Describing an MP3 participant as “wearable” is not one thing of an growing pattern. Positive, the iPod shuffle leads the cost of clip-sporting gamers and there are loads you possibly can grasp round your neck or strap to your arm, however the W202 from Sony does away with all of the wire, participant and mess.
We have see neckband headphones in varied kinds too, from the Bluetooth Motorola S9 to the wired Sennheiser PMX70, for instance. The W202 take this concept, however cram the brains into the identical outfit so you do not want an extra participant.
The neckband on this case is a versatile wire, while a lot of the friction must hold the W202 secure comes from match from the ear buds and the sunshine contact of the band on the edges of your head. You get a selection of three totally different ear rubbers within the field so it ought to cater for many ear sizes.
The official technique of sporting is with the band popping out of the highest of the ear items and over your ears, nevertheless, it does work equally effectively the opposite approach up, with the band going below your ears. This shifts the controls from left- to right-hand aspect which some may favor.
It’s really beautifully comfy. You may increase an eyebrow at first, but it surely works rather well and is mild sufficient to put on and neglect. It additionally would not bounce round if you end up working as a result of it’s so mild and nonetheless offers you a full vary of motion in your head, one thing that may blight neck band headphones.
The controls are all on the right-hand ear blob, with a multifunction jog dial and a quantity controller. The within edge sees a shuffle slider too, which you’ll interact for general randomness. The placement of the shuffle slider means will probably be close to unattainable to maneuver while sporting the system, however that is little matter.
The jog dial then handles just about every thing you will need to do. A easy click on acts as play/pause, a sweep ahead skips ahead, a sweep again goes again. It is all fairly easy, however Sony have determined to combine issues up a with ZAPPIN.
ZAPPIN is a intelligent little piece of software program that prompts with an extended press of the jog dial. It principally acts as a approach of rapidly discovering tunes in your assortment, on condition that you do not have a display screen to navigate. As soon as activated, it can play you a brief snippet of the music, if you wish to take heed to that, then a fast press resumes play.
You possibly can change the size of clip between between 4 and 15 seconds, relying in your choice. It is a good little addition and offers one thing above simply skipping tracks in shuffle till you hit what you need. If you happen to flip off the participant in ZAPPIN mode, it can startup in ZAPPIN mode too, so go straight into monitor skipping, one thing we discovered was actually helpful as soon as we obtained used to it.
Provided that you don’t have any choices relating to playback, it has to sound good too: and it sound good it does. Music is belted out at considerable volumes, so in case you are in a busy gymnasium, you will haven’t any drawback drowning out the background rumble of treadmills and Default Radio.
The sound is just a little on the bassy aspect, one thing that we like and matches effectively with the form of pumping music you’d take to the gymnasium, however won’t swimsuit so effectively if you will be listening to audio books while out strolling. However there’s a great deal of readability to music and we discovered that each one sorts of music sounded fairly good. An excellent match from the ear bud additionally signifies that it cuts out background noise too.
Sony, not being content material to simply provide you with a neat Walkman participant have one other trick in retailer. To retailer the W202, and swap it off, you marry the 2 halves of the participant collectively, the place a magnet pulls them collectively. Bundled within the field you will additionally discover a neat stand the place you possibly can park your W202 headphones to maintain them protected and cost them.
The connection is a typical Mini-USB, so you need to use a daily cable to cost them while on the transfer and Sony have even thrown in an extra cowl to maintain the 2 halves collectively in your bag. Sony boast {that a} 3 minute cost offers you 90 minutes of listening and a full cost offers you about 12 hours listening.
Getting content material onto the participant is both through Home windows Media Participant, or the bundled Content material Switch, or easy drag and drop. With a 2GB capability, it is not the biggest participant, however contemplating the scale, it must be ample and the worth is affordable too.
Our fast take
Total there’s little to fault right here. The sound high quality will fulfill your wants while you throw on Eye of the Tiger down the gymnasium, whereas a considerate vary of extras within the field make this a compelling buy.
Okay, so the controls may have been bigger, maybe a contact button on the face of the system, however we did not discover any issues controlling our music. You’d additionally should have forgone the slick design.
It is nice when one thing surprises: the W202 appears to be like like it’s destined for failure, however in actuality, it has been considerately designed and applied, and the tip outcome offers you a extremely handy MP3 participant, good for when you do not need to be encumbered by wires, straps or clips.
Sony Walkman NWZ-W202 MP3 participant – 4.5 / 5
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To recap
The W202 appears to be like like it’s destined for failure, however in actuality, it has been considerately designed and applied, and the tip outcome offers you a extremely handy MP3 participant, good for when you do not need to be encumbered by wires, straps or clips
