Price Paid:  $200.00 from PCworld

Summary:
I would like to make it clear the software and drivers work fine in both Windows 2000 and XP. Please do not post ignorant reviews. I've been using the player for well over a year now and have found it to be a pleasure! A great product.

Strengths:
Very Small Takes Damage Quite Well

Weaknesses:
Poor Software (buggy and slow) Eats batteries

Price Paid:  $130.00 from Currys

Summary:
I looked all over the internet reading reviews of this product when I saw it in my local store . I read that it was unreliable , Difficult to use , and a total waste of money . But I managed to com my local store out of about £100 (Don't know what that is in $ , I guessed the price) , because the didn't even know what it was or what it did . I got it home , Installed the software first time , Stored some tracks on it and started playing away . No Problems . I was totally amazed at it's size and weight , Cool :) . I would like to make the following points Totally clear as it wasn't in all the reviews I read .

- The software works Perfect , No problems

-I just stuck my Mp3 from Napster,IRC,Morpheas e.t.c straight on , Nothing about Copyright protection!

-The USB is Fast ! No problems there .

-There are no problems with static on carpet !

One Big down side is The Battery consuption ! It eats them like there's no tomorrow ! Get a Battery charger when you get it . I haven't yet and I'm regretting it .

Strengths:
Small , Stylish , Wicked Sound

Weaknesses:
EATS BATTERYS

Price Paid:  $300.00 from On line ( I forget exactly )

Summary:
I got this about a year ago and loved it. Very small, very cool. No complaints.

Then I started upgrading my computers and I discovered that Sony has no Win 2000 version of the software ( unless you have a Vaio, and I don't )

It's to small to be a door stop, and I'm not too keen on keeping my systems stuck with Win 98, so I bought something else as an upgrade. My new MP3 player is NOT a Sony.

Strengths:
Small, sounds good.

Weaknesses:
Upgrade past Win 98 and your screwed!

Similar Products Used:
Diamand Rio. Nomad.

Price Paid:  $175.00 from ebay

Summary:
The first thing you notice about this player is that it looks awesome. I wear mine around my neck connected to a silver chain, its more of a fashion statement than an actual piece of hardware.
The sound is amazing, at first i thought that converting mp3 files to ATRAC3 would degrade the sound quality but it would take the most critical of audio enthusiasts to be able to tell the difference. It takes minutes to transfer a whole album or 64 megabytes worth of mp3s to be converted to the sony format. Once converted the songs are stored in a library by the software included and takes seconds to transfer it into the walkman. Despite other bad reviews of this products i have had no trouble with it and i find very easy to use.
I do a lot of cross-country bike riding and it is the perfect player to take along with me, it doesn't skip and its weight is neglegable.
This product is a must if you're into sports and want some portable skip free music or if you just want to stand out from the minidisc crowd.

Strengths:
looks awesome, outputs great sound, its weight is neglegable, doesn't skip, easy to use.

Weaknesses:
doesn't have the endurance that some of the latest minidisc players have.

Similar Products Used:
sony mzr-900

Price Paid:  $292.00 from The Wiz

Summary:
The hardware is great:
+ Light, only 1.6 ounces with the battery.
+ Small, the size of a cigarette lighter.
+ Memory, enough for the average album at a decent bitrate.

The bundled software is not so great:
+ Buggy, I tried to record straight from cd and have not
yet been successful. Resorted to using a thrid party
ripper first then using the sony software.
+ Converting directly from mp3 format to Sony Atrac format
yields tracks of questionable quality. I circumvented
this problem by conterting wav format to atrac format.
+ Of course, greedy copyright stuff.

Strengths:
Size, Weight, User Interface

Weaknesses:
Packaged Software

Similar Products Used:
Rio