[section_title title=”Introduction”]
Introduction
Manufacturer: Sony
Model: NWZ-E585
RRP: £109 (At time of the review)
Walkman had been the benchmark long associated with personal music up until the beginning of the millennium when Apple came a shook things up, however, as the PMP has stagnated either due to Apple’s iron grip and the rise of mobile phones as players there is still room for music lovers to be serviced – step in the NWZ-E585 (E585).
With the above in mind, what does the E585 – FIFA’s official MP3 player of next year’s World Cup – Â bring to the table?
Specs
Connectivity
| USB connection | YES |
| WM-PORT | YES (22 pin) |
Capacity
| Memory size (GB) | 16 |
Playback and Display
| Dynamic Normaliser | YES |
| Clear Bass | YES |
| Clear Stereo | YES |
| DSEE | YES |
| Equaliser | YES |
| Music Searching Methods | All Songs / Album / Artist / Genre / Release Year / Playlists / Bookmark / Folder / Voice Recording |
| Music Play Mode | “Normal / Repeat / Shuffle / Shuffle&Repeat / Repeat 1 Song Playback Range (All Range / Selected Range) Display Lyrics (On / On (Screen Always On) / Off) Karaoke / Language study (Off / Language study / Maximum Karaoke Mode / Minimum Karaoke Mode)” |
| Video Play Mode | Normal (Continuous playback function is not supported) |
| Photo Play Mode | Normal (Slide show function is not supported) |
| Drag and drop | YES |
| Display resolution | QVGA (320 x 240 Pixels) |
| Display type | TFT color display with white LED-backlight |
| Screen size (inch) | 2 |
| MP3 | YES |
| WMAÂ (Non-DRM) | YES |
| WMAÂ (DRM) | – |
| AAC-LC (Non-DRM) | YES |
| Linear PCM | YES |
| JPEG | YES |
| MPEG4 | YES |
| AVCÂ (H.264/AVC) | YES |
| WMV 9 | YES |
| Bass boost | – |
| Voice Recording | YES |
| FM Recording | – |
| FM tuner | YES (30 station presets) |
| PC External Storage Device | – |
Accessories
| Headphones | YES (MDR-NC31ELP(CEW), MDR-NC31LP(CA,EE)) |
| Quick Start guide | YES |
| Rechargeable battery | YES (Built-in) |
| USB cable | YES (mini-B) |
General
| Weight (g) | 49 |
| Battery life – continuous playback music (h) | 77 |
| Charging time (full charge) | 4 hours |
Dimensions
| Width (mm) | 41.7 |
| Height (mm) | 92 |
| Depth (mm) | 7.5 |
As you can grasp from the specifications this is first and foremost a music device, video support is there but the screen is neither large enough or the right aspect ratio to be of any use. Size and feature wise, the E585 is a clear contender with the iPod Nano where the Nano costs more it does have certain apps and a larger screen.
What isn’t mentioned in Sony’s specification sheet is that the E585 supports FLAC playback which is boon, in my opinion, although the 16GB capacity may not be ideal for a full FLAC library on the device. The E585’s insane 77 hour battery is also great, again, this is over double what the corresponding Nano offers and really puts the E585 in prime position for audio playback further strengthened by Sony’s inclusion of noise-cancelling earphones.
Enough numbers and figures, let’s take a closer look at Sony’s new Walkman.
