Sony NW-E107 Network Walkman 1 GB Digital Music Player (Silver)

Best battery life EVER! wish they still made it.

This device is not a MP3 player because it just plays Sony's audio format (ATRAC), so you always have to convert your MP3 files into ATRAC format using a software provided by the manufacturer (that is not so easy to use).

Got mine (512MB, blue version of this) from Sonystyle.com just yesterday. After playing with it for a few hrs here are my impressions.First and foremost the mp3 playback quality is atrocious. 128kbps files sound like 64kbps or lower. Even my no-brand-name cheap mp3/cd player has better mp3 quality.I suspect the codec/DSP in the Sony are still designed for their propreitary ATRAC3 plus format with a secondary mp3 support. In fact converting a mp3 file to Atrac3plus (with included software) sounded better than just mp3 file. Inspite of this hassle, it was still below mp3 quality from other players.The battery life seems to be in line with the specs listed by Sony. No complaints on that front. The backlight LCD display is a nice bonus too. However size/volume is significantly more than the iPod Shuffle.The user interface is more loaded than such a small palyer can withstand. As a result it more cumbersome and confusing than Apple/iRiver players.In short this awkwardly named "mp3" music player is a step in right direction for Sony but is still below average. Price is right but not the quality.

The Sony Walkman, Sony over the past 2 decades have been about the best product to purchase, from the first tape player walkman I purchased to the CD players, now to the MP3 players. As a long standing tradition, you almost always have to purchase additional headphones as the pair supplied usually do not last very longv (or sound terrible). The same goes for today's MP3 players. Back in 1986 you could purchase a pair of Sony ear buds, and they would last six months, today your lucky if they last two weeks. But Of course the Tape Player walkman would last a long time, until the cover finally separated from the body, and I became tired of taping it back together. Today the Sony NW-E107 model seems to have survived the usual abuse I give these products, How many times can you drop one, I have had mine for nine months now, it is scratched and beat, I have gone through many sets of head phones, But the pair that have lasted are the Sony MDR-EX51 ear buds (around $50), they are coming apart in the usual Sony fashion (a common problem since the 80s), but they have lasted. The Sony NW-E107 itself is still operational. The buttons have become sticky which I resolved with a can of air and silicone spray, the battery life is good (I wish it had a rechragable battery), the sound is good enough. I use this walkman every day, it does take a lot abuse, I am not looking for high fidelity perfection, I am looking for a simple to use, small package that can carry a lot of music, with a reasonably decent sound. This has all that. The only problems I have really encountered areFirst: the software, this is a terribly written piece of software, slow, sluggish and crashes to much. I don't have two hours to load music; I just do not have the patience. There is a program that was available an MP3 drag and drop which I can not find a link to. If you happen to install the provided Sonic Stage, run the task manager sometime, look for SAAD, that would be sonic stage using unescarry resources even thou your player is not connected. I have disabled it in my win xp start up.Two: The buttons, becoming sticky, I fully expected this to occur, given the use and expose. The problem is turning it off. You have to hold the play button for 5 seconds (so says the manual) I have spent ten minutes trying to get this thing to turn off. It usually starts again after I hold it for the 5 seconds. I have managed to turn it off, a few hours later finding it still playing? I have wasted many batteries with this. Now when I want to turn it of I remove the battery entirely. (This causes the player to start at the beginning of the first folder of music) A simple on / off switch would be a nice feature.This has been a fairly good product despite the drawbacks. I am considering purchasing the SanDisk SDMX4-2048 Sansa e250 2 GB MP3 Player with SD Expansion Slot as my next MP3 Player. I believe the Good ole' golden days of reliability for Sony are over (I have other failing sony products). But I must say once upon a time they were the best, economical product around.

This new line of flash-based, coin-like (but they are thick coins, esp. in the waist!) MP3/ATRACT players from Sony are the latest models of their Psyc line of digital music players. The new-age styling of these MP3 players does psyc you out. Which is not a bad thing, as they are more euro-cool than the rather bland and boring iPod and the downright butt-ugly iRiver. The more I look at the Psyc, the more I like its looks.The new silver Psyc MP3 player features 1GB of flash memory, which is great for those of you jogger jocks out there. You can shake this thing violently and it won't skip a beat, unlike those hard drive-based players. Before you insert an AAA battery, the Psyc weighs in at an amazingly light 0.9 oz. -- that's right, folks, it's less than an ounce! With the AAA battery, my guess is it's about 2 oz. It's very small although, relatively speaking, it looks a little thick -- esp. in the middle area where the single AAA battery resides. (About 0.75 in. at its thickest part.)What, you ask, it uses an AAA battery? Yes my friend, and this one AAA alkaline battery can power the player up to 70 hours! That's almost three full days of continuous playing. The phrase "up to" here means that in order to get all 70 hours of playing, you must 1) play ATRAC3Plus songs encoded at 48kbps and 2) do not press buttons or do random play (i.e., just leave the player playing sequentially). In the real life we like to skip a song, fast forward, random play (a.k.a. shuffle play), turn it on and off and on and off, and most importantly, we play MP3 songs. All these operations reduce the battery life. Given my experience with previous Sony MP3 players, my estimate is one good AAA battery should last you 40 hours or more. (With my beloved Sony NW-HD3, I routinely get the advertised battery life of 30 hours even when playing MP3 files.)Of course, the use of AAA means you get an abundant and ready supply of cheap power source, and you can trek in the Amazon for weeks on end without having to worry about finding an AC outlet.The Psyc also comes in three other colors (green and blue for the 512MB version, and orange for the 256MB version). It has a nice, sharp backlit LCD screen, so you always know what you are playing as opposed to having to guess as on some other certain MP3 player. It plays MP3 as well as Sony's ATRAC songs. If you are an ATRAC fan you'll like the sound quality of this little player; it's at least as good as Sony's MD players. For MP3's, the sound quality is a bit "muffled" compared to my NW-HD3 20GB player, but still quite good if you pair it with a good pair of headphones (i.e., ditch the stock earphones).Sony still has a long, long way to go in the user interface department, as this has always been its weakness, whether it's digital music or digital video or anything else. The Psyc is not hard to use; its basic functions are no-brainers. But, for anything beyond play/pause/skip, its interface, whether on the unit itself or on the PC transfer side, is still not polished and was clearly designed for a Japanese audience -- Japanese consumers reportedly love to play with complicated gadgets; no surprise given how elaborate sushi-making and origami are. We American consumers like things that are elegant and simple, and Sony has a lot of room for improvement in this regard.In short, I don't think you'll be disappointed in the new Psyc flash-based MP3 players. They are stylish and lightweight and lasts forever on cheap AAA batteries. They have good sound quality and are priced right. Just be prepared to spend some time with the manual and experimenting a little with transfering music. If you are stuck, you are welcome to e-mail me at gadgester @t hotmail with your questions.Recommended.

This thing ROCKS. I love it, lots of features, small, great LCD.TAKE EVERYTHING good about this and just read that.Use the file manager thing. search on google sony e-107 file manager the only flaw is that it is VERY SLOW. but besides that it works great.THIS THING ROCKS!