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July 03, 2008
[ NUMBER TWO TRIES HARDER ]
Apple iPod rules, OK! Everyone knows that. Only a dag buys an alternative, untrendy mp3 player, right?
Well, perhaps. But remember the old advertisement for the also-ran car hire company: “We’re number 2 – so we try harder”. There could be some truth in that. We have been testing the proposition with a couple of little players to see how they stack up as photo storage and viewing devices.
The Sony Walkman NWZ-A728 (RRP $269) is an 8gb flash memory player that has the face area of a credit card. The Sandisk Sansa View (RRP$277), also with 8gb of flash memory, is the same width as the Sony and about 24mm longer. They are both thin and light. The Sansa has a Micro SD memory card slot, for adding to the installed memory.
Both players have the same size and resolution LCD screens – 6cm and 320 by 240 pixel resolution. And both display photos and videos, but they are also both fussy about the image format and size.
We tried throwing large jpegs, straight from a Sony compact, at both players and they refused to display them. It was obvious that we had to go through a conversion process to prepare photos for display. In the Sandisk case this means going to their website and downloading the image converter, which is a weird way of doing business. Since the converter is essential to prepare the images for storage and viewing it ought to be included on an installation disc. In fact the mini CD (there is no concession to Mac pixies) only contains the instruction manual.
Both players rely on Windows Media Player 11 to prepare music and video files, so Mac owners had best stick with their beloved iPods. This is Gates territory.
We installed the Sandisk image converter and dragged and dropped the same jpegs that didn’t work in their native form. The conversion process was quick and, in the case of the Sansa player, the converter changed the files and then automatically saved them to the player, not to the computer. From that point they displayed perfectly, fitted nicely to the full screen.
We then copied the image files from the Sansa to the Walkman (being too lazy to crank up another converter) and they played perfectly there.
The screens on these devices are small – smaller than some of the LCDs on compact cameras. No one is going to be bowled over by either display.
Each company takes a different approach to the setting of brightness and contrast. The Sansa is very high contrast which makes for subjectively sharp and punchy pictures. The Sony opts for low contrast and more realistic light and shade contours. Some people will call this natural and others will call it dull. We prefer the Sony approach. And you can’t adjust the contrast and sharpness on either unit.
It’s hard to pick a winner. The Sansa is better value for money because it has more features than the Sony – voice recording and an FM radio, for starters. The Sony is smaller with display characteristics we liked. The Sansa is better looking but its shiny black surface will give CSI fingerprint experts a field day. Both cost about the same as a comparable iPod Nano, so perhaps the also-rans should try harder.
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Posted by terry at July 3, 2008 01:06 AM
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