There was a day not so long a go when the Sony Walkman dominated the portable music player market the same way that today the Apple iPod dominates the market. Those days are gone and Sony have been playing catch up to Apple in the MP3 generation of portable music players ever since the iPod’s launch
Cheapest Online Price - Amazon £84.28
As an alternative to the iPod Nano you might consider the Sony NWZS544B S Series 8GB Walkman or it’s full title “Sony NWZS544B S Series 8GB Walkman with Built-In Stereo Speakers”. It offers some nice features that the nano is lacking and coming from Sony gives you the quality product yo would expect from a leading brand.
When the 5th generation iPod nano launched in 2009, it’s big new feature was the built in video camera, Sony’s added feature here is the built in speakers giving you stereo sound in your pocket able to be played out loud and not on headphones.
This series of the Walkman does not come with a camera or video camera, but it’s about the only area of functionality that iPod nano tops the Walkman and the Walkman offers more over the nano than just it’s built in speakers.
First major area that this series of the Sony Walkman tops is price, the 8gb iPod will cost you £105+, whilst the Sony NWZS544B S Series 8GB Walkman is currently available on Amazon at just £84.28 that’s over £20 cheaper. This Walkman gives you an amazing 42 hours audio playback from just a two and half hour charge, whilst the nano takes 3 hours to give you a much smaller 24 hours.
The iPod as with most other mp3 player does look sleeker, feel lighter and is physically smaller than the Walkman, but this Walkman is not a million miles away on style as many other mp3 players are, you get slightly bigger screen with Walkman and almost as good resolution than nano – but you can get the nano in 7 colours (8 if you count the special red one) whilst the Walkman comes in just black or red.
All in all myself personally over the iPod Nano and Sony NWZS544B S Series 8GB Walkman would probably save my £55 and get the Walkman, the only real advantages the nano holds over Walkman is style and a video camera – which is pretty useless and low quality in my opinion. The speakers on the Walkman is a nice touch and although when home I would dock my mp3 player, there is many occasion when you want to sha your music with friends and sticking one your headphones in their ears is not what you want to do! If you’re style conscious or had your heart set on a pink mp3 player then you may well still opt for the nano but if you enjoy a quailty built small mp3 /video player with a good amount of memory and very good features then Sony NWZS544B S Series 8GB Walkman is for you. Just £84.28 on Amazon today – cheapest price we could find!
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Winner | |
| Sony NWZS544B S Series 8GB Walkman | iPod Nano | ||
| Size (mm) | 99.3 x 10.2 x 49.3 | 90.7 x 6.2 x 38.7 | iPod Nano |
| Weight (grams) | 68 | 36.4 | iPod Nano |
| Style | Good | It’s Apple | iPod Nano |
| Capacity | 8GB | 8GB & 16GB | Draw |
| Price | £84.00 | £105 to £135 | Walkman |
| Sound Output | 5mw | 60 mW amplifier | iPod Nano |
| Sound Quality | Very Good | Very Good | Draw |
| Display (diagonal) | 2.4-inch | 2.2-inch | Walkman |
| Display (Resolution) | 240 x 320 | 376 x 240 | iPod Nano |
| Camera | None | None | Draw |
| Video Camera | None | 0.3 megapixel | iPod Nano |
| FM Radio Tuner | Yes | No | Walkman |
| Built-in Stereo Speakers | Yes | No | Walkman |
| Colours | Black or Red | Black, silver, green, blue, purple, orange or pink | iPod Nano |
| Audio Life | 42 hours | 24 hours | Walkman |
| Video Life | 6.5 hours | 5 hours | Walkman |
| Full-charge time | 2.5 hours | 80% in 1.5 hours | Walkman |
| Build Quality | It’s a Sony | It’s Apple | Draw |
| Supports | MP3, AAC, L-PCM and WMA (DRM) for music; H264/AVC, WMV (DRM) and MPEG-4 for video | AAC, Protected AAC , HE-AAC, MP3, MP3 VBR, Audible, Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV | Draw |
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I’ve been using iPod MPs for almost 8 years. From iPod shuffle(1st gen) to 3rd Gen iPod touch, it was quite good for a music lover like me to have apple’s famous music player. But in latter times, I decided to try Sony’s MP, the S545. What can I say, for almost 8 years of being an iPod user, I decided to switch to walkman. It’s not the name, nor the design, but the Sound Quality is superb. Walkman S series is uncomparable to Cowon MPs(I also do have a Cowon S9) which is for audiophile. But for an iPod alternative, the Sony S 545 is a bit mile away from it in terms of SQ.