Better than an i-Pod (Sony Walkman NWZ-S638F/S 8 GB)

Member Name: jennornw

Product:	Sony Walkman NWZ-S638F/S 8 GB
Date:	12/07/09 (176 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Amazing Sound

Disadvantages: Sometimes resets setting

I payed £87.99 for a 16gb model of this device from play.com. This is the second proper MP3/MP4 player I have owned after a Samsung YP-Z5. This device has the most memory of the two as well costing just over £10 less, but I would contribute that to the time difference in buying the devices. Sony MP3/MP4 players are well known for having a great sound quality that is superior to most other MP3 players. I quote this comment from a customer who bought the device from the play.com website 'I just laugh at my mate who bought a 16gb Nano and paid double, sound quality wipes the floor with it.' I agree with this comment, I-Pod are really nice to use but the Sony NWZ-S639F because of the headphones and many audio enhancers built in to the MP4 player it's sound quality is great.

Appearance

The MP4 player is surprisingly light, its slightly bigger than some MP3/MP4 players but is quite light, only weighing 64 grams.

Dimensions:

* Screen Size (inch): 2
* Width (mm) : 42.9
* Height (mm): 89.5
* Depth (mm): 7.5

The screen of the MP4 player is 2 inches from corner to corner which is a great size for watching videos and displaying images.The width and depth of the device make it a comfortable fit in your hand for using. The interface of the device is very simple so you can pretty much pick it up and use it without reading any instructions. The nine things on the Home screen are all things you will be using most often and so the most suitable shortcuts to put there. I particularly like the Album search screen (as long a you have the option set to album art only) as it just displays the Album arts in alphabetical order and looks very nice.

Functionality

The device can play/display many file types on pictures, music and video:

* MP3
* WMA (Non-DRM)
* AAC-LC (Non-DRM)
* Linear PCM
* JPEG
* MP4
* AVC (H.264/AVC)
* MPEG-4
* WMV 9

To get videos into a file format that will play on the Sony NWZ-S639F use this program called tubetilla.

Features

The device has the following features built in:

* Repeat (after finishing a song either plays it again or re-plays the album once it has finished; depending on which option you choose)
* Shuffle (shuffles all the music on your device randomly or via the Time Machine shuffle which picks a random year and plays any songs you have that were released in that year)
* LCD back-lit (watch videos in darkened areas)
* Hold (stops you accidentally pressing buttons when you have the MP4 player in your pocket for example)
* DSEE
* Clear Stereo
* VPT Surround (alter the sound so it sounds lie it is being played in either a studio, a club, live, an arena with a matrix effect or in karaoke situations which does not work perfectly)
* Theme Settings (10 themes of all different colours)
* Wallpaper Settings (set your own Wallpaper from any image you have on your device)
* Sens Me channels (scans your music and puts it in a suitable category)
* FM Radio (enter up to 30 presets either manually, via scanning or both)
* Noise Cancelling

Most of the features are to enhance the sound quality which they do, depending on the type of music you listen to you can change different parts of the equaliser to make it sound the best it can. The FM Radio works very well, if you have a Radio receiver for a Walkman Mobile you will get that kind of quality of sound and signal which for such a small device I think is very good. The back lit LCD can be very bright so this device is suitable to be used outside or inside. If you have a good background that matches one of the themes (I have a silhouette of Slash on an orange background which looks great with the orange theme on the Device), the background for your MP4 player looks great. I would like to comment that the Noise Cancelling feature on this device works amazingly. What it does is try and block out any exterior noise so you can only hear your music. The best example of the Noise Cancelling working for me is at a football match, I was in a stand with five thousand people and chatting or cheering and put my headphones in both ears and listened to music on volume 18(/30) and could not hear any exterior noise.
Accessories

I do not own any accessories for this MP4 player at the moment, however inside the box I received the item in there is a small booklet of all the accessories that can be bought for this device. You can buy:

* Speakers (A speaker that connects to the USB port of the device)
* Bluetooth Sender (A Bluetooth sender that plugs in to the devices USB port and sends the music via Bluetooth to a Bluetooth enabled speaker; bluetooth headphones can also be bought)
* Charger (A 5v charger that you connect your MP4 player to via the USB connection and then plug into your Mains supply to charge)
* Many Silicone and Plastic cases and armbands (for protecting and holding your device)
* Car Charger (for charging it in the car)
* Cradle (for holding your device in and upright while connected to a USB port)

With the device you get:

* MDR-EX082 headphones with three interchangeable ear pieces (either Small/Medium/Large)
* USB Cable (for connection to Computer or Sony mains Charger)
* Media Manager for Walkman (Only really needed for pictures so you get a Thumbnail for them, Windows Media Player and drag and drop can used for Music and Videos)

Bad Things

When trying to charge this device it will only appear to do so when connected to a Computer or into the mains via the actual Sony Charger. I have connected it to a Charger that I used for my old Samsung YP-Z5 and also works for a Goodmans MP3 player, and no luck, I have done the same with the Mains charger for the I-Pod Touch and it does charge, finally. However you can only charge like this if you have this charger already, I only have access to one because my brother owns an I-Pod Touch and got this charger when he got his Video output cable. Finally I connected it to my XBOX 360 however it was not even recognised to play the music on it, the battle between Microsoft and Sony has left me with the best Games Console but a dead MP4 player (unless I plug it into my Computer) Please no fan boy hate comments about me saying the XBOX 360 is the best games console, but you have to admit that it is.

After five months of heavy use the plastic coating around the cable on my headphones next to the jack has split so all you need to do is make sure you don't fold the cable around the jack which is what always happens to mine whenever it is in my pocket.

Thanks for reading my guide hope it helped you on what you needed to know about the device

Summary: One of the best there is

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