Customer Reviews

Sony Walkman X Series 32 GB Video MP3 Player with OLED Display

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I bought this as an upgrade to my Sony Noise Cancelling NWZ738 which I was using as my Rhapsody to go player -- now it is my wife's Rhapsody To Go player. The Walkman X has performed admirably as a replacement. It syncs flawlessly with Rhapsody and has the fantastic Walkman sound that I have come to love so much. The basis of my comparison: I will compare to the other Rhapsody players that I've owned -- Samsung P2, iRiver Clix2, Sony Walkman NWZ738 -- and since this is obviously targeted at the iPod Touch I will compare that also. As well, for full screen touch I am considering my Archos 604, 605 and 5 units. Lets just say I have an addiction to PMPs!

Here's what I love about my new Walkman X:

1. Sound -- as with my other Walkman, the sound is fantastic. I'm not exactly an audiophile but this is how I describe the sound: A powerful but crisp bass, a very full sound stage, very precise mids and highs, and no distortion that I can detect at all (believe me, with my UE 11 Pro earphones I can hear distortion on all of my other players!). To my ears, the combination of my UE earphones with the Walkman sound is as good as it gets in the portable world. Comparison: Clix 2 is crisp, you might even say bright, but lacks power on the lower end, Samsung P2 is a bit blurry -- especially with bass turned up the way I like it, Touch doesn't have the same fullness of sound nor does it have the driving bass, the Archos is not quite as crisp.

2. Display -- the OLED touch screen is beautiful to look upon. The colors are bright and vivid, and the images are big and bold and beautiful. I especially appreciate the album art which is displayed at a large enough size to really appreciate. Comparison -- well the Touch and Archos both have bigger screens, and the Touch does album art like nobody's business.

3. Dedicated buttons -- ok, here we're killing the iPod Touch because this has dedicated volume button (which I can actually find --an improvement over the 738 volume button) and play, ff, rev buttons in a little metal panel on the top. However, the 738 Walkman has the best dedicated play button I've ever seen, nobody can beat that.

4. Operation by braille -- yes I can easily operate the unit without looking at it, very important to me because I'm often wanting to stop the music or adjust the sound while my eyes are busy elsewhere. The design of the buttons and the way they protrude from the body makes it easy to find the play button and the volume buttons. Of course, nobody compares to the wonderful big bumpy play button on the Walkman 738 -- but there's only so much you can do when you have a big screen taking up most of your face. It is quite easy to operate the play button using the touch screen as well. Comparison: the Touch has no dedicated play button and the volume button is not easy to find or use by touch.

5. User Interface -- its very intuitive, I can drill down to the now playing screen very quickly. With a little practice I discovered the submenus accessible from the bottom of the Now Playing screen which allow me to access music settings, playlists, you name it. Overall, I think its a sleek looking interface which allows you to get around quickly and effectively. It even has many of the fun feeling actions that the Touch has, the lists go zooming by at the wave of a finger much like the Touch interface. Big improvement over many other MP3 touch UI's -- Archos perhaps being the worst of them, where I go through quite a rigmarole to simply start playing a new playlist.

6. Portability -- I think it beats the Touch on compactness. Although the Touch is slim and sleek, the Walkman X seems to be a bit more compact and easier to carry around in your hand. It has an interesting plastic edge which makes it highly grippable. Weight is probably about the same as the Touch -- it has a nice heft to it. The only full on touch screen player that can beat the X for compactness is probably the Samsung P2.

7. Esthetics -- I love the sparkly, shiny black finish of the front and back. This has a very techno look, they've definitely gone a different direction than the sleek rounded iPhone look. It's interesting and different, but personally I prefer the Touch esthetically.

8. Rhapsody DNA -- lets not forget the reason I bought the X in the first place, this will work with your Rhapsody To Go subscription (or Napster I hear). This is arguably the best of the players that I've found which support Rhapsody. Even better, I can also load non-Rhapsody music onto the player using MediaMonkey and they all coexist happily together.

9. Touch Screen -- yes I love touch screens as evidenced by my Archos, Touch, P2, and on and on it goes. This is a very good touch screen, quite responsive and easy to use. The touch interface is well designed, I don't ever struggle with hitting the right button -- as has been the case with the Touch from time to time. Comparison: well, I have to give the nod to Archos on this one, I like a touch screen that will work with a stylus in a crunch.

