• Review: Sony Walkman NWZ-E363/B (4 GB)

    Review: Sony Walkman NWZ-E363/B (4 GB)

    Nachiket 'therapist' Mhatre, Nov 10, 2011 2316 hrs IST

    Rather pointless.

    Comprehensive EQ control; Fast and simple UI; Clever button layout.

    Cheap plastics; Easily scratched screen; Lacks microSD slot; Lacks Mass Storage mode; Mediocre performance; Doesn't support FLAC and Ogg; Only WMV videos supported; Bundled earphones are terrible.

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Sony Walkman NWZ-E363/B (4 GB)
MRP: Rs 5000
Street Price: Rs 4400 (Infibeam.com); Rs 4700 (BuyThePrice.com); Rs 5000 (Flipkart.com)


Personal Media Players (PMP) and point-and-shoot cameras have virtually been rendered redundant by the do-it-all smartphones. Nevertheless, I swear by discrete PMPs for my music and video needs. The logic behind my insistence on a decent PMP is clear when you ask yourself why soldiers are outfitted with both a Swiss Army Knife and a combat knife. The answer's simple: when it comes to killing, the former has nothing on the latter.

Therefore, if you are a stickler for audio quality, it's better to leave your smartphone in standby mode and switch to something tailor-made for the task. What better candidate for music than the brand that pioneered portable audio? The Sony Walkman NWZ-E363 carries on the 30 year old legacy of the Walkman brand in a diminutive package capable of audio as well as video playback. Let's see how it measures up to the competition.


Review: Sony Walkman NWZ-E363/B (4 GB)


In this day and age, I won't be surprised if Disney were to sue Sony over this.



Who Is It Really Meant For?
The E363's form factor is slim, but isn't necessarily small enough for a 4 GB music player. That's because it can play video through its 2" LED-backlit screen capable of 262,144 colours (18-bit), while sporting pixel dimensions of 230x320. Although the PMP can fit without a sweat in the smallest pocket, its size is still a sore point for me. The only reason for its relatively bloated dimensions is the LCD panel, which is neither remarkable in terms of size nor quality. The large screen is rather wasteful if the PMP will be lying around in your pocket most of the time.

One look at the product page puts this dilemma into perspective. The E Series Walkmans are meant for basic video and audio needs, while the more expensive A Series variants feature fancy electronics for enhanced audio fidelity and large OLED screens for better video quality. However, at Rs 7000, the upmarket Walkman alternative is just Rs 2000 dearer for much better hardware. Alternatively, if you just seek basic audio playback, the B Series Walkman is conveniently portable and quite cheap as well at Rs 2500. Having compared the B and E Series Walkmans, I didn't find any noticeable difference in audio quality.


Review: Sony Walkman NWZ-E363/B (4 GB)


The mediocre screen is a scratch magnet.



There's no point being stuck with a bulky video-capable PMP, when audio capability is all you need. However, it's better to pay a bit more for dedicated video players if you want good video performance. Therefore, weigh your requirements carefully before homing in on the right model.


Design And Build Quality
The material and build quality of the E363 doesn't justify its Rs 5000 asking price. That doesn't mean it will readily snap into two. However, the quality of plastics and the fit and finish levels should have been a lot better. I spotted a worryingly large panel gap that shut when I pressed the chassis alongside its panel seams, only to open again when the pressure was released. The transparent plastic sheet protecting the screen and most of the face is a scratch magnet. This was evident by how the review piece had become worryingly hazy by the time I was done with it. I shudder to think of the LCD screen's visibility a year down the line.

Despite it's 2" screen, the PMP lasted well over 13 hours of continuous usage. That's considerably less than the claimed 30-hour battery life. In all fairness, I had kept the display at the brightest setting, while most of my audio was encoded in 320 kbps. I found the bundled earphones rather large for my ears, but they fit everyone else in the TechTree team without a hitch. However, they are so uncomfortable that your ears will hurt long before you realise how shitty they sound.


Review: Sony Walkman NWZ-E363/B (4 GB)


You're better off with good in-ear monitors.



The button layout shows promise, with three function buttons arranged in and around the D-pad. However, it is marred by a few awkwardly-placed function keys. The Play \ Pause button and the D-Pad - placed bang in the centre - make for quick navigation and playback control. The BACK \ HOME and OPTIONS \ PWR OFF keys cut through the upper half of the D-pad to resemble Mickey Mouse's head. This clever arrangement keeps all the crucial buttons within thumb's reach for effortless one-handed usage. Unfortunately, Mickey's ears should have been positioned a bit outwards, because those keys tend to foul with the left and right D-pad arrows. I have lost count of the number of times I have inadvertently pressed the ears instead of the L\R D-pad buttons.

