Sony NWWS413BM 4GB Sports Wearable MP3 Player (Black)

Music really enhances lap swimming for me. Of the variety of ways to accomplish this I chose the previous generation Sony NWZW273S. It got the job done, I like the simplicity of design to put on and take off without being attached to my swim goggles.The older model also had some drawbacks. Chief among them was lack of volume and then for me keeping the contacts clean for charging and adding music.This new model definitely fixed the volume issue. I actually turned it down from Max, which is great. The docking, charging station looks like an improvement, but it's too early to tell. The controls are completely different, but I think with a little time they will be an improvement. The ear pods are slightly larger on this newer version, which was a concern, however they are light weight, fit very well and more importantly stayed on well in the water.The software is the same for both units which made adding music to the new unit a snap. The software interfaces smoothly with iTunes.** UPDATE ** 7/7/16 I picked mine up early May '16 liked it so much I bought another for a friend towards the end of May. We each swim for an hour 5+ days a week. So I've used mine ~ 40 times in a chlorinated public pool and my buddy, who swims in salt water, has used his about 25 times. So far these units are holding up great. With the non-water ear buds the volume can be WAY too loud, when the swim buds are put on it does reduce the volume as they are essentially a shower cap to keep the speakers dry, with a membrane between your ears and the speaker. Without the swimming ear bud covers the unit would die in the pool from the speakers getting wet. The music, for me at least, is plenty loud and I typically go a click or two down from full volume.** UPDATE ** Oct '16 ** The two units I bought are going strong six months later. Each sees 5+ days a week of hour long lap swimming. One is in a standard chlorinated pool, the other in a salt water pool. I haven't had any problems with my contacts for charging or adding music and I haven't done a thing to clean them. Mine will play an hour interval 3 times before it needs a charge.** UPDATE ** Nov '17 ** Both units still working, one perfectly the other is having issues with song forward button not always working but otherwise still serviceable. I'll definitely buy another if this one dies.

They work in the water!

My husband has had this headset 10 months. He used it during the summer months in 2024 and got it out this year for walking laps in the pool. He charged it, but it will not even turn on. For the money, you would think they might at least last a full year.

This was, for me, one of my more interesting product purchases of the last few years. I just turned my first couple miles with them in the pool this morning; here are some thoughts.WHAT'S IT LIKE TO LOAD UP THE MP3s? It's a pain, but not a huge one. I don't use iTunes, so am not sure about the need to convert file types to mp3. My Amazon Music subscription seems to do the trick. But I also loaded up a podcast from the Freakonomics Website. The device itself is the easy part. One product review calls it the "iPod shuffle for swimming." I'd say that it's far more user-friendly than that. Just plug it in and it's discoverable. Add and remove mp3s. That's it.HOW'S THE SOUND? In my view, it's pretty admirable, given that you're swimming. My real test: seeing if I could swim and pay attention to a pretty intense topic on a podcast. I'd give that a 6 out of 10. Out of the water, the sound is great / as to be expected. When my head is completely underwater - same. The issue is when I'm turning to take a breath; that action creates understandable, external disruption. I will probably stick to music in the future.DOES IT PASS THE TIME BETTER? Absolutely. A huge improvement, from my perspective. And I'm not going to give up on podcasts altogether.DOES IT STAY ON YOUR HEAD? I had zero problems. Nothing even close. I did stop to reposition it perhaps three times during my swim, on the idea that maybe I was getting water in my ears and the sound was therefore getting muffled. But that was not a frequent event.DOES IT GET IN YOUR WAY OTHERWISE? Generally, it was otherwise unnoticeable on my head. I kept thinking, "Wow - this is actually a lot better than I was expecting."THERE ARE SO MANY BUTTONS. True. Really - one button per function, which is unique these days. And as a result, I'd say that paying a bit of extra attention to the "getting started" page is worth the five minutes. But it's straightforward. I actually chose these over the JBL Endurance Peak because I have the Endurance Sprint and find the controls to be finicky. Some product manager got cute and messed up the functionality from a practical standpoint. Sony, which tends to be more no-BS and reasonable from a price standpoint, delivered for me again.ANYTHING ELSE? I'll admit I purchased the insurance. Electronics + water; I had to. Also, make sure you're aware that the packaging comes with earplugs that are specifically for the swimming use case. They have a small film over the earpiece which I assume is about protecting the earphone itself from water. I get the sense that some other reviewers might have missed that.Hope this is helpful.

I have been running for 20 years and have worn these for most of those years. I use plain old windows file explorer to drag and drop mp3 files into the "USB" folder that shows up when you plug it in. If you know how to move files in windows, you can move files onto this device. Always eject USB devices including this Walkman before you remove it from your PC. See photo three.That's it. You don't need any special software. I don't have to carry my phone because I'm not going to carry it while I'm running.After a couple years the buttons on the MP3 player usually stop working. I believe it's because of all the road grime from running outside. The plane next button has already started sticking from about day one on this new device but other than that it works just like every other Walkman.You don't need a phone you don't need anything else just hit play next or rewind. You can do other options like shuffle all, and ambient noise so you can hear the noise that's around you.I hope this review might help you and I hope you enjoy that device.