10. Battery life -- excellent! I'm not seeing their advertised 30 hours, more like 10+, unless I turn off all my sound enhancements which make it so fun to listen to. Comparison: seems to have a lot more juice than the Touch, Clix2, or the Archos units for sure.

11. Fun stuff built in -- this has a really nice built in interface to YouTube, and YouTube videos look fantastic on this screen. Also included is Slacker with free music (I believe you have to listen to commercials though). I think they are giving the Touch a run for the money on built in features.

12. Wifi -- hooked up to my home wifi no problem and was able to watch YouTube in a heartbeat.

13. Noise Cancelling -- nice feature but I don't use it much. The headphones are nice also, Sony makes a very decent single driver earbud which is very comfortable.

So what's not to like? Here are a few of my minor critiques of the X:

1. Paucity of accessories -- its the endless story, once you leave the apple happy place... good luck finding cases and such for your beautiful new player. However, I was able to find a nice case through I-nique which I'm very happy with.

2. Price -- yeah, this is kinda pricey for 16 GB player. If price is a concern you might want to go with the Walkman 738 which offers pretty much the same sound and Rhapsody friendliness at a much lower price.

3. No App Store -- need I say more?

4. Web browser -- I just tried it and it really does suck. Fortunately I don't really care, I didn't buy this for the web browser. But if they're going to have one they should at least make one that is more usable.

5. Doesn't appear to support Rhapsody Channels. My old Clix2 did so I'm a little disappointed. Hoping to see this fixed in a future firmware release.

In summary: if price is no concern, and you don't mind getting your accesories by mail order and you just have to have the best sound for your Rhapsody To Go subscription then this is the unit for you! Its beautiful, it sounds great, the screen is stunning and best of all... its NEW! On the other hand, if you love your iTunes, don't even know what Rhapsody is, aren't that picky about sound, and really want a leopard skin cover for your player then maybe you are better off with some sort of apple iPod.

7/28/09: Update -- this player started out good and has become my favorite in my small harem of mp3 players. Solid construction, great sound, and friendly to Rhapsody makes it tough to beat. The touch interface has grown on me (initially a bit confusing!), and I have to say I've had zero problems with this player with the touch screen or anything else for that matter. Still a very happy customer!

This is not a toy. This device is for people who love the best sounding music you can have in the palm of your hand. There is no comparing this quality with other units out there. I have to say the stock ear buds are fantastic. These alone would cost about $50. The noise canceling which is built into the player works very nice when paired with these ear buds. The stock ear buds are just fine probably for all that buy this device. I'm a stickler for putting anything in my ears, but these have very soft ear gels (you get three sizes) which fit smoothly and softly with comfort. Someone said in a previous review that the "plastic" ring around the outside... I'm not sure which player you have but there's nothing but solid metal around the outside that very elegantly dips at an angle for better handling ability. Built like a tank, surrounded in all metal case the build quality of that of Mercedes rather than Toyota. The display screen, well really can't get any better than the technology that is out there. This is the latest and greatest hot off the press people. For the guy who said the screen isn't bright? Did you check the 10 brightness level settings? In normal light you have to stick around a 5, or it just becomes too bright. The screen doesn't shine bright like others, which most do. This one has more of a beautiful glow which doesn't beam to kill your pupils. Remember, it is not how bright it is but how good it looks in all light surroundings. Perfect. I won't say much about the menus or playability. Everything has been laid out in quick and easy menus which only require a few taps to get your going. All players have this. Coupled with the OLED screen there's no reading or looking up ways to get somewhere. It's just that easy and precise. One thing. THIS IS NOT AN INTERNET TABLET. If you want web browsing please do not get this player. Plain and simple. I never understood at this stage in the game why are browsers even included in high end PMP's. I used it once to make sure the wireless function just worked. It did. Didn't browse or surf the web. I'm old school, still use a laptop with a nice sized screen for that. :)

If you want a very high quality sounding player with no gimmicks, easy drag and drop file transfers with awesome noise canceling (can be turned off) then this is a great player to buy. While it does a great job on playing videos, I'll strictly be using all available memory for music.

If you have any questions, let me know. Thanks for reading.


