Sony VGF-AP1L Review

[atrain]

intro - i've now had my VGF-AP1L 40gig 'vaio pocket' for four days now & here are some notes on it. like many others i bit only after the recent massive price cut, to me US$599 is too much, esp as i had to import it in australian dollars. i ended up paying AU$400 including shipping, although it was a refurbed model.

i ordered it with birthday money & went on holiday the next day. many calls were made to a friend who was house sitting checking whether it had arrived yet. surely 12 hours to australia is not unreasonable... PICS TO COME as my camera is in my parents car, still 2,000kms away in queensland.

the review unit had the firmware upgraded via the patch at www.vaio-link.com. documentation is standard for sony, that is patchy. a better manual is courtesy of vaio-link.com at ftp://ftp.vaio-link.com/pub/Manuals/VaioPocket/AP1_OI_EN.pdf

package - the VGF-AP1L came in a great cardboard box, well packed. given most electronics now come in those thick plastic heatshrink bubble packs this was refreshing. included was the player, lcd remote, stand, 100-240v powerbrick [nice worldwide, especially for a US domestic product] sonic stage 2.1 & music move cd, manual, ear damage warning card, US & canadian warranty & earbuds.

form factor & battery life - unit is very well built. feels tough there are no creaks. buttons are strongly sprung & are flush or sunken with the body. the odd battery lump is the heaviest part, although it is ergonomic for right handed operation & is a demon for fingerprints, unlike the rest of the unit which has a gloss without being susceptible to fingerprints or scratches. the ports are also unobtrusive with the proprietary connector for the dock having a spring loaded cover to prevent dust. the weight is over 200g compared to around 180g for the 40gig ipod photo my girlfriend uses. the looks as different in a good way, very individual. whilst i admire the clean lines of apple's product the form over function dogma shits me. my favorite mp3 player design is the olympus m:robe100, sleek, but loads of options & a really nineteen-eighty-free style. sorta miami-vice-&-knightrider-meets-goldie-lookin-chain thing, which incidentally may be the theme for my next birthday party.

the battery life is quoted at 20 hours, i've seen 16 using atrac3+ @256kbs on my first two charges[!].

it uses a li-ion user removable battery.

g-sense & buttons - the g-sense pad is very responsive with a user definable sensitivity for those who like slower response. it is partially a touchpad, ala a notebook, & partially an initially fiddly control system. each of the far right coll um corresponds to the skip track F, skip track B, play/stop, vol + & vol - at all times. the left collum is the menu collum with each 'nubbin' representing a menu specific option including navigate up one level, navigate to root menu, back to last play screen & others. the top & bottom also scroll through on screen items. holding down the middle strips brings up an advanced menu on the right of the screen.

the power button is a strongly sprung slide with left powering the unit on & off right click into hold mode.

remote - not up to the standards of the md/pcdp remotes by sony. buttons are very 'squashy' & have a poor definition of each function, that is it's far too easy to press the wrong thing. i also find the button mapping & definition counter intuitive. the screen on the remote is bright & the blue back light has decent contrast, enough for most light conditions. using the remote automatically locks the g-sense pad.

screen - the screen is the most dominant feature, being bright & exceptionally clear. the resolution of 320x256 is fantastic across 2.2 inches. album covers imported are only 1inch across yet are easily readable. far clearer than the ipod photo's 220x176 2 inch screen. the resolution & contrast seem better on all levels than the ipod, better 'feeling' than the specs gap suggests. the optional skins are on the whole plain, although the matrix like green 'emerald' is great my choice is the red/pink/white 'cherry' - not a colour scheme i'd normally go for but it is cute & is set off well by the dark gray scheme of the case.

