Sony NW-WS623 4 GB Waterproof Walkman MP3 Player with Bluetooth - Black

I think I've had every generation of these types of Sony MP3 Walkman's and not every iteration has been an improvement on the last in terms of usability or fitment. I'm pleased to say that these are definitely better than my previous generation which, is a real relief given the cost uplift. That being said I got these for under £100 which, is less than a pair of half decent buds alone and you do clearly get more for you money. And a lot of packaging. And that's not entirely a good thing today - see photo. Firstly, sound quality. Good. Not superb but perfectly decent for gym use or swimming if that's your bag. The sound is not base heavy and is slightly bright which of course suits some music better than other types. I'm a metal fan and I like a bit more low down to get a good chug going which, I find is the perfect accompaniment to heavy gym lifting. It's perfectly acceptable but I found my Bose Soundsports better in that regard. The sound is perfect for voice though, and as I'm an Audible fan this is a real plus point. Speech clear and legible at all sound levels. One of the selling points is the ability of these to be used in water and in the spirit of investigation I have done so using the supplied ear buds that have a fine seal over the sound emitting orifice. The sound quality is in no way reduced as far as I can tell. It's still good overall. What is noticeable is that the volume level is lower which, is acceptable as long as you crank the volume up. Fitment and security of fit is brilliant. Absolutely superb. I'm not sure what sport you would have to be doing to get these to come loose but you would probably be at risk of your head coming off first. And despite the very good fit they are comfortable for long term use. The design is similar to all previous similar Sony players. Whilst not as small as Bluetooth only earbuds they are well crafted to sit flush to your head and stick out less than the likes of the aforesaid Bose Soundsports. In other words you won't look like an extra from the Star Trek bridge. Controls are easy to use once your memory muscle has kicked in and your fingers learned where they need to go. Where these are an upgrade in cost over the cheaper version is the addition of Bluetooth which, means you have options. You can stream media from your phone or suitable player as well as use the integrated MP3 player. The MP3 player is what I need for the gym because the gym I use is large and using Bluetooth earphones or buds results in dropouts if I leave my phone on a shelf. And I hate having to carry an MP3 player or phone in a pocket. One thing to note is that all my previous Sony MP3 Walkmen carked it suddenly after 18 to 24 months. This is irritating because I've had other players and wireless earbuds that work well past that point. However the convenience of these Sony's is enough for me to accept that every couple of years I'll need to replace them. Overall, I genuinely don't believe there is a better active MP3 player. Some alternatives sound better, haver better battery life or options but none come close to covering all the bases as much as these do.

This device fits my needs of being a Bluetooth headset but also a stand-alone music player when running without a phone. The fit is awesome and there is absolutely no bouncing or any chance they would fall out even during the hardest of sprints. The sound quality is excellent and the ambient sound mode works quite well to. When riding my bike for example, I like to hear the ambient sounds (traffic etc), while I prefer to block out ambient sounds when listening to music while working on my computer. the controls are quite well thought out. I was worried that navigating 4 GB of music without a display on the device would be impossible, but with double-clicking the prev/next-buttons too switch between folders it works quite well. (One suggestion: double-click back on first song of a folder could ALWAYS trigger switch to PREVIOUS folder, not just in the first one or two seconds. If I want to skip back to beginning of current folder, I can do that with single click back anyway while at first song...) I have not yet used them for swimming but don't think I would be using them for a proper pool workout. I might consider giving them a try for a longer, steady lake-swim but honestly - the waterproofing feature is more of an added bonus for me rather than my main focus. I did however just keep them on for the shower after a run which is pretty cool. One little improvement would be on the volume of the various beeps and voice-feedback when pressing the buttons. It is sometimes quite loud and inexplicably differs between Walkman-mode and Bluetooth mode. All in all this device is very well made and thought through. I had a couple of cheaper Bluetooth headsets before, but they always fell short in overall quality and usability and didn't offer stand-alone music playing. This device is well worth the extra investment, provided that it will stand the test of time and hold up against the daily abuse I'll be throwing at it...

First of all package totally shows it was opened and used before. No factory sealing and so disgusting the tip of headphones had earwax in it. Anyway I washed it to use it. Charge was totally depleted while factory sealed products have usually 80% of charge. Anyway I charged it and used it, average sound not too loud but clear. Fit comfortably. I went to gym and within an hour charge was depleted again, obviously I didn't charge it to the max. Bluetooth connectivity is awful. My phone is in my pocket and I have frequent disconnections. So conclusion... Its a good fit and comfortable earpiece for exercise with average sound. Bluetooth range is not long enough. Onboard storage helps if you don't wana carry the phone to the gym (I broke my phone once by dropping weight on it) But I'm so going to return this one for sending me second hand product. I do trust sony. But not any seller.