***Added Update***

After a couple weeks of using the player the touch screen response was getting worse and worse. Some times it would work perfectly, but then some times no matter how much I pressed/touched the screen nothing would happen. It has become so frustrating I purchased another music player. I have severa days left to return it, and since Sony hasn't been able to help me I may have to return the unit. To eliminate problems, I actually ordered another new one (same model) and the screen response issue was there again. I've used other touch screen devices, and this one is very hard to use when it doesn't respond. I am VERY upset since the audio quality was amazing with this unit and the battery life seemed to last forever! The screen visually is fantastic and upsets me a lot that that this problem has happened. Maybe they haven't perfected touch capabilities with OLED? Anyway, this is the story so far. I may end up returning both of them because of this stickler problem. If I had external buttons that controlled the screen then I would keep the product just based on how good it sounds.

***Added Update
I do not regret getting rid of this device. I've had good luck with the other MP3 player. I've been back to Sony's website to check out if they added any new firmware or anything and as of today there isn't anything available. Lack of any support via the website also. That's about it.

A little background for this review, I currently own both the Sony X-Series 32GB Walkman and the Zune HD 32GB. I got the Sony X-Series back in June of this year and I've had the Zune HD since it came out on Sept. 15th. I also own the iRiver iHP-120, iHP-140, iFP-899 and Sony PSP. I did own the Zune 30 and 80, both from their original launch, and sold both for $100 each in order to upgrade to the Zune HD. I have never owned an Apple iPod or iPhone but this is because I've gone down to the local Apple Store when the new models came out and hooked up my head phones and listened to the sound quality which I was not impressed with compared to the various players I've owned or currently own. As for a phone I use a Palm Pre. I am definitely an audio/videophile. I have about 2000 Cd's that I record at 320kbps and about 1800 music videos that I record from DVD to MPEG-4. I use my players to play only my top songs and videos so that every song and video is a favorite.

Sound Quality:
When I buy a player the first thing I look for is sound quality. So I toss out the headphones that every player comes with and use my own. Thus, I can't review the supplied headphones because I never tried them. Let's start with the sound customization settings. The X-Series has four EQ presets, and a choice to use no EQ. In addition, the X-Series has two user customizable settings with a five band EQ and an additional Clear Bass setting with 4 levels of Bass. The X-Series also has a VPT (Surround) setting with six ambient settings (Studio, Live, Club, Arena, Matrix, and Karaoke) along with a choice for no ambient setting. It also has a DSEE (Sound Enhance) setting, and a Clear Stereo setting. In comparison, if you are familiar with the Zune 30's EQ, the Zune HD has the same seven EQ preset choices and a choice to use no EQ. There are no other sound enhancement features outside of the EQ on the Zune HD. I definitely think the Zune HD should have added a customizable EQ setting like the X-Series that you can adjust the highs and lows to your individual user preferences. These additional sound settings the X-Series has over the Zune HD goes a long way in enhancing the overall sound quality.

I would say the sound quality of the X-Series is better than the Zune HD and certainly better than any Apple product I've listened to. To be clear, the Zune HD's sound is good but compared to the X-Series it does not have the depth of sound and focuses more on the treble and midrange sounds but if you use a good set of headphones the sound and bass are good just not as full ranged as the X-Series'. The X-Series' sound is clear enough to hear subtle nuances in the music while enjoying a rich warm powerful sound. That said, I would say the Sony X-Series is definitely the best sounding portable music player on the market right now because of a combination of the above mentioned settings along with its overall sound processing abilities.

Picture Quality:
The next thing I look at when buying a portable player is picture quality. Both the Sony X-Series and the Zune HD have an OLED screen and are in a league by themselves because this is clearly the next step in portable device screen technologies. The color and detail will blow you away. Colors are vivid and life like with a full range of colors you just don't see with LCD including from the PSP. Also, the OLED screen doesn't need a backlight like an LCD screen does, so it uses far less power, and can show black in its true color. Also, the viewing angle is excellent; unlike LCD you can see perfect color and image on an OLED from nearly any angle including a near side on view. And the refresh rate on an OLED screen is up to 12 times faster than on an LCD, meaning that there's virtually no blur on fast moving sports or action scenes.

