SE Walkman phone vs any SONY MP3 Players

[wcahyono]

Hi everybody,

I'm really curious how good SE walkman phone sound quality compared to any SONY MP3 players both flash and HDD based.

Because if this SE walkman phone is making a good sound quality then believe we don't need to bring 2 devices at once.

Also SE Walkman phone is much tempting than a stand alone MP3 player.

Note :

SE Walkman phone such as : W880i, W810i, M600i, W950i, etc

[acermao]

walkman phone it's a phone first,mp3 player second.understand?

[carmelo]

Acermao, no need to get so touchy. But you have a point. I know what you mean wcahyono, the two devices in one is appealing. My experience shows tha battery life is an issue, if I use my phone as my music player it means I lose call standby time and might not have a phone. The sound quality thing is an issue, but to be honest I don't find the SE phones bad at all, the bundled headphones are good too, and if you want you can add better ones as its just a 3.5 jack anyway.

[Guest Stuge]

SE walkman Phones has "Mega Bass",but now new dedicated walkman players like S7xx series ,A8xx series has Clear Bass and other features which are not available in Walkman Phones .

Battery Life of a Walkman phone is quite less if you use it as a player .

[gotthat]

they are saying the right stuff, indeed it's not the same kind of stuff, if se phone music playing quality can be better or same else a mp3 player, then i guess we wouldn't be here talking so much about just sony mp3, there are many features and technologies which are evident in a mp3, but the phone is really just a phone, like it's better than other phones which can play music, but it can't compare to sony mp3, if u don't need much, then i guess a phone will do the job, but if u really want the best quality and function, grab all these NW-A series, E, Sseries etc

[aob9]

I have the SE W800i, very good MP3 player (and phone) but in no way matches the quality of the NW S70* or the NW-A80*...........simple as that really.

[LG1_]

I think sonys strategy against apple is to beat them to the phone market, iPod owns the MP3 market but maybe SE can 'Own' the mp3 phone market, because it is the future and i think that is why apple is creating the iphone.

Apple will face tough compition from nokia and SE.

But back on topic some SE phones work better than the MP3 conterparts as the dont require sonicstage which in my books is a big plus when you can get phones with 20GB HDD or Flash memory you might see the mp3 market diminish just like the PDA market is

[wcahyono]

I have the SE W800i, very good MP3 player (and phone) but in no way matches the quality of the NW S70* or the NW-A80*...........simple as that really.

Hi aob9 & carmelo, thanks for your info.

It will be great if we only bring one phone which capable for multimedia purpose.

So we won't need to bring such as many battery chargers while on travelling.

Also believe we usually charge our phone everyday or max once within 2 days.

So I think battery issue still tolerable for me.

But if the sound quality is really far beyond lets say NW HD 5 (which I own) then now I will give up trying to buy any SE walkman phone.

(When comparing the sound, do you guys using a good headphone such as shure, sehneizer etc ?)

(Because, once we change to a good headphone, usually the players will shows their true sound quality)

Note :

Can any body advise me, how good NW HD 5 sound quality compared to NW S70*, NW A80* ?

I still like my NW HD 5, but as I read both NW S70*, NW A80* are using new technology (clear bass) it is quite tempting for me to own one.

Thanks a lot

[aob9]

I own the NW-HD3 which is similar in many ways to the HD5. I now use it for the car only as I have it hooked up to my head unit. I find the sound quality is excellent compared to a lot of MP3 players including the various ipods. However, the new batch of Walkmans,particularly the NW-S7 and NW-A8 series are far superior in sound quality. I presume this is down to the Clear Audio technologies and improved DSP's. As for headphones,stock buds have improved dramatically but I always fall back on my Seinheisser CX-300's especially when comparing sound quality between units.

SE phones are great MP3 units,but again the audio is not up to the same standards as the Walkmans.

[wcahyono]

HI aob9,

Thanks a lot for your guidance.

So now I can waive thinking of any SE walkman phone.

Also thanks for your comparison between HD NW 5 & SONY new MP3 players.

Meantime, have you ever tried COWON D2 ? How is its sound quality ?

Heard some reviews and obatined a good mark !

It also has a 2.5' screen which is capable watching DivX movie with 30 FPS.