The right edge of the PMP is empty, while the left edge bears a volume rocker as well as a slider for the Hold function. The bottom edge hosts a standard 3.5 mm TRS jack and mini-USB port employed for charging and data transfer. Speaking of which, the E363 only supports the MTP (Music Transfer Protocol) mode out of the box, which isn't pretty because it's a DRM-castrated mode that isn't as free as the standard MSC (USB Mass Storage Class) mode found in most PMPs, USB drives, external HDDS, or rather any USB storage device for that matter. Read these two interesting threads to know what I mean.


Review: Sony Walkman NWZ-E363/B (4 GB)



Review: Sony Walkman NWZ-E363/B (4 GB)


The volume rocker switch is conveniently placed.



A Fast And Efficient Interface
The UI is simple, smooth, and lag-free. It may not be as intuitive as Sony's own XMB interface, but the context-sensitive OPTION key brings up just the right functions that you would want to access in any menu. That way, no function is more than a couple of clicks away. The Videos, Music, Photos, and FM Radio shortcuts are arranged in a 3x3 matrix in the main menu, along with dedicated icons for the Clock Display, Playlists, and Settings menu.

The shuffle icon gives quick access to a random songs, while the Now Playing and Shuffle All keys take you directly to the music. Pressing the OPTION key in the Now Playing mode gives quick access to important functions such as playback settings and the five-band graphic equaliser. Flamboyant touch-based UIs may be good for show, but efficient old-school interfaces such as this get the same tasks done much quicker.


Review: Sony Walkman NWZ-E363/B (4 GB)


Sony's interface trumps that of the SanDisk, but the latter destroys it in audio quality.



Will It Outperform Your Smartphone?
With convergence devices on the rise, it doesn't make sense to evaluate the E363 on its own. It isn't enough to know how good the PMP is, but what needs to be seen is how well it performs against an average smartphone. That's why I pitted it against the Nokia 701 that I have been using for a few weeks now. At Rs 16,800, the 701 isn't really all that expensive by cellphone standards. For that asking price, Nokia has to put in a capacitive touchscreen panel, 1 GHz processor, 512 MB memory, an 8 megapixel camera, and 3G, Wi-Fi and GPS functionality.

Once that is put into perspective, it is clear that Sony's Walkman has a much larger budget to allocate just for music - a luxury beyond Nokia 701's means. The E363 should wear the 701's colon around its ankle then. However, that isn't the case. In fact, it's the other way around. With all audio enhancements switched off, the Nokia digs out a lot more detail than the Sony. The bass is tight and plentiful on the 701, whereas the dedicated PMP sounds anaemic.

The Sony features a five-band equaliser to fix its aural shortcomings, which also includes an additional band dubbed Clear Bass. No matter how much I played around with the equaliser, the E363 couldn't replicate the neutral tonality of the 701. The Clear Bass feature cannot augment the low-end without adversely affecting rest of the audio spectrum. The Sony Walkman then, simply cannot replace your smartphone.


Seriously, Who Is It Really Meant For?
While there is nothing severely wrong with Sony's PMP, it's let down by mediocre audio and video performance. The same money can get you much better dedicated PMPs from SanDisk and Cowon. For about the same price, you can buy an 8 GB SanDisk Sansa Fuze+, while another grand will get you the 16 GB version. Unlike the E363, the Fuze+ supports free and open audio formats such as FLAC and Ogg Vorbis. Audio quality-wise, the SanDisk is light years ahead, although a bit unwieldy due to the dumb capacitance touch interface.

However, if it's music that you're primarily interested in, it doesn't get any better than the SanDisk Sansa Clip+. Read the comments section of our PMP Buyer's Guide to know why the Clip+ humbles considerably more expensive PMPs such as the Cowon J3.

There's no easy way to put this, so I'll cut right to the chase. Considering the fact that it can neither outperform an average smartphone, nor match up to the dedicated PMPs in its price range and below it, there is absolutely no reason why you should buy the Sony Walkman NWZ-E363/B.