I so much wanted to like this, and there’s so much to like about them, but, unfortunately, they came up short in some critical areas for me. My intended use for these were to be for running and walking. I can’t comment on the swimming aspect, many other reviews in regards to this. The good: I really liked the hard, tactile buttons. As with many devices like this, there’s a learning curve regarding placement, feel and what button does what. After a few attempts over a day to get it right I was confident using it on-the-go, the buttons were easy to find from feel and performed remarkably well, especially when compared to cheaper alternatives. Some of the dual-purpose functions of a button worked well, as long as you’re familiar with it from experience. After a few frustrating botched attempts I knew what NOT to do. The 3-level sound environment/ambient settings are exemplary - it worked like a charm and I could hear the difference between the three settings. I didn’t pick up any wind noise using this as I do with other devices with this feature. I could hear traffic coming from far behind me easily, as well as conversations clearly coming from people I passed - even with the music at a not-so-quiet volume. Of course the onboard storage is great and frees up needing to have a secondary device to serve this purpose. One interesting thing to note for audio geeks like me is that when paired with an iPhone via Bluetooth the volume on the headset works independently from the source device, which is not always the norm. This means you can set your source device to a pre-determined volume level and use the headset for on the fly adjustments as usual. This allows for personal gain structure preferences. Maybe this is also the reason some have reported low volume even though not using the swimming ear tips - the source device needed turning up if using BT? It’s well-built and solid, but that also has a negative side to it - fit. The not so good: Fit. I struggled with these. For one, I could never achieve a good solid and consistent fit no matter what size ear tip I used. Sure, if sitting still I could, but when I started walking and running the seal would work loose out of my ears eventually. This, of course, had an adverse affect on bass response and ended up hearing mostly higher frequencies with little to no bass. I think the pure size, design and bulk of these cause this to happen - to gradually drop and pull from your ear, even with the ear loops and attaching the back headband accessory. They look absolutely huge on the ear, even on big ears, perhaps the size of these is to allow fitting all the buttons on them without it feeling cramped. Be prepared to look like you’re part of some SWAT team or Robocop with these on your ears. Annoyingly, if I were perspiring and used the buttons to skip tracks or adjust volume this movement of the earpiece was enough to slightly pull on the ear tips and for sweat to work it’s way into my ear causing what little there was of the ear tip seal to release, and unable to re-seal. It was a constant struggle on the go to try and get it right. I could never get the earbuds to sit in and stay like with other earbuds. This, first and foremost was the deal breaker. Maybe if they had included foam ear tips it might have been a different story, perhaps a better seal and less likely to work itself out. The thin silicone ear tips would also frequently collapse on themselves quite annoyingly when trying to get the fit right by pulling the bud out slightly and pushing back in. I’ve never had this type of struggle before with earbuds, previously. It was frustrating. Also, after a short period of time the ear loops became annoying as did the headband part, it always felt like there was something wrapped around my head and was unnerving. I never got used to it like a few other reviewers seemed to. Sound-wise, these were just above average…maybe. Granted, I’m an audio guy, but not overly concerned about sound quality when working out - though it would be nice - but I expected more from Sony. I’ve used one of their portable MP3 players and provided earbuds and was shocked at how good it sounded, this experience had me think twice about Sony sound quality and how they got it right, at least with portable audio devices. I was hoping for the same quality, or near. Unfortunately, it didn’t come close. And as there is no on-board EQ presets for the locally stored sound files, you live with what it’s giving you. Having an onboard EQ may have helped with the lack of bass from the aforementioned fit issue (along with foam ear tips). And while the Fast Forward and Fast Rewind work with files stored in the onboard storage, it does not work via Bluetooth, so if that is an important feature to have available for BT use, this feature will not work. The skip forward/back does work via BT, though, as expected. I was ok with transferring files with a MacBook - quite straight forward - the files go into the Music folder - but, you cannot transfer a playlist via the now-called Apple Music app, even with the provided Sony content transfer software if you do not have an older Mac version installed with iTunes, nor can you create a playlist on the device itself. It seems to play songs by album alphabetically by default (I think) if tagged with this info and you can select songs rather than albums for the default- which seemingly also plays back songs alphabetically which is annoying, at least for me. I had to resort to creating a ‘playlist’ in the order I preferred with the files in the Music folder by numbering the file names like 00, 01, 02, etc., before the song title. Rather labour intensive and for these days rather surprising to need to resort to such nonsense. Sony is a good company and I hope they take on board these criticisms and look at updating this device physically and feature/sound-wise. It’s a good idea in practice, and oh so close, a few more tweaks and they could have an excellent device. It’s not quite there yet, though, especially at this price.

