Tour
Front
The most dominant feature on the Walkman 16GB's face is the display, taking up a full 40% of the total available area. Immediately below the screen is the Walkman logo. At the very bottom you'll find the majority of the physical controls on the device. At the center is a 5-key d-pad. On the left is the back button. If you press and hold it, you'll shortcut to the home screen. On the right is the option key, which is also the power key.
Left
The left side of the device is bland and featureless.
Right
The right side of the Walkman 16GB has three features of varying importance: the volume rocker, the hold switch, and a lanyard loop. The hold switch has ridging, which makes it easy to find by touch and also provides a lot of grip. Likewise, the edges of the volume rocker are raised and easy to find by touch.
Top
The top side has no interesting features.
Bottom
The bottom of the Walkman 16GB is where it hides its headphone jack and proprietary charging port.
Back
The back of the device has a pin-hole reset button some branding, white text proclaiming the device was made in Malaysia, and a small hole near the bottom where the included stand plugs in.
In Box
In the box you'll find a few goodies. There's a pair of headphones in there, and they come with an extra set of sleeves (the rubbery part that protects the headphones from ear gunk). There's also two stands. One plugs into the back, and looks like a small plastic tab with a lanyard attached. The second stand is a small circular basin and is used when connecting to a sold-separately cradle.
There's also a substantial amount of reading material in the box: there's a quick start guide, a troubleshooting guide, a precautions guide ("The player is not waterproof"), copyright information, a pink leaflet that recommends you install Windows Media Player 11 (which is on the included disk) to transfer video and AAC files via drag & drop, a Napster flyer, a warranty, and a leaflet that outlines headphone safety ("USE YOUR HEAD WHEN YOU USE YOUR HEADSET").
Durability (9.00)
Initially, we weren't all that impressed with the Walkman 16GB. The plastic seemed cheap, especially the clear casing around the display. We carefully tried to scuff a corner with a penny, however, but all we did was grind off some copper powder. We tried again with keys, but even with a good amount of pressure we weren't making visible scratches. This was true for the clear plastic on the screen and the black plastic elsewhere. Although it's never the best idea to toss your electronics into a pocket full of metal, it seems as though the Walkman 16GB would actually hold its own.
Overall, the Walkman 16GB is a tank. It doesn't have any moving parts, its headphone jack provides a snug fit for a standard 1/8-inch plug, and it's more likely to scratch up your change than anything else.
Aesthetics (5.00)
While the Walkman 16GB is nice looking, it isn't particularly interesting. The caps-locked white font on the front is so dated it could be classified as retro, and we don't particularly care for the plain white play/pause symbol. In a post-iPod world where aesthetics and marketing often supercede functionality, the Walkman 16GB looks unfortunately average.
Portability (7.04)
The Sony Walkman 16GB is very portable. It measures 3.68 inches high, by 1.98 inches wide, by 0.37 inches deep, for a total volume of about 2.7 cubic inches. For those who can't look at these measurements and get an exact picture of this thing's size, picture a stack of 12 credit cards. If 12 credit cards isn't particularly illuminating, feel free to imagine the width of a push pin (at its widest part, just before the pin).
While the Walkman is no iPod Shuffle, it's very portable for its storage capacity and screen size. As long as you have a pocket that's large enough to be functional, the Walkman 16GB media player will have a home.
Supported File Types (4.25)
The Walkman 16GB should have no problems playing back your MP3, WMA, AAC-LC, or Linear PCM music files. Likewise, MPEG 4 and M4V videos will work. You'd better make sure all your pictures are JPEGs, though, because that's the only image file type supported. Overall, this is an average number of files to support; all the major formats are covered, with the possible exception of H.264 video.
|
