Sony NWZ E443

The Mp3 player with a large enough screen to watch videos. It’s not an iPod killer, but not bad either.

Sony has recently introduced its NWZ E443K series of Mp3 players. Sadly, it has no memory card slot, and even the connector is proprietary, instead of a standard USB jack. But the linear phase speakers sound good and powerful, and its largish screen with two additional buttons make it easy to use.

With a battery life of 30 hours, this is an affordable Mp3 player with a screen. It has an FM tuner and recording capability. But the FM stereo only works with the headphones and not when it is on the dock. It takes two hours for a full charge, and 45 minutes for 80 per cent charge. The screen has a resolution of 240 x 320 (QVGA), so that you can watch some videos on it. But the body somehow felt very prone to scratches. The sound-enhancement features such as the dynamic normaliser, the clear stereo and clear bass functions make the player sound very sophisticated. Sony’s also made sure that you can use iTunes on it to synchronise your music. The bundled speakers and the adapter make sure you are not looking for an accessory the next day after purchase. Now, only if Sony had ensured the FM stereo and recording worked while docked.

MP3 player