They have 2 models : 2G & 4G plus expandable with SD card up to 4 - 8 G (SDHC)

[Old skool D]

I'm Old Skool in that I only interested in a phone as a phone, and a MP3 player for music. There are some phones on the market that hold 1000 songs , but they hold no attraction for me. As for SQ, you'll be hard pushed to beat the NW-A8XX series

[joinalright]

i am with GQ on this one, as for a portable mp3 device, nothing beats sony, highly recommend the NW-A800 series. Better than those whatever pods, GQ is a very helpful dude on the issue, go to his reviews

[Old skool D]

i am with GQ on this one, as for a portable mp3 device, nothing beats sony, highly recommend the NW-A800 series. Better than those whatever pods, GQ is a very helpful dude on the issue, go to his reviews

Thank you. Welcome to atracLIFE. The Cheque's in the Post

[wcahyono]

A bit out of topic.

How is Archos 504's sound quality compared to SONY ?

Thanks

[markey]

I'm Old Skool in that I only interested in a phone as a phone, and a MP3 player for music. There are some phones on the market that hold 1000 songs , but they hold no attraction for me. As for SQ, you'll be hard pushed to beat the NW-A8XX series

Yep, I agree with GQ Smooth. A phone is a phone and an MP3 payer is for music. A camera phone is handy though

[F355]

I found that my K800i sounded better than my NW-E005.

[cool_rock]

well sony erricson walkman phones i think so they dont have dsp thats why battery is not good as when u play mp3s on it while sony walkman mp3 players have vme technology thats the secret of walkman mp3 players stamina. also the walkman phones have poor fm sound quality as compared to sony mp3 players.

[gr00vy0ne]

The Walkman phones are actually surprisingly good. Now, I'll agree that a phone is a phone and a mp3 player is a mp3 player; however, the Walkman phone is a very good mp3 player. The player software is competent, easy-to-use and offers some features not found in their consumer electronics MP3 players.

Most notably, I like the following features of my Sony Ericsson W850i Walkman Phone:

1. NO SONICSTAGE - Even better is that you have a bunch of different ways to load music. You could use the included Disc2Phone software (which is UNICODE FRIENDLY) which allows for manual transfers or auto-shuffle transfers. You can also simply use Windows Explorer to drag and drop music to the MUSIC folder with whatever sub-folder structure you want. Forget your cable? No problem. You can wirelessly transfer music via IR (InfraRed) or Bluetooth and the software is smart enough to put the file in your MUSIC folder!

2. GREAT UI - The interface is pretty and easy to use. You have album cover views like the newer non-phone Walkmans. You can sort by Artists, Albums, Tracks, and Playlists. The nice thing about having the phone keypad is that you can use text inputing to jump through your lists faster.

3. CREATE/MODIFY PLAYLISTS - You create playlists on the phone but it's extremely easy to mark songs to put on your list.

4. EXTERNAL SPEAKER - Makes a great impromptu mini-boombox. It gets pretty loud too. I use it while riding my bike so I can hear traffic noise (LA drivers suck and are oblivious to cyclists).

5. BATTERY LIFE - If the phone is used as a MP3 player only, it's rated for 30 hours playback with actual being 24-28 hours. That's pretty darned good. With the phone on, playback drops to about half with normal phone usage. So, you're looking at 12-14 hours which really isn't that bad.

6. EXPANDABILITY - It comes with a 1GB MS Pro DUO flash card and it's compatible with 4GB (and 8GB allegedly) MS Pro DUO cards as well! Even better is that the folder structure is similar to the PSP structure so you can simply swap DUOs when you want to listen to other music.

The sound quality is on par with most Sony MP3 players. The included headphones are actually pretty decent. I think they could make the sound quality a little better as I feel that my VAIO Pocket, NW-E507 and NW-S705 sound a little better but it depends on the type of headphones you're using.

The FM tuner is good but i'll agree that the reception of dedicated Sony MP3 players seems better. However, the TrackID function is neat for helping you to figure out what song you heard on the radio.

If want to know more, check out my review of the Sony Ericsson W850i Walkman Phone.

[carmelo]

I agree with most of what groovyone said, but the thing is with phones is that unless its got a decent inbuilt memory like the w950, you have to shell out for expensive memory sticks. However, the w950 seems a much better idea, it doesn't have the pretense of a camera, and I think is all the better for it. Good gadget.

[gr00vy0ne]

Memory sticks aren't that expensive. The 1GB included is fairly generous. 4GB memory sticks are now as cheap as $40-50 USD. Sure that's more than other formats but it's not unreasonable and 4GB would give you a fair number of songs.

[wcahyono]

gr00vy0ne, thanks a lot for your great review.

You mentioned high frequency in SE Walkman is worse than any Sony MP3 player.

Did you test it with the supplied headphone or you use a good headphone such as shure / shennizer ?

Thanks