stand - the stand is excellent, far better than sony's md offerings. it feels well made & is sturdy enough to keep the pocket well anchored, both in the dock & to the desk. it features a line out, power input & switchable usb [usb mini like sony cameras & standard usb] along with a fold able metal 'foot'. never the less i find my self disliking the stand, it is light but bulky & is required for connecting a computer, charging & even for the photo-on-the-go feature. as with the nwhd1, why? even the now elderly md mzn10 ditched the stand for a usb on the main unit. ind pendant arms of sony vaio & walkman may be, surely market forces prove that units locked to stands sell less well? the fact that this unit's major [online, imo] success has been after the price was slashed to liquidate stock is a telling point.

hard drive & software - the hard drive is quite slow to react & sadly is accessed every time a button is pressed. this seems redundant to me, should not the next track in an album be loaded into the buffer? even volume & track info. are not immune & there is a tiny wait time between button presses. the usb-mass-storage is slowish for what claims to be usb2.0, the fact the box doesn't claim 'usb2.0 high speed' is a fair indicator, although it is much faster than md access, the ipod photo accepts data faster. when transferring from sonic stage it is perversely faster using atrac 256 & mp3 192 than the ipod/itunes mp3 256 & 192 using the same usb port & even via firewire. i blame this on itunes, a program my computer has always had a load of trouble with despite it's AMD3200XP processor & 1.5gig of RAM. it will only work one sonic stage installation at a time, annoyingly, i have three PCs on a wifi network & i use the nearest so i'd like to carry it around to a bit more.

SS3.1 was already on my PC so all i installed is the vaio 'music move' utility, drivers are covered under the usual sony p.a.d. although when i first plug it in XP thinks it's malfunctioning until SS/MM starts when the bubble goes away. i attribute this to the sony DRM & it effects the music only as the hard drive is accessible from explorer as a removable drive at this point. It should be noted that one or the other of these programs is required to place music for playback on the vaio pocket & that SS must be installed for MM to work. no drivers are needed for UMS apart from the usual OS driver [win98se or up & OS7(?)].

sonic stage is always free at www.connect.com or www.connect-europe.com

music move is from www.vaio-link.com

playback, sound quality & pic view - there are six presets for the EQ plus a flat response. two variations on each of \ [bass] U [bass & treble] / [treble]. there is also an a->b repeat like MDs & a repeat shuffle selection that includes all tracks shuffle & in album shuffle along with a great feature 'album shuffle'. this shuffles through the albums, playing the tracks in order through then shuffling to a new album. perfect for long flights me thinks.

the sound quality is decent but too subjective for me to really delve into. i'm using atrac3+ @ 256kbs primarily along with the occasional mp3 @ 192kbs. there is no mp3 sound problem as has been noted with some of the new hiMD units. the included buds have been added to the stack still wrapped & my listening so far has been with audiotechnica ath-a500 & ex71sl. i assume eggos will provide their usual efficient sound quality. the headphone output is not listed in either of the manuals but it is safe to assume most headphones will power adequately from the headphone amp. if you must use a line out the one on the dock will function even unplugged in your pocket however it would be a cumbersome package.

the picture view is clear & full screen, to me charming! there is facility for slide shows & album view where hovering over a pic will animate it smoothly up to about 1x1 inch. you can place pics on the HD yourself by navigating explorer to the user-001 folder on the pocket.

USB-on-the-go seems to be redundant to me as i carry a small notebook with a SD/CF/MS cardreader built in but it if you use a digicam & don't mind carrying the cradle [although you don't need the power brick] around it might be very handy for you.

pros - build quality, excellent screen, long battery, great individual looks. no longer tied to atrac alone. 40gig hard drive.

cons - being a discontinued vaio, not walkman product it is in danger of being an orphan for product support. some what heavy for a pocket. no file tree browsing for music. won't hold it's value like an ipod. slight pause after every button press.

conclusion? - this is my new baby. love it. far better than the ipod photo for my uses although those who don't like sonic stage may disagree. this version 3.1 is far better than previous versions & are way less bloated than iTunes. md users will be eased into the world of HD players thanks to a familiar, though oddly different UI. i'm still not convinced by any jukebox software so i'm not using the auto sync feature, not sure i ever will. if you can find it under US$400 buy it.

more pics by the fabbo ishi

http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=10645&hl=