Performance: 3/5
Design And Build Quality: 2.5/5
Features: 3/5
Value: 2.5/5
Mojo: 2/5

Overall Rating: 2.5/5

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Discussion Board
(27) Comments
samdelcp
,delhi, on Nov 11, 2011 12:09 PM
ok let me clearfy my friend i always listen songs at 320 kbps mp3 and at normal equilizer and all enhancements off but n8 just doesnt sound deep bassy to me and whenever i think bass is lacking only then i use clear bass and nokia bass booster is useless. I just dont find sony sound signature cold to me it is little warmer nokia too sound warm. But you see the point equilisers are important too if apply gracefully like cowons which lacks bass on flat setting. And too me no one beat apple at flat and amature neutral listenings apart from heavyweights like hifiman or others.
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Nachiket
, TechTree, on Nov 11, 2011 12:21 PM
Like I said, it's all subjective. YMMW. The Sandisk Sansas can drive armatures with much lower impedances (almost to the point of shorting the circuit) than the Apple can - that too at a fraction of the cost. The sound quality is better as well on the cheaper SanDisks. Install rockbox, and the Rs 2500 Sansa will play 24-bit \ 96 KHz FLAC recordings like your $600 Hi-Fi Mans, which again the Apple's will NEVER allow. I agree on the Equaliser part, which is why I have included that feature as a positive point for the Sony in this review.
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Nachiket
, TechTree, on Nov 11, 2011 12:23 PM
Before I forget, your argument is rather moot because I had auditioned the E363 against the Nokia 701 and NOT the N8. In fact, I haven't heard the N8 at all.
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dude
,kochi, on Nov 11, 2011 10:13 PM
Most of my music's now in 16 bit 48Khz FLAC. There's little perceivable difference between that and a 320kps mp3 to an untrained ear, but it's still there. That's where good 'phones and players come in. A good music player or headphones are quite revealing about the source of music- they don't color the sound. So low-fi mp3-s would sound like crap when you listen to them on a high end setup and that's where products like the E-series Walkman and cheaper in-ears come in. They make bad recordings sound better than they really are. That's what equalisers do too. But, if your source is good and you have a pair of good cans, there's no need for tweaking the EQ-s either. Sony players usually have boosted lower frequencies than players like the Clip or the Fuze. That's exactly why the Clip+ is a benchmark product and most Sony Walkmans are never featured in an audiophile's wishlist.
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samdelcp
,delhi, on Nov 12, 2011 02:02 AM
@sachin, i differ to u on my personal exprience i got samsung u5 4gb and its rubbish as compared to 5130 its clear but not warmer at all and nokias are best in mobile music with iphone. Fact is good earphones are must but formost u should have high quality mp3 of 320 kbps. Problem is people tend to forget how to get best of their devices. Tell me how many people use secondary camera in a phone but if its not dere its deal breaker. I had nokia 6630 in early 2005 and it cost me 28000 that time and they highlighted 1.3 mp camera and 3g the future and god knows how many that phone died without using that feature. Have decent pmp or a decent multimedia phone have decent earphones and good bitrates of mp3 and aac, Then the difference is minimal between all phones and pmps
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Sachin
,Goa, on Nov 12, 2011 08:12 PM
Honestly most of us including me either get road side pirated music which is encoded at 128 kbps or download through internet so 320kbps is rarely used,which makes diffrence between best & second best PMP difficult to detect.
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dude
,kochi, on Nov 13, 2011 11:32 AM
You're right- a vast majority couldn't give two sticks about the quality of the source. But there are some who do care about that. Even then, it takes a good ear to pick out the extra details provided by the better encoding.
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dude
,kochi, on Nov 11, 2011 01:16 AM
For quite some time, almost all of Sony's products are duds. Their only usp-s are the Sony brand name and the design. The hardware tends to be strictly average. Sony at least used to ship in quality earphones with their gadgets but now it's not the case. I had listened to my boss's A-series Walkman and it's nothing special. My old Nokia 5320 sounded way more clean than that overpriced garbage.
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abhi
,New Delhi, on Nov 13, 2011 01:28 AM
U r clearly an anti Sony fan. Just google search about sony A845 and almost all the reviews by world's best known sites state it as the best sounding PMP. U and this article's reviewer don't have any knowledge about sound quality. U guys seem to be complete duds who r faking their knowledge abt sound quality.
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dude
,kochi, on Nov 13, 2011 11:21 AM
