Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Price and Specification of Sony NWZ E454

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Well rounded mid-range PMP

The NWZ E454 is the latest Walkman series PMP that we go our hands on. In terms of looks, it seems to be a watered down reincarnation of the NWZ A845, that we tested some time ago. However, the device is big on features which include Lyrics support, variable playback speed, sectional loping for learning languages, Karaoke, and SenseMe that analyses songs into categories like upbeat, energetic etc for mood-based playback. Not all of the features work as well as they should and are a little tedious to use. For instance the SenseMe feature requires analysis of files through a 12 tone analysis process while they’re being transferred; which obiviously takes longer and is about 70% accurate. We received the black variant and the player doesn’t look bad at all. Build quality is pretty good but the finish of the plastic is slippery - an inadvertent drop test or two nearly happened until we got used to gripping it more firmly. As far quality, the playback on our current reference headphones (HD 428s) left us with nothing to complain about. The bundled ear phones however are one of those hard plastic buds, which not everyone likes. That is not to say they were bad in terms of sound reproduction, just lacked a little comfort and noise isolation. The UI is very friendly and intuitive, reaffirming the belief that it’s not just Apple that can make good Uis. At a price of Rs. 6,990 this is a good PMP and competes well with the likes of Creative’s Zen X-Fi Style.