These are brilliant. As someone who loves music and likes to swim, bluetooth headphones don't cut it. As soon as your head goes under water, you lose the connection to your phone. These Sony MP3 waterproof ones are great. As it's a built in MP3 player, you can add all your favourite songs (up to 5000 I believe) and away you go. Like a standard player, you can skip, go back, play, pause etc. Top tip: If you can't see a thing without your glasses, like me, just learn which side the volume buttons are and the skip buttons as I can't see what's what without my glasses on :)

Bought a couple of these over the last 10 years. Liked them but bothered me that the waterproof buds reduced and dulled the sound too much due to its membrane. Bought cheap 4mm Triple flange conical earbuds(they dont have the waterproof membrane) recently and on a 2 week holiday, the sound was fantastic and not once did they go wet and muffled. With these buds they are a richer sound than the shokz openswim i have and the controls are superior especially gor navigating audiobooks

I bought these headphones because I wanted something that I could use while I was in the shower. I figured if these were aimed towards people who wanted to swim with their headphones in, then they should be OK for the shower. They weren’t. To be fair, the description doesn’t say that they would be good for the shower, however the issues don’t stop there. The sound volume on these things is so low. I read this in a few other reviews before buying them, but I figured maybe it was more of a preference thing. For me, personally, the volume was just way too low. The headphones themselves were pretty comfortable, and would probably do the trick if you are using them to say run in the rain or work out in the gym. They will definitely stay on your head. The headphones were easy enough to connect, and the controls were all OK. The little thing they give you to charge the headphones was easy to use, however if you loose it you are a bit out of luck. I didn’t have a chance to try the MP3 function, as I returned these headphones after 1 use. Overall, these are a below average pair of running/gym headphones, not worth the price tag sadly. Which is a shame, because I typically like Sony headphones.

Me, my wife and countless of running friends have been using non-bluetooth versions for nearly 10 years now, and without a doubt, those are the best running MP3 players. This model is a nice upgrade if you need call or stream capability when out, and has all the good points of the previous model. Pros: - Lightweight - Safe with amplifying external sound when needed - Perfect fit with different buds sizes - Stays secure no matter what you do - Well made and robust - Works well, buttons well placed - Good sound quality - Good microphone quality for calls - On-board memory - no need to take phone with you everytime - Looks good, Cons: - With heavy daily use and abuse (~2hr), they last around 3-4 years - There's no way to very fast forward - which is an issue when listening to audiobooks and accidentally starting over - At higher bitrate, resume of audiobook goes back a lot more than usual 30sec. All in all, easily the best running MP3 player out there, recommended!

Erkek arkadaşıma hediye olarak aldım açıkçası piyasada pek var olmayan bir ürün olduğundan şüphe duymuştum bazı yorumlarda da suyun altında ses kalitesinin iyi olmadığından falan bahsetmişlerdi ama yine de amazona güvenerek aldım. İyi ki de almışım hem çok mutlu oldu hem de ilk izlenim olarak çok memnun kaldı. Alırken benim bilmediğim bir özelliğinden de bahsetti, yolda vs yürürken araba sesini duyabilmek adına dışarıdaki sesi kısık da olsa size iletiyormuş, ben şahsen endişelenmiştim yolda kullanmak için tehlikeli olabilir diye bu endişemi de yok etmeyi başardı. Erkek arkadaşım hemen denize gitti zaten her şekilde çok başarılı olduğunu söylüyor piyasada bu fiyata ya da airpods gibi bu fiyatın katbekat üzerinde ürünler var ama bizce en iyisi bu olmuş birden fazla işlevi olması zaten çok güzel. Basına tizine yorum yapamam şahsen ama gerçekten spor yapıyorsanız ya da yüzüyorsanız ilk tercihlerinizden biri olmalı, kendisi küçük bir canavar. Ayrıca 8 haziran gece 1.20de verdiğim sipariş amazon prime seçmememe rağmen 8 haziran sabah 11.30da teslim edildi bu da çok güzeldi, her şey için teşekkürler amazon.

