REVIEWS / PMPS / SONY

Sony Walkman NWZ-E454: Could Have Done So Much Better

26 Jan, 2011, 11:34 am IST | by Ashish Koshy | PMPs

PMPs

Nicely built and finished well

Nicely built and finished well
The ports and buttons sit pretty
Still pictures could have looked better
Watch 5 football matches non-stop!
That's it for now, sleep well my friend

PRICE IN INDIA

6,990

TECH2 RATING

7.0

AVERAGE USER RATING

8.0

How we test

CONTACT

Sony

The NWZ-E454 came out in November last year and people waiting for a solid PMP must have kept their hopes high. Looking at the A845 or the W252, my expectations for this was pretty high, but I feel there’s something holding it back from being a great device.

Design and Features
The NWZ-E454 is built really well, but that shouldn’t be surprising in the first place. The player has a glossy front panel with a matte finish at the back. Let’s take a look at the physical aspects of the E454.

Neat and tidy

Neat and tidy

 


The display screen is a 2-inch QVGA LCD Display and accommodates 262k colors at a 240 x 320 pixel resolution and is an absolute smudge magnet. The button layout is quite similar to that of the A845, i.e. a four-way rounded keypad with a play/pause button in the middle. Just a little at the top-left of the keypad is the back/home button while on the right is a option/power button. On the right side of the player there’s a hold switch and volume controls at the top. Finally below the player, you’ll find the 3.5 mm audio jack and Sony’s proprietary WM port.

Coming to the formats that the E454 supports, it’s almost a crime that there’s no FLAC support or even AVI support for audio and video files respectively. While it does support MP3, WMA, AAC-LC for audio, video formats are AVC (H.264/AVC), MPEG-4, Windows Media Video 9 and AAC-LC. The player has 5 EQ presets and 2 custom presets and there are other sound enhancement settings like Dynamic Equalizer, Virtualphones Technology and others.

The ports and buttons sit pretty

The ports and buttons sit pretty

 


The player holds 8 GB of media and is bundled with a proprietary cable, earphones and an attachment to support the player while it charges.

All that said, the player is designed and finished well but coming to the earphones, they disappoint in the fact that they are plain ear-buds and not in-ear monitors. Also, the build of the earphones is very average with the wire’s plastic being soft and thus getting entangled easily.

Nicely built and finished well

Nicely built and finished well

 


Performance
After a solid design, we are looking for a solid performance but do we get to see that? Let’s find out whether the E454 plays loud and strong.

Still pictures could have looked better

Still pictures could have looked better

 


With all those equalizer settings and more options for sound enhancement, the E454 is one PMP that sounds really good and manages to do so even on default. While the highs and lows are very nice and clear, the mids are pretty decent too. While it was easier to hear the vocals, somehow the drums felt a little low. Some slighter details in a song might possibly go unnoticed, but you can tweak those with the wide range of audio settings.

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Tags:

Sony , Walkman , NWZ-E454 , PMP

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The ratings awarded to a product are derived from a number of tests and calculations, keeping certain important factors in mind. These factors consist of features, performance, quality and value for money. In case of software and some other categories, build quality might be replaced with ease of use or ease of installation. Products are compared with other products in a similar price range or product category.


Features
The features component of the score is rated based on the kind of features present on a particular product. Features are a big part of what people look for when they’re buying a new product such as a phone or a camera.

Performance
The performance score is derived from the benchmarks and tests run on the product. In case of the subjective scores, an average of the scores given by the group of reviewers is considered.

Build Quality
The build quality of a product is important so that it doesn’t fall apart after some use. The build quality scores from the way the product is designed and the kind of materials used in the product.

Value
Value for money comes from the fact that a cheap product is able to provide most of the performance of a higher priced product. Once again, value for money is judged by comparing pricing and performance of products in a particular price range or category. 

There are many other aspects of the product that are looked at such as the bundled software and accessories. All of these scores are aggregated together to form the final score.

What do the ratings mean?

Ratings are simple - higher the score, the better the product. A brief listing of the features and what they mean are given below.

1 - 3

The product is bad in almost every aspect. We strongly advise against purchasing this product.

4 - 6

An average product that isn't the best you can buy, but isn't the worst either.

7 - 8

Product with this rating is highly recommended because it's priced sensibly, has a good set of features and performs well.

9 - 10

Exceptionally excellent product with features and performance unlike any we've seen in the past. A must-have for everyone!

What is the Average User Rating?

We at Tech2 take product reviewing very seriously and every product is tested with the utmost care and level of objectivity. The end user who buys a particular product and uses it over an extended period of time has his own take on a product and there might be nuances that he or she can shed light on. The Average User Rating is present to help readers get the complete picture of how good or bad a product is. The Average User Rating is calculated by averaging the ratings by the thousands of readers visiting Tech2.com every single day. To record your own rating of a product, simply click on the user rating bar. If you disagree with our ratings or our community's product rating, please don't hesitate from voicing your opinion in the comments section below the review.

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