Now, when I first opened it up on Christmas day, I was pretty excited: this was a pretty big upgrade from my last model (it got run through the washer and dryer). This was an 8 GB heavyweight. Well, it was compared to my little 4 GB. But right off the bat, I hit a major flaw: The computer didn’t recognize the MP3! I spent at least 6 hours total messing around with the computer’s settings, looking info up online, and was on the phone with Sony for 2 ½ hours, talking for 45 minutes, and on hold for the rest of it. So that’s my first complaint: the support system is pretty bad. Eventually, we figured out the problem. Apparently, my older version wasn’t compatible with my USB ports. Some security feature so people couldn’t just get music from their friend’s computer I suppose. But now, my computer is totally useless for putting any music on the MP3!

So, I drag out a laptop and use it. There we go. So I download Windows Media Player 11, which comes in a little mini CD. It also had a free trial of Napster and a user guide. Once I downloaded WMP 11, I find out that this model doesn’t really run off of it – the model uses Content Transfer. So I download that, and restart my computer a second time.

I put all the music from the laptop, roughly 1,050 songs, onto the MP3, which took about 30 minutes, so Content Transfer is a pretty good tool. I had only taken up about 3 GBs of space on the Walkman, so logic says I should have around 5 more GBs left. But just to run the functions of the MP3, it needs almost 800 Megabytes. But at least now I have songs on it.

The sound is pretty good for a Walkman. There are a few equalizer sets for categories like Jazz and Rock, plus 2 sets you can edit yourself. But unlike other versions, there’s no way to change the ‘atmosphere’, like a studio, or a stage, which was a really cool feature. In general, the older versions’ interfaces were much better. Before, you could scroll down when a song’s playing, highlight the Album or Year, hit okay, and it would show you all the songs in that category. Now, it just underlines them. I’ve replaced those songs, since I only listen to about 400 of them, so sometimes trying to find a song takes an extra few seconds, but nothing major. Speaking of wasting time, whenever the Sony’s been off for a few minutes, if you turn it back on, you have to wait for the MP3 to ‘Create Library.’ Every single time.

They’ve also taken off the functions of ‘Shuffle’ and ‘Time Machine.’ The feature known as ‘Time Machine’ would choose at random a year, and play all the songs from that year. No more. Shuffle, on the other hand, is a bit more complicated. There used to be an application called Intelligent Shuffle, which would shuffle the songs, but put the songs you listen to more often near the front of the list. Now, instead of choosing Intelligent Shuffle, it’s implanted every time you hit just Shuffle. So in a sense, it’s NOT shuffle. Plus, unless you choose a specific song to start out with, the first song alphabetically on the list begins playing. So thanks to that, Shuffle seems to always make that song pop up second.

Physically, the nwz-e438f is better than its cousins. It has a slimmer, sleeker design and is made of a clear, almost glass-like looking plastic, instead of the grey bland color of older models. The screens are about the same – if they’re any different, it’s barely noticeable. Compared to Zunes and iPods, it’s pretty smudge resistant on the screen. The volume control is a rocker, like before, only this time there’s barely a noticeable space between up and down, so you might blast your ears out trying to tone it down. Also, if you want to stick it in your pocket, it has to go in upside down, since the headphones go into the bottom. Its physical design somewhat resembles a slimmed down Zune.

Not only is it a music player, it can hold pictures and video. Pictures work just fine – drop your JPEG files into Content Transfer and it’s done. The Sony will slide-show through the pictures until the screen goes dark, which is about 30 seconds (and can’t be changed). Videos are a bit more complicated. The Sony will only accept certain types of formats. Unfortunately, I have yet to find a freeware or website that will convert things like YouTube videos into the correct format. Blaze Media Pro will do it, but that trial version only lasts 15 days, and after that, you can’t re-download it. So if you want to put videos on it for more than 15 days, you’ll have to buy the full software. Why couldn’t that be on the disk?

In general, the newer model pales in comparison to its predecessor, both in physical handling and the functions it provides. For those of us that prefer quality over quantity, this isn’t the best MP3 to buy. But, for the people who are just looking for a way to have a few thousand songs, a couple of pictures, and some videos, the Sony NWZ-E438F Walkman can be yours for only around $80 USD.