Sony Walkman W202 Review
After around 3 weeks of good use of W202 player, I think it is time that I share some insights, likes and dislikes of this interesting wearable Walkman. Also check out the pictorial and the video below!
My main reason of owning this piece of technology was the simplicity it offers for an active life style, namely when I work out in a gym, I prefer to have no cords dangling around. I tried the bluetooth way on my Sony Walkman S710 and A820 series, however I had to keep up with charging both headphones and the player and sometimes I would get weird interferences, etc. The idea of having one unit, all in one set turned out to work perfectly for me.
After putting W202 through a few weeks of use under different conditions (doing cardio on an eliptical machine, running on a treadmill, lifting weights), the player certainly withstood all the tests and never slipped off. My concern was that when things get sweaty, I’d have to re-adjust it constantly, however that was not an issue at all – W202 stayed on and kept pumping my music as intended. And amazingly enough, the player never felt heavy on my ears after a prolonged use as it only weighs 35 g or 1.3 oz.
The controls are situated so that it is easy to turn up the volume or skip to the next track with the help of jog dial. Jog dials have always had a thing with Sony products from being embedded within its VAIOs (like GRX series and other models) to its use in cell phones. There is a shuffle switch if you wish to utlize that function.
Let’s talk a lil about its Zapping feature that is exclusively available on this walkman. I found it pretty cool to tell you the truth, there is nothing like zapping through a few seconds of the track than clicking next on an ordinary player. Zapping function sort of takes a snap shot of the track so that you are able to recognize it right away instead of listening from the very beginning of the track and wonder if it is the song you want to continue to enjoy. The player plays back song clips for about 4 seconds each (you may also switch to “Zapping Long” feature which will playback the song clip for 15 seconds). If the most recognizable passage of the song cannot be found, the song is played back from the 45 sec point from the beginning. The sound effects when you activate zapping feature are pretty awesome (check it out in the video below to see what I mean), and by the way, activating is as easy as holding down the jog dial. So kudos to Sony for introducing this neat feature!
The build quality remains great, there is a magnet that holds two sides together when not in use and a white LED strip that serves as a status lamp and an OPR lamp indicator to let you know when your player needs to be charged. The neckband holds the left and right sides together of course and I do not ever see it being broken.
Sound quality is pretty good something I am used to expect from any Sony Walkman, so I won’t dwell too much on it here.
The charging stand is a nice addition and I am glad Sony decided to bundle it instead of selling it separately. If you ever misplace it, you can always use any USB cable to charge and transfer songs. Charging is quick and 3 mins of it will give you 90 mins of juice. You may transfer your music via Windows Media Player 11 or Content Transfer software that is also bundled which I found to use more frequently: drag and drop your WMA, MP3, AAC-LC or Linear PCM files and you are good to go. Within Content Transfer software there is a setting that allows you to activate the 12 Tone Analysis, a feature that is familiar to VAIO users.
Improvements that I would like to see are the following:
- More storage space (currently you are limited by 2 Gigs)
- Integrate Noise Canceling function (though EX headphones are still nice to have)
- Bluetooth feature availability in case you want to pair it with your other BT gear
Check out this awesome overview video of Walkman W202:
Video is courtesy of Sony Canada. Thanks guys for great promo stuff!
CNET has published their review and they liked it! Check it out here.
Beautiful Concept , Beautiful Design. Well done Sony.
seriously this is going to do very well.
Thanks Stan, for your review. Good work.
It’s indeed a good mp3 player although I would like to see more bass in the headphones they are clipped off even as the high tones.
beside this, I took one home with me ( the green one) and I have to say: I won’t be jogging with Apple again …
2 gig’s works just fine, the ipod shuffle I bought has 4 gb and that’s too much capacity. You can’t find you’re songs in that continuum of space …
although I like Apple’s voice over, I have to say the zappin function is indeed very handy, and wins it over shuffle too.
i have had 3 of these and love it but just keeps breaking…have returned it and just stops working after 2 weeks!!
It’s still not available in Australia-but apparently available in New Zealand:
http://sony.co.nz/products/product/mp3-walkman/w-series-sports-walkman.jsp
This looks like a really good player, and I do love the jog dial, but I will never buy a portable audio player that does not handle FLAC and Vorbis. I wish Sony (and the whole industry, too) would embrace open formats.
# nick said:
i have had 3 of these and love it but just keeps breaking…have returned it and just stops working after 2 weeks!!
-April 23rd, 2009 at 1:55 PM
Did you get a new one, or did they mend it 3x ?
If you bought one in a Sony Center (where I work) we just give you a new pair of headphones.
Now available in Australia-for $119:
http://www.sony.com.au/product/nwz-w202
Seen it in a couple of shops I visited today.