That said, the Sony X-Series and the Zune HD are nearly identical with their screens, aside from the Sony X-Series being slightly smaller, 3.0 inches vs. 3.3 inches on the Zune HD. Also, Sony uses a 9:5 screen ratio which is not as well suited to video as the Zune HD's 16:9 screen ratio. And as for video transfer, I had no problem viewing all my videos in the MPEG-4 format on the Zune whereas on the Sony I had a difficult time transferring them over. Also note, the Sony is slightly brighter on its highest screen brightness setting than the Zune, but the Zune is bright enough to get the job done. I would say considering these factors both the Zune and Sony are excellent; but for video, the Zune HD wins, otherwise they are Virtually Identical.

Form Factor and Looks:
As for form factor and aesthetics, the first thing you will notice when you pick up the X-Series is that it is solidly built and has a nice quality weight to it. The X-Series is about the size of a small candy bar. Its 3.0 inch, rich, OLED screen takes up about 85% of the front surface and has a smooth touch; which is perfect for its touch screen capabilities. Your finger will glide across the screen like ice. Aside from the screen, the X-Series uses a chiseled granite finish along the sides which is ideal for gripping. The entire front and back surface are a high gloss finish so there will be finger prints. Compared to the Zune HD, the X-Series has more weight, is just a tad thicker (1mm), a bit shorter, and slightly less wide. The iPod Touch or iPhone will look dated compared to the compact size and design of the X-Series or Zune HD for that matter. Overall, the X-Series Walkman is a compact solidly built player with a modern design, perfect for a portable player.

Quick Access Buttons:
The quick access buttons are a real win for the X-Series vs. other players. In addition to the touch screen interface that has a play/pause button, a fast forward/skip to next track button, and a fast rewind/skip to previous track button; there are dedicated buttons on the player that are not on the touch screen itself. On the top of the player it has three dedicated buttons: a play/pause button, a fast forward/skip to next track button, and fast rewind/skip to previous track button. On the right hand side of the player it has a volume up and down rocker. At the bottom of the front surface of the player just below the touch screen is a Home button which bring you back to the Home screen and acts as a Standby/Power Off mode button. On the back top of the player there is a sliding Hold button to disable the other buttons and disable the touch screen to avoid unintentional actions. Clearly, the benefit of these dedicated hard buttons makes it easy to navigate the player through common tasks like lowering or raising the volume. It also allows you to navigate the player without looking at the player which can be an issue when walking, running, doing other tasks, or even if it's in a pocket and you want to change the track without taking it out.

User Interface:
The X-Series has a nice user interface with sub menus that are easy to understand and intuitive. For example, when playing music it has four useful icons at the bottom of the page. One is the Option Menu icon, which brings up all the sound customization options easily. The other is the Related Links icon, which links the current track or artist to a Yahoo or YouTube search via wifi. The next is the Search icon, to search or play music from a list of All Songs, Albums, Artists, Genres, Release Years, Playlists, or Folders. I like the fact that I can use folders I've created on my computer. This means, I can make a folder like "80's Music" on my computer and then drag and drop it to the X-Series and when I scroll through the list of folders on the X-Series I will have a dedicated folder for "80's Music". The Zune does not do this. The last icon is the List icon, which shows a list of all the songs in the category I am playing and the order they will play.

Transferring Music, Videos, and Pictures:
Transferring content is done by dragging and dropping, which is nice. Although, I could not get the video to transfer over well, it seems to be hit or miss even in the correct MPEG-4 format. I never had trouble with the Sony PSP or Zune HD for videos, and I have over 1800 Music Videos. Also, pictures need to be an odd 852 x 480 pixel ratio or they won't fill the whole screen.

Web Browsing:
I'm not going to review web browsing because I feel that web browsing should be left to your cell phone that hopefully has a dedicated QWERTY keyboard and touch screen. Also, these players use WiFi to connect to the internet which I feel is too limiting compared to a cell phone that can browse the web anywhere.

Summary:
Over all, I would recommend the Sony X-Series Walkman as the best sounding portable music player on the market right now. I would also recommend it for having dedicated commonly used buttons like play/pause, skip, and a volume rocker. I also like the fact that I can drag and drop named folders that show up on the X-Series. And of course, the X-Series' 3.0 inch, rich, OLED screen, with color and detail that will blow you away compared to other players is a huge win.

