CNET Editor's rating: 7.7 out of 10
Reviewed by
Jasmine France
Review date: 08/30/07
Release date: 08/31/07
The good: The Sony NWZ-S610 series features a compact design with a high-quality feel and an ample screen. The user interface is intuitive, and there are plenty of features to choose from, such as an FM radio and photo and video playback. No more awful SonicStage software: this Walkman is a PlaysForSure device supporting subscription tracks as well as unprotected WMA, MP3, and even AAC files. The player offers good sound quality and an excellent rated battery life.
The bad: The Sony NWZ-S610 series doesn't offer any exceptional new technology, and there are cheaper competitors that offer the same features.
The bottom line: The Sony NWZ-S610 series Walkman doesn't bring anything striking or new to the table, but that doesn't change the fact that it's a quality MP3 player with nice extras and a killer battery life. Plus, Sony got rid of SonicStage--the best news ever.
Hallelujah! Sony has done away with its horrible SonicStage software and is opting to go the PlaysForSure route with all of its new Walkman players. Yes, that's not the most traditional way to start a review, but we couldn't bear to place this most exciting tidbit anywhere but at the top, so there you have it. The death of SonicStage comes wrapped up in two nice new MP3 players, the NWZ-A810 and the NWZ-S610, a series of compact flash players that is the subject of this review. Of course, an improved software relationship isn't the only thing this device has going for it. While it doesn't bring anything new to the table in the scheme of MP3 players, the NWZ-S610 is a quality device with desirable extras and an excellent rated battery life.
Simple, sleek, and understated
The newest series of Walkmans comes in a variety of capacity/color combos. You can go with a 2GB ($120) S-615 version in black, pink, red, or silver; a 4GB ($160) S-616 model in the same choice of colors; or the more capacious 8GB S-618, which comes only in black and will set you back $210. It's not the cheapest player on the block--the Creative Zen V Plus, which offers roughly the same features, runs 30 to 40 bucks cheaper. However, the NWZ-S610 offers a more sophisticated design with a larger (1.8-inch) screen and a higher-quality feel. It's also a little larger overall, measuring 3.1 inches by 1.6 inches by 0.4 inch, though whether this is a good or bad thing depends on the user. It's certainly pocket-friendly.
Below the ample screen, the NWZ-S610 offers a similarly well-proportioned control pad. A central play/pause key is surrounded by four tactile directional arrows, which are used for skipping tracks and navigating menus. Happily, volume is handled via a dedicated rocker on the right spine of the device. The front of the player also houses the ever-handy back/home and power/option (contextual menu) buttons. A hold switch can be found on the left edge of the device, while the top and bottom contain the standard 3.5-millimeter headphone jack and proprietary USB port, respectively.
Easy navigation and easier syncing
In general, the Walkman is a snap to use. This is in large part due to a lovely, icon-driven main menu on the device itself, but we can't forget the absence of the requirement to load music via SonicStage--that's a huge help on the software/transfer side of things. Transferring songs, including subscription playlists from Rhapsody, is a breeze, and the NWZ-S610 plays oh-so-nicely with Windows Media Player for syncing any content. Supported formats include MP3, WMA, and AAC for audio; AVC (H.264/AVC) Baseline Profile and MPEG-4 for videos; and JPEG for photos. If you get tired of your own content, you can tune into the onboard FM radio, which offers an autoscan feature and 30 preset slots.
Delving into the various content menus proffers different results, all of them straightforward and easy to navigate through. Oddly, playlists cannot be accessed through the music menu, but have their own icon on the main menu screen. Within music, you can sort by album, artist, and so on--navigating by album is particularly nice as there's an option to do so by cover art. Once you dig down into the tracks, there's a useful twist-like interface feature. You can navigate down lists using the up and down keys, but press the right or left ones and you're taken through sections, such as 0 through 9 and A through D. This is quite handy for getting quickly through long lists. The photo menu offers a lovely 3x4 thumbnail grid, and videos are listed with their titles and a handy thumbnail still shot. It's a polished interface overall, and it makes browsing pleasant.
Sound and settings
In addition to the various features mentioned previously, the Sony NWZ-S610 series offers various audio and display settings. For example, you can flip the screen orientation in order to view photos and videos in landscape mode ("wide-screen")--a convenient feature. You can also choose to view full-screen album art while listening to music, rather than a thumbnail with song info on the playback screen. The player also has the standard playback modes (shuffle, repeat, and so on), and there's a snazzy EQ section that offers a graphic representation of the presets (five in all, plus two user-defined modes). Then, of course, there are the various sound-enhancement tools--Digital Sound Enhancement (DSE), Clear Bass, and Clear Stereo--which honestly don't do much, but they do offer a little improvement. Finally, there are the surround sound effects, for those who want to feel like their listening in an arena or at a rave.