Me, an anti-Sony fan? Oh, really? Check out one of my posts that clearly says that I'm not one. Most of my gadgets are Sony's- my laptop, cell, still cam and a dv cam. My first music player was a Sony Walkman (cassette). My first and second third party headphones were Sony's. I'm calling a spade a spade- nothing more. The whole usp of the A-series walkman is noise cancellation which works with only the bundled headphones which in turn aren't the most clean sounding pair out there. Read up the old review on techtree. If you use a third party headphone, the noise cancellation doesn't work. The noise cancellation itself wasn't quite comfortable either- the SQ takes a hit. Finally, for a great pmp, it should support lossless codecs like flac, ape, etc. Sony supports neither. Even Apple has its own lossless codec- Apple Lossless. So, how can it possibly be the world's best sounding pmp without lossless codec support and when its headphones aren't the best around? For the price you're paying for the A-series, you can get the Cowon J3 which is leagues ahead in terms of SQ, sound customisation, format support, display size and quality. The only thing you'll be missing are the EX headphones, but if you are an enthusiast, you'll be having a pair of good cans yourself. btw, seems you're a Sony fanboy.
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samdelcp
,delhi, on Nov 12, 2011 02:10 PM
dude u are right see when i tried his hifiman 801 and ue 11 earbuds it was blast and then when i changed hifiman to j3 it sounds like disaster believe me whatever jeteffect i apply it sound jus bad and muffled, but see the point after listening to hifiman but before that they sounded great, and as a matter of fact i like bottom heavy sony and nokia and neutral earphones instead of neutral cowon iphone or sansa with bass heavy earphones. And to me i am well satisfied
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samdelcp
,delhi, on Nov 11, 2011 12:42 PM
dude there is little difference in sound quality between nokia 5800,n97,n8,x7,c7 and 701 all are brilliant for a mobile phone and 5130 i still regard as best apart n91. About cans i listens to my friends ultimate ear ue 11 pro custom headphones with hifiman 801 and ya at flac 24 bit. I know people dont even listen to 16 bit cd. But wat i mean is people pitted one player with other wat i saying is after reviewing player all guys mention how important is to get good headphones but not mentiong to rip at 320 kbps at mp3 to get good sound. For casual listener to me klisph s4 with 320 kbps is enough for me and now planning to switch to soundmagic they are great in bang for bucks and its great talking to u its my pleasure and i am a frequent reader of your site from 5 years
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dude
,kochi, on Nov 11, 2011 10:45 PM
Finally, something I agree here! The N91's undoubtedly the best Nokia for music! I never owned one but I've extensively auditioned them several times. Another coincidence is that my bro owns a pair of UE 11 Pros! I use them occasionally- but just for reference purposes. As you rightly said, the s4's good for casual listeners and everyday use- not for serious duty. May I ask which model of Soundmagic you're upgrading to? If it's the PL50, do note that they sound a bit cold and analytic. It's not biased to any genre of music and they're balanced armature 'phones. Do check out the Brainwavz M2. They aren't as cold sounding as the PL50-s and has a warmer sound with more bass. Hope this was helpful, friend.
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Nachiket
, TechTree, on Nov 12, 2011 04:02 AM
You have one rich brother! Those IEM's aren't even available here, so getting a pair requires loads of money as well as patience.
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dude
,kochi, on Nov 12, 2011 12:25 PM
My bro was in the States for a quite while. He got them made at that time. Luckily, our ears are really really similar- only difference is that mine's a bit bigger. So those things fit reasonably well for me.
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samdelcp
,delhi, on Nov 12, 2011 10:42 AM
ya u are right my friend has quite a larger ears then mine and they are just made for his ears but u know sometimes u just wanna listen to theirs musical soul and btw i got small ears and ue11 have large drivers,so its pain for me to hold them in for a long session. And do tell me dont you feel sony mdr ex57 got low volume and quite harsh in highs but they are amazingly lightweight and great to wear.
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samdelcp
,delhi, on Nov 12, 2011 12:32 AM
dude thanks for your opinion but i prefer soundmagic pl50 because my sony have warmer sound and i dont wanna have a superbass heavy m2 or m3. I want more soundstage and neutral earphones so to me pl50 is best and all and all to me thats all i needed but your are right if you want bass get the m2. I had sony mdr ex57 they were very comfortable to wear and great neutral sound but had bad build quality and were sometime hard and were too quite.
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Nachiket
, TechTree, on Nov 12, 2011 03:40 AM
So we are not very different at all. I too prefer accurate, neutral tonality over arrificially exciting and coloured sound. In fact, I use Sony MDR EX57 myself on the move. They are one of the most neutral earphones, for the price of course. One question though, do your friend's UE 11 Pros fit you without any discomfort. I wonder how that IEM can achieve desired seal when the mould isn't designed for you.
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sachin
,goa, on Nov 11, 2011 11:39 PM
