Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony NW-E005 2 GB Flash Digital Music Player (Black)

I first got a Sony MP3 player back with the Mini-Disc player and them moved on to the 1gig MP3 player because of the promise to hold 695 songs (4min songs compressed to Sony's Altrac3 at 48bits). Sure enough I was able to get just over 600 songs on that player (hey, I had about 12 songs that were 10+minutes). It was easy to use and even the Sony software was pretty easy to use once I figured it out.

So when this product came out with the promise of 1350 songs on a 2gig HD, I thought - why not, only $130. Even a 4gig Ipod couldn't hold that many songs and those run around $250 dollars.

Pros:

I found that this had the same high quality sound even at 48bit Altrac3 compression. Friends with IPODs could not distinguish any noticible difference in sound quality.

This thing is even smaller than the 1gig Sony I previously owned and I was able to get 1244 songs on the unit. (again, I've got a slew of 10+ minute songs which would limit me getting anywhere close to 1350 as the unit stated).

I also liked the fact that there was no additional cable to charge the unit. If the battery runs down just plug it into any computer USB port and it'll recharge in about 10-15 minutes fully. I even have a USB adapter for my car so I can charge while I'm on the go.

The unit also includes a 5-band equalizer and an FM radio that gets great reception. They also improved the headphones just a bit. It's still that quirky earbuds where one side is clearly longer than the otherside; however, they added a few feet to the length so you don't have to worry about using an extender if you want to toss your Sony in your pocket and head out.

CONS:

Sonic Stage is still a bit quirky to use; although now having owned Sony MP3 players of some sort for 3+ years. When you have 6000+ songs uploaded into your system, you can't just push songs over on your MP3 player from the list. You really need to create the groups first and then transfer.

Controls: I have no problems with the controls but they are tiny and could be a problem for anyone who has any kind of problems with manipulating small buttons

Display: WHERE THE HECK IS THE BAND NAME??!!! The other quirks I could live with but why the heck is there no band display available to view. I have plenty of songs on my MP3 player from lesser bands not normally recognized. It would be nice to see the band name on the display. Hopefully Sony will put out a firmware update to fix this problem. It's the main reason I gave it 4stars instead of 5.

Carrying Case - there is no carrying case for this player, not even a velvet bag. There is an armband carrying available for purchase but sony isn't releasing it until Sept 15th. I would have rather paid an extra $10 for this device just so I would have a carrying bag.

Personally, I think Sony has some great products in the MP3 market and with Altrac3 compression, they can give you smaller product with less storage space and STILL allow for more songs to be loaded on it. Why would I want to spend twice as much for a 4gig Ipod that holds 1000 songs when I can get a Sony for half that price and have 1300 songs instead

You HAVE to use their lousy SonicStage software to transfer songs to it.
That is just stupid. Well, not just stupid, arrogant also.

I was attracted to this thing becasue of it's size, battery life (which is exaggerated by at least 50%), radio tuner, and most of all its support of AAC encoded files. Apple's products have no radio tuners, and if you've chosen AAC as your audio codec, you haven't been able to get a flash based player which will both play the radio and play your AAC files.

Kudos to Sony for allowing it to play AAC audio files, it's about time someone besides Apple implemented this MPEG standardized codec in their "MP3" players, but why force poorly written software (SonicStage) down our throats? Why force any software down our throats? With almost all flash based mp3 players you can just drag and drop your music files via your operating system; you just connect it as an external hard drive and drag and drop. Then also you can use them from Windows, Macs, Linux, whatever.

And why are they still pushing ATRAC codecs? It's a waste of their time and money, and the world does not need Sony trying to push its own proprietary codecs. It's by no means superior to the standardized MPEG AAC codec or Microsoft's proprietary (although basically free) WMA codecs. Dear Sony, your codec is not significant, it is not a player in the audio codec world, and the world is better off without you trying to push it on us. The same can be said about your other proprietary variations on standardized technologies, e.g. betamax and Memory Sticks. You just make the world more complicated, in the end you lose, and your market share goes to zero. (Although I did think MiniDiscs were a good idea.)

