Should I buy a E430?

[chrisagu28]

Well I had gone through a lot of MP3 players. I mean a lot, So much that best buy and circuit city don't know what to do with me. I used to have the P2 but my fingers are too big but it was a amazing mp3 player. Well one day Best Buy got the NWZ-A728B in stock and I bought it and it has been the perfect mp3 player for me since I bought it. Well I was making out with, now ex-gf, in the grass at night and I lost it. I have searched and searched. I have felt lost with out. Lucky I keep it sony with my psp and use it for music. But it is too big and the memory is too small.

Well its coming christmas time and It is time to buy another mp3 player. I am looking at the E438. Would it be close to the a728 I had? I read it now has a radio, where did the put the search button it used to have. I heard the screen is not as good but I get better battery life. Help me out. Thanks

[CrowdAds]

[Andreas]

You hear a lot of stuff, my advice would be to tell your source to stick it someplace as none of it is correct.

Radio isnt something "it now has", radio is something not all the modles have. There have been players released before the 720 with radio, so its not a new feature just not included in all models. ¨Search features on the S630 is in the music library menu, which is prob where they are on the E430 as well. The screen is the same resolution, so it'll look better because its smaller but it will be...smaller. With the A720 you didnt have BT so frankly theres little point in having that player at all IMO unless you really need the bigger physical screen. In every other sense the E430 will do. The buttons arent as nice as on the A720 but nothign serious. 10 hours more on the battery, smaller size and lower price should be a nice deal

[dmnoland]

You can see my review on the E-438.

[Wings]

I seen it on sale for $70. After I went to the 720 seires with the 2.4 screen the other player looks small. I still have my 816 as well.

Oh and the player is not the first one to come with an FM tuner.

[chrisagu28]

Thanks guys. I will keep all this mind. When I bought my old sony the bluetooth feature JUST came out. I have no need for bluetooth really. The only bluetooth feature I used was on the P2 and it was for my phone.

Do you know if the radio supports RDS? like the artist and such info like the P2 did? That was a feature I enjoyed. I hope I like the e430 like I did my old mp3 player. If not I might pick up the P2 again, maybe the p3 haha.

Does the screen difference really make a difference. The 2.4 was excellent but I don't strain my eyes trying to reading the screen.

[The DarkSide]

The Sony players do not support RDS for the FM tuner. As for the screen, it's up to you, as the larger 1 is just slightly better if you watch videos of video podcasts. I have the A829, I don't use the BT myself, and I never really watch video on it as the 16gb capacity is too small. I'm currently waiting for a S639 from the UK, and the screen on that is 2". And for me. personally, the FM tuner was a draw. My Zune 120 for main listening, my S639 for portable use (@work), and BOTH rock an FM tuner.

[Andreas]

Im surprised you even consider a P2 after having had a sony. Operating the P2 is like an old lady walking compared to sony players being like ninjas, you can practually take a nap while trying to navaigate the P2.

[chrisagu28]

Originally Posted by Cptnodegard

Im surprised you even consider a P2 after having had a sony. Operating the P2 is like an old lady walking compared to sony players being like ninjas, you can practually take a nap while trying to navaigate the P2.

well my first mp3 of this year was a p2. I loved that thing, but the navigation was slow, it would freeze at random times, i kept having problems with it but the touch screen and bluetooth phone feature I bought it. I used to have hard drive players all the time but I got into flash players cause there faster and MUCH smaller.

I just looking at other sony players. The reason I live the sony players is cause of the search function and the very fast UI. But what is the difference between the e430 and s630?

[welshie]

more EQ options, faster start-up (pretty much instant on s series) SensMe, much better menu and search navigation. Better headphones. ( the e series apparently recreates its library on every start up!)

The e-series is good for the average punter on the street wanting an OK player. The S series are for the audiophiles who like a player that sounds and works great.

[The DarkSide]

Originally Posted by welshie

more EQ options, faster start-up (pretty much instant on s series) SensMe, much better menu and search navigation. Better headphones. ( the e series apparently recreates its library on every start up!)

The e-series is good for the average punter on the street wanting an OK player. The S series are for the audiophiles who like a player that sounds and works great.

+1!!! That should sum it up nicely.

[Akhtar]

The s630 is excellent, considering its so cheap, I would rather get it over the E series.

Good luck choosing

[coldmark]

Originally Posted by welshie

more EQ options, faster start-up (pretty much instant on s series) SensMe, much better menu and search navigation.

Are you sure the menu is much better on the S630? When I see images of both, the main menus seem very similar so I assumed that they functioned about the same.

Also, are you sure the fast startup feature is not on the E430?

Thanks!

[welshie]

there are more options on the menus to do things and search categories- the e series has far less options. They will be similar but many features are not available or disabled on the e series.

Check out other posts in the forum on the e series- they rebuild the library on every start up allegedly.... but I am happy to be proved wrong...

[CDMP3PlayerFan]

I have both the NWZ-E438F and the NWZ-A816 and much prefer the A816. The main reason recently purchased the E438F was for the larger capacity (8GB) over the A816 (4GB).

My own experience with the E438F is that while it doesn't rebuild the library every time you start the player, it often does (especially when the player has been inactive for a while). In comparison, the A816 only builds the library when you disconnect it from the computer after adding/deleting files. Sometimes it only takes a few seconds (less than 30 seconds) for the E438F to rebuild the library, and other times it takes much longer.

Besides the library issue, another reason I prefer the A816 over the E438F is that the E438F often feels sluggish when I'm using it, especially when I've loaded a large number of files on it. As an illustration, when I loaded the player to near capacity and went to pull up my playlists it took several seconds to list all of them (it listed two or three of them and then after a few seconds it listed the rest). I've found that this is less noticeable when there are fewer files on the player.

As far as sound quality goes, the E438F sounds great. For me, the reduced number of sound-alternation features with E438F is a non-issue since I rarely use them. Both the E438F and the A816 have great default sound. To me, the screen and user interface of NWZ-E438F are as good as any of the recent Sony players.