We’ve all heard about the iPod shuffle. But I’m here to review a range of similar players more worthy of the Shuffle’s hype. Sony’s range of NW-E players:

Style/construction

Look at em…aren’t they beautiful. On screen they’re equally stylish, but in real life, the Sony outperforms like a lion in a cat fight.

iPod - Apple’s white-n-grey style is nice, but the Sony player offers more; it’s down to the player’s construction: The iPod may look sleek and matt on screen, but the reality is that the Shuffle is made of the same sort of plastic as lego. Whenever I’ve used Shuffles before, the buttons feel tacky, the USB cover rattles around, and damage to the player stands out like the teethmarks in our lego toys. Unlike the Sony players, Shuffles are only available in the white-n-grey colour.

Sony - The Sony is crafted from a smooth, mirror-like front panel. Unlike most LCD displays, the player hides away its ugly, inactive pixels with its shiny front, a technology Sony calls “organic electroluminescence”. Whatever it is, I like it! when the display is off, it’s like the outside of office buildings with the one-way glass. The back of the player and the control area at the top are made of metal, which, from experience, is difficult to scratch even from large drops. The player is available in several colours.

Battery life

iPod - Up to 12 hours
Sony - Up to 50 hours, 1 hour per minute of charging!

Display

iPod - Being a “shuffle” and all, the shuffle has to be about randomness. But to be fair, if that was really what we wanted, why did they make the 99% of other players with screens? The advantage to Apple of the shuffle is that having no screen will be cheaper to manufacture, and the disadvantage to us is that it's near impossible to FIND the songs you want rather than shuffling through songs you’re not in the right mood for.

Sony - Being a Sony, the NW-E range is all about the best features packed into the very same size as the leading competitor. The screen in the Sony is cooler than any LCD display I’ve seen. Even though it’s single-colour, I honestly think it’s cooler than most colour screens. The screen on the Sony player allows for three lines of info – song, artist, album. When you click the cute “disp” button, the screen shows the time on an analogue clock as below. Click once more? The display shows bubbles streaming from the bottom to the top…so cool.

                    

Control

iPod - Control has always been Apple’s strongpoint with it’s scroll wheel, right? Due to the size of the Shuffle, not this time. The controls consist of a slide on the back, allows selection of off, on-continuous, and on-shuffle, and a battery check button/light. And on the front, play/pause, previous/rewind, next/fast forward, volume up and volume down.

Sony - On the Sony, the control wheel runs the show. Clicked to the left, the controls are on “hold”. Clicked once to the right, the wheel turns either way to control track or seeking. Clicked twice to the right, it controls the “group” (genre). The volume buttons are seated either side of the wheel.

The “search” function is a very handy tool. Click the teeny “search” button, and you are faced with albums, artists or “groups” to seek through, just like regular, screen-blessed MP3 players.

Holding down the display button switches the player onto radio mode. After auto-scanning, I found all my regular stations with the same gorgeous sound quality as my MP3’s, and even KISS100 which isn’t even  meant to be broadcast in my County! Once again, the control wheel keeps all functions under tabs. Clicked out once, it controls the manual seeking. Clicked out twice, it controls moving between presets.

If you’re still not convinced by the Sony’s likeness to the Shuffle, the play modes of course include shuffle, as well as repeat all, repeat 1.
          

Price/value for money

You’re on eBay, so price is probably a factor: The 1 GB version of each player, new, averages at the following prices (as of 19.07.06):



iPod  - £58.11
Sony - £58.24

Click here to find the Sony NW-E range on eBay

Please note: The Sony player is very well suited to Sony MDR-NX1 neck-strap style headphones. See my guide on how to avoid counterfeits!

I know what choice I’d make…happy eBaying!