My Sony X1061 has been a very nice device over the past month's worth of use. But it certainly hasn't been the PERFECT device. The OLED screen is perhaps its greatest virtue; the image quality is definitely among the very best I've seen to date and, at least in this respect, puts the iPod Touch in any of its generational iterations to shame. But the X1061 has been far from the so-called "iPod Killer" that too many have been looking for.

The sound quality--while plainly superior to any portable device Apple has release to date--isn't the best I've heard and experienced from Sony itself; their own recently released NWZ-S545 IMO sounds noticeably more appealing to these ears, even if it has half the storage cap to my X1061. Even older Walkmans have sonic characteristics that might lend credence to the argument that 'newer isn't necessarily better', though as always your mileage may vary. OLEDs, while brilliant looking, currently have limitations on lifespan and are generally considered not as long-lived as a comparably-sized and spec'd LCD display. The X-series, like all Walkman PMP devices past and present I've owned and experienced, is a BEAR to get video content loaded on. The touchscreen user interface, while fluid and seamless to operate, left out several very useful functions that were present on older A and S-series players that I greatly miss.

There still is no ability to build on-the-fly playlists on this Walkman, or edit those playlists that were transferred to the player using Sony's provided software or a compatible third-party app. Speaking of apps, there is no eco-system provided by Sony or anyone else that could compete with the Touch/iPhone juggernaut; apps beyond those built into the X-series' operating system and/or firmware are basically it...expansion for now is not an option. The apps that ARE provided leave a LOT to be desired. While I found WiFi connectivity was easy to establish and provided excellent connections, the tools in place to take advantage of this were not. The browser is about as basic and poorly designed for usability as any web browser can be. In addition it doesn't support basic add-ons like Flash, making itself even less functional and useful for surfing the web.

The YouTube app falls down with any number of videos from the provider, simply due to compatibility issues with streaming formats that the X1061 can work with. The built-in podcast utility was equally bad if not more so; I can browse what that content is available but the device will not allow me to subscribe to any of the listed feeds. Even the streaming media app from Slacker is a chore; adding stations must be done on the managing PC rather on the device itself using the WiFi connection. Even the FM radio wasn't as good as it could've been; for instance there is no RDS functionality like Zune models have enjoyed for years now (and Apple also provides on their newest nano). Presets are stored based upon their frequency location on the FM band, and can't be arrange based on other priorities, such as favorite or most-listened to; preset slot Number One will always be the station with the lowest FM frequency number. The built-in noise canceling function works to a limited degree, but I found that I didn't like the sonic capabilities of the mandatory (if noise-canceling is desired) earphones, so it's effectively useless to me in the end.

Fortunately for Sony I'm running out of steam in this tirade, but suffice to say I've found more to complain than cheer about with my X1061. As it's such a chore to get compatible video content onto the player, its showcase OLED tech advantage over the iPod Touch is sorely compromised. Its one saving grace is its wonderful sound quality, but like I said earlier to me it's own merits are surpassed by the significantly more affordable S-series. For $400 I expected far better, and instead have come away brutally disappointed.

2 1/2 stars, and I'm being kind.

1. Sound - WOW!!!!!!! This player will make you smile as soon as you hear it......and will keep you smiling.

2. Display - WOW!!!!!!! Again....nothing but smiles when you see it. Just beautiful. Looks amazing during the day too

3. Design - hahaha another wow!!!! Just beautiful. I like the grip on the side of the player and the buttons on the top. Makes it easy to change my music selection when I have the player in my pocket.

4. Touch Interface - Amazing!!!!! Works really well.....almost too well.

5. Noise Canceling - Take it on the bus....muni....or just for a walk and you will instantly hear the difference. One of the best features on the player.....especially if you live in the city like I do and you want to enjoy your music like never before.

6. Headphones - 2 words........VERY COMFORTABLE

7. Web Browsing - Not as good as the ipod but who cares......I'll take sound quality over checking my email any day. If you turn down this player because of the web browser.....you are an idiot.

Pros-
sound
design
oled screen(beautiful)
headphones
able to sync with rhapsody
slacker radio
noise canceling
touch interface easily on par with itouch or iphone
sound
sound
sound
and sound

Cons-
no app store
web browser needs work


overall an amazing product......

