Sony NWZ-S616

Excellent – A great little unit with superb sound. The clear color screen can be viewed under most light conditions unlike some of the cheaper units and the ease with which tracks can be downloaded to the player makes this a pleasure to use. If you can get this unit at a discount price, it is well worth buying, given its sound quality and long battery life. What a great little player. Not as small as the ipod Nano, but its diminutive size and large screen make this a great mp3 player. One of the real features of this player is its excellent sound, far surpassing that of the ipod and many other players in the same price range. Whilst not cheap, its superior sound quality and long battery life make this a player well worth looking out for. It comes in a variety of colors and there is bound to be one that will suit most tastes.

Fortunately Sony has now ditched its custom download software so downloading photos, movies or music tracks to the player is very simple using Windows media player. Its large clear screen and soft touch buttons make the player easy to use. The way in which the icons are displayed and the menus are set up make this player almost intuitive to use, so even novice mp3 users should find it relatively easy to customise the unit to their own preferences. Unfortunately Sony accessories for this player carry a hefty price tag and there do not appear to be many generic products around for use with this player. One area which Sony could improve is the earphones. After extended wear they can become irritating. Instead of the hard plastic casing, a soft silicon or rubber would make the earphones much more wearable, but hey, given the great sound of this little unit, it is only a minor inconvenience.