Sony VGF-AP1L 40 GB VAIO Pocket Digital Music Player

Product Review

Sony Vaio Pocket Digital Music Player VGF-AP1L - In the summer of 2004, Sony introduced this amazing MP3 player and multimedia storage device. The VAIO(R) Pocket has an array of advanced features for computer and digital content fans. Its 40GB hard drive stores up to 26,000 songs. With its QVGA color LCD you can choreograph a music-enhanced slideshow of personal photos. Plus, transferring music and pictures to VAIO(R) Pocket is quick and easy via a USB 2.0 port. A major advantage is up to 20 hours of play per fully charged battery - about 33% longer than its competitor. Easily gripped and operated with one hand, the VAIO(R) Pocket player also sports a unique user interface dubbed Grid Sense. The Grid Sense touchpad is a grid of raised dots which work together like a PC touchpad. It allows for smooth and precise song selection and navigation. You can also use the included three-line backlit LCD remote control to select songs when the player is on a belt loop or in a bag. USB streaming makes offloading photos from a Sony Cyber-shot(R) (or other) digital still camera to the player a breeze. The VAIO(R) Pocket serves double-duty as a storage device so you can take more pictures even when you're far from your PC. A USB 2.0 cradle is also supplied for easy PC connection, high speed transfer of files and convenient and rapid charging. In fashionable black, the VAIO(R) Pocket is for you. Unit Size - 4 3/ 4 x 2 1/ 2 x 1 1/ 4 / About 7 ounces Color - BLACK

Product Features

Play music, view photos and store data files.
Grid Sense touch pad, wired remote control and color LCD provide intuitive navagation and easy operation
Eye candy for the road with coloe LCD that floods your senses in crisp color. Navigate songs, watch photo slide shows
SoLong-Built in lithium ion batter lets you groove to music for up to 20 hours of continuous ATRAC3 playback on a single chatge.

Accessories

Customer Reviews

Average Customer Review

(14 customer reviews)

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful

A really good digital music player, November 11, 2004

Edgar - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sony VGF-AP1L 40 GB VAIO Pocket Digital Music Player (Electronics)

I bought the Sony Vaio Pocket about a month ago. The first thing that I noticed out of the box is that it looks really cool. It's stylish, a little bigger than an ipod, and pretty light. The G-sense touchpad is also really cool. The navigation is a lot easier than the ipod, it takes a while getting used to, but you can do a lot more with it, like make playlists, change the equalizer, and add album covers, without having to switch between menus. The best feature, though, is the fact that it is in color. Listening to music while looking at pictures is fun. You can plug a digital camera right into the music player and transfer photos. And you can use any picture as the cover for any album, which you will see in the "Now Playing" screen. There are some glitches in the player, for example: In the main menu, if you go to "Artists", then choose an artist that has some songs in an album, but isn't the only artist for the album, it will give you all the songs in that album, instead of...Read more

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful

It suprised me to say the least!, August 15, 2005

Krishna Polina (Leesburg, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sony VGF-AP1L 40 GB VAIO Pocket Digital Music Player (Electronics)

My 5 Star rating is based on my 2 weeks love affair with Vaio Pocket after three upgrades that are ESSENTIAL for out-of-box product. The upgrades allow the player to BECOME MP3 Player. If you don't upgrade it will be ATRAC3 plus Player, which is Sony version of MP3. First install the software's on the CD that comes with the player. Then do the following steps:

Upgrade 1: Firmware on Vaio Pocket to version 3.0 from Sony Site:

http://www.css.ap.sony.com/VAIO/download/downloadList.asp?cat=VAIO%20Accessories&Model=VGF-AP1

Upgrade 2: Vaio File Transfer program from Sony Site:

http://www.vaio-link.com/Vaiopocket/downloads/downloads.asp?l=en&f=VMTU

Upgrade: Sonic Stage 3.2 from Japanese Site (Link is for English version):

http://www.aii.co.jp/contents/sonic/_data/sony-ss32/SonicStageInstaller.exe

This MP3 Player when connected to you PC is recognized as a removable Hard disk. So, using the Vaio Music Transfer...Read more

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

Vaio Pocket - Amazing & Stylish, October 26, 2005

Mr. Iyare A. Umweni "iyareu" (London) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sony VGF-AP1L 40 GB VAIO Pocket Digital Music Player (Electronics)

I bought this after much searching - in fact I bought an ipod mini for my wife so I have some experience of both brands.

For those who love their music quality and want some style this machine is a great choice.

1. It is a 40GB player and cost £199 when I bought it - you will struggle to get a different 40GB player for £199 anywhere (even if it is being discontinued)

2. The screen is ace and displays almost all the information you could ever want to see of any track.

The track title

The Album cover

The Artist

The sequence number of the track (1 of 11 of an album or 211 of 9500 if you are just playing randomly from tracks on the machine.

The elapsed time AND the track length AND a graphics of how far along in the track you are.

The current time.

The battery life

That is a lot of information to put on one screen.

3. Browsing your music is made easy. The...Read more