The model I have: Sony MWZ-X1061 (32GB). This is the best personal music player (PMP) I ever have, and I have a lot of them ever since the very first Sony Walkman 20+ years ago. I also owned (still have many of them) iPod, iPhone, Creative, Memorex, Samsung, RCA, AIWA, Panasonic, Emerson, Disney, and many others PMP over the years. None even comes close to the sound I get from this player. The last PMP sound I really liked was a Sony MiniDisk player I bought 12 years ago and I still listen to it on my trips. I guess I can finally retire it now. I also own 3 other Sony MP3 players for the past 10 years, they were OK. They sound better than the iPods, but awkward to use. However, the S-Master Digital Amplifier in this latest Walkman just blows them away, too.

I was attending the CES in Las Vegas, so I got the opportunity to check out most of the latest PMPs from many of the PMP makers. I used my own ear buds so I can hear the differences between PMPs. I also have an iPhone with me all the time so I can have a reference on the sound quality. Most of the PMPs, including the Zoom (HD), iPod, Samsung M1 (the new P3), all sound good, but flat. If I boost the bass, they become muddy. If I boost the treble, they sounded cold and pinging. Sony is in the back of the huge hall, so I got to it last. However, once I started to listen to it, the music just came out alive. More I played with it, more I liked it. I returned to the show the next day and tried all the PMPs again and came to the same conclusion. If you like your music, there is no better sounding PMP than this Sony X-series Walkman right now. I ordered one once I got home the very same day.

Now I have played with it for three days now, I loved it even more. Here are some quick points on my experience with this player:

1. Content Transfer: It is extremely easy to load music and video into this player. I just dragged my MP3 and other format songs into the player's MUSIC folder and it is ready to go. It supports up to 8th level of folders, so I can just dragged the whole folder full of songs into it and minutes later, it is ready. If I don't want certain songs, I just delete them as files in the folder. All are done in the Windows Explorer. No more SonicStage or iTune.
2. You can do the same thing with the video files, the player's Content Transfer will even convert many of the videos into the correct format (using the computing power of the PC's CPU).
3. You can make playlists on the Windows Media Player then load into the player. No playlist on the fly.
4. The S-Master Digital Amplifier is the major difference in this player. Even with the factory default settings, the music sound clear, full, and warm. Then there are 3 digital sound technologies that really make the music comes alive.
a. Clear Bass: 3 level of digital bass boost. This is definitely my favorite feature. I can boost the bass and it stays tight and clean. It does not make the mid and high muddy. I have a couple Bose and Shure headphones / earbuds that I stopped using them because I did not like the weaker bass response. Now I just give the music a boost of clear bass and the headphones are great again. I can turn the clear bass down if I feel too much of it on certain songs or using certain headphones / earbuds.
b. Digital Sound Enhancement Engine (DSEE): This technology restores the highs lost due to the sound compression on most digital music formats (ex: MP3, WMA). Now the music sound clear and warm, not thin and pinggy.
c. Clear Stereo: This makes separation of left and right sound even more clear. I really enjoy it when I hear a concert music and clearly hear the left side of the stadium and the crowd in the right side, too.
d. There also are various digital sound processing that make the music sound more "spacey", like in a studio, concert hall, Disco, or Karaoke room. I usually don't use them, but they are fun to try out. They can make cheap and small earbuds sound a lot better.
5. Digital Noise Cancelling. Do not throw the included earbuds away. They may not compare to the expensive models that cost in the hundreds, but they are good enough for music on the move. I just played around with all the digital sound settings and found a setting that makes them sound almost as good as the expensive ones. They also have mics on them that are required for the Digital Noise Cancelling. When I turn this feature on, the background noise just subsided and bring bright clear music right to you, does not matter where you are. I was in a DMV yesterday to do paperwork, and I was so happy that I can enjoy my music without turning up the volume. A tranquil personal enjoyment space in a sea of long line madness. The waiting time passed by so quickly and pleasantly is worth the price itself. Suggestion: use your expensive headphones in your home or office where it is quiet, but use the provided Digital NC earbuds when you are on the move and in a crowd. You will really appreciate it.
6. You can also use the X-Series as a standalone Digital Noise Cancelling headphone with the included cable adapter. It works great. Consider a standalone Digital Noise Cancelling headphone will run for $300 to $400 itself, making this Sony X WM an even greater value.
7. The touch screen is easy to use. I figured how to use it in minutes without ever reading the manual. It is fun to use it, too. Sometimes it can get sensitive as I accidentally brush it with my hands or fingers during play back. That's when the big "hold" switch on the back of the player is pretty useful.
8. I am using this mainly as a portable music player. It does have other features that may be important to others: A beautiful OLED screen, video play back (I loaded several Music Videos), photo viewing, "WiFi" for Web browsing, Podcast, or YouTube (I still use my iPhone for these), Slacker Radio, and FM radio. I am not reviewing these features as this review is already too long.
9. Using this player compare to other PMPs I have is like listening to a live concert compares to just CDs. The Sony X-Series Walkman is small, light, beautiful, and solid quality. With the great sound and Digital NC, there is no Apple, Microsoft, or other products that even come close.

