Sony Network Walkman NW-E005 (2 GB) MP3 Player

I saw this mp3 player on display out of the corner of my eye at Wal-Mart a few months ago and I decided to give it a shot. I needed to buy a mp3 player since I was still using a clunky CD player and buying batteries for it every week was becoming not only a hassle, but expensive. I wasn't very keen on buying an apple iPod/mini though as many of my friends have them and nearly all of them complain about how easy iPod's screens crack. I saw this one was made by Sony, figured Sony is a brand I can trust and would probably be of outstanding quality, so I bought it.

Anywhere you'll read online you'll see this product has very mixed reviews, most of the complaints are true, though over time in using it I've found most of them are very exaggerated. The mp3 player itself comes packaged with a program you need to use to upload songs to the device; "SonicStage". "SonicStage" is absolutely awful haha, there is no beating around the bush on this one. It crashes a lot, it's very unstable, especially when you try to upload songs to your mp3 player. I read one review on amazon.com saying to simply upgrade SonicStage immediately when you download it to version 4.3 and it'd be more stable and she was right -- so for new people planning to buy this or those who have already have it, upgrade SonicStage ASAP to solve the reliability issues version 1.0 has. The new version is far from perfect but it's much more stable. You can find the newest version here: http://musicstore.connect.com/custom/promos/download.html

Sony boasts it can hold an impressive 650+ tracks but what it doesn't really emphasize on is that's only if you convert your songs to ATRAC format. Converting can take a long time depending on the power & speed of your computer. It holds on mine about 200 (unconverted) mp3's. If you want it to hold more than 200 songs conversion is a timely necessity. Battery life is where this thing shines. If you charge it for literally just 3 minutes it'll last for over 3 hours. Fully charged, it can last nearly 2 days! Charging it however is a slight drawback; if you have a laptop this would be the ideal mp3 player for you since it requires you to charge it on a USB port, for the rest of us though it basically means you'll need to wait until you're home or around a computer that has USB ports to re-charge it.

The sound quality on this is excellent.

I read reviews online where customers had complained the volume isn't loud enough or it doesn't go high enough. Those people are crazy. The built in FM Tuner is also very convenient. It reads and sounds just as if you were listening to a real radio -- very clear and crisp. Unfortunately it doesn't include an AM tuner, which I would have loved to see Sony include so I could listen to hockey games while at work. There really isn't a lot to complain about, Sony did a great job.

The menus are easy to understand.

The actual device, attracts finger prints like crazy especially if you picked up a black or gray model. It doesn't matter how clean your hands are, if you touch it it'll show, and you'll find yourself cleaning it easily everyday, maybe even every few hours if you're compulsive about cleanliness like I am. It seems durable. I've dropped it a few times at the hockey/basketball arena and the shell never cracked -- although I may have just been lucky.

All and all, more pros than cons and worth the money.