Sony’s NWZ B143F Walkman
Head banger: The Sony USB-drive-based MP3 player.
Impact. Rumble. Suave. Jiggy. Bongo. Headbutt. Or even Dropkick. I could think of any number of cooler names for Sony’s latest USB-drive-based MP3 player. Why do people even name their devices “NWZ B143F”? Yes we’ve ranted about this very problem in
Lounge before but, alas, no one at Sony’s marketing department seems to be listening.
Try as I might, I just can’t see fashionable music fans flaunting their Sony B143Fs in front of their iPod-toting friends. But just imagine if a little branding had happened:
Boy 1: “Your player sucks compared to my iPod Shuffle…”
Boy 2: “Oh, this. This is my Sony Fatal Tsunami Attack MP3 player…”
Boy 1: “Drool, swoon, drool...”
What a pity. Especially because there is much to like about this feisty, capable little music player that is impressive, despite the yawn-with-mouth-wide-open USB-drive design it is cursed with.
The good
The B143F test piece we received came with a glossy red finish on the display and controls side, and a more sober and sturdy rubberized finish on the other: a nice mix of macho and metrosexual. The little Chiclet-sized screen is very bright and you should have no trouble figuring it out in any light condition.
As with most Sony MP3 devices, the sound quality was quite good. (Disclaimer: We tested it with a pair of tried and tested Panasonic in-ear phones that tend to give all devices a little fillip.) And if listening to the powerful device at full volume isn’t enough, Sony has built in a little bass-boost button on one side that significantly ups the low frequencies in a flash.
This is actually quite a smart feature to have. With most such crammed devices, managing the audio equalizer, if there is one at all, can be quite painful. You need both acute eyesight and reedy fingers to manoeuvre through the menus. So a bass boost in one step is a good thing.
And if the 4GB on-board memory fails to deliver sufficient music variety, there is always the FM radio function. The player also has a good audio recording functionality that can be activated with a single button press. Perfect for sting operations (recordings are in the form of WAV files and eat up around 1.5MB per minute).
The highlight of the player, however, was the 70-minute charging facility. Plug it into a computer USB port and it’ll be ready to go in just over an hour. And the company website promises 90 minutes of operation at just 3 minutes of charging.
The not-so-good
While strolling around Connaught Place in New Delhi one evening, I noticed that every time the earphone wires moved, the quality of the FM radio signal wavered. And that too in a disconcerting fade in, fade out way. As if you were running towards and then away from a speaker entirely randomly. I felt giddy after a while and had go inside a KFC and order a burger. To recuperate.
Talk plastic