The NWZ-S615F, an entry level portable player from Sony, is an MP3 player that comes in red, black, or blue and with 2 GB of flash memory.  At 33 hours in audio use, it has an even greater autonomy than that of the Samsung YP-T10.  Sold under the symbolic 100 € mark, the NWZ-S615F seems to offer the best current quality/price ratio.

All in plastic, this little Sony is still a pleasure to hold in your hand. It’s light (50g) and dimensions are very reasonable at 42 x 79.5 x 11.5 mm (although we would have preferred it to be slightly thinner).  In terms of finishing touches, all seems to be well assembled and solid.  Only the Hold and Volume buttons appear a bit weak with a little too much play.  This can even be heard when you shake the device.

In use it’s a true pleasure.  The fact that there are quality buttons instead of tactile controls is a real plus. Navigation is intuitive and we liked having complete information on the tracks we listened to (album, genre, and artist).  Also, you can navigate through up to eight levels of folders.  As for the screen, it takes up two thirds of the face; however, was it really necessary to develop this product’s video capabilities? At 1.8 inches, it doesn’t make too much sense.  Either way, the screen is very satisfactory in this more limited role.

Play us some music!

We started listening to the NWZ-S615F with one of our favorite sets of headphones and sound quality was simply amazing.  Basses were very deep (strong but not overly powerful) and mediums and highs were well produced. Two equalizers can be manually preprogrammed according to your preferences.  Note that reading WAV files is done as naturally as with other formats.   The only criticism we could have would be the slight electronic noise as well as the very mediocre headphones that come standard.