| Sony makes it easy to take your favorite tunes with you wherever you go with the Walkman Bean NW-E307 (Black) flash memory digital audio player. Its ergonomic, bean-shaped design and screen orientation easily accommodates both left and right handed users for maximum flexibility. You'll be able to pack in 690 tracks (encoded at 48 kbps in ATRAC3plus format) on the integrated 1 GB memory. The Walkman Bean is compatible with MP3, ATRAC3, and ATRAC3plus formats as well as unprotected WMA and WAV files. Sony's ATRAC3 format provides higher sound quality with smaller sizes than other formats, and you can easily create ATRACT3 files using the included Sonic Stage software. It features a unique built-in, hidden USB plug that pops out when the door is opened, allowing you to plug the Walkman Bean directly into your PC for transferring tunes and charging the integrated battery--no fumbling about looking for cables. It also comes with a USB extension cable for connecting to desktop PCs or hard to reach USB ports. The battery, when fully charged, provides up to 50 hours of continuous playback time, but if charged for just three minutes, you'll get three hours of use out of the Walkman Bean. The Walkman Bean has a 1-line organic electroluminescence display, which offers a wide viewing angle, high quality display with a unique look, for viewing song titles, battery life, and time/date information. In addition to its digital audio features, the Walkman Bean offers an FM radio tuner and a time and calendar display. Compatible with the Connect Music Store
Sony's Connect Music Store provides an easy method for downloading personal music to your Walkman Bean. The Connect Music Store offers access to an extensive online music library including many independent titles as well as featured artist and celebrity mixes. What's in the Box
Sony NW-E307 Walkman Bean (black), headphones, USB cable, CD-ROM with SonicStage software |
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 I love my Bean |
| Review Date: December 29, 2005 |
| Reviewer: Robin T., Maryland |
This past Christmas weekend, I had the opportunity to set up both a 2GB iPod Nano (for my daughter) and the 1GB Sony Walkman Bean (aka Network Walkman) for use on my computer.
These are some random observations with regards to the Bean:
- In my opinion, setting up SonicStage (Sony's music service) is a little easier to set up than iTunes. The interface for transferring your music is very intuitive.
- You are required to register your Bean through SonicStage before you can use it. (Very easy to do.)
- 5 free music credits came with my Bean, but you have to register a credit card with the service (same as with iTunes, I believe) before you download your 5 songs.
- I purchased new headphones. The headphones that came with the Bean are not as good as those that come with the Nano. I don't like the earbud-type of phones anyway.
- There is no "hissing" noise during playback, unless your music has the noise in it before you transfer it to the player. Music quality for all of my songs is crystal-clear. Being able to hear solid and thumping bass with no "tinnyness" is a must for me when I'm listening to my music, and Sony does NOT disappoint! (The Nano has fantastic sound quality too!)
- You *CAN* transfer your music in mp3 format to the Bean, as opposed to Sony's proprietary format. Simply click the Settings button before you start the transfer and chose mp3 as the format.
- The interface on the player is pretty simple to understand. As with any player, you just have to scroll through the options in order to see what the thing is capable of. (I'd make sure to set the volume settings to manual instead of using the preset volume settings.)
- Sony allows you to use the SonicStage service with your Bean on up to 5 computers. You are required to register each location. May seem restrictive or invasive to some, but isn't a problem for me, since I only use my Bean at home and at work.
Overall, I am very pleased with the Sony Walkman Bean (price, setup, transfer interace, music quality) and am loving showing it off to people! |
Love it
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| Review Date: May 7, 2006 |
| Reviewer: Bridget King, Mare Selenius, Luna |
| I received this as a gift just yesterday and fell in love with it. I had been searching for the right Mp3 player for months when I happened upon a walkman bean ad in a fashion magazine I was reading. Its look was unique, it stood out from the others I had looked at. Although pink is not my favorite color, (I would have preferred blue had it come in the one-gigabyte format) this pink is irredescent and pleasently between shouting hot pink and icky baby pink, and I have to say, I don't mind carrying around (and flaunting) my pink bean. Anyhow, onto more important specs. I was a teeny bit worried when I read all those "reviews" about the bean having hissy audio, but, after using mine non-stop for the past day, I can say that is not an actual issue. The only time my music is hissy is when it's supposed to be (Shiina Ringo). Another rumor being that it is made unusable by a two-foot drop is also false. Accidentally, of course, my bean fell out of my pocket (a good three feet from the ground), made hard contact with the floor, yet, with my headphones still on my head and attached to the bean, I could hear there was no halt in the music, nor degradation of performance. All the buttons still functioned. And I let out a sigh of relief. The screen is high-contrast and easily read from two feet away. My bean also has two "screensavers", quite a surprise to me, as they were never mentioned in any reveiw or by sony themselves. Yet it is one of my favorite things about the bean. The first screen has strawberries, cherries, bananas, grapes, apples AND oranges skimming across the screen. That one always puts a smile on my face. The one that really made my day though, was the sky screen. When you set the time on your bean, as the day progresses, you get a different screen. In the morning, you get a little sunshine with fat little birds flying past. At midday, the sun is shining with clouds and jet planes flying past. During the evening, the sun