Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony Walkman NWZ-E436FB 4GB MP4 Video Player with FM Tuner - Black

This device is brilliant and does everything it says and more. The build quality is second to none, and the ease of use is so simple it is fool proof. For anyone who has not own an MP3 player and is worried about how complicated it would be to use, then forget it. Buy the Sony NWZ-E436 you will not regret it. The sound quality is excellent and the price at Amazon, beats the IPod hands down in every dept.

Like others who have reviewed Sony NWZ range of products I've found the sound and visuals to be excellent for such a compact product. (But then I was brought up on B&W TV and vinyl records!)
Radio-I wanted a small radio to carry around the garden to use whilst digging and weeding. FM and digital radio reception where we are located in North Bucks is not good, and hence any product would be a gamble. However the device autotuned picking up many stations with good clarity. It is a bit crackly out doors, but not so bad that written speech can't be followed easily.
Video- The video downloads from BBC iplayer are excellent, and take surprisingly little space. 4gb is fine for my needs, but if you were away from a pc for months travelling you might well invest in a device with a larger memory.
MP3-This worked fine.

The not so good bits.
My main grumble with electronic devices is that say they play video and list some formats that they claim to play. Then mostly they don't play them. Sony product info and website give a little more info on details of video formats, but not enough to easily output home movies from Adobe premiere 4, which would play on the device. I must have exported 20 files types before finding some that were playable and acceptable quality.
Files can simply be download to the device using file manager in windows XP. However some movies then don't play even though in a supported format. The product comes with a software disk containing, windows media player 11, which will convert WMA files to the right format, but would not detect any of my .mp4 files. There is also content transfer software, which give a pretty colour coded summary of the type of files on the device, but did not upload all files, even though it indicated they had been transfered. There is Sony media manager which added little to windows media player, except it would not transfer in compatible movies files so saved some time working out incompatible formats. The solution upgrade to media manager pro (£8 to download) then all my file formats seem to be convertible....... (Have yet to test throughly.)
In the box are basic instructions- good enough to get going. On the disk a .pdf instruction manual with more detail, not that that this answered my questions about video formats, and was for the S series which contains some features not on the E series. Other niggles- there is no case, and the charger is though usb socket on pc. You can't use the device whilst it is conected to the pc. Initially I plugged the device in via a usb hub- the product said it was charged but when disconected gave a low battery warning. This was solved by plugging directly into a usb port. A mains charger is available, but finding the right extras for this device on line is not easy (Amazon please note!) There are so many models it would be easy to choose the wrong one, and our local high street stores seem to stock mostly ipod extras not walkman. To have a clear explanation of the product and be able to bundle the bits you need would make this 5 star product.

I looked everywhere at Christmas for mp3 players for my 2 boys (aged 3 and 8) but anything "child" friendly was expensive and didn't store a lot of music/videos. I wanted something for my oldest son (who has learning difficulties) that he could see the album covers for when choosing something to play. The Sony's software on the player is excellent and is easy to use and the player is so much cheaper than the anything beginning with IPOD.

After buying a really cheap one from Aldi that didn't do the job (no visual display and really awkward to use (my husband now has this one) I decided to look at SOny's. I have an older version of the Sony mp3 player which needed special software to rip music to it. I liked the interface of the mp3 player but not the software on the PC. So when I saw this NEW mp3 player which you could drag and drop to it or use Windows Media Player it was an easy decision.

To provide the robustness that is required for children I also purchased a case Tuff-Luv Classic Leather Case Cover for Sony Walkman E Series (NWZ-E430)- Black. Perfect stops the player getting scratched and I use the HOLD button on the side of the player to stop little fingers changing the chosen playlist accidentally. This has been the best buy for long car journeys and planned camping holidays.

I have also downloaded from BBC iplayer some of the kids favourite shows to watch in the car. Just don't forget they have a time limit. I forgot to my peril on one journey.

I cannot fault this excellent media player..Sony have given thought to all aspects of its operation...simple to use and excellent audio quality. Invest in a good pair of sennheiser earphones if you have an interest in serious music.

Excellent item except for a couple of drawbacks. One thing is that I can't label CD's in the playlist that have been burnt/copied over from a CD - so they are all listed on the menu as "unknown". Also I would have preferred it to be much easier to put music into the memory but that is most likely just me as a silver surfer I am not to used to doing this sort of action! Would advise that is well worth buying a "Lupo" USB plug for charging off the mains and not the computer.
Other than that it's perfect with good sound and volume range. Also I have used it for downloading from BBCi Player and yes I admit the picture may be small but it is very clear and sharp and at least you can watch it on the plane or coach when you want to pass some time.
Good value for money.