dlstewart's Full Review: Sony Walkman NWZ-E436F (4 GB) Digital Media Player
For years I used an older model MP3 player and wanted to upgrade to a device with more memory. After some research, I decided on the Sony Walkman 4gb Digital Media Player (model NWZ-E436F). Let me tell you what I like and don't like about this device.
Description
This is an attractive digital player with versatility. It has a slim design and comes in two colors: black or red. It measures 1 3/4" wide x 3 3/8" high x 11/32" deep, and it weighs 1.8 ounces. The 2" display screen (240 x 320 pixels) is a TFT color display (262,144 colors) with white LED-backlight.
The rechargeable Li-on battery is recharged from the computer via a USB (2.0) cable. A full charge takes about 4 hours. This Sony Walkman is advertised as playing up to 45 hours of continuous music or 8 hours of video.
This player has a simple control interface. Beneath the screen are three buttons. The left button is the Home/Back button and controls the menu selections. The central button is the largest and is the Play/Pause button as well as the left, right, up and down navigation through the menu selections. The right button is the Power on/off button as well as the Option button.
Along the bottom of the player are two ports. One is the headjack. The other port is for the USB connection.
The right side of the player has the volume control and a Hold button. When activated, the Hold button locks all functions so that nothing is accidentally turned on while the device is not being used.
On the back of the player is a small Reset button.
What Comes in the Package
* 4gb Sony Walkman Digital Player * Headphones (the FM antenna is built into the cord) * USB to WM-Port cable * A plastic cradle attachment * Quick Start Guide (English Only) * Mini CD-Rom (contains: Microsoft Windows Media Player 11, Napster, Content Transfer, and Operation Guide (pdf file)
My Experiences
For the most part, I am very pleased with this Sony Walkman. I love that you can recharge the batteries just by plugging the USB connection into the computer. That means no more lugging extra batteries around. With the USB connection, I can charge this player where there is a computer.
Also, this player has a long battery life. It's great not having to worry about the player cutting off after only a few hours. I haven't clocked the play time to see if it matches the claimed 45 hours, but I don't need to. This device plays music for a very long time. No complaints here.
I am pleased with the sound of this unit. The music is crystal clear, good quality. If desired, you can adjust the equalizer to your preferences. Video is also great. I don't watch too many videos, but like the option. The few videos I have watched, the color is excellent as is the smooth flow of the video. My one complaint is that if a video has writing in it, the writing is almost impossible to read. For photographs, you change the photo orientation on the screen (horizontal or vertical).
The earbud headphones that come with the player are uncomfortable. They don't sit well in my ears. I was worried that if I switched to my Koss headphones that the FM radio might not work well since the radio antenna is in the earbud cable. I didn't have to worry, though. The radio works fine using my Koss headphones. I'm astounded at the clarity, too.
I like the FM radio. It's easy to preset channels as favorites (up to 30 presets). Reception greatly depends upon where you are. I find that some rooms in the house have much better reception than others. As for using the radio outdoors, again it depends upon where you are and if anything is nearby that might cause signal interference. This is the best FM radio I have listened to (besides the one in my car)!
The player's controls and menus are intuitive to use. I like the onscreen layout of options. The main menu allows choices of playing music, watching videos, viewing photographs (can even set photos in a slide show), listen to the FM radio, view the clock, change the settings, or select the choice of shuffling the music for random play. Also, there is a battery-life indicator at the bottom right of the screen so that you can see the battery charge.
When the player goes into rest mode (still playing music), the screen switches to a screensaver. The screensaver options are severely limited. You have the option of a blank screen, or a screen that displays the clock.
Turning the Sony Walkman on, the screen displays a rotating circle that says "Creating Library". Depending upon how much music is on the player, this can take a few minutes. I find this mildly annoying. When I turn on the player, I don't want to have to wait for it to cycle through the music to create a library every time. I want to listen to music as soon as the device is turned on.
The "Quick Start Guide" is a piece of folded paper. It offers the basics for setting up the player. If you need more detailed instruction, I recommend downloading the Operation Guide from the included CD-Rom. It's in pdf format, so you'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view it. The guide is 126 pages long and informative with plenty of illustrations, and there is indexing and hyperlinks to jump to areas of interest.
If you wish, this player also accommodates several different languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Korean, and two types of Chinese (simplified and traditional).
Transferring Files
During my research of this player, I was impressed by the drag-and-drop description of file transfer. I thought, "Great! I won't have to go through multiple steps of downloading music from my CDs, then transferring the music to the player. I'll just be able to grab the music files from the CD and drop them into the Sony player." Wrong!!!!!
You do have to rip the music from the CDs to the computer, and then drag-and-drop the files to the Sony Walkman. To do this, you will need Microsoft Windows Media Player 11. If you don't have it, the program is provided on the CD-Rom included in the package.
This player will play files that are: MP3, WMA, WMV, JPEG. If using the Media Manager for the Sony Walkman, it will accept these file formats: MP3, WMA, AAC (DRM files are not compatible), WAV, JPEG, MPEG-4 Simple Profile, AVC (H.264/AVC Baseline Profile, WMV (but there are restrictions to WMV files).
Connect the Sony Walkman to your computer via the USB cable. Then go to "My Computer" and open the icon for the Sony Walkman (it's labeled). Once in the folders, you can customize them however you wish. Create new folders and subfolders; add and delete music/video/photos. It's easy to do. I have used this Sony Walkman with both Windows XP and Vista 32-bit operating systems.
My one complaint is that when I rip music using the Windows Media Player, not all the album information is available. For instance, the tracks might not be named with the song titles, or the artist or album information is missing. If the information is incomplete, when transfering new music to the player, not all the information is updated. For instance, I recently added four new albums with different artists to the player. Because I didn't realize some of the album information was missing, the Album menu does not show the new albums, and the Artist menu does not show the new artists. So make sure you use the "Find Album Info" option in Windows Media Player (which doesn't always work), or hand edit the information by typing in the missing info. However, when information is missing and an album I know is on the player is not visible in the Album or Artist folders, I view the Folder menu on the player. From the Folder menu I can see all the music added to the player. I can also access it and play it. This is not a make or break situation for me, but it is frustrating.
Purchasing
This Sony Walkman came from Amazon.com and cost $79.99. It normally retails for $99.99.
Summary
Overall, I am happy with this Sony Walkman 4gb Digital Media Player. There are some things I would change, but the player works great. The sound is crystal clear and of good quality. The video and pictures are great, too. Even the FM radio works well depending upon one's location. I also like the convenience of recharging the batteries through the computer. It's a great little player with a lot of options and long battery life. I'm listening to music!
Store your favorite music and movies with the 4GB* storage capacity of this walkman MP3 video player. The large 2" QVGA LCD screen allows you to easil...More at Best Buy ®
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