Sony has never had trouble with MP3 player performance (except if you include the performance with its software)--the NWZ-S610 is no exception. As we've come to expect from Walkman players, the rated battery life is fantastic: 33 hours for audio and 8 hours for video. CNET Labs was able to eke out a slightly less impressive 25.2 hours for audio, and a pretty appalling 1.9 hours for video. Photos look very good on the bright color screen, with nice detail and excellent color saturation. Video is similarly impressive, though we wouldn't want to watch more than 20 to 30 minutes on this size of screen. Sound quality for music was fine through the included headphones, but much better through a pair of Shure SE530s (any high-quality earphones should do the trick). The NWZ-S610 series offers nice, tight bass; rich, enveloping mids; and clear, sparkly highs--what more can you ask for, really?
10 out of 10 - Perfect One of the BEST
I've been a ipod user for about three years? last week I bought the new ipod classic but took ...
I've been a ipod user for about three years? last week I bought the new ipod classic but took it back due to its slow software and same old design?. Then I looked at the ipod touch but immediately said no after hearing all the problems with screen? I've always liked sony but hated their software? so after hearing that sony got rid of their "software" I went to a sony store to try out these new walkmans and let me tell you, ipod's sound quality is not even close to sony's. Sony nwz-s618 is not as big as it looks in pictures, matter of fact it's really tiny. Differences between nwz-A818 and nwz-S618 are that A818 comes with MDR-EX082 Headphones and S618 has a fm tuner. Headphones that come with S618 are pretty decent. A618 screen size is 2 inches comparing to S618 1.8 inches. I picked S618 because of solid look/feel and fm tuner. Transferring files are fairly easy with drag and drop (including videos & pictures) or you can also use windows media player. There's an extra option of browsing files by folder. It's a great player & much much better than the ipods. Only thing I would recommend is that I wish sony could add more memory?. What more can I say, I just love my walkman Read more
by D23S (see profile) -
September 16, 2007
10 out of 10 users found this user opinion helpful.
8 out of 10 - Excellent Better than an iPod
I can't believe that nobody has mentioned this MP3 player's biggest selling point: You load music onto it ...
I can't believe that nobody has mentioned this MP3 player's biggest selling point: You load music onto it through drag 'n' drop! That's right - you can load music onto the player whether you are running Windows, Mac OS X, Mac OS 8.5, Linux, FreeBSD, Syllable, etc... absolutely no software required, your operating system just needs to support the basic USB mass storage driver.
When you load music onto the player and unplug it, it automatically rebuilds its own music database. This is a clever innovation that makes a lot of sense.
The audio quality is excellent, and Sony's ClearBass feature gives amazing bass response without distortion. There is a full graphic equaliser too.
The user interface is quite nice looking, which is a bonus. It's not rocket science to navigate either. One amazing part of the player (amazing to me, since I'm used to an HDD player) is that when you switch on the player, it immediately goes back to the exact part of the song you were listening to. When I say "immediately", I mean that it's playing again within a fraction of a second. Battery life is reportedly 33 hours for music, and so far my player is on track to achieve this.
The build quality is good, except for the lanyard. For some reason, I got a bonus lanyard with my player (included in the shipping carton), but it's impossible to feed it through the little hole. That's a bit disappointing. You do get a little plastic cradle which you're meant to put onto the optional charger accessory, but I found that the cradle was stable enough to keep the player standing upright on its own.
My other quibble is quite a major one actually. I have been trying for days to get video onto this MP3 player. You need such ridiculously precise specifications for the video, that your encoder is unlikely to meet all these specifications. As yet, all my attempts at encoding video for this thing have met with failure. I haven't given up yet, but would you really expect an ordinary person to go through all this struggle? Let's hope the upcoming Walkman software from Sony will help the situation.
All in all I've been happy with this MP3 player. Sound quality is good, build quality is solid, features are good, and its ease-of-use for transferring music makes iTunes look like Gentoo. If Sony can release a firmware update that loosens up the video format requirements, or include a Wine-compatible video encoding tool, they're onto a winner.
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by 3rdalbum (see profile) -
October 26, 2007
5 out of 5 users found this user opinion helpful.
10 out of 10 - Perfect Much better than a 7.3/10
CNET should have given this player better than a 7.3. I come to this site whenever I want to ...
CNET should have given this player better than a 7.3. I come to this site whenever I want to research electronics, but I find it irritating that CNET places so much importance on fancy features and style, while focusing less on practicality and quality. Electronics manufacturers respond by putting out shiny, snazzy gadgets with cool features that are poorly designed and not fun to use.
