Portable audio 
By Jasmine France (March 8, 2005) 
Despite their sleek, stylish designs, innovative use of removable media, and unmatched battery life, Sony's portable digital audio players haven't fully impressed us in the recent past, thanks to their failure to natively support MP3 files, the most popular digital audio format. Instead, Sony insisted on pushing its own ATRAC3 format, requiring users of its portable devices to suffer through a painfully slow transcoding process or forcing them to usher all their audio files through Sony's own software and music service. Thankfully (and finally), this is no longer the case. Nearly every new player announced this month will natively play back MP3s. Better yet, and in a rather uncharacteristic move for Sony, the company has priced these new devices to compete squarely with those offered from the likes of Apple, Creative, and iRiver.

Model	Price & availability	Specifications	What's cool about it
Sony NW-E103 Network Walkman  Check prices	$90 March 2005	256MB built-in memory; one AAA battery rated for 70 hours of playback; sporty, skip-proof design; backlit LCD; native MP3 support; compatible with Sony Connect	70 hours of battery life is unheard of for an MP3 player, regardless of battery type. Oh, and it really is an MP3 player.
Sony NW-E105 Network Walkman  Check prices	$100 March 2005	512MB built-in memory; one AAA battery rated for 70 hours of playback; sporty, skip-proof design; backlit LCD; native MP3 support; compatible with Sony Connect	Surprisingly, Sony is offering this player for the same price as the Apple iPod Shuffle, and you get an LCD as well as two styles to choose from: Psyc Blue and Psyc White (shown). And did we mention the 70-hour battery life?
Sony NW-E107 Network Walkman  Check prices	$150 March 2005	1GB built-in memory; one AAA battery rated for 70 hours of playback; skip-proof design; backlit LCD; native MP3 support; compatible with Sony Connect	This player is competitively priced, and its sleek, silver body lives up to Sony's stylin' reputation. We repeat our above praise about battery life.
Sony NW-E505 Network Walkman  Check prices	$150 May 2005	512MB built-in memory; rechargeable lithium-ion battery rated for 50 hours of playback; three-line OLED display; one-handed jog-dial operation; skip-proof design; time/calendar indicator; native MP3 support	This player epitomizes streamlined; the screen appears to display through the body, and it comes in metallic blue and pink (shown).
Sony NW-E507 Network Walkman  Check prices	$200 May 2005	1GB built-in memory; rechargeable lithium-ion battery rated for 50 hours of playback; three-line OLED display; one-handed jog-dial operation; skip-proof design; time/calendar indicator; native MP3 support	See above, except this version comes in silver. Also, a 50-hour battery life is impressive, to say the least.
Sony MZ-DN430 Net MD Walkman  Check prices	$100 March 2005	Comes with one standard MiniDisc (177MB), which stores roughly 5 hours of music; up to 56 hours of playback from one AA battery; natively supports ATRAC3; MP3, WMA, and WAV can be converted and played	Awesome battery life, and it comes in your choice of two color accents: green and orange (shown).
Sony MZ-DH710 Hi-MD Walkman  Check prices	$150 March 2005	Comes with one Hi-MD (1GB; 45 hours of music); also compatible with standard MiniDisc media; expanded dial navigation; long battery life; natively supports ATRAC3; MP3, WMA, and WAV can be converted and played	A nice design and support for cheap removable media are the highlights of this player.
Sony MZ-RH910 Hi-MD Walkman  Check prices	$200 March 2005	Self-recording upload function; ability to record from line-in and mic-in; five-line LCD; digital amplifier; 1GB music storage (Hi-MD) with expandability; data file storage; compatible with standard MiniDisc media; slim design; long battery life	For more information on the MZ-RH910, read our First Take of its OLED-screened cousin, the MZ-RH10.
Sony MZ-DH10P Hi-MD Walkman  Check prices	$500 May 2005	Built-in 1.3-megapixel digital camera with 4X optical zoom as well as autofocus, flash, and a self-timer; 1.5-inch color TFT LCD; displays album art with corresponding music; includes charging cradle; simultaneous slide show; 1GB music storage (Hi-MD) with expandability; data file storage; compatible with standard MiniDisc media	An easier question would be what's not cool about it, and the answer is: not much. If anyone can pull off a slickly designed convergence product, it's Sony.