Sony Network Walkman NW-HD5 (Black)

Summary: My 3G 10GB iPod died after owning it for about a year, and I needed a replacement but refused to go Apple again because of reliability and build quality concerns. My battery would only last three hours maximum, and the hard drive would freeze and shut down every week, distort the music, and currupt the data I had stored on it, until it finally died all together. Good riddance.

I am a PC user, and all of my music is in MP3 format, not AAC, so I figured it could save me some money to get a superior MP3 player suitable for the PC for less money. I originally purchased the 20GB Creative Labs Zen Touch for 266 dollars with tax at a local store, but the software somehow converted about 600 of my songs into inoperable garbage without me knowing it. It also started freezing my computer every time i connected it after the first few times, so that had to be taken back.

Frustrated, I found out that Sony had just released the NW-HD5, something i wasnt even looking for originally, sometime after my Zen Touch purchase, and after reading about its strengths and weaknesses i decided it was worth the extra money over the Creative Labs brand. Believe me, it was. I have always been a Nintendo fanboy, so I don't usually look at Sony for things unless they are clearly the best offering due to my subtle hatred of them, but I could not ignore the new walkman.

It is very small, easily confusable for a miniHD based model, and thankfully there are no buttons on the sides. The interface is very simple to use, and even though I have loads of songs, I can scroll through them and find what I am looking for very quickly, either by just scrolling down, or by searching by initial which is actually very intuitive and speeds things up with huge libraries. There are no buttons that are touch sensitive like on the iPod or Zen Touch, but no worries, the interface makes things very efficient and personally, i prefer having all tactile buttons, if anything for reliability reasons.

Transfer speeds are also much quicker than my Zen Touch, and seems about par with my old iPod using firewire, even though this uses USB 2.0. The design is also smaller and lighter than an iPod, as you have perhaps already heard, and fits into a pocket easier than any full sized hard drive based mp3 player I've had experience with.

The previous issues I've had with MP3 players have been resolved with this machine. I was concerned about battery life and quality, and this boasts a massive 40 hours on a three hour charge, though if you use all MP3s instead of Sony's ATRAC format, you will get closer to 30, which is still more than exceptional, and more than twice that of Apple's full sized offerings. The battery is also removeable, so forget about sending that puppy into Sony and spending 100 to 150 dollars to replace it like you would with Apple, you should be able to buy your own replacement and easily install it yourself for less than half that if the time ever comes when you've dropped it and it needs to be replaced. If you drop it, it also has something called a G-Sensor that removes the recorder from the hard drive as it falls to the ground, preventing permanant damage to the device due to impact. obviously, this has its limits, as a 50 foot would shatter it to peices, but in a practical environment of a few feet, this may come in handy for us clumsy folks who shouldnt be spending this kind of money on easily breakable things. The G-sensor is also used to realign the screen to automatically face the proper direction based on how you are holding it when you turn it on. A quirky, potentially useful feature, but at the time I do not see any real value to it.

Accessories are decent, but nothing to shout about. I prefer the headphones to any I've had included with a portable music player before, in sound quality and style, but if you really want to get your money's worth you should probably replace them. $50 should be more than adequate funds to get great portable headphones. The headphone jack can even be switched to a line out with a setting in the options, which is useful if you are like me and use your MP3 player in your car and your home stereo setup. The case it comes with is just a little cloth sleve, but it does look nice, and will keep things like keys from scratching it in your pocket. there is also a USB2.0 cable and an exceedingly long AC adapter, though if you leave your computer on for long periods of time like I do you may never use it, as the unit can charge through USB. If you are in a hurry, apparently this can get three hours worth of battery life out of a three minute charge through the AC adapter, though i have not tested it to confirm this. I assume that if you use MP3s this will be closer to 2 hours, but not bad nonetheless for such a short charge.

I don't want to suggest that this is an iPod killer, simply because of the huge dominance of Apple in the current MP3 player market, but i think if anyone had a chance to seriously contend for first place it would be Sony, as they are large enough to produce the superior MP3 player, advertising and accessories needed to rival Apple.

HIGHLY reccomended