

5. Decent user interface. The sensitivities of the buttons are adequate, the organization of menus is reasonable. However, I don't think it's as good as ipod family products.

Dislike:
The whole thing is made of plastic. I can see why some people complained the surface can be easily scratched. This is no where compared to the glass cover, metal casing of an ipod touch. To be fair this is the low end among sony mp3 players, Sony wants to keep BOM below $30 to make a profit.

Power off issue:
Some people complained that the player cannot be completely turned off, and only go into deep sleep when it is "powered off". These days the flash memory makes it possible for a device to be turned on very fast (a mac book air can be turned on within seconds). It could be the case that the device merely goes into deep sleep. It could also be the case that the device powers up lightening fast. Either way, fast response is not a bad thing (I don't want to wait for 10 seconds every time I want to listen to my music), as far as the battery life is not affected. To prevent the player from being accidentally turned on in your pocket, there is a "hold" switch. When the player is turned off and it is in "hold" position, the screen will come back alive and go back to sleep in a few seconds. To me this is actually a plus.

Minor annoyance:
The automatic shutoff has to be set up every time. It would be more convenient if a repeated "auto shut off" can be enabled, just like the daily alarm feature.

This MP3 player is much better than the ones I've had in the past. The transfer rate is a bit faster, the connection to the computer is less sensitive to disconnects than my last one(Sansa Clip+), and the menus are much faster than any other MP3 player I've used. I also like the layout of the menus, very clear and easy to navigate.

The main issues I have with this player is that the buttons are way too sensitive and any button press turn it on(even with hold on though it turns off quickly). This drains the battery and makes it easier to accidentally skip to a different track or restart a podcast. With my old player I could start a podcast and put it in my pocket and not have to worry much about pressing a button. Now I find myself constantly turning the hold switch on and off which can be annoying. And I don't like how it stops playing whenever I go back to the main screen to browse a different category than the one I'm listening to.

Most of my problems with this player I feel I will get used to and will cease to bother me. Overall, despite the issues above, this player is solid, easy to use, and has good battery life.

The Sony earphones it comes with are not good. I replace them with the JVC ha-fx67, much better mids and bass.
The equalizer is the best feature this player has to offer. The only drawback to the equalizer is that it has only +/-3 (db) vertical frequency emphasis adjustmemnts, and 5 (400hz to 16Khz) horizontal frequency adjustments. It would be a much better player with a +/- 5 (db) vertical adjustments.
This comment is just for mp3 music. I wish I had he vision some of you have to be able to read a book on the that screen size!? The software works just fine with my Win7 and the Apple Itunes.
Three starts for lousy earphones and four stars for the coarse Equalizer