A New iPod Shuffle

I already own an Apple iPod shuffle, as you may remember me writing about a few months ago, and it’s small size, sleek look and convenience are perfect for my needs. Well, Sony recently came out with an iPod shuffle contender, and for vanity’s sake, I might have to alternate my shuffle for one of these.

The eye-catching colors that Sony’s Network Walkman Digital Music Player 500 Series (NW-E505 and NW-E507) come in are brilliant. The NW-E505 is the 512MB version, and it can store about 345 songs, and comes in pink and blue. The NW-E507 (1GB version) holds about 695 songs, but only comes in silver.
You can’t help but be impressed when you see the sleek, almost futuristic body mixed with the mirrored plastic and the frosted metal colors. The pink one is the perfect addition to my purse and collection of other electronic toys.

Unlike an iPod shuffle with no display screen, the NW 500 series offers an attractive, bright three-line Organic Electroluminescence (OLED) display that lets you see the song title, song length, current time/date and battery indicator. You can even have it display it in different languages. In addition, you can control the bass and treble settings of the sound. It’s no five-band equalizer, but it does the trick for a little guy like that. The 500 series also includes an FM radio tuner so you can also listen to the radio once you go through your song collection or just want to hear what’s going on in the world. The tuner works easily with a turn of the control knob on the side. I’m fond of this radio feature because it’s something that none of my iPods have.

More eye-candy: while it plays music, instead of looking at your the three-line display, you can watch a graphical timer. While it’s in power save mode, the standard display disappears and little echo sound waves appear on the screen to indicate playback. The long-lasting battery life is 50 hours, so you don’t have to worry about charging it very often. If in case you do run out of juice, its Super Quick Charge feature will power you for three hours with a three-minute charge.

There are a few drawbacks. You can only sync your 500 series using Sony’s proprietary software called SonicStage, which is included with the purchase of the device. It is only functional on a PC, and no Mac version is available. Also, these are about $50 more than the iPod shuffles (512MB and 1GB, respectively) with the EW-505 at $149.95 and the NW-E507 at $199.95. Lastly, you have to use a USB cable to sync and charge your Sony, whereas the iPod shuffle plugs directly into your computer with its built-in USB plug (just a matter of convenience).

You can find Sony’s NW 500 series online at www.sonystyle.com.