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The Sony NW-HD5 20GB hard drive audio player is a solid
competitor: It certainly has a leg up on its wheel-sporting
white rival in the battery life department, and it has a couple
of navigation features that should make Apple take note. Sony
has been struggling to keep pace with Apple's hugely successful
iPod and iTunes, but it's been a losing battle.It lacks extras
like an FM tuner or recording, but so does the iPod, and the
lack of frills makes it very simple to use. But despite the
player's ease of use, very good sound quality, and (finally)
native MP3 support, Sony's MP3 player is still held back by the
required software and overzealous DRM. The stylish-looking
anodized-aluminum NW-HD5, available in red, silver, or black,
measures 2.4 by 3.5 by 0.6 inches and weighs 4.8
ounces—significantly smaller and lighter than the
fourth-generation 20GB iPod. It has a very simple button layout
on the front, below the 1.7-inch monochrome LCD, and a hold
switch on top next to the headphone jack. The removable lithium
ion rechargeable battery is rated for 30 hours of continuous MP3
audio playback at 128 Kbps (or 40 hours for Sony's proprietary
ATRAC3/ATRAC3plus formats). When tested with a real-world mix of
MP3 files encoded at 128 Kbps to 320 Kbps, the battery was found
to last for nearly 24.5 hours—roughly twice the iPod's battery
life. It also has adjustable screen orientation and shock
protection, which senses when the player is dropped and releases
the recording head to protect the hard disk. The menus look very
low-budget, but they are quite easy to navigate. Initials Search
lets you jump to songs that begin with a specific letter—a handy
feature that other vendors should consider implementing. You can
create standard playlists—Sony calls them Bookmarks—directly on
the player, but they can't be edited in the bundled SonicStage
software. Likewise, playlists created in SonicStage cannot be
edited on the player. And the Bookmarks have nothing to do with
audiobooks, which aren't supported. The NW-HD5's biggest
drawbacks are the Windows-only SonicStage software and the
strict DRM. You can transfer tracks to the player only via
SonicStage, much like with Apple's iPod and iTunes combination.
The installation is a fairly long process and requires a
restart, and the software isn't nearly as polished as iTunes.
But you also have to "authorize" the player via the Internet,
which involves creating a Sony Connect account, letting you use
the player with up to five computers—otherwise, the player is
tied to a single computer. SonicStage supports unprotected WMA
files, but when transferred the same to the NW-HD5, they were
automatically transcoded to Sony's proprietary ATRAC3 format.
For online music services, you're limited to the mediocre Sony
Connect. Sony has taken a big step forward with native MP3
support, and the player looks and sounds very good. Its ease of
use rivals even that of the iPod. But we feel that the software
and DRM present too many difficulties, and Sony still needs to
figure out a better strategy to protect its vast catalog of
music copyrights. If you can live with the NW-HD5's DRM and
software limitations, you'll find the player itself provides a
very good combination of ease of use, sound quality, and battery
life for the price.
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