Music Rocks! Rock Music rocks the most. So its rocking time for all music lovers as Sony has launched a new walkman series, the "W-Series".Sony is starting a new range of Walkman players, the W-series, and the first of them, the W202 has landed recently. This attractive player has been primarily designed for those who like to listen to their music while exercising, and hence features a unique wireless, behind the neck type of design that rests on your ears. This gives you the freedom of going about your activities without having to worry about the player in your pocket or wires coming in your way. It also features the new Zappin feature that lets you listen to few seconds of a song for you to identify it.
The Sony NWZ-W202 is no headset. It is a full-fledged MP3 player built-into that small frame, which is hardly bigger than the S9. On the right speaker unit are the controls for the player. This includes a jog dial for going to the next and previous track. Pressing the jog dial briefly pauses the music. A long press on the jog dial activates the Zappin feature. Beside the dial are the volume control keys and next to them is the miniUSB port for connecting to the stand.
On the back of the right speaker is the switch for Shuffle mode. There is also a small LED light for showing the player and battery status. A small reset button also resides close by.To switch off the player the two units need to be connected to each other. The speakers stick together with the help of magnets. There is a white LED that blinks when the speakers are connected. It also blinks when the player is connected to PC and charging or transferring data. One of the best parts about the W202 is that Sony has used their high quality EX Series speakers. They promise excellent audio quality and isolation from the surrounding noise. The player is very light, which is good since it will be resting on your ears. Figuring out how to wear the player is difficult at first. You have to hold them with the speakers facing you, then open the player, take it behind your neck and then slip the speakers in your ears. The design is supposed to be sweat resistant, however it is not splash or dust resistant, so you cannot wear it in the rains.
The Sony NWZ-W202 has a very simple control and navigation system. The jog dial lets you skip to the next or previous song. While running, one is not likely to be subtle with the controls, so Sony has made it such that you need to give the dial a nice strong whirl to register an input. Pressing the dial pauses or plays the music. The volume controls are next to the dial. The volume controls have raised push points, the Volume - has a small point and the Volume + has a taller point. This lets you know by touch which button you are pressing, even though you cannot see the buttons while wearing the player.Available in a range of five different colours, the W202 doesn’t have earphone wires that tangle over each other and it is highly flexible and by that we mean that the position of its earphones are not fixed liked those of Oakley’s sunglasses, fitting heads of all shapes and sizes!
Giving the final word, the Sony NWZ-W202 is an excellent device for those who want something to accompany them on their gym sessions. It has an attractive design, simple controls, good audio quality and the battery life is superb for such a small device. The Zappin feature is good for identifying a song but it could have been far better. I hope they add playlist support in v2.0 of this feature. Priced at Rs. 4,990 (M.R.P.) the W202 is a bit on the expensive side, especially when you consider the memory capacity available. But when you consider the pros and the fact that you don't really need more than 2 GB for gym usage, then the W202 would seem as a much better buy, which it is.
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