Detailed Sony Network Walkman NW-HD1 MP3 Player Description & Review

Sony: Network Walkman NW-HD1 £299.00inc. VAT  &  Delivery

The NW-HDs have been replaced. A close product currently available is the Pink iPod nano.

Ahh, the Sony Walkman. The granddaddy of them all, the Sony Walkman was the first portable recorded music player that was small enough to use a belt clip. What is their MP3 jukebox like?

Perhaps they couldn't compete with the other manufacturer's first and second generations, so decided to go long and join the race a few years down the line? Whatever the reason behind the delay, they have not come into the fray looking to come out in second place. Our first impression was: This is a seriously cool jukebox!

Sony make some bold claims, such as describing this as "the world's smallest 20GB audio device". It is tiny and it's unbelievably skinny. 8.9 cm long, 6.2 cm wide by 1.3 cm thick (3.5 x 2.4 x 0.5 inches in old money) for a total weight of 112g - that's stupidly light! At the time of writing (Q4 2004) the "world's smallest" claim is true in terms of Hard Drive players. There are several smaller mini HD players of lower capacity.

Any criticisms?

Just like apple with their iPod, Sony are not content with selling you the Jukebox, they want exclusive rights to sell you the music that you listen too as well. That's like charging a premium for a Ford car and then insisting that only Ford petrol be used in it. That's not only anti-competitive, it's annoying.

That's not all though, because Sony really stitch you up. If you do register for Sony Connect then you can (without going into too much detail) use a range of computers to download your music. If you don't, then you can only ever download music from one computer! This is the quote taken directly from SonicStage (the software that enables downloads) that comes with the Network Walkman HD-NW1:

"If you do not authorize the ATRAC HDD with the music service [Sony's Connect], you will only be able to transfer tracks from a single computer to the device"

In fairness, the Sony business portfolio contains large volumes of published music, so its very much within their duties to both their recording artists and Sony's shareholders to protect the copyright. However, we, as customers, have rights too. We have the right to copy music that we have paid for, for our own use, and this player does not allow that to be done freely. Plenty of other players allow you to move your music about as you see fit.

While we're on the subject there are some problems with the Connect product not allowing users, for some purchases, under some conditions, to make a CD copy. You not only have the right to do this under the law, Sony say that "the choice is yours", but when it comes down to it you cannot always make a CD back-up. This may just be a teething problem though.

Network Walkman NW-HD1 MP3 player?

Sony has called this an MP3 player. There is some confusion over this. Various sources claim that it can play MP3s and others say that it cannot. Let's be clear about this: the Sony Walkman CAN NOT play MP3s directly. It can (through the software that comes with it) convert the MP3s into ATRAC - Sony's compressed music format - and then play them. It cannot play an MP3 any more that it can play the harpsichord.

An MP3 track encoded at 192 Kbps will convert to a Sony ATRAC of 64 Kbps - which is a phenomenal saving of space. While the sound quality is still acceptable, its not as good as MP3 - some people cannot tell the difference. Normally we cannot. In all honesty we didn't do any 'blind testing', so maybe there is some bias in our conclusion.

The rumblings from Sony is that they are moving away from ATRAC towards MP3 so there may be a firmware/ software upgrade that allows the Walkman to be a straight MP3 player in future.

Playlists

Where are the Playlists? This is a standard feature of jukeboxes and has been for several years. There is no excuse for this standard feature's absence! The Bookmark feature allows you to workaround this, up to a point, but dam it anyway! Where are the Playlists? (Playlists are where you tell your jukebox "play all these songs in this list". The songs can be from any album/ any artist and generally they are limitless.) "Compilation lists" that have to be created on your computer are not the same. And it copied the tracks over again! In a Jukebox of this pedigree this is rubbish. Maybe, maybe this will be fixed when new software is released. Maybe.

GUI (how it looks and feels)

Having been spoiled recently with all kinds of customisable full video, full colour, full graphics jukeboxes, the Walkman's customise options of grey background/ black text, or black background/ grey text is a cold fish.

The cradle is a good idea, as all cradles are, until you go travelling and realise that you have to take it with you if you want to recharge while you are away (although you may not have too. See "battery news" below.)

Software

What's the odds that Sony employed the programmers responsible for Creative Labs' rubbishy old "Placenta" (Playcentre)? It's a lumbering memory hog; it doesn't check for duplicate importation so you can import the same folders over and over; and it does not allow the unit to be used as a plug-and-play external hard drive.

Anything positive to say?

It's gorgeous. People of both sexes and all orientations will have known individuals in the past that were stunning to look at, but who were also lacking when it came to personality, character, depth, and other stuff like that. This jukebox is a bit like that. The brushed aluminium: class. The screen: perfectly good. It's about as thick (in terms of girth) as a stack of 6 credit cards, so its super-slim and it only weighs 110g, which is nearly as little as the mini/ micro jukebox models.

Simple controls are very easy to use. In one short sentence Sony have managed to avoid some of the pitfalls from many earlier Jukebox models.

The marketing claims include a range of trademarked names for protecting the jukebox against shocks caused by g-force jolts, such as when jogging. Welcome to the cutting edge of technology of 2002.

Battery News

The Lithium-ion battery gives a claimed 30 hours of music playback .... Well, they really got something right. 30 hours is, at this moment, the largest claimed battery life of any jukebox. Creative labs are not far behind, but if you want a good reason to buy this Sony, then this would be a factor. 30 hours is remarkable. That will easily cover 5 hours a day, 6 days a week, recharge once a week. In fact the 30 hour figure applies to playing ATRACs compressed at 48Kbps, where as 64 Kbps would be more the norm, which works out as a battery life of approx. 27 hours. The 30 hour battery-life claim is not what it seems, but Manufacturers all tend to overestimate battery life.

Conclusions

In summary, the fact that you can get full colour video; games, and playback and record music for less money on a similar sized player tells a story. Sony tried to jump ahead of the competition with this player and it nearly worked. It would have worked a few years back. Disappointing that this nice looking/ super batteried/ ultra slim and light model doesn't really have what it takes to be a top jukebox. We would have liked it to be.

It's a pretty player, being marketed hard, so there is no doubt that there will be great consumer demand for this device. Our verdict: Nice try, Sony.

Some people will want to buy this beauty anyway. It's the right size. It's the right shape. It's easy to find your way around. If you cannot resist her siren call, just click below.