Decir que, a parte de un incidente relacionado con las descripciones del estado del producto para su compra , Este es el mejor walkman mp3, bluetouch que he probado y ME LO QUEDO. ESTE es el Walkman que estas buscando y te digo porqué. 1_ soy técnico de sonido y al margen de esto Sony para artículos audio relación calidad\precio es la compañía más honesta en el precio de sus productos, su precio es el correcto si atendemos a las características y calidad de sonido que dicho dispositivo presenta. Existen otras marcas más económicas y más... Pero si lo que pretendes es escuchar un audio de calidad, Sony nunca defrauda {no hablo de tv}. Si de audio, este walkman. 2~ puedes almacenar 4gb de musíca en mp3 que vienen a ser muchos CD,s... 3~ puedes conectarlo al móvil y escuchar vía bluetouch, Spotify, Amazon music, etc, a una distancia de aproximadamente 10 metros sin corte alguno, además responder desde el mismo dispositivo de una llamada telefónica entrante con mejor calidad que el audio que me ofrece el móvil cuando hablo directamente desde el móvil ya sea manos libres o altavoz oreja. 3~erginomicos 100%, no son molestos ni se sale el auricular de la oreja por mucho que corras y saltes. 4~los he probado en natacion {no recomiendo el bluetouch en esta modalidad, si te sumerjes en el agua sigues escuchando el audio mp3 almacenado en el dispositivo, no buzeo con ellos, solo nado, aunque parezca raro, es cierto que sirven para actividades de agua. 4~la batería se carga rápidamente {un poco menos de lo que dice las especificaciones técnicas del artículo]. Pero suficientes para que te canses tu primero por mucho que hagas runnig, la bateria sobra.... _lo he comprado a 114€ Lo recomiendo. Nada más, si te ha sido útil esta información agradecería que le des un voto útil. Que viva la música, el deporte y la calidad.

I have TWO pairs of these headphones. I apologize for how messy my ear tips look and my original device. The good: - you have a bluetooth and mp3 player mode (you have to pick one) - can pair with 1 bluetooth device at a time - is water proof (even salt water proof; hence why sony includes the silicon tips don't ignore that) - can be an mp3 player in a world where stand alone players are a luxury - can last 8 hours if used only as an mp3 player The bad: - you have a bluetooth and mp3 player mode (you have to pick one; you may not like this) - no LDAC, AAC, etc. Just normal SBC - files MUST be mp3 (no ogg, m4a, flac, alac, etc) - the mic echoes or catches ambient noise on the side of the person you are speaking too (noise canceling is just for you) - the mic will break if you dive with these after a few weeks/months - the contacts will rust after 3 years of use in salt and fresh water (please see the light green on the contacts in the picture on the golden charging contacts on the inside of the band) - lasts about 6 hours connected as a BT headset I have learned to love my headsets based on the features they provide for me even though there is no LDAC or AAC support. In spite of the lack of HD audio, this player provides a very welcomed feature in modern day where I can pair it with my phone but then just ignore the phone and listen to music. The mp3 requirement is a hassle I wish Sony was okay with OGG or even M4A as this allows us to put in more music with less file size given the hard 4 gb (realistically 3.4 Gb) storage limit. Its also the only certifiably salt water proof mp3 player. The silicon tips really help prevent corrosion in the driver. The reason why I have two is because after using one pair in the pool and ignoring this care requirement, the driver on the left side (where water would mostly go in) would leak into the driver and now makes the sound a little unbalanced. if you must ignore the silicon tip advice sony provides to hear your music more loudly under the water, I would suggest looking for some triple flange earbud tips. The three flanges prevent water from leaking into your ear, nice, and also prevent water from seeping into the driver also. You want to get the ones with the opening pictured here because while it may seem like they won't fit the sony mp3 player, they will its silicone and its meant to stretch. You want a really right fit on the bud as well as your ears to ensure a good seal to prevent water but also have a decent level of loudness when doing lap swimming.

Excelente producto

Quase atende às expectativas quanto ao som embaixo d'água. Enquanto nado, o grave dele é baixo, ou seja, fica mais complicado ouvir as vozes do que a batida. Mas como ouço mais músicas instrumentais, esse não é tanto o problema pra mim. O que mais incomoda é que, às vezes, ouço um chiado no fone direito, tanto quanto nado, quanto quando uso no seco.