Sony X-Series Walkman (16GB)

Pros: I love the solid feeling and well laid out button controls. Good music fidelity and menu/genre management. Great still image display

Cons: Low output volume; lack of docking stations with speakers; doesn't want to play MP4 files; only supports WMP and can't seem to make playlists. No support for SW issues. No plug in for Winamp or other media managers

Summary: I was looking for a good MP3 player with an interactive touch screen that was not part of Apple's universe and chose the Walkman based on Sony's reputation with audio and personal devices and positive reviews on CNET. My expectations were high when I opened the package an found a solid device with nicely laid out buttons and easy to use and well laid out buttons and user menus. And easy to drag and drop music and image files.

After the honeymoon and when I tried to personalise the walkman I ran into a series of problems:

First the output volume is quite low and it won't drive the aux input of my Bose Wave Radio although other MP3 players have no problem; looked for a speaker docking station to work with Sony connector, market is dominated by I-pod stations, even Sony makes them, and Sony's Walkman Station has been out of stock from Amazon for months (does it really exist?).

The Walkman doesn't recognize MP4 files in spite of the specs which say compatible.

Sony is only compatible with WMP 11 for media management. I can't stand WMP and have been using Winamp for years, but in order to download playlist duly downloaded v11 and after some hours wrestling with predatory preferences, I made some playlists and downloaded to Walkman which promptly told me it didn't support them.

I was prepared to put up with all these issues if I could gotten support from Sony, but the support site consists of a user forum, and my support questions on above issues have been sitting there for a few weeks without technical response and I see many other users have the same unresolved problems.

I haven;t bothered messing with the internet access and pod-casting, I wouldn't use such a small hand-held for these anyway.

TOO BAD, its a cool MP3 player but no support and lack of compatibility with other then WMP is very disappointing.