Sony Walkman W Series MP3 Player. My Review.

At $69 I thought Sony's headphone style MP3 player was overpriced. My local Target must have agreed, as they moved their stock of them to the clearance rack marked down to $35. At that price I decided to try them out. Available in Black or Pink, they include 2gb of storage space, up to 12 hours of play time on a charge, a 3 minute quick charge for 90 minutes play, a nice little rack that serves as the charge/sync dock, and the ability to sync with Windows Media Player OR iTunes (with included connector software) on your PC. Not for Macs, however.

Control is rather easy. The right side has Play/Pause with Track +/- on a jog dial, and volume Up/Down buttons. Inside there is a slide switch for shuffle play. They turn off when stuck together magnetically.

Zappin. With no display it would be hard to find a specific song, but the W series solves this (sort of). Press the play dial in for a few seconds to hear "Zappin In". The player will then sequence through your songs playing 5 seconds of each. Hear the song you're after and give the dial another press. The W will exclaim "Zappin Out" and start playing the song you were after. It may be a little tedious if you've got a few hundred songs on board though. You can also set it to play a longer segment of each song.

Media supported includes MP3, WMA, and AAC (DRM free). No radio. It comes with three different sizes of earbud caps.

My W202 needed a charge before it would play. Once charged with some music on it I took it out for a test ride. Sound quality I'd rate 9 out of 10. There is good range and little noise. Bass frequencies are weak or missing. Better than most OEM earbuds you get with players. I really enjoy them. Light weight. Easy fit. No cables to tangle. Simple controls. If you can find them on clearance or under $40 the W series are a great value. At the price I paid I rate them an A+.

4D