After the successful launch of a series of portable media players (PMP), Sony has launched its E series, comprising of some of the awesome players. The E series PMP that we reviewed at the desk was golden NWZ E-454, claiming to have a battery life of whopping 50 hours. We charged it and listened to few songs and viewed videos for about 3-4 hours, and the player worked fine.

Talking about the exterior of the player, there are slots for headsets and USB cables at the bottom of the player. Also, there is an in-built mic that generates good quality sound. The keypads are very well crafted at the mid of the player?s body with options like power off, play/pause. However, the keypad is way too sensitive, which means that if the player is switched off, it can be turned on at the press of any button; it is like any-key-on/off-type functionality. This may lead to wastage of battery, as the user will remain unaware about its status, on/off.

Other options on the body include a slider marked as ?HOLD?, which acts as a keypad locker, which does not let the user to operate the player any further, once it is turned on. On the same side where the HOLD slider is integrated, that is, the right side, volume controls are also provided that are very comfortable to operate. The 2-inch TFT display manages to offer quite a visual treat and the sound quality while watching videos is also impressive.

Throwing some light on the functionality for what it is made for, music, the media player stands high on top charts, as the audio output is just excellent. We listened to some fabulous music, which were groovy in nature and full of beats and thumps. The player worked really well on all EQ settings and the listener can actually feel the beats to the fullest. Moreover with features like View Song Lyric, Karoake, and SenseMe technology, one can actually derive all the pleasure. The other half of the musical pleasure can be derived from the FM that excels on the criteria like reception, voice clarity, performance of manual as well as auto-tuning. It is true that the player supports several audio formats; we got to see various videos with formats like MP3, and those were no less than an audio/visual treat.

Overall, the player excels as a very good media player and FM receiver. Other features of the media player includes Karaoke mode, SenseMe, Clear Audio Technology and Voice Recorder, which altogether make the media player a product to chase for. Sony?s new portable media player (NWZ E-454) is priced at R 6,990.

? CyberMedia www.LD2.in

Mail:talkLD@cybermedia.co.in