We admit we rolled our eyes when we first peeped the Sony S540 Walkman. A chunky, flash based PMP with a 2.4-inch screen? Welcome to 2007, Sony. But the S540 does have something unique to boast: a tasty set of speakers just as likely to sooth as anger the ears of anyone else on the bus. But is that enough to take the extra bulk? Read our full review Sony S540 Walkman to find out.
We’ll say it now. If you’re not interested in blasting your music out loud from your MP3 player like you can with the Sony S540 Walkman, go buy another Walkman. Sure, it sounds great when you’ve got buds plugged in, Walkmans are known for it. But you’re paying for the added bulk of those speakers, as non-touchscreen flash media players really shouldn’t be this big any more otherwise.
But we’ve got to hand it to Sony though for those baby boom boxes on the S540, as they’re quality. Sound is crisp and bass is hearty which is rare in something only one centimetre thick.
Things take a turn for the worse though when you switch to video. Movies look about as reasonable as they should on a QVGA screen, but guess what? There’s no Avi support on the S540 Walkman. Are we still stuck in a world where every file has to be converted? We have a BlackBerry that doesn’t ask questions when you load up video (of any standard resolution either), and it’s a phone.
Read our Sony W202 Walkman review
The buttons too on the Sony S540 Walkman feel like a strange decision. The circular control wheel’s hard to hit left or right on, since for some reason Sony has overlapped the menu buttons with it. That sounds like a minor complaint until you try to skip one track forward on it, before reluctantly scrolling all the way back the other way to get to it.
If you’re in the habit of playing music in the park while you’re reading a book, the Sony S540 Walkman is well worth picking up. And if you’re going to blast out tinny tunes on a crowded commuter train anyway, you could at least make it a bit more bearable for others with one. But otherwise, the speakers alone don’t excuse its shortcomings.