sets, with thin, foggy clouds floating past and seagulls flapping into said sunset. Once it hits 7 p.m., or 19:00 (depending on you preference), The crescent moon comes out and stars sparkle behind it as little clouds whiz by. The last screen is the time-and-date display, which are shown inside bubbles. The bean can repeat and shuffle, which I have mine set on all the time. However, now for the sad points. It is advertised as being able to hold 695 songs. Mine has 194 with enough room left over for four more songs, but that's on high-quality. I'm sure it can hold more if you're NOT an audiophile such as myself. Also, as I have read in other reveiws, the hold button is a pain. That's because it is not a button of its own, rather, it is the difference between closing the usb-port's cover most of the way and all the way. Not a major problem, but it can drive you buggy until you're used to it. Now, the only terrible problems I had in this experience were not about the bean itself, but what came with it (the earbuds included with my bean were lop-sided, the 5 free music downloads included had an illegible redemption code), and I have to say, I wouldn't trade it for anything! I love it more than the hi-fi cd player that it's replacing (believe it or not)! The SonicStage software needed to use the bean is an easy setup, not the best, but better than others I've sampled. Overall, I find this to be a great Mp3 player and reccommend it to anyone, who, like me, would rather not buy an iPod. This is the first, and probably the only Mp3 player that I will own or even want to own. I sleep with it under my pillow. If it wasn't so small, I'd give it a hug. |
I find it better than IPOD
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| Review Date: February 1, 2006 |
| Reviewer: Techno, |
I had a Video IPOD $399 and the Irever player and then I bought this. I won't be buying another player coz im stickin to Sony Bean.
I hate the IPOD Battery life n Size. This is tiny player with an amazing battery life.
If you are looking for a player with features like "Slide Show", "Menu based browsing", Video, "Large Capacity", then you better look for a Hard Disk based player. This is an incredibly small flash player- high on battery- and good music quality player.
I gotta say the s/w is not as equiped as IPOD, but then an IPOD won't last for 40 hrs without charging, and video IPOD feels like a big cell phone in my hands. IPOD nano is susceptible to screen scratches.
Negatives to this player would be the 1) Small browsing button. 2) Not so trendy s/w. 3) Moving USB drive
If you are lookin for a high battery-small-good sound quality MP3 player then this is well worth the money. |
Everything I expected & then some :)
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| Review Date: July 4, 2006 |
| Reviewer: Heather Riley, Minneapolis, MN USA |
| After much contemplation and reading both horrible and raving reviews on this player, I decided to take the risk and buy one. I just couldn't resist the tiny size (fits in the palm of my hand), bean shape and with me being so girly, the pink color of course;) After using an old Intel Personal Audio Player 3000 for the last 4 yrs that only held 50 mp3 songs (that was with a 128 memory stick added!) anything was going to be a definate upgrade! All I have to say is this: If you can read an instruction manual, and are even half way computer savvy with installing some software (very easy to use - no installation errors either!) and following prompts, you will have no trouble with this player! I have no idea why all these people are tearing it to shreds saying it sucks and is hard to use. With most electronics I've ever bought, you normally do sit down with the instruction manual to figure out how to use all the functions! When I got my last cell phone I spent at least an hour playing with it to figure everything out, and basically that's the same thing you will do with this. Like a gal said a couple comments below mine, the slider cover is not a big deal, it's not "loose and wobbly", if you happen to flick it in the hold position, flick it back! The entire hour I fiddled with it, it never slipped into that position anways! As for the hissing complaint, I hear none! The only way you would, would be if your mp3 track was ripped and recorded onto your computer/downloaded off the internet with a hiss in it - it's all about the quality of the tracks you are putting on it! Or if you are listening to the radio and certain commercials have a hiss - which a lot do as well (when songs came on it sounded perfect). Otherwise it was dead silent switching between tracks. It has awesome sound, however I knew I wouldn't like the ear phones that came with it, as they were the hard plastic earbuds. I opted to buy the Sony MDR-EX51LP Fontopia headphones instead. They even come in a silverish pink color and match the player! Plus they have super nice silicone covered buds in different sizes that fit snug and feel wonderful like they aren't even in your ears! You can also purchase the Sony Bean CSE31ARM armband so you don't have to carry it around and worry about dropping it! And one last thing - the screen savers are my favorite part...the floating fruits, sky, water are so dang cute:) Ok, if you are a guy you obviously won't care;) But for a girl this is the ultimate girly mp3 player! I'd take this over an Ipod anyday, since they are bigger (even the minis) and because everyone has one! I like to be unique and haven't seen anyone carrying around one of these yet. I give this player and the fontopia ear phones an A++++++++++ Go buy one now! :) |
Great for the money
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| Review Date: November 22, 2006 |
| Reviewer: Melinda M. Meade, houston, tx |
I am very happy with my purchase. The Ipod is so expensive and not nearly as efficient. My sister has one and I have 3 times as many songs on my bean. I have found that even dropping it several times, im clumsy, that despite what I originally thought it has withheld very well.
I do not like the fact that you pretty much are forced to use sony software but it is quick and easy to use. |
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