[section_title title=”Conclusion”]
To conclude on my time with the Sony Walkman NWZ-E585, I feel that both my interest and want of a dedicated portable media player his been piqued, which highlights how impressed I was with Sony’s offering, I feel.
Coming in at £109 RRP (although it can be found for as little as £90 at Argos) the Sony E585 is certainly cheaper than its nearest rival by at least £25. Ultimately, I don’t believe either the E585 or the Nano will be used seriously outside of music playback, so for me, the £25 difference would be enough to sway me towards the E585 unless Apple’s fitness suite is of interest to you.
The device itself looks and feels great. The metal finished back and ‘polished’ effect wheel all look the part. As I said earlier on in the review, having clickable buttons on a portable media player feels like a God send after suffering through various smartphones and the plethora of players on the Google Play Store. The E585 does exactly what it says on the tin, and more importantly, what you expect.
The performance of the E585 itself was also fantastic. First and foremost, the menus are fast responsive allowing you to get to you music as soon as possible. The device can support pretty high volumes, and formats supported along with the massive battery capacity all do what you want – music, for as long as can be sustained. 16GB isn’t massive, certainly, and using FLAC files instead of the usual MP3s and AAC tracks will eat into that, but otherwise you’re looking at over 3500 songs in an impressive device that is the length of a credit card.
There is also Sony’s ClearAudio+ and noise-cancelling offerings in the fray also. Whilst I’m not convinced by the noise-cancelling worth with the E585, the CA+ was certainly a winner for me for the most part with preferential improvements across the board and most important of all, it never felt like a negative. Of course the Media Go software deserves a mention too. The suite itself isn’t really breaking new ground by any means, but it’s functional and doesn’t intrude on your library organisation or ability to sync – minus a few blips – and you’re not actually required to use it for copying music across.
To finish up, I feel that Sony have definitely nailed the package of a media player in regards to features and price. £100 is significant psychological barrier for most and not being able to get a fully functional iPod at that price is poor, really, however Sony have got you covered, and then some, with the E585. With this in mind, I’m going to award Sony the Play3r Editor’s Choice award as it is great product for its price, with plenty of features.
I’d like to say thanks to Sony for providing us with a sample for today’s review.