Is it MTP only?
nick, was it sweat issues?
i returned it to the shop…they replaced it…
today my 4th one broke,,,,,thought i had revived it on saturday but it just completely packed up.
i use it in the gym and work out really hard..i think sweat and moisture is causing probs….my bro wears his with a sweatband (cant imagine how that looks!!) but will see if he has same probs…
i say its a great product when it work but it doesnt work for long,
I love mine but can’t get it to work on with the content transfer software (won’t detect the player). Also on my 2nd after 4 weeks (due to freezing issues), keeping fingers crossed that the replacement is better because perfect for the gym!
Got my NWZ-W202 today and it is UMS for drag and drop.
It appears in the Finder on the Mac-despite Sony not officially supporting Macs with their Walkman.
2 days of usage.. I think sweat broke it.
Tried Reset and format to no avail.
So sad.
Too bad it isn't waterproof!!!!
Sweat vs Electronics
I guess people who made/tested it did light workouts like walking from 1 cube to another.
Can this MP3 work with my Mac?
This player is NOT waterproof and in fact fails after only a few sessions of sweating at the gym. It touches the face, therefore gets sweat on it (wet). The product guide clearly says not to get the unit wet or moist. I have had mine 3 months and it has failed twice. There is no way to keep it dry and no after market product to protect it. I wipe it off but that is after it has contact with my face sweat. So far it has recovered after a reset and boot up from a computer. I called Sony and there is a 1 yr replacement warranty but after that, you are stuck. I see on all the sites selling this that is it great for the gym….maybe if you don't sweat. I'm hunting for a way to protect it. It is a nice product but not for exercising if you want to have it last. Eventually moisture gets into the interior and it will stop working completely. I see on Sony reviews that people are returning up to 3 times in the first year warranty.
improvements to W202 should be to make it waterproof!
I have the same problem: I love it but mine just broke down after using it at the gym a few times. It was a present and I have no receipt for it: Is there any way I can get a replacement? This seems to be a bigger problem: There s many complaints about this on the internet. The local Sony Center I went to however claimed they did not know anything about this. Can I do anything about this / get it replaced without a receipt or will I just need to buy other brands than Sony in the future? Any ideas?
I have the same problem: I love it but mine just broke down after using it at the gym a few times. It was a present and I have no receipt for it: Is there any way I can get a replacement? This seems to be a bigger problem: There s many complaints about this on the internet. The local Sony Center I went to however claimed they did not know anything about this. Can I do anything about this / get it replaced without a receipt or will I just need to buy other brands than Sony in the future? Any ideas?
Oh my God mine NWZ also stop working just after 1 week of jogging no doubt this player is not good at all for those who do heavy exercises for instance jogging etc like myself ..its time to replace it as many people already did.I tried to repair it by myself but in vain ( try to do formatting etc but…) Does it make sense that they have created this mp3 player for people for exercises purpose & it is not even sweat proof that's really sucks.Thanks God i haven't throw my receipt yet .Time to replace it
I am very unhappy with the sony. I moved to India for four months in Brazil and brought back an mp3 zapping. The device with defective and under warranty but Sony refuses to fix it
I liked this product when I first purchased it, the decision to purchase over other mp3 devices was I thought an easy one. I assumed the Sony name meant good quality and good customer services. I have replaced the product under the one year warranty 4 times already. The returns are inconvenient given the location of the store, I am now at the point where the store just replaces the product I have been there so many times. They have offered me a $50.00 credit which is much less than I paid for the product originally, this amount can only be applied to a new Sony product. After the way I've been treated by the Canadian customer service department ( I was actually told there was nothing that they could do for me) why would I want to buy another Sony product. If Sony openly admits the product is faulty why not have some better customer service to offer the customer a real incentive to continue to buy Sony products because at the moment between the product and the customer service I am quite confident that I do better with a competitor. I would not recommend Sony or their products, if this level of customer service is the best they have to offer.
I liked this product when I first purchased it, the decision to purchase over other mp3 devices was I thought an easy one. I assumed the Sony name meant good quality and good customer services. I have replaced the product under the one year warranty 4 times already. The returns are inconvenient given the location of the store, I am now at the point where the store just replaces the product I have been there so many times. They have offered me a $50.00 credit which is much less than I paid for the product originally, this amount can only be applied to a new Sony product. After the way I've been treated by the Canadian customer service department ( I was actually told there was nothing that they could do for me) why would I want to buy another Sony product. If Sony openly admits the product is faulty why not have some better customer service to offer the customer a real incentive to continue to buy Sony products because at the moment between the product and the customer service I am quite confident that I do better with a competitor. I would not recommend Sony or their products, if this level of customer service is the best they have to offer.
I bought the same But somthing wrong with this It just stop working I return 2 times
Beautiful Concept , Beautiful Design . Sofeware So Good!