The Sony bean will playback MP3 although everything you read about it will scream Atrac3 Sony's own brand compression system and all the battery life figures and storage amounts are for this proprietary format, but take it from us MP3 works a treat. Connectivity is via the speedier USB 2.0 which seems to becoming a standard on Sony's new range this is also the method use for charging the bean and it all makes for a very slick operation. There is also support from WAV and WMA playback but the latter does not have any DRM (digital rights management) so you won't be able to use it with tracks downloaded from Napster.

The USB socket has a hinge operation where it can be extended to plug up to your windows powered computer, this allows interface with Sony's Sonic stage software or for the device to act as USB mass storage. Sony also supply and extension cable as standard to enable you to reach those awkward USB plugs on some PC's.

Perhaps the biggest single selling point apart from the design is the massive battery life. Rated at 50 hours playback on a single charge, this could easily last a whole week for most commuters and you are more likely to run out of fresh tunes before it runs flat. In our tests the Sony NW-E207 bean didn't quite hit 50 hours but then we were testing with MP3 tracks which are leas efficiently processed by the bean meaning we only got around 42 hours before needing a top up. Again this is very good and it is so quick to charge, a 3 min top up gave us 2 more hours! and it's fully charged in 3 hours which is about the length of a PR executives lunch break.

In the hand the NW-E207 feels like holding a cross between a Zippo lighter and a hand grenade (and yes we have held both) it feels very well built and very cool when clamped in your palm, the top rocker switch sits naturally under your thumb making navigation easy even when it's in a pocket. This is just as well as when you wrap your hand around the NWE207 you manage to obscure the OLED screen and it's single line of text which rather ruins the ergonomics of the design somewhat.

Measuring 68 x 24 x 39mm the E207 is small enough to slip in a pocket or be strapped to you in the gym, the flash based memory ensures a skip free playback and the 45 gram weight means you hardly notice your bean. Available in a range of strangely names colours, Tropical Ice (Blue), Cotton Candy (Pink), Liquorice (Black) and Coconut (White) we found that the blue and black are most sensible choices but hey if you want pink we won't argue.

The 1gb version on review here is part of the wider NW-E200 series which are all priced above the competition and yet lack some of the features normally seen at this price bracket, there is no line in encoding, no fancy coloured screens (although OLED is a bonus) and no FM tuner on the 512mb E205 and 1gb E207.

Audio replay is very good and easily makes the best of the MP3 tracks we had used, even the 320kbps Kanye West album sounded good with a reasonable amount of bass, the MDR-E010 headphones are not bad for a bundled set but the audio experience benefited greatly from being hooked up to our Shure E3C's.

The Sony Bean NW-E207 is priced at £99 which is a premium given the feature set, but given it's undoubted style and great feel in the hand once you've held one of these babies £99 will seem like a reasonable price to pay. There is also the cheaper 512mb NW-E205 which at £69 will store around 300 tracks should you not want to spend the extra £20.

More Sony Reviews -

Published - 18/09/2005

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