Good player limited by software

I used to be the proud owner of a 512MB Creative Zen Nano MP3 player but when that fell apart from overuse I went searching for a new MP3 player to accompany me pretty much everywhere I go.

I saw the Walkman NW-E005 on a general shopping trip. I hadn’t really started my search for a new MP3 player or looked much into it. What drew me to the Walkman was the onboard USB. My dad teased me that I just liked it because it’s pink but I did like it from this technical aspect.

I was tired of my Creative Zen Nano constantly running out of batteries, or the battery falling out (what eventually broke it the battery contact coming off) and I was tired of losing my USB cable and not being able to transfer music. The Walkman NW-E005’s on-board USB solves these problems as it charges when you plug it into your computer. Its fast charging meaning that is you charge it for three minutes it lasts for three hours. I charged it for about half an hour the first time I used it and obviously it charges in the few minutes at a time when I add more music to it, but I’ve not ran out of battery once. It’s a big improvement from worrying if I have enough AAA batteries with me to last my day.

As I mentioned the other great thing about it is the look. The Walkman NW-E005 comes in a range of colors; black, silver, purple, blue, green and pink.

The front is a shiny OLED screen with round silver buttons, the reverse solid color and the USB cap silver. There is two buttons on the front. The main play/stop button which also doubles as the on/off button as when music is stopped the player automatically turns off and a smaller button to switch from album view to song view (when browsing tracks) and also to display the main menu when held down. The next and previous track button is on the side of the player which is easy to use with your thumb.

On the back of the player are the volume up and down buttons and the hold switch. The volume settings on the player go between 0 and 30. Apart from the player having great sound quality, often 30 volume is too low for me, a teenager, who likes life loud. Music can still be heard however and if in a silent space then 30 is much too high – though I never use it under 20 volume. This of course depends on the type of music playing and your personal preference. The hold switch on this player is essential. With the play/stop button being fairly large and raised on the front of the player it is easy to hit it while in your pocket. If the hold isn’t switched on I have found the player to have turned on in my pocket. The hold switch however is flat and is near impossible to switch by accident.

The display only handles one line only which compared to other players makes navigation a little difficult. The display either shows the album or the track name – which if longer than the display will marquee to be fully visible. Underneath the track/album name is a line showing how far through the current track has been played (filled for what has played and dotted for what has not – much like iTunes’ system). The display however, does not give anytime stamps. There are also small symbols for play or stop and battery power.

The player comes with white Walkman headphone earbuds and although the annoying type with a longer wire for the right ear than the left the sound quality though them is decent.

As a piece of hardware I have no problems with this product at all. It does exactly what I want it to do. It has 2 GB of memory which I haven’t quite filled yet and I have no problems with the sound quality. The problem I have with this play is the software.

The Walkman NW-E005 is advertised as an MP3 player – even on the packaging is a MP3 compatible statement, however I have not been able to get MP3s to play on it. With my old Creative Zen Nano I was used to using Windows Explorer to transfer my files. Before I bought the Walkman I was aware of its ATRAC file system but being advertised as an MP3 player, ATRAC problems didn’t really occur to me.

Transferring MP3’s using Windows Explorer definitely does not work with Walkmans. Instead, you are forced to use Sony’s Sonic stage software (which is included with the drivers for the player). The software isn’t bad. It imports your computers audio files and makes a music library for you to search through to transfer your music to the player. It’s much like Windows Media Player’s sync functions (which also doesn’t work with Walkmans). I have not had much trouble using the software- it is very user friendly. It is just a limitation of the Walkman as you need Sonic Stage to be able to transfer music. The Software converts files it transfers to ATRAC format (an audio format which will pretty much only works in Sonic Stage or on a Walkman). However, if you convert your music to ATRAC format with Sonic stage then transfer the ATRACs to the Walkman manually the Walkman will not recognise the ATRACS in its library to play them.
Although transferring files is a big problem and extremely annoying to me, it isn’t too much of an issue as with 2GB on the player I have enough room to not really need to have to transfer files very often and despite converting then transferring the process isn’t very long.

Other file formats can be stored on the player which makes the Walkman much like a Flash device. MP3s and other audio formats can be stored on the player if transferred using Windows explorer but the player will not recognise them in its library so will not play them. Windows will recognise the player as a flash device without any drivers or Sonic Stage installed. I have had no problems when plugging the player into my Ubuntu Linux machine - it is just recognised as USB flash drive and files can be transferred. However, Knoppix Linux does not recognise it as a device at all. I have not had chance to try the Walkman on a Mac.

After finding out that I’d have to use Sonic Stage to use this Walkman I almost returned it. However now after using it for a couple of weeks I am very happy with it. The Walkman NW-E005 is small and lightweight and looks ‘cool’. It has very good sound quality and satisfactory navigation and ease of use. The obvious benefit of the Walkman is the onboard USB and the reason I am keeping it.