Sony Walkman X Series. My Review Part One.

Good things can come in small packages. Sony certainly threw in some good things, but this touchscreen Walkman is far from thorough in quality. I'd be happy with what it does do well if it didn't cost so danged much. MSRP is $299 for the 16gb model I purchased. Expect to see $399 asked for the 32gb version. Look around though. Several retailers have had them discounted for as much as 15% off.

The X1051 is nicely packaged. Peel off the outer box you see above to find a rich looking square with simple graphic.

Slip the cover off to find a tray with the X1051 nicely presented. Under that tray is another box with everything else.

The contents are vast. One of the things you get when you buy from the big boys. High quality proprietary headphones with different sized replacement tips, a proprietary USB sync cable, an airplane adapter, what looks like a line-out cable, a dock insert, a CD, and a slew of paperwork are "free" with your purchase.

Paperwork includes a "Read This" warning to protecting your hearing, an advisory to use Windows Media Player 11, Napster TO GO ad, Limited Warranty (labor 90 day and parts 1 year), a Slacker Radio Services ad, a precautions page in many languages, and a thick License and Trademark Notice. The headphones included are excellent, and include a little microphone in each side for noise cancelling purposes. Notice the 5 contact plug. They will work in any other media player, but those extra leads are ignored except in this Walkman. You can also use other headphones in the X1051, but you won't get the noise cancelling with anything but those shown above.

I was impressed with my initial encounter. Nice packaging, and a sense of quality in the presentation. The player itself has a good heft to it, and appears well made with significant attention to detail. I'll spend a week or so with it to get used to it's quirks. Look for PART TWO where I'll get into the grit and grime of the Walkman X1051.

4D