Sony Walkman NWZ-S544 Violet (8 GB) Digital Media Player

The best things about this Walkman are: Loud built-in speakers (no earbuds needed), compact size, 8gb capacity (about 2000 songs), ease of use and nice design, decent battery life even using speakers, very long battery life not using built in speakers, photo storage, you are not limited to itune downloads as many other mp3 players are these days,...works wonderfully with mp3 music I already owned.

Cons: Battery is not user replacable (factory replace only),
Poor factory documentation ( I had to find out what I needed to know from user blogs on the internet), cable connections are not commonly available and exclusive to Sony products only, this is a now discontinued Sony product.

Conclusion: I am very pleased with the performance of my Walkman. This product does what it was designed to do excellently well and does so with no problems. My basic cell phone will play the same songs, but not nearly as well as my Walkman. This Walkman is very superior to Sony's newest offering in my opinion, mainly due to the built-in speakers.
I'd say that you cannot go wrong if you buy one of these NWZ-S544N Walkmans. I got mine on Ebay at a price considerable lower than anywhere else. Mine came in a factory sealed package. It suits my needs perfectly, both at home as a standalone player and also when plugged into auto stereo system. I recommend it highly.

The Digital Media Player arrived in good conidition. It was charged and ready to go when I recieved it. I decided to purchase a refurb because it was for a 7 year old who loves musc, and she LOVES pink! The player not only holds music, but also allows her to view video, etc. It is great!

I got this as a replacement for a burnt out Zune 8g. It was cheaper, the features seemed similar, and I trust Sony for the most part. After using it, I can say that this player has some features that blow other players away.

First, the volume on this seems to go much louder than the Zune or iPod. Zune goes to 20, and I know increments aren't standard, but this thing maxed at 30 is much higher than the Zune's or iPod's maximum volume. Great for listening to while mowing the lawn.

Sound quality is through the roof. This player sounds much clearer than the other players I've owned, and on-the-fly equalizer and sound clarity options are amazing. You can get heavy low end bass or equalize the volume with just a few clicks, and it sounds amazing.

Battery life is good, though there's no way to turn the player off completely, only a standby mode. You can customize screen brightness, but cannot set wallpaper.

My only gripe is the software. I prefer to use VLC player on my pc, so I disabled windows media player. The included software is essentially an installed version of the PDF already loaded on the device, and Sony's Media Manager which converts playlists from iTunes or WMP format.

The software wouldn't install without WMP, so I was left using windows explorer to drag and drop files into directories on the player. This in itself isn't a problem (especially after reading the fine print in the user license agreement - do yourself a favor and skim it before installing) but without it you cannot customize playlists, which are important to me.

I did find a freeware playlist customizer - WalkmanMTP - which works very well with this newer model even though it was created for earlier models. The only downside was having to rebuild my playlists from scratch, which anyone who has been collecting mp3s for years will feel my pain. It took hours but works well enough, and avoiding more proprietary software DRM drama was well worth it.

Summary: Solid player, great controls, great sound and sound customization, software is iffy but using windows explorer is completely doable. I had to take off one star for the lack of playlist customization without the software, because there's no good excuse for not being able to do that through the player.

Worth the money? At half the cost of a Zune and a third the cost of an iPod, ABSOLUTELY.

I was looking at mp3 players at Walmart but they were pricey for only the most basic features. When I discovered this by Sony it has external speakers and I fell in love! If you want to share the song youre listening to, just flip the switch to play it out loud. I could not find this unique feature in any other player. So I hunted this down online. They are expensive but I think totally worth it when found on eBay. Be careful on bidding on used players tho, as you dont know how long the lifetime battery has been used, it may be nearing the end of its life and you constantly have to recharge. I think a majority of the used ones people sell is because of a declining battery. I bought one from Amazon and had to send it back because of this. Ask the seller about its battery and just how 'used' it really is. Plays limited videos too. Great long-lasting battery life if new, one of the longest on the market at 30-40 hours per charge. Drag and drop files with cable. Great sounding speaker! Best advice...try to get a brand new one instead of used to ensure the battery is fresh and you get the full 40 hour charge.

You will be looking for model # NWZ-S544 8 gig or the NWZ-S545 16 gig.

This is my first experience with a media player. I purchased it to have some of my favorite Christian music available when not at home. It works great: I can play it through the car speakers when traveling and at home without earphones when I want soft background music. Battery life is great.