Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony Walkman NWZ-S639FB 16GB Drag & Drop MP4 Video Player with FM Tuner - Black

Looked at the reviews on Amazon and elsewhere, my son said I would regret buying this model and not an Ipod. I was a little skeptical about how positive the reviews were , there only put on by Sony supporters right ?

How wrong could he be, its simply brilliant !! (and I'm no Sony supporter in general), the unit is light, stylish and works superbly.

The functions are well balanced, the sound quality is the best I've ever heard and the podcast / I player functionality is simply brilliant.

Even my son says the sound quality knocks his Ipod (he has several) in to the dust, and is quite jealous.

The only function I haven't used is the radio, i've tested it and it works well (radio 4) but haven't given it the real test that I have with the music and the Iplayer. I've watched several tele programs and have been impressed by the real quality of the picture and playback over Christmas, although the screen is small it is of wonderful quality.

The music player /software supplied is simple to use for all media types (podcasts / iplayer / music etc). I'm 44 and I got it first time !

Dont believe the battery times - its even better than quoted !!! I don't have it too loud, but after its initial charge of 3 hours, I got wait for it nearly 26 hours of video and music playing, and even now it hasn't gone flat !

If you can get over the superficial matter that its not an Ipod then it is simply superb....

i upgraded to this model from the sony nwz-a816 4gb device and once again i have bought a sensational product. forget ipods, these walkmans are superb. get one now.

Bought recently to replace my previous nwz-a829 (also excellent) because it's much smaller,once again i-pod destroying sound quality with the same sound enhancing options as my previous but with a couple of extras,radio being one,very handy,also the ability to change the theme or use your own photo as a wallpaper,screen size maybe smaller but sharp and bright,same high quality ex-82 earphones which are good but i use the sublime sennheiser px-100's that put this player on another level of brilliance,all that's left to be said is i wish those people that are stuck in there ways and still use a poor sounding i-pod in comparison,should ditch it and discover what a decent mp3 player should sound like.

Well done sony once again for a fine player! 10/10

UPDATED REVIEW: had this player a couple of months now,some people seem to be confused about gapless playback,i use WAV lossless (PCM) use this format and you will have no problems,it does take up more storage space but good for a few of your favourites and the quality is truly outstanding,i actually own 2 of these players and use the 2nd one for AAC format music and MP3 downloads which is still exceptional sound quality.

I've been wanting to buy an MP3 player for ages and eventually settled on this one. Very impressed with the sound quality. It is really easy to download both music and vids. I have downloaded some BBC iPlayer programmes and have found them surprisingly watchable, despite the small screen size. The menu is intuative - just as well as the getting started instructions are not brilliant.

I would have awarded 5 stars except it does not come with a protective cover and unlike iPods, getting accesseries has been really difficult (even my local Sony Centre didn't have a cover).

I took the plunge and got this recently as a replacement for my dying Creative Zen 6mb, and overall I am very impressed.

This Sony is small, light and nicely made, the display is good and the menu system is easy to use.
The supplied earphones are high quality and fit well, with three sizes of ear-plug-bit included (no idea of the correct name!) Yes, they can go LOUD but I haven't ever had mine above 14(out of 30), even on the bus.

I like the "SenseMe" feature which analyses every song and puts it into one of 12 categories. As another review says, it can sometimes get it badly wrong, (and unless I've missed it, no opportunity to correct this?) ie. Motorhead in 'Relax' and Abba in the 'Extreme' sections, anyone?! Choosing one of the categories according to your mood allows you to rediscover your music, it certainly reminds me I have much more than the same 300-odd songs I usually listen to in my playlists!

So why four stars not five?
- No mains charger included (seems to be the norm with new MP3's these days unfortunately).
- The lack of decent software, the Sony 'Media Manager' is next-to-useless and completely misnamed!
I have no experience of the previous Sony software, which seems to have been universally loathed, but coming from an excellent Creative environment it was a bit of a rude awakening. You can't seem do anything with Media Manager, no loading up your music, no making up playlists - 'playlist' isn't even in the index! You can't rearrange or delete music tracks and photos using the player and it takes 10 to 15 seconds to delete one photo by PC, then Media Manager loses its place and returns you to the top file menu. I gave up after a bit, and ended up learning to use the (supplied) Windows Media Player 11 instead, now I'm almost there and I'm happy enough to tolerate these teething problems.

One other minor point, since this player is quite new there doesn't seem to be many accessories for it, like cases and screen protectors, but this will obviously sort itself in time.

So if you can overlook the quirks (or are already fluent in Windows Media Player) it is a great little player and the 16gb capacity is frankly excellent when compared with similarly priced-players and twice-the-price iPods, etc.