I've owned 2 iPods, a Creative Zen Micro-Photo and a Sandisk Sansa e280. I gave this a ten because it is the best mp3 player I have ever used. However, Sony should have included on-the-go playlists.
Navigation with this player is superb. Forget scroll-wheels or touch-pads or fancy-pants impractical touch-screens. The right and left arrows move through the artist list alphabetically. The up and down arrows are then used to select your choice. So simple. The "Now Playing" screen can be returned to from anywhere. Also there are 2 custom equalizer settings and playing around with them is a treat when the sound quality is so good. Also there is a loop in the side for a lanyard. Get the hard clear case from Sony. It makes the player much easier to hold and use. Get the player as well.
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by xanderk84 (see profile) -
December 30, 2007
3 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
9 out of 10 - Spectacular best all around player on the market
I finally am happy with my setup. I have tried Ipod, Zen and others nothing comes even close to this ...
I finally am happy with my setup. I have tried Ipod, Zen and others nothing comes even close to this unit. The most important thing a MP3 player can do is to sound good. The sound on this play blew me away! Its important to understand that the stock earbuds that come with this unit and ever other unit are mediocre at best. A few years back I decided to invest in some high quality earbuds. I ended up with the Shure e4 and then went and had custom fitted ear pieces make from Westone. Believe me when I say that upgrading to good earbuds makes a huge difference! This unit really strives at the following features above most: - Clean sound (as I stated above... much better than others I have tried) - No software needed to upload. (what a blessing this is) - Instant start of mp3 files. (Others I have tried take a second or 2 before the mp3 starts) - Easy to navigate. (Song db is updated from ID3 tags automatically after undocking) - Very long battery life (I only have to charge this unit every couple of weeks verses every day or 2 with others)
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by theweblord (see profile) -
December 16, 2007
3 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
9 out of 10 - Spectacular Tremendous!
I just unloaded my Sansa e280 for this, and it's superfine. Sound options and quality are top notch. I ...
I just unloaded my Sansa e280 for this, and it's superfine. Sound options and quality are top notch. I checked out the new Nano "fatty" in store two weeks ago and i'm glad i didn't bite. Video is vivid, navigation is a snap, and it feels rock solid. The only disppointment is the lack on an intelligent fast foward. Much of my music library is composed of one hour+ DJ sets and getting to the middle of one takes a while. Only the Toshiba Gigabeat S (other than the iPod) would speed up when fast forwarding through a long track.
Sony just dropped the price for the 8GB version to $160, while the Nano 8GB sells for $200. The Sony NWZ-S618 is now a ridiculous bargain.
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by smashie˛ (see profile) -
October 19, 2007
9 out of 10 - Spectacular excellent mp3 choice... better than ipod...
i just bought the sony nwz-s618 2 days ago, and until now im REALY satisfied with it. Actually i was ...
i just bought the sony nwz-s618 2 days ago, and until now im REALY satisfied with it. Actually i was hesitating between purchasing the 8gb ipod or this sony mp3, which are approximately the same price, and i can say that i dont regret my choice at all. This player fits perfectly in the palm of the hand, and the control buttons are very easy to use, the design is very stylish (all the i-pod users i knew were jealous of it :P)the startup is INSTANT, like the ipod. The video and sound quality are perfect. Until now, i have not encountered any problem at all, lets hope it continues like this (of course a one year warranty is supplied, and i thk we can trust sony for the quality) However, i find that the earphones supplied with the player are a bit long. Another con is that no protective case is supplied, and if u wanna buy one separetely it will cost you 30$ more, which is more expensive than the ipod covers. Overall its an EXCELLENT mp3 choice, go for it in stead of ipod, u wont regret it, I dont understand y the editor only rated it 7.7
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by victor1216 (see profile) -
December 14, 2007
2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
9 out of 10 - Spectacular Excellent!! Needs more memory though.
Good eq, bright sound that stays clear even when you turn up the volume (not good w/full size headphones ...
Good eq, bright sound that stays clear even when you turn up the volume (not good w/full size headphones though). Video is crystal clear but you need to convert and theres no software included (included in Asia). Need to have at least 16gb cause I have a lot of music but sony made it worth the loss of space for such a good product.(waiting for the A910 series without the tv feature to come to the US. Also, it has a 2.4 inch screen) Overall, this has to be 1 of the best mp3 players out. I'd give it a 10 if it were 16gb!!!!
