While it would be unfair to label the NW-MS70D as feature deprived, it certainly isn't the most feature-rich portable audio player to hit the market. The list of functions includes repeat/shuffle, an equalizer and bass boost, as well as your standard volume and hold functions. Although these don't seem like anything evolutionary, the way in which they have been implemented is what initially sparked our interest. Firstly, the hold function takes the form of a sliding bar across the top of the unit. For the uninitiated, this function bars all controls whilst in the "on" position, ensuring that buttons are not accidentally pressed whilst in your bag or pocket. As well as this, the volume and track selection controls take the form of spring-loaded scroll wheels, enabling you to painlessly move between tracks or volume levels without even removing the device from your pocket.

It was unsurprising to learn that the NW-MS70D also features a play list function, allowing you to group tracks based on album, artist, genre, etc, aiding in navigation for those with vast music collections. Additionally, Sony's designers have certainly made clever use of space with the NW-MS70D, as the individual track selection control doubles as a play list selector when it has been slid to the right.

The NW-MS70D provides 256MB of internal flash memory at the user's disposal, which, considering the size of the device, should be more than sufficient for all but the most obsessive audiophiles. Specifically, using Sony's proprietary ATRAC3plus compression format (discussed on the next page), the unit can hold up to 11 hours and 40 minutes of audio, or 175 four-minute tracks. While, as previously mentioned, this should be adequate for most users, Sony are aware of how quickly music collections can grow in size, which is why it has also included a memory stick slot for those who wish to expand the unit's capacity. Below are some figures taken directly from Sony's specifications sheet, listing the recording capacity of both the NW-MS70D's internal memory and a 64MB memory stick at various bit rates.

Recording Capacity - In Built Memory

ATRAC3: 4 hour 10 minutes (132kbps) ATRAC3: 5 hour 20 minutes (105kbps) ATRAC3: 8 hour 30 minutes (66kbps) ATRAC3plus: 8 hour 40 minutes (64kbps) ATRAC3plus: 11 hour 40 minutes (48kbps)

Recording Capacity - Memory Stick Duo

ATRAC3: 60 minutes (132kbps) ATRAC3: 1 hour 20 minutes (105kbps) ATRAC3: 2 hour (66kbps) ATRAC3plus: 2 hour 10 minutes (64kbps) ATRAC3plus: 2 hour 50 minutes (48kbps)

While the novelty of this feature is beginning to wear off due to the fact that it is present on almost every portable audio player currently on the market, the device is also able to transfer and store a variety of other data types, such as images or text files, to the Walkman's internal memory or memory stick.

Other notable features include a four-mode LCD with a sexy blue backlight, date/time functionality that automatically adjusts to your computer's system clock upon connection, a preset volume function (low, medium and high), and adjustable sound presets (treble and bass) to suit your personal taste. Specifically, the unit can store two sets of treble/bass adjustments for selection later.

Overall, as far as functionality is concerned, the NW-MS70D pales in comparison to the iPod, which includes features such as games, a contacts organizer, an integrated notepad, an "On-The-Go Play List Maker" and much more. Having said that, however, this is completely understandable due to the small size of the unit.

ATRAC3 - The NW-MS70D's Biggest Downfall

Like Sony's previous Network Walkman products, the NW-MS70D requires you to convert your MP3 and WMA files into its proprietary ATRAC3 format before transferring them to the Walkman. This is likely to be because, for a non-open source compression format such as MP3, Sony would be forced to pay a licensing fee for its use of the format - a fee that the company was obviously unwilling to pay. Aside from the obviously reduced transfer speed, there are a number of consequences to this. Firstly, due to the fact that files taken directly from your hard disk are already encoded, re-encoding them with ATRAC3 results in slight quality degradation. What's more, these converted files are then stored on your computer, serving only to clutter your hard drive. That said, this is not the case when ripping files directly from a CD (they are not yet encoded), however, with the amount of file sharing tools around today, it's unlikely that many users will be making extensive use of this method.

Transferring Files With SonicStage

While Sony's SonicStage software is fairly intuitive, we did have one minor complaint. Specifically, when transferring files there is no way of determining how much space each track will occupy on the device, which can become fairly tedious. Otherwise, however, the software proved to be very useful, providing features such as a "Music Drive" enabling users to manage their music collections and query the database based on album name, artist name, genre name, format, input source, etc, as well as perform a keyword search.

The Music Drive