Sony Walkman X Series 16 GB Video MP3 Player w/ OLED Display

Comment: I'm not going to reiterate what almost everyone else has said here already. I've given it 4 out of 5 stars and I'm pretty critical of most things, so in reality that is a rather high mark from me. It does not get a '5' for sound quality, but as far as I'm concerned, not many (if any) mp3 players would since their function is to be "portable music" and not for serious, audiophile listening. However, this player blows any other mp3 player I have listened to out of the water when it comes to sound quality. Just one warning: take the time to choose the right size earbuds for your ears (and guys, be true to yourself-the "magnums" may not necessarily be your best fit...) and make sure that you insert them fully into the ear canal and at the right angle. It will make all of the difference in the world! If the buds are not set properly, the bass is really thin and the music is competely washed out. The other mark against this player is its lack of an SD card slot for expansion. I've maxxed out the 32gb already and would like to be able to use the Rhapsody feature, but there's no space left for those "experimental" tunes. Other than that, top scores on everything, particularly the noise cancellation. I was a complete skeptic given my experiences with other supposed NC headsets, but these truly work and the fact that the settings are adjustable for different environments is a great feature! Slacker radio is a nice addition, but they need to make it updatable via USB and not just via wireless connection, although I haven't encountered any problems myself. The internet function is a little weak, but I didn't buy it to surf the web so its not an issue for me.

Comment: I like that Sony created a mp3 player that have more then one choice of music that you can listen too. I love listening to the Slacker radio because it give different variety of music that you can listen too and when you access you tube to see videos. This is really great product Sony came out with. I love it.

Comment: This new player is cool but it would be more apealing if they had a 64 GB for the same price.

Comment: I decided it was time to retire my Zen player once the battery life started to hover around just 5 hours of playback. I work a desk job all day so having music playing in the background is almost a necessity, but having NEW music was even more important to me. I had also just started playing around with Slacker online and found their music selection to be great, so when I saw the Sony X supported 3 stations of Slacker without the need for a wi-fi connection, I jumped.

The player itself is wonderful; the sound is incredible, the screen is crystal clear and vibrant, the touchscreen is very responsive, and the earphones are very comfortable. I don't really use it for browsing the web, but I can imagine it's very frustrating to type out a long url using the alphanumeric pad. :/ It was annoying enough typing in a few keywords for You Tube. Not sure why you can't delete songs or create playlists on the player when not hooked up to the computer, or refresh Slacker via USB (would be less of a hassle!).

As soon as I got the player the first thing I did was set up the Slacker account. I signed up for the 7 day trial of plus service online, and set up my 3 stations. That's when the problems started. I couldn't get more than 20% to load for the first station before the player would turn off, then back on. I made sure it was charged fully before attempting this, and my dad, who also bought the same player, has no problems refreshing his player with Slacker, so I doubt the problem is with the wifi connection. I wonder if the fact that I just signed up with slacker on the free trial is giving me problems? I removed 1 station and only tried to refresh the 2 remaining, and that time I got 100% on the first station before it shut off and restarted. Not sure what the problem is, but I'm going to give it a few more days until the trial period is over and then try again. I hope it resolves itself though, Slacker was the main reason I purchased this player.

Edit: The trial period of 7 days for the Plus account is now over, and I was able to refresh all 3 stations to 100% in under 20 minutes, so I will assume the trial period is what gave me problems to begin with.

Comment: The Pros:

First off, this is best sounding mp3 player out there on the market. Even with the stock headphones, it still has an amazing sound & if your like me that play this non-stop you may want to buy a couple of extra headsets (info found in manual or on website) just to keep around incase one set gets broken or just worn out from usage. There is plenty of sound quality to choose from in this unit. More then any other one i have ever encountered, this thing is a beast. I love it & as other reviewers there is absolutely no distortion. The touch screen is easy to use & there is a dedicated volume button & seek buttons as well. Also its nice that they choose to put in the noise cancelling function on the side as well. If you rip cds, you can rip it in the variable wma format 40-80kbps & for most albums it works out really well. You can really add alot of music to this without running out of room. I did add many mp3's on here as well & it sounds better then it does on my pc! The headphones fit in snuggly in my ears & its the M size, they have 3 diff sizes.

The Cons:

I guess Sony just wants to suck more money out of you but for the price tag, you should be able to take out the battery but if the battery ever dies in this unit your in trouble. Most likely you may need to send it into Sony to get it replaced. Or you might be out of luck & won't be able to replace it if you have this unit becomes extinct. And most likely you'll be shelling out more then $100 just for a battery replacement. This is the worst part of this unit, seeing you may only get 500 recharges out of the unit before it won't work. The other thing is everytime when you want to add songs to it, it automatically recharges when you have it hooked up to the PC. Another way to kill the battery faster is when its being constantly recharged when it doesn't even need it. Even if you need a battery replacement.. the way the unit looks.. you might have a hard time trying to open possibly cracking the case in the process. I woudln't risk it.. for $300 bucks & Sony couldn't have the ability to allow you to take the battery out & replace it if needed.

Another con is i don't plan on using the extra functions on here other then the radio & maybe the video/photos. Seems kinda wasteful IMO. Could have also knocked off $50-100 for that. I bought it mainly because of the space & the audio quality, other then that i did kinda spent too much money for a unit that i may not be able to use once the battery dies out. But its soo awesome!! Sony, why!?