Sony NW-E407

At the size of a pack of gum, the NW-E407 weighs 47 g (1.66 oz) and measures 85 x 29 x 14 mm (3.3 x 1.0 x 0.4 inches). Beyond its petite and cool looks, the NW-E407 aims to push the basic functionality of an Flash-based audio player to the maximum - and does so by claiming a 50 hour battery life for its USB-rechargeable Li-Ion battery as well as offering a 3-minute USB quick charge function to provide three hours of playback time.

Sporting 1 GB of flash memory capable of storing up to 695 songs, the player supports MP3, WMA, ATRAC3 and ATRAC3+ formats; hence, it lacks support for online music services such as Apple's iTunes and PlaysForSure compatible Yahoo! Music and Napster. Sony's own Connect Music Store, however, offers a similar service and can be reached through the bundled SonicStage application which is also required to transfer any kind of music to the NW-E407. Despite shipping with an USB 2.0 cable, the NW-E407 requires music files without DRM protection to be converted to ATRAC3 upon being transferred - a process which tacked in the range of 30 extra minutes onto a 1 GB transfer supposed to take less than a minute.

On a more positive note, the Sony NW-E407 features a bright and clear OLED display which - despite its small size - manages to provide all essential information both during music playback and when browsing the music library. Being the main contributor to the NW-E407's cool looks, the display is placed beneath the player's translucent acrylic cover where both is of the same colour to create an illusion of the front cover actually being one huge display.

The Sony NW-E407 proved to be very responsive during interaction, and, we're pleased to say, offers shortcut buttons for every aspect of the player - including buttons to reach Equalizer/Repeat, the Display view and the Music library/System menu. The equalizer lets users adjust bass and treble separately within 6-step ranges, whilst the display view offers five different modes including Now Playing, Time/Date and a screensaver.

Connecting the bundled set of earphones to the NW-E407 revealed a surprising prowess in the audible department - although not without a slight amount of discomfort. A near-lack of background hiss, decent bass and excellent loudness and gain brought a smile to our lips; even more so when connecting a set of quality earphones. As if that wasn't enough, the player managed to chalk up 40 hours of battery life out of the claimed 50; stunning, even when considering the result being due to Sony's enforced conversion of all audio content to AAC files.

The Sony NW-E407 is currently available in Europe and North America, selling for approximately €150 EUR and $180 USD, respectively.

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