Review: Sony Network Walkman NW-E405

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I’ve had one of these mp3 players for about two months now and overall, it’s the best one I’ve tried. Fantastic battery life, nice display, and easy charging with USB.

Pros:

  • 50 hour battery life
  • A 3-minute charge is supposed to last 3 hours. I haven’t tried charging for just 3 minutes, but it does charge pretty fast.
  • Charges with a standard usb cable – same one used for most devices like cameras and usb hard drives and such.
  • So small and light I have it with me all day without noticing it.
  • I made my own screen savers for it’s sweet OLED display
  • You can make groups of songs to play. I never used Genre on my last mp3 player, but groups is easy. I made groups for relaxing stuff, rock, and energy.

Cons:

  • Display is almost impossible to see in direct sunlight. Still, better than a shuffle with no display. How often you’re outside with sunny weather would affect your chances of this happening. For me: probably about 4 times.
  • Doesn’t play protected music purchased online. What was sony thinking?
  • Mine is only 512mb, which means some repeating.
  • Doesn’t charge and play at the same time
  • In an effort to maintain an efficient database, Sony forces you to download songs using their software. You can still use the device for storing files, but music won’t be found unless it’s gone through SonicStage or Sony’s file manager.

Before this one, I had a Rio Nitrus, preceeded by a RioVolt, and a cheap one before that. Compared to the Nitrus (1.5gb micro hard drive) this is way better. Nitrus battery life is about 8 hours, compared to 50 for the Sony one, which makes a huge difference. On my last summer vacation I forgot the charger for my Nitrus. It was such an obscure plug that I gave up left it in the suitcase. With this new Sony one, any usb port can power it – including my car charger usb port. ;)

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Permalink | October 31st, 2005

One Response to “Review: Sony Network Walkman NW-E405”

  1. No Loafing » Late Christmas=Excellent Says:
    January 15th, 2006 at 5:02 pm

    [...] I thought it couldn’t get any better for the Holiday season but I think this weekend may have tied it. Jessica and I just returned from a late Xmas weekend with her parents. I’m the proud new owner of a Sony MP3 Walkman. Yes, the same one as James has. Only mine is the 505 instead of the 405. Not sure of the differences but who cares. It rocks. Now all I need to do is get the Foogoo Screensaver he made. As well as the MP3 player, I got a pair of used downhill skiis. Now if it would just get cold and snow, I could use this awesome gift too. [...]

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