If you are one that looks for the best audio quality, you must buy Sony X1000. They have combined the best digital audio and lots of enhancements with noise cancelling. I just love the sound, even better than Creative X-fi or Apple. The OLED display is bright, sharp and clear (as someone pointed out, you need to set the brightness to suit your standards). YouTube videos look awesome. Buttons are well placed that you cannot find fault with them and you can navigate just by feel. It's pretty easy to connect the wifi. The touchscreen is great, responsive and accurate. I have not regretted buying my first Sony player.

Pros:
Unmatchable audio quality
Great touchscreen
Bright and smooth OLED display
Long battery life
Compact size (high tech feel)

Cons:
High costs (main factor people won't buy)
Lack of applications store/sites
Screen too small for comfortable web browsing
Web browser not great (tedious to key in), don't buy if web browsing is the main reason for getting this.
Not sure if earphones can be replaced
Lack accessories such as case

In short, who should buy? People who love QUALITY!

I've had my Sony X1061 32gb for about 2 days now, and I must say the sound is phenomenal. For years I've used an iPod and iPhone as my main mp3 player, and I've noticed that when I've got songs with high bass (like in film scores, or dance, pop music) my expensive V-Moda in-ear buds would start crackling and I thought that it was because the earbuds couldn't take that much bass. So when I plugged in the earbuds on the Sony I was amazed at how much bass there was without the crackling. It seems the iPod Touch just doesn't deliver the sound power output that the Sony can. I gave the Sony a 5 star mainly on the sound quality which is why I bought this.

The rest of the features on this player is more of a con for me being a Mac user:

- The Video demos included in the player looks super sharp and really good, however, it is a real pain to convert your video to the right dimensions/size to fit the screen. The screen specs is 432 X 240. The sharp quality wmv video included in the demo is also at a full 432 X 240. But when I try converting my movies to that proportion, the player says that it cannot play back the movie. So I try a lower size like 320 X 240 (which isn't the right dimensions for widescreen movies) so I get an image that's somewhat stretched...plus the image quality isn't sharp at all...not like the demo. If i try to convert to other resolutions in between the two sizes, I get another error message that it can't play back the video. So I'm stuck with converting to 320X240 at the max which results in lower resolution......Thus it doesn't really make use of the OLED screen....I've tried looking for video converters to output to an .mp4 with those exact dimensions and I can't find any.

- If you own a Mac, the only option you have to put music in the Sony is to 'drag & drop' your files into it like a usb drive. Yes, it's fast and easy but, your songs get put into alphabetical order, not in the order that you wish to have them played. You can't make playlists either if you're on a mac. Very frustrating.

- When you pull your headphones out of the Sony while it's playing, it doesn't stop and keeps on playing and you could easily forget that you forgot to pause it, and you find your Sony walkman out of battery when you wake up in the morning. The ipod was better at this feature where it would stop playing if you take out your headphones.

- The battery life is not the 33 hours as stated in Sony's claims. I have my wifi Off, and have the DSEE (Sound Enhancement) on, Clear Stereo on, and Dynamic Normalizer on, and the battery lasted about 15 hours total. I'm guessing the 33 hour they're claiming is if you have the sound enhancements off and wifi off too.

So there are my complaints. I still love the sound on the Sony X, and I'm using it mainly as an mp3 player for the gym and at work and nothing more.

