Sony NW-S703F Noise-Canceling Walkman MP3 Player (Violet) | List Price: $189.95

| Brand: Sony Binding: Electronics
Features: - Compact violet MP3 player with 1 GB of built-in flash memory
- Supports MP3, WMA, AAC, and ATRAC formats; built-in FM tuner
- 3-line, rotating OEL display; Jog Shuttle dial for scrolling through info
- 5-band equalizer with heavy, pop, jazz, custom, and manual modes
- Measures 3.43 x 1.07 x 0.58 inches (W x H x D); 1-year parts warranty
Great Item [Posted on 2007-08-22] The MP3 Player was an 23rd anniversary gift for my husband. He loves that thing! However, the heat specifications make it difficult to listen to music and work out. Player will shut down the MP3 and radio! He found out the hard way!
Great player, not reliable. [Posted on 2007-10-26] Imagine you just bought this player. It's sexy, easy to use, and sounds great. The LED is superb and the battery life is amazing. Now imagine 5 months later it started to malfunction; the audio glitches and you can't hear anything. The audio jack is loose so you decide to seal it yourself. Unfortunately there aren't any screws or any other way to open the player. Luckily you have a 1-year warranty. You call tech support and they'll exchange it for the price of $30.
Stay away from this product; Just because Sony isn't doing so well doesn't mean they should screw their customers for their faults.
Pathetic.
Sony Connect Music Store is Closing [Posted on 2007-11-02] This device can only download from Sony Connect Store which is closing March, 2008. After that, the device is useless. You can not use other online download sites but this device used a different format. I found many help sites with long instructions on how to convert a file, burn in on a cd, then...maybe you can download your PAID songs onto the device. I am not a computer buff. You can still play the songs already on the device and use the radio. But I purchased this item to download my personal music library. I have 3 of them. Not this one but the super one that was a 100.00. What a waste. YOu can return it and cant sell it. What a waste of money.
Four-and-a-half stars [Posted on 2008-02-17] I got the 706F, which is a 4 Gb, not officially available in the US. I forget now, but I think I paid just a little over 100 for it. PRO's are: noise canceling (need experimenting...), radio (Yay, NPR!), superior sound quality and battery life, and very efficient use of memory: regardless of source, it uses the ATRAC system uses 66 Kbps, half the low end of most iPod usage. In other words, your 4 Gig works like an 8. I have no problem with the Sonic Stage system once I got to learn it - just getting used to, rather than some kind of fundamental design flaw. CON's? I DID experience some glitches with it. A while back, the unit seemed to have been on permanent "hold", meaning nothing, incld. the volume control, worked. It just played merrily on, without my ability to select the album I want, go to FM radio, change the volume/control or anything. I rebooted it, which worked for a while, but then it started acting up the same way again. This time rebooting didn't work. I was about to return the unit for repairs, when by fiddling around with various buttons, mainly the "hold" button, it started working perfectly again. That was 3-4 weeks ago, and the problem has not cropped up once since. Weird. Also, the unit IS prone to accidentally being turned on, which might drain your battery without you realizing it. Now I learn to put it on "hold" if there's a risk it might be turned on. All in all, I'd much prefer to use this than either my Nano or regular 30 gig. Nobody has it - it's so cool, and so functional when I travel. Let me tell you: on trans-con or inter-continental trips, the battery lasts forever compared to an iPod, and if you're unlucky enough to be on the last row of an MD-80, this baby will preserve your sanity.
Addendum, 3/23/08 No problem has recurred since I wrote the original review, and let me just add how much I love the tiny size of this unit, and reiterate how efficiently it uses its battery and storage.
Great hardware but software makes it almost useless [Posted on 2008-04-06] It's hard to beleive that someone would produce a player as good as this and then require software that makes it almost impossible to use. You are required to use SonicStage to maintain files in the player. If you have used any other similar tool (iTunes, Windows Media Player) you will not beleive how cumbersome this this is. There is nothing inutative or easy about it. My only assumption is that the software department wanted to do everything they could to see an otherwise outstanding hardware offering fail.
If your goal is to spend the better part of a day to load music and then never change anything then you would be hard pressed to find something better. If you want something dynamic that can be easily integrated into your daily routine then you would be better served looking elsewhere.
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