IndiaSphere

The S in the new Sony Walkman S Series apparently stands for sensing. When Fujio Nishida talked about it, I thought the thing actually sensed your mood by some kind of magical sensors (which actually would have been amazingly cool) to play songs to match them. Unfortunately, you have to select the mood you are in from a list of eleven, which include themes like “Energetic”, “Relax”, “Upbeat” or “Hot as a Horny Bunny”.

The good: light, very thin (7.5mm thick), good finish in brushed aluminum for the faces and plastic for the rim. High quality earphones included, which actually sound very good unlike those other headphones included in you-know-who’s MP3 players. Good battery life, in theory: 40 hours of audio playback, 10 of video in its 2-inch screen. The mood sensing technology analyzes the music and makes a playlist on the fly. In theory, it sounds good.