Sony Walkman E436 review
I picked up one of these when I saw it on sale at a local electrical store, I’d been eying potential mp3 players for a while and had already decided long ago that it would be anything but ipod as I’m not a fan of iTunes, their battery life or their poseur hipster status symbol. The aforelinked site offered favourable reviews of the Sony line and I’ve never had any problems with a Sony product in my life so I figured why not.
It’s a lovely bit of kit. I’m not sure if the media management software is necessary but its functional and easy to use - except in the area of playlists, whereby you just need to sync up to WMP11 (or equivalent) and transfer via that. The UI is slick without being flashy, quick, easy to use and minimalistic. The sound is great and as you would expect, the earbuds provide clear sound. The unit itself is very slim and lightweight with a nice metallic front over a hard plastic back.
I only got the 4gb model despite having some 40gb of music because I’m a rotational person and like to swap-in/swap-out to force me to listen to new things, otherwise I’d probably listen to the same 100 or so albums forever. It also does video but I got over the idea of 240×320 resolution movies or TV around the same time as David Lynch.
I took it for my first jog (or rather jog-walk-hybrid) today and it performed well. My running playlist kept me on the move including such hits as Training Montage and Hearts on Fire from the Rocky IV soundtrack. 