[Review] Sony NWZ-W274S Wireless Waterproof Walkman for Sports
I guess it is about time that I start
commenting about things other than movies and musicals. Not that there are any
problem about that, but I guess there are other sort of reader on this page as
well. Besides, I do have less time to sit and lounge around for a movie or a
theatrical show. And not to mention, the lack of sufficient fund to flounder
around.
Please correct my ignorance, but if I’m not
mistaken, Sony NWZ-W274S is one of the very few waterproof and wireless Walkman
made for sporting use. NWZ-W274S (8Gb) is just a higher memory version of
NWZ-W273 (4Gb). Unlike the NWZ-W273 version, which has five (5) colour
variations, NWZ-W274S has only three (3) options (to the day that I post this review)
which are black, white and blue.
I’m not an avid sports person. I do weekly
jogs and laps in the community pool (except when I could not aka that time of
the month where I could not swim) for a couple of reasons (of which I am not
going to state here) and spend around 3 – 4 hours a week in either a gym or
outdoors. So this earphone is more of a splurge rather than something that I
really needed, but I also found other use for it.
Since the ear bud fits my ear awesomely
(which is very rare for many other earphone that I have bought before), and it
is tiny enough that my hair could cover them most of the time (unless I tie up
my hair or tuck them behind my ears), so that I could even wear it when I am
working in the lab or when I do not want my lecturer to know that I am
listening to music while doing my research. It is basically the size of a
Bluetooth earphone with a small wire that rest perfectly (I have a smaller head
so I use the black string to make the fit a little tighter) on the base of my
neck.
It is on very rare occasion that the ear buds fell out or does not
fit my ears. It does have a little of a noise cancellation effect, just nice
for when I want to block the distraction from the other people around me.
The battery life is not at all bad. It
gives an 8 hours playback on average volume (half of the volume bar) on a 90
minutes charge. I usually use it a
little lesser than half of the bar and has all songs on one huge playlist, the
battery does last a little longer than 8 hours. Although, a friend of mine who
prefer to break her playlist and likes to shuffle through in between files and
the battery life does deplete faster. Turning the “Shuffle” mode off saves
battery as well.
Transferring music or
making a playlist is not at all a hassle for this device. It is as easy as making
a folder and dragging it in to the Walkman. There were some people who
commented that they would prefer if they could fit FLAC files, but I do not
have any complaints since many other music extensions are compatible with this
device. However I do agree that if Sony would make this player FM Radio
compatible, this would be a dream device to own.
The sound quality is
not amazing, but it is good enough. It is good for a work out and it works well
in the pool as well. At times the sound does comes out a little bit muffled and
has a weaker bass compared to my Beat by Dr Dre headphone. Overall, I’d say
that it works well.
It is waterproof as
long as you have the waterproof ear buds (which is given) in and make sure that
the ear buds fits your ears so that no water can actually get in. In my case
when the water did get in, it does not hurt the player one bit but it was the
most uncomfortable feeling ever in my ear canal. The normal ear buds works fine
in the rain or even with wet hands.
In conclusion, although
this is not the best Walkman or even the best audio player currently available,
this makes a very nice companion for swimmers and people who works out in all
kind of weather including rainy days. At least it’s safe. I would not recommend
using this device in salty water or sea.
Love and Kisses,
GWRL
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