NW-E105 Review

[aafuss]

Sony NW-E105 review by AA

Price-AUS$80

Supplied accessories-E808 Headphones, CD with Sonicstage 3.0.

The Sony E105 is a cute, convenient and stylish NP3 player-I particularly like the ability to use a AAA battery (unlike other players with non-removeable batteries) for 70hrs of play time.

Controls are quite easy to operate-though the menu/repeat buttons were a bit small for my liking.

Sound quality was better than iPod shuffle-the Sony's sound modes are easy to adjust and had amazing clarity and bass response.

Headphones are the MDR-E808LP (earbud style)-these are extremely comfortable (though I do prefer in-ear style earphones).

The supplied software, Sonicstage is quite easy to use-I was able to easily import and transfer music in under 5 minutes.

Pros

-Runs on a AAA battery

-Sentence repeat mode

-Easy to read backlit blue LCD

-Group mode is a fascinating way of navigating through your songs

Cons

-Can't transfer songs on a Mac

Picture:

[MDane]

I second these are excellent units...I have a couple. One thing I would like to add is that these are pretty much the perfect companion for the MZ-200/RH1 since the E105 will play anything that those units will record. So the E105 is perfect for the professional to review recordings made of live music recorded in Atrac 3+, or WAV portably...while leaving the expensive recording unit at home or in the studio.

Is there anything negative I can say? Well, the ff and rew is quite slow, so if you are playing MP3 podcasts, which are rarely broken up to anything shorter than 30 minutes per track, it takes literally several minutes to get to, say the middle. Also, you will find the "hold" feature to be something to use religiously, as the whole face is the controls...and is easy to bump when the unit is in your pocket...ending you often to the next track. And if it is a podcast, go back to my earlier sentence...long time to find your place again.

Also, I have never gotten anything close to the battery life that is specified, regardless of battery type. However, I simply bought a 4 pack of AAA rechargeable and don't worry about that anymore.