This new Walkman from Sony looks like a USB stick and fits nicely into any pocket for portable use. The black and silver case looks good and feels very solid compared to many cheaper brands; it is also available in red or blue. Although it is at the cheaper end of the range, the B-Series MP3 player lives up to the image and quality you would expect from a Sony product.

 

 

 

 

 

The headphone jack-socket is re-enforced with a metal surround. Many cheaper brands of MP3 player have only a plastic surround to the socket, leading to breakages. Sony have obviously put some thought into the design of the player, to make it more practical in regular use.

When the player is plugged into a Windows XP system it is recognized without any fuss. This means that there are no extra drivers or software to install and that popular media players like Windows Media Player or Winamp can be used to manage tunes. Any other media player software supporting MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) is able to work with the player. Windows Explorer can be used to gain direct access to files on the player. Overall, software access to the player is very easy and flexible.

The controls on the front of the player are laid out in a logical way and the menu system is simple to navigate. The Bass Boost or the 5-band graphic EQ can be used to adjust the tone of the audio. Note that the EQ and Bass Boost can't both be used at the same time, but this is not a problem because the Bass Boost setting is essentially just a pre-set EQ anyway.

 

 

It's simple to find any track in just a few seconds. The player organizes tunes into categories of: Artist, Album, Genre and Release Year. You can also access your music by folder, and play the contents of any folder in a very straightforward way. It's also possible to make up your own play-lists containing a selection of your tunes.

 

The best thing about this player is that it charges up surprisingly quickly through the computer's USB port. The player can charge enough for 1.5 hours play in just 3 minutes! This is very nice because it means that by the time you have transferred your tunes into the player, it will probably have charged up enough to play for a couple of hours. If you want to play it for longer, a full charge takes around 70 minutes and will let you play tunes for something like 16 hours. Your mileage may vary!

Media players like Winamp can access the player as soon as it is plugged it into a USB port, so you can listen to your tunes through your PC speakers while charging. Playback through the headphones can be resumed after charging. The player will continue from the point where you left off, if you select "Now Playing" from the menu.

 

 

 

 

 

A minor gripe about this model is that the LCD display flickers slightly, when viewed straight on, and is quite slow when scrolling to display the track titles. If you have a track with a long title, the power-saving mode will cut in and the screen will go blank before you have read the full title. The screen blanking can be easily remedied by turning off "Power Save Mode" in the player settings. To avoid the LCD flicker you have to look at the screen from an angle.

The red LEDs on the front of the player are supposed to flash with the rhythm of the music. In this test, the lights did not react convincingly to mid- or high-frequency components of the tunes played, and definitely did not react at all to pounding bass, even when full-on trance tunes were played! The LED lights can be turned off in the player settings if you don't like them at all.