It's a good piece of hardware, but in order to use it you have to jump through Sony's hoops. Just say no.

I have been using Sony sonicstage for more than a year with the NW-HD5 and the black bean. I do not have a problem with the software. It is faster than itunes to rip cd's and the altrac quality is very good. In blind listening tests with 3 people everyone said the Sony sounded better at 64kbps that an Ipod at 128 kbps.
I bought the new NW-E005 because I loved my bean but 1GB was limiting. The NW-005 is very small and sleek. A problem with it is because it is so shinny it always has fingerprints on it. It also looks like it will scratch easily. Another problem is because it has so few buttons you have to go through the menu to change most things. Another annoying thing is when you are listening to play lists it does not show you the artists name. Also the battery life is below par for a Sony devise. There is no way you will get what Sony states. Sony USA is also not selling many accessories for the devise. They sell a clip overseas for about $20 that should have been included. Sony also should have included a soft case to protect it. For $129 for 2GB it's a pretty good deal

I bought this product when I was in New Zealand for holiday.

I love the size because it fits anywhere and it's totally portable. I love the 2 gig aspect of it. I have a 20g MP3 player from Sony with a 30 hour playback making that my main purpose to even purchase a Sony MP3 player. At first, Sonic Stage was annoying but I have gotten use to it and I have seen it improved from version 2.0. Still could use some work though.

The ATRAC function is incredible. Sony has managed to compress music down to 48k and still sound identical to IPODS 128k. Also allows more room for your MP3 player.

I love the USB portion of the device. Even though I expect it to be at least 30-40 hours battery life from previous SONY MP3 players, the ability to just plug your device into any USB port in a computer makes up for the 28 hour battery life and it only take a few minutes to recharge your MP3 player.

I also love that it acts as a thumb drive. I use my MP3 player to download files, save my school papers, and transfer pictures. I don't know if it was designed for that but I use it as a multipurpose thumbdrive/mp3 player while I am on campus.

I also bought this white rubber suit for my MP3 player so it wouldn't scratch because I have banged up my previous player by sliding it, dropping it, banging it, and even falling on it during sports activities. I haven't seen any rubber suit online but it is a SONY product because it has its logo on it. I have tried the Sony Style website but it doesn't list it. You might find it at a SONY store because that where I purchased mine in New Zealand.

It's also extremely durable. I have dropped mine all the time and crush the hell out of it and it still works. Mine is not scratch because of the rubber protective suit but it does scratch fairly easy because my friend purchased one in the states and her is completely scratched but it works.

The display is hard and even impossible to see during daylight. I wouldn't say it doesn't work in bright lighting because it works inside office buildings and classrooms perfectly. I think it's the lighting of the sun that makes it impossible to see.

The FM function is awesome. In Auckland New Zealand and Denver CO, you can pick up many stations and they are very clear and reliable. I don't know how it works outside an urban area but the FM function is nice with preset controls.

The controls are okay. You can choose to have your music organize by two setting at a time. For example: You can have your music displayed with artist/track or artist/albums. Either way you will scroll lots unless you organize your stuff in a playlist on Sonic Stage. It makes it much better that way!

Overall, this product is great. I gave it a five star because it has done more then function as an mp3 player and all its features are extremely easy to use. Sonic Stage is not being factor in but if it was I would have given it a total score of 4 ½ stars. Enjoy it! Cheers!

This is among the worst MP3 players I've ever used, in terms of its restrictive functionality. Unlike most products from other manufactures, this guy prohibits playing any files copied directly by dragging on Windows Explorer, and all music files are forced to be transferred with its badly designed SonicStage instead, which converts file format to one which other computers wouldn't read as part of Sony's anti-privacy policy at the expense of users' convenience that serves us no purpose. The software seems to not support UNICODE also, meaning it will not copy music files if their filename/tags are in multiple languages.

When used as USB thumb drive, its file transfer rate is as slow as 2.5MB/s, pretty bad if you buy it for file storage function.

As said by the name of product, it's Sony Music Player, never a MP3 Player. If you're looking for one that plays MP3 files directly as most similar products do without harass, STAY AWAY FROM THIS.