I have nokia 5130 as well as a cheap 2k Transcend Player bought from flipkart. when paired with soundmagic PL30 and older creative EP-630, the Transcend player has better clarity then Nokia 5130 express music & thus even cheapest player from Transcend sounds better then Nokia music player. PMP makers like Transcend and cowon clearly mention the Signal to noise ratio(SNR) in product specification,but have not seen such thing in sony and sandisk player in their product manual. Transcend has 90db while cowon has 95db SNR. finally its the headphones that is the deciding factor. why is TT not reviewing some sandisk players?
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samdelcp
,delhi, on Nov 11, 2011 11:28 AM
wow what a anti sony review lol i got sony e444 8gb and nokia n8 man sony just destroy my n8 in audio quality with klisph s4.and bass dude clear bass is best and i have listened to a845 too apart from headphones e,s,a series all are same except b which is for casual listening. But i accept sony e series built quality is pathetic and nokia 5130 really gave my walkman a run for money but it was too slow in 4 gb card.
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Nachiket
, TechTree, on Nov 11, 2011 11:42 AM
You're over-reacting. I'm not anti-sony. If that were the case, I'd not have recommended the Sony BDV-E980 in the Diwali Buyer's Guide.
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Nachiket
, TechTree, on Nov 11, 2011 11:43 AM
Did you turn off Stereo Widening, Loudness, EQ settings, and other post-process bullshit while auditioning the N8? If you didn't, I am really not surprised the Nokia sounded that bad to you.
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Nachiket
, TechTree, on Nov 11, 2011 11:49 AM
I beg to differ on Sony's Clear Bass audio enhancement. It's barely bearable at the minimum setting, while it completely colours the rest of the audio spectrum at higher levels. Using Clear Bass to fix the PMP's lack of bass is just as counter-productive as wrapping your LCD screen with red gelatin paper to increase the colour temperature.
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Nachiket
, TechTree, on Nov 11, 2011 12:03 PM
Now that you mention your Klipsch S4, I had auditioned all the tested devices (Sony E363/B Series, Nokia 701, Sansa Clip+/Fuze+) with my Alessandro Grado Music Series 1i headphones, which are considered the best pair money can buy for $200. This isn't dick-measuring, but it needs to be clarified that I did employ much better hardware to ensure that the PMPs were the weakest links in the test setup. Having said that, audio quality is very subjective, because you are bound to find Auto-rickshaw drivers who will insist that their Himesh Reshammiya cassettes sound 10 trillion times better on their Sunny tape decks than your E444+Klipsh or my Sansa Fuze+Alessandro Grado MS1i setups. You can't really argue with that now, can you?
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dude
,kochi, on Nov 11, 2011 09:34 PM
samdelcp, I own a pair of Klipsch s4-s and they come nowhere close to the awesomeness of my new Grado SR60i-s. It doesn't even warrant a comparison against the A.Grado MS1-s which is higher up in the Grado family. After you've listened to a Grado, you'll find that the s4-s sound muddy, and that the bass is just boomy and thumping instead of being punctual and accurate. The mids are almost non-existent and the highs pale to that of the treble heavy Grados. I'm not even comparing the soundstaging (Hint: the s4-s don't win here either). However, It's a matter of taste- the s4-s are great for hip-hop & electronica while the Grados sound best with rock and metal (which I listen to mostly). But there's no denying that the MS1-s are clearly audiophile material. The s4-s are meant for the average joe who wants a better pair over the stock earbuds that come with their iPods.
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dude
,kochi, on Nov 11, 2011 10:25 PM
Don't take this the wrong way-I'm not an anti Sony guy (I use a Vaio and my cell's a Sony Ericsson). I used to be a big fan of them while cassettes were the norm and the only choice for quality portable music was the Walkman. It's not the case now. Sony takes it users for granted and most of their features are just marketing gimmicks. Stuff like Clear Bass and other enhancements are just there for the heck of it. Sony should really check out the stuff Cowon has in their players- the amount of control the user has over their music is astounding. However, no amount of enhancements can beat good hardware which the Sansa players have. The Fuze can drive balanced armature 'phones which are really difficult and tricky to drive (Heck, even some headphone amps struggle with those!). Try that out on a Creative or a Sony- it's bound to get messy. That itself speaks volumes about the Fuze. Sadly, it's quite under rated. Is it because it's a Sansa rather than an Apple or a Sony?
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dude
,kochi, on Nov 11, 2011 01:04 AM
Ah.. this's a review with a difference! This comment section's sure to be full of people flaming you for comparing a 5 grand mp3 player with a 15K smartphone. But you're right- many folks may not admit it, this sort of cross shopping happens. I've lost count of the number of times I've ditched buying a dedicated mp3 player and succumbed to buying a smartphone instead.
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