Sony W Series Walkman MP3 Review & Giveaway

Cortney from SONY contacted me to see if I wanted to try out the Sony W Series MP3 Player and since I'm the runner at spring races using my iPod hatphones because I haven't found anything as awesome as them, of course I said yes!

Below you can read about it:

The short list
Pros: no wires, nothing to hold, no extra baggage, 11 hours of battery with a quick charge (3 minutes = 90 minutes of play), reasonable price, waterproof/sweatproof

Cons: Not compatible with Mac, do not like ear buds (but you probably will if you are an ear bud user), some level of fiddling around due to ear bud issue (for me)

Details:

ADDING MUSIC
It arrived and the first thing that I did was plug it into the computer to add songs to it.  Being a mac user, it was a little tricky  for me to have to use the PC.  Even though you can drag and drop songs from iTunes onto the player using a little window, my iTunes list is on my mac as are all of my songs so I was limited to Bill's songs on his PC and I used Windows Media Player- to transfer my songs.  I thought I hand picked a handful of songs from my iTunes playlist but when I started listening there are random songs on there that I don't know how they got on there.  I think that it comes preloaded with a few songs on it which is kind of weird. I believe macs are our future so an updated system that works with macs would definitely be more appealing.  I also didn't find the transferring software to be super easy. I tried to create a playlist but couldn't figure it out. Usually, I'm pretty good with computers.  I did not like not having the choice to get rid of the album art - I'd rather see more songs at one time then a bunch of boxes showing what the album looks like (I don't care).
Rating: 3 star: key would be making it mac compatible.

COMFORT
I have always leaned towards the headphones that are old school and sit on your ears with the pads - nothing going inside the ears, no ear buds. Usually they are not comfortable and do not stay in my ear when I'm running and I'm constantly fixing them.  These are little buds that are attached to the player itself.  The ones that are on it by default with are average size (medium) and they weren't staying in my ear. I needed the smaller ones that come with it.  For the most part, they stay in my ear. For me I found that there was some level of movement, even though I could still hear the music and I was fiddling with them while running a bit. I think they will take some getting used to. When I took them off, the inside of my ears was a little bit sore but I don't think this is a design flaw, I just think that I am not good with anything that goes in my ear.
Rating: 3.5 stars

LISTENING TO MUSIC
The music quality is very good.  It is easy to start it up once the player is on your head/ears - you push a button to make it shuffle. The buttons are a little dated, it did remind me of the walkmans of the 80s/90s. There is the play button which you can push to play and pause and the same button is used to switch to the next song by pushing it up or down. The volume is next to the play button and easy to navigate and manage. I've found that I really do not need to see the songs when I am running/training.  I just make sure the list that I create is quality and any song will do, I don't want to fiddle with changing the song.
Rating: 4.5 stars

STORING IT
Both sides of the ear buds are magnetic and stick together to turn it off and for storage . I found that it doesn't really stay together unless it is untouched (not in a bag, etc) and several times, it came apart and was playing music on its own.
Rating: 3 stars

I would totally opt for headphones with built in songs. I think they'd stay in place nicely and I wouldn't have to deal with earbuds. Many of you can do earbuds though and would probably really like these!

Overall 4 stars (updated)

I was provided with a free Sony W Series Walkman MP3 Player and the opinions above are all my own.



Do you want one?
Cortney has generously offered to giveaway 2 Sony Walkman MP3 Players. To enter giveaway,
leave a comment for each entry.  2 winners will be selected at random and announced on April 22nd, Earth Day!  Entries will end at midnight 4/21.

Mandatory Entry: What are your headphones of choice that have been tried and true and work for you?

Optional Additional Entries
1-  Follow my blog
2 - Link up to this giveaway from your blog 

Don't want to wait?
You can purchase one at $48.99 by going here.