I bought this player after reading every review on amazon and looking at all the other potential brands. First off the reason I wanted a potable music player. I have around 700+ CD's that I own that reside in my two 400 disc CD changer's in my home system. All these CD's have also been ripped into Window's Media Player on my laptop which runs on Vista 64bit. The format I ripped them with is WMA. I-Pod's don't support the WMA format. So that ruled out I-Pods right off the bat along with the fact that a friend of mine horror story of how I-Tunes crashed their new Vista run Laptop to the point it had to be sent back to the manufacture. So that didn't leave me with many option. I want all my music which is about 28GB's on a single small portable player. I really like Sony products in general I have all ways had good luck with them. So I went with this player. I wish they offered one with more memory because after it is formatted and I loaded it with my music it only has about 1.5GB's left.

Alot of people have complained about the uploading process and how it didn't work or whatever.
I took another reviewers advice and did not use the software disc that came with the player.
If you run some form a Windows and have the current version of Windows Media Player I think its 11 your fine. If you don't have the current version of WMP the included disc comes with it and you just have to download it off the disc. Also a very important thing I learned from the same reviewer is that the player lists the artist as the person listed in the contributing artist field of WMP. So I went through my entire music collection on WMP and about 70% were fine but almost all rap CD's had to be changed. You have to put the Name of the artist as the first name in the contributiing artist field for every song. If you don't when doing a search on the player by artist you will have names of people you didn't know you owned because their name was listed first in the field and when you click on their name it will only show the song their listed first on which may only be one or more.

When you first plug in the player into the computer the computer recognizes it and asks you to format it or sync it or something DON'T DO THAT. Hit cancel or no or whatever. Then all you have to do is open WMP and on the top right click on the Sync tab highlight the Walkman tab and then click the Start Sync tab. That's it. It took mine a very long time to do this first Sync about 10 hours. But I had 28Gigs worth of music. Since then I have made some changes to artwork and Genre info to my liking for some of my CD's. I have also added several new CD's and it only takes any where from less than a minute to a couple of minutes to Sync. Everyhting is on the player all artwork song names artist everything made it first try with no problems. Even the small percentage of my music which is from burned CD's that I got from other people that I ripped into WMP transfered right to the player no problem artwork song names everything. As long as you see it in WMP you will see it in the player. I have read alot of reviews of pretty much every other brands players that don't do that.
Video is not important to me so I have yet to try that on this player.
Slacker works great on this player and provides art work and artist bio's.
The touch screen works great.
The touch screen looks amazing it looks like HD.
The wireless internet search engine works fine.
Music quality is astounding and has a full customizable eq. with several presets and two personallized ones.
As a portable music player I think the Sony Walkman X Series is outstanding.

I bought my sony walkman x series with 32 GB 5 months ago. It was quite expensive but I don't regret it. It's a wonderful device.
PROS:
1) The most important and I often overlooked characteristic is the noise cancelling function. That system alone costs aprox. $100. When I bought it I didn't know what was this for and I was very sceptical about it. But the first time I used it was awesome. It was like when you are swimming and you go deep into the water and hear nothing, but your thoughts. In this case almost ALL the background noise DISSAPERED. This feature is awesome.

2) Touchscreen. The touchscreen is great, is better than what I expected. It's quite easy to use and to navigate. The flow of the music's covers is quite fun to see. It's very sensitive and useful.

3) The sound quality is the main reason why I bought it and is the best I have ever heard. The sound is incredible crisp, clear and let you discover your music in a new way. The equalizer is great, overall typical Sony audio quality, which means excellence.

4) Overall quality: The device is stronger than what it seems. I have dropped it twice (ups) and it endured quite well. It's more durable than what might seem.

5) WiFi: The online connection with youtube is great. Overall the WiFi functions is good, not great, average but it works fine enough.

CONS:
1) Playlist. It's hard and very unintuitive, which is ridiculous since the device should be able to create playlist on the go.

2) Price: it's expensive, but it's a premium device. So, if you want quality you know there is a price $$$.

BOTTOM LINE:
An excellent product with outstanding audio quality (noise cancelling, audio quality) that is easy to navigate with a great battery life. The Internet functions are average. A must for audiophiles.
NOTE: Since I don't live in the USA I can not review the slacker function.