A simple story. (Sony Walkman NW-A1000 6 GB)

Member Name: BrettDarling

Product:	Sony Walkman NW-A1000 6 GB
Date:	20/02/08 (102 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Simplicity, sound quality, and small

Disadvantages: lack of extra functions

In truth I never dreamed of owning a Walkman, not since I was ten and tapes were still very cool. It was fifteen years later when I did end up with one, when my second I Pod in succession had just been stolen and the insurance refused to pay (again). So you would think my reflection on a product that came to me as a result of heart breaking Grand-theft might not sound too good, but not so here; the sound quality is more than acceptable, the looks are far from laughable, and while the 6 Gig storage is certainly debatable, the lower price will always sound good to me. Ok, so the controls are slow, and at times the processor gets confused and waits at the bus stop when I'm half way down the street looking for the next song, but at least it's small and loud enough (with replacement headphones) to hear above other I Pod users on the tube, and as the unit is smaller and more discreet than its video counterparts, I don't have too much concern when stepping out into a cold East London street, and scrolling through the less than speedy menu on a dark and lonely night.

At first my main issue with the Walkman was the non-userfriendly software. It insisted on crashing my PC, storing half my tracks and freezing just for fun, but one of the few advantages of hanging onto old hardware for perhaps too long is that eventually Sony got tired of updating their useless 'Connect Player', and gave all users of the old Walkman access to their latest show, 'Sonic Stage', which is at least as useful as I-Tunes (Dooyooers agree?).

The battery life is brilliant too, much better than my large screened, over engineered, over desirable to thieves, video I Pod, full of scrolling controls, party photo's, album covers, 60 Gig of memory, and episode after episode of The Simpsons season five...Ok I better stop. Because that's just it, of course I Pods are better... these extra functions say so, right? But they do break. I have dropped my Walkman on rocks, beaches, mountains, roads, pool sides, bars and breakfast tables, (I tend to drop things quite a lot), and haven't had a single moment of trouble. The Sony walkman is as reliable as the old tape player of my youth, and sadly but perhaps fortunately about as desirable to thieves too (at least if hidden anyway). It plays music and it does it well....if perhaps slightly temperamentally if you fill it to the gills (as I have). But maybe I'm beginning to look back to older times with dangerous nostalgia, when your camera took your pictures, your phone only took your calls, and your MP3 player played only music (most of which you liked), because in today's climate of one tiny flashing box to do everything in your life, there seems a greater risk of losing everything you own in one foul swoop, be it theft, or fall, or failure of device. And besides, as a video player the I-Pod is less than perfect, and as a camera most phones just can't deliver...and as we all have more than one pocket on our person most of the time, what's wrong with using more than one of them?

To be honest the extra function's on this Walkman stretch about as far as a three star rating option for songs, to an awkward playlist setting that most will not use for ease, but if you want good quality, light, cheap, honest and reliable sound, from a device that does only one thing and does it very well, then the Sony Walkman is for you.

Summary: Does what it does well.

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