Updated I'm not going to add anything about this except that it needs more ram (16gb instead of 8)to be PERFECT. And cnet only getting 1.9 hrs of battery life is BULL as I managed to get about 6hrs and still had half a tank left!!! Damn guys, somebody is a screw-up or you had a defective unit. This new walkman is the BOMB( but still get better headphones - LOL).
9 out of 10 - Spectacular Anti-I-pod coalition
I'm not sure why but I've been an I-pod hold out. I was waiting for Apple to come ...
I'm not sure why but I've been an I-pod hold out. I was waiting for Apple to come out with a Video Nano with decent storage capacity because I didn't want anything with an actual hard drive. Now that they have I'm not all that impressed especially since sound quality is not the best(from reveiws that I've read) and it's still pricey. Also, I'm not a big fan of the I-Tunes software. The NWZ-S618F is super easy to use either with Windows Media Player or just "drag and drop." Sound and Video are great and when in my pocket I don't even know it's there. Size and weight were big deciders for me. The only difficult part was getting video to work but that was an easily solved problem.
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by xXJoe LXx (see profile) -
November 4, 2007
2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
9 out of 10 - Spectacular I happy with this thing!
Alright... I've never had an MP3 player before, though I've been wanting to get one for quite some ...
Alright... I've never had an MP3 player before, though I've been wanting to get one for quite some time. The trouble is that I don't like to spend money, and being sort of a tight wad, I kept putting it off. After finally making the decision to take the plunge, I started doing research.
Looking at various web sites (I mainly rely on customer reviews), I decided to stay away from iPod and Zune (didn't want to be chained to iTunes nor Zune Marketplace). I almost chose either the Sansa e280 or the Sansa View, when I happened to stumble upon these cute little Sonys.
From the customer reviews, the common theme about the Walkmans was the incredible sound quality they featured compared to everything else on the market. That basically sold me. (The Coiwon units also were deemed to have great sound, but at $350 or so, it was way out of my range.)
I ordered mine from Amazon on New Year's Eve for $143, no tax, no shipping charges (sweet!). Plus, Amazon gave me $5 credit on their MP3 service (double sweet!). Received it on Jan 15th, and have loved it ever since. The Windows Media player it came with was simple to install and set-up, and getting tunes to this baby was much easier than I thought. I have no other MP3 player to compare this thing to, but I love the sound quality. And this sucker is easy to use. The interface is intuitive, and I didn't need to read the manual.
Some cons... The ear buds were pretty decent, but the left side kept falling out of my ear, which was quite annoying. A couple of days ago, I picked up the V-Moda Vibes from Costco ($69.99 with 90 day return policy), and the audio is even better. About the proprietary USB connection and the need to recharge through a computer, that pretty much blows. But hey, I can forgive this drawback. I used to work in audio electronics (I was the chief engineer on the Alesis Q20 in the late 90's -- only you older musicians might know what that is), and let me tell ya, it ain't easy to make a perfect piece of electronics. You make a lot trade-offs in design, and I suspect this USB thing is one of them for the Sony folks. No gapless playback... yes would nice to have this, but it's not really a big deal for me. Also, for you folks looking to buy one, the price is going up! The Amazon price of $143 is gone; they're now charging $163... up by 20 bucks! Even at Walmart, they went from $139 to $159!
Question... Did anyone buy either of the Sony cases for this thing? They sell the hard plastic one and the silicon rubber one. I ordered the silicon rubber from Amazon on Dec 31, but apparantly, it's out of stock. My projected ship date is in March! Anyone got comments of either of these?
Oh, and did I mention that the audio quality is great? I put a few of the tracks from the Gladiator movie sound track, and they are awesome on this thing!
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by DudeInLA (see profile) -
February 14, 2008
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
5 out of 10 - Average Great for listening to music! If you want video, avoid Sony.
This was my first mp3 player. I bought it for my son. I wanted a quality player that could also ...
This was my first mp3 player. I bought it for my son. I wanted a quality player that could also play video. I did quite a bit of research, but apparently not enough. The music part of this device is great. No problems there. Sound quality is excellent. Unfortunately I have been unable to load any video onto the player. Ironically the video I want to put on this so called "Video Walkman" is from my Sony cameras and video cameras. That requires extra software from Sony. Sony technical support told me the video conversion software I own (Roxio Creator 10) will not work on a Sony. I must purchase Image Converter or Media Manager from Sony. Interesting that they don't tell you that upfront. See for yourself. I also bought a Creative Zen 8 GB mp3 player. It came with software to convert video for the player. Their product does not require purchasing proprietary software. I'm not happy with Sony. I will remember this the next time I am in the market for any electronics.
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by medic2105 (see profile) -
March 31, 2008
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