The 85 x 30x 14mm NW-E407 is without doubt the most sleek and stylish flash player we've seen this year and Sony really do know how to build a sturdy yet surprisingly light (47 grams) player, the Organic EL screen is quite stunning with 3 lines of text display and a bright high contrast interface.

Compared to the deliberately stylised IRiver N10 the Sony NWE407 network walkman wins hands down, not only is it stylish but the pendant like Sony really works and is a highly useable 1gb flash memory digital music player. Filling up the Sony is performed via a fast USB 2.0 connection to a host PC, this not only allows for a rapid transfer of tracks from the Sonic stage software but also facilities the charging of the internal Lithium Ion battery.

Sony have given this E407 a battery life equal to a long distance marathon runner a claimed 50 hours when playing the Atrac 3 format and 45hrs when using Atrac3 plus and charging the battery is super fast too with a rapid charge with 3 mins equalling 3 hours of playback time.

It's not all congratulations to Sony, sadly they have plumped for Atrac3 as the main format on this network walkman with MP3 as a grudging afterthought. Why is this such an issue? well  it forces us to use the frankly abysmal Sonic stage 3 software. Despite 3 revisions Sonic stage is still cumbersome and relatively unreliable plus it manages to slow what should be a fast USB connection to the equivalent of the M25 on a Friday afternoon.

Strangely this still doesn't put us off the NW-E407 as its still a stunning piece of design and tech kit, of course Sony then weigh in for the killer blow a price of £130 for the 1gb device, which is £30 more than the 1gb Ipod Shuffle.

Of course we get that stunning screen and a great Sony user interface, but is it worth another £30 and the hassle of converting using the godforsaken Sonic stage software? Put simply the answer is no, but since publishing this review we've been made aware of some new software!

A drag and drop MP3 file manager will be available as an "optional download" from Sony as of May 2005 thus allowing us to use the beautifully crafted NW-E407 without Sonic stage.

If you wear you Sony NW-E407 in public view you will not only get glances of admiration for its good looks and funky screen, they will also be ones of curiosity as small children point and ask "mummy does that mean he uses Sonic Stage?" No son he's using the optional file manager :)

More Sony Reviews -

Published - 02/01/2008

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