The latest in the series of Sony Walkmans, the Sony Walkman NWZ-w202 offers an innovative take for the gym-goers. It looks like the offspring of a Bluetooth headset, a couple of earphones and in some senses, a stethoscope. Well, this is a futuristic-looking 2GB mp3 player with integrated earphones and a practical all-in-one design. The only wire is the sturdy cord which connects the two halves and wraps around the back of your head.
All the player's controls are situated on the right half, with a jog-dial responsible for power, play/pause and track skipping. There is a volume control button too, but that's it as far as the buttons go.
When the walkman is not in use, the NWX-W202's magnetic headphones connect ot each other neatly.This also acts as the power switch - you simply snap the two together to switch the player off.
Now while ythe device is easy enough to use and the audio reproduction steals a clear march over the Shuffle's tiny earphones, navigating aroung the 2GB of music isn't the easiest. In theory, the Zappin navigation system is meant to play back recognisable snippets from each tune to help you quickly find the sond, but in reality, it picks out random snatches of the music to the accompaniment of a tacky zappon noise. Not cool at all, specially when compared to the VoiceOver of the Shuffle. And yes, the W202 does not support any playlist, quite a big let down.
But still, because of the good sound quality, easy wearability, the W202 makes a good choice for health fanatics.
