Many of us are familiar with the Walkman series of products from Sony. An ambassador of portable audio from the previous century, Sony has carried the name from portable cassette and CD players on to many of their newer devices. The newest one to carry the name is the Sony W Series NWZ-W262 MP3 Player. Quite a mouthful, yes, so we'll just stick to Walkman.
The new Walkman has the MP3 player built right into the headphones. Positioned for use by sports and fitness enthusiasts, the Walkman sits behind your head and unlike most other MP3 players, doesn't have a wire that can (and will) dangle. Weighing in at only 32g, you won't be feeling much over your head. However, the cord is fixed in length and cannot be adjusted. This can be inconvenient, especially if you have a small head.
The Walkman is waterproof, so you can wash off the sweat and dirt with some water; this is particularly useful if you get the white model. The W262 has only 2GB of space but variants with a higher capacity are also available in the market.
The Walkman doesn't have an LCD display and has the controls on the ear buds itself. The left features the volume and play mode (playlists/shuffle) controls, while the right has the power switch, play/pause and previous/next controls. Since you can't see the controls when you're wearing the player, controlling it can be a little tricky in the beginning. But the lack of an LCD display does wonders for its battery life — charging the battery (over USB) for only about five minutes can give you up to an hour's worth of playtime. However, total play time is only about eight hours.
To play through your music, Sony has included the "Zappin" mode. It allows you to "zap" through your songs at four seconds a track by holding the play button; hit the play button and it "zaps out" to the selected track. It works as a good workaround for the lack of a screen.
The Walkman has an in-ear headphone system which works well to drain sound out and give you a contained acoustic experience. The pack contains buds of two other sizes, which lets you adjust how the player will fit in your ear.
The sound quality is great. In fact, many other headphones with a similar sound quality will cost as much as this MP3 player does. The Walkman — due to its short battery life and lack of a screen — isn't one you take with you on a trip, but it could work well within defined uses. The price point is especially tempting and makes for a justifiable impulse (oxymoron, I know) purchase. It's available for Dh329 at leading electronics retailers.
Bhavishya Kanjhan is a digital marketing professional and an early adopter of all things digital. Follow his tweets on @bhavishya
