I was recently contacted and given the opportunity to review the Sony Walkman W Series (NWZ-W252) Digital Music Player. This is a wireless, water resistant MP3 player. It is a behind the neck, headphone style player that eliminates the hassle of any headphone wires.
It comes in a nice little sealed package, and as you can see in the picture - the headphones are shaped like a heart. I would say opening it was not easy, but I can NEVER open anything in this style of packaging very easily. After getting it open, I realized how nice and flexible the entire device is - making for very easy storage. It essentially is a very bendable/flexible behind the neck cord attached to what looks like 2 Bluetooth headsets. Many people seem to have a problem with how it looks, but I personally found the look just fine. The package also comes with a USB cable that you hook up to your computer to charge it. This device is AWESOME as far as charging! When fully charged it will play for 11 hours continuously AND even better, you can get 90 minutes of playback time from as little as THREE MINUTES of charging time! With this feature you will never again have to worry about going out for your run and your MP3 player is dead. I think everyone can handle waiting another 3 minutes before they leave.
You can also use the USB cord to install the software on your computer (the software is already in the player, so no need for a CD to install it). It did take a little while for my computer to recognize the player the first time, but to Sony's credit - they tell you this on the instructions. After the first time though, my computer noticed the player instantly.
There are a few different ways in which you can load music onto the player. First off you can use a software such as iTunes (I myself use doubleTwist)along with the Content Transfer program software that you installed Also, you can use Windows Media Player and get music already on your computer or from CDs, etc. And finally you can simply drag and drop into Windows Explorer. They are all very simple to do, and it should not be to difficult for ANYBODY to figure out. This is a 2GB player so it allows for plenty of storage space on such a compact device (Anywhere from 2.5 hours to 83.5 hours depending on the bit rate of the songs you add).
After getting it loaded with some music (or podcasts) I was ready to give it a try! The headphone is an ear-bud style and comes with 3 different sizes to better help fit the ear size of all individuals and are very "rubbery like" (very similar to that of Skull Candy headphones). They seemed plenty comfortable while wearing them for a good hour or so while cleaning up around the house. Also, the sound quality I found to be VERY good with great highs and lows. As I am not used to using a "shuffle stlye" of player it took me a little bit of time to get used to the controls on the player. On the right ear there is a volume up and a volume down button along with what they call a jog lever. With this lever you can skip to the next song or go back to the previous song based on the direction you push the lever. Also, you can push in the lever and use a feature called "Zappin". In the Zappin mode the player will play short recognizable clips of the songs (such as most melodic or rhythmical sections). There is either a Zappin Short or a Zappin Long option (short plays about 4 seconds, while long plays about 15 seconds). On the left ear, there is 1 button. This button allows for you to play the songs in a random/shuffled order. Also, you can hold the button in for a second and play an already prepared playlist. Again, these features were all very nice and easy to use, though it did take a little bit of time for me to get the hang of as I am not used to a "shuffle" style of MP3 player. After having cleaned up for a while, it was time to give them the ultimate test as I needed to do a 6 mile run for the day! While wearing them on the run, they still felt very comfortable though I will say there was a slight slippage as I felt after about every mile I felt the need to re adjust the headphones to make sure that they were securely inside the ear. However, after about 4.5 miles, I started to get a LOT more sweaty - which was no problem on the sound or functioning as these headphones are water resistant. With me being sweatier, it felt like they were slipping out a lot more. I then felt the need to adjust them like every 0.25 miles. I will say though that the sounds quality and comfort remained good. I will say though before anyone gets to judgmental that I never can get ear buds to stay in very good. So I do not always know if it is the headphones or just my weird ears. LOL. I will add though that I do have a pair of headphones, which are ear buds, that I wear now that I absolutely LOVE! These are called YurBuds and they are AWESOME and it seems like no matter what you do they will not fall out unless you physically take them out. (and I normally HATE any type of ear buds) I will be honest enough also to note that if I had NOT ever found YurBuds, I probably would have like this player A LOT more then I do. I still find the player to be a very nice product with some awesome features. I also found it to be a lot better for regular use that doesn't get one as sweaty/wet. So overall I would say that these were very good headphones, just a little to much slippage for my personal taste.
If you are interested, here is a link that was provided to me from the company allowing all of you to purchase this wireless music player at a discounted price of $48.99 instead of the retail price of $60. www.sony.com/runningmate
1 comment:
"Sony Walkman W Series"
i like that
but i am thinking something different . . .
if know more . . .
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