Refine search for MP3

Sony Walkman NWZ-E436F 4GB Review

Author	Stuart Andrews
Published	24th Oct 2008
Manufacturer	Sony
Supplier	dabs.com
Price	£53.03 (Exc VAT)
as reviewed	£60.98 (Inc VAT)
Latest Price	Click here

Design & Features
Sound Quality
Value
Video Quality
Overall

11 comments

Email this to a friend

TrustedReviews Newsletters

Just last year it was hard to believe that Sony's Walkman brand had ever had the same cachet as Apple's iPod. Shackled by proprietary standards and wretched software, Sony's digital music players couldn't compete no matter how good the sound quality or attractive the styling was. Last year Sony finally saw sense, abandoned the awful SonicStage and embraced the world of Windows Media Player and Drag and Drop.

We loved the NWZ-A815 and liked the over-priced NWZ-A829, hoping that the stage was set for a renaissance of the Walkman's fortunes, but against very stiff competition from iRiver, SanDisk, Cowon and Apple, this latest generation certainly has its work cut out.

The new line-up is split into three ranges - the gorgeous, slimline S series, the entry level B series and the one this player belongs to, the mid-range E series. While the S series is the designer line you can hardly describe the E436F as an ugly chub-monster; less than 9mm thick and three and a half inches high, it's a nice compact player with a metal chassis finished in a mix of gloss and matt plastics. Our review unit came in black, but red, pink and blue models are available if you prefer a dash of colour.

Build quality is excellent, the 2in screen doesn't seem prone to smudging or scratching and the player exudes a sense of durability that many of its less expensive rivals would struggle to match. But before this turns into a puff piece we can still find something to moan about in the physical design: the use of a nasty proprietary USB connector when there's plenty of room for a standard mini-USB port. Curse you, Sony, for giving us another little black cable for us to lose!

Sony has stuck with its tried and tested controls, with a four-way D-pad surrounding the play/pause button, back and option buttons on either side and a volume rocker on the side. There's nothing really exciting about the GUI, based on a simple grid of function shortcuts leading to lists (with image and album artwork thumbnails) for your audio, photo and video content, but it works.

There's no difficulty in scrolling through via alphabetized lists for album, artist, genre etc. to find individual tracks, and if all else fails you can always search folder by folder. The only fly in the ointment is, as in the last generation, that you can't create playlists or queue up tracks on the device itself; you need to set them up in Media Player first.

Latest 4 of 11 Comments

Have your say: Leave a comment below about this article.

mobbaddict said on 26th October 2008

I bought this DAP one month ago to replace my 2 GB Clip, and i was so disappointed by its audio performance... compared to the Clip this Sony suffers from a lack of detail and clar... more

Maarten said on 27th January 2009

Which player would you say is better (especially minded the sound quality with the pair of earbuds in the box, because i actually dont want to spend money on buying earbuds)
... more

Rickysio said on 16th March 2009

@mobbaddict

"i was so disappointed by its audio performance... compared to the Clip this Sony suffers from a lack of detail and clarity,"

Re... more

skay said on 10th April 2009

@mobbaddict

Spot on! The volume output -- or lack thereof -- of the NWZ line is ridiculous. I have the 8gb version, and while it's ok with the provided earbuds, with anything larger (i.e. Grado SR60's or even Senn PX100's) the sound is not even low-fi quality. It's just LOW, period. I added a headphone amp and it's totally night and day. I tried my g/f's Shuffle with the PX100's and it didn't need an amp for volume, although the total SQ of those cans was increased by using the little headphone amp.

Also, since there's no easy option in the Walkman's settings to switch back and forth between MTP and UMS, there's a little trick to un-do the MTP drivers so that the unit becomes a straight USB Mass Storage drag/drop unit. You have to go into Device Manager (Windows XP), find the Walkman in the Portable Devices group, right click, then select Update Driver. Then select "No, not this time", then Next. Select "Install from a list or specific location (Advanced) then Next. Select "Don't Search, I will choose the driver to install", then Next. (Be sure to check the box beside Show Compatible Hardware) Highlight USB Mass Storage Device, then Next. (To revert back to MTP, just do the same thing but choose MTP instead of USB Mass Storage Device.) Personally, I'd never go back to the MTP mode. Having the Walkman seen by the computer as just another USB mass storage device allows the drag/drop transfers to go much faster, and I can defrag the Walkman now, whereas that was not possible before in MTP mode.

Also, a proprietary USB cable is just a dumb, unnecessary, all too typical Sony idea. And the fact that there's no free software bundled to convert avi's and mpg's to the necessary video format is just another reason this unit is, at times, a royal P.I.T.A. All in all, it's a relatively well made unit, but because of the low volume, proprietary USB cable, lack of bundled software to convert videos to the accepted format, and the limited number of recognized audio formats, I'd definitely choose another brand the next time around.

@mobbaddict

Spot on! The volume output -- or lack thereof -- of the NWZ line is ridiculous. I have the 8gb version, and while it's ok with the provided earbuds,... more

See all 11 comments on this article.

Add your comment

You must be logged in to comment. Login or register here.