Sony Vaio Pocket VGF-AP1

This mp3 is very beautiful,the quality of the sounds is perfect!!!

You have remote like the MD before(i like it).

I think the most problem is the battery. but is a good mp3 or hard disk for computer, you can put pictures, files etc

Hi

I have purchased this Sony Vaio Pocket VGF-AP1 and have no idea how to transfer my music on to the actual thing, it's so pathetic.

I mean how hard can they make it

I have 3 files on the system which are photos, skins, demo and I tried putting music in all of them and out side them but the thing doesn't seem to show me where the music is.

Sony Vaio Pocket VGF-AP1 is a great product with a clear easy to use menu, good quality screen. However when transferring music the software converts to Attrac or OMG files so you cannot easily manage your files when plugged into a PC. The photo download function is easy and quick, but the camera (& charger) plugs into the cradle and not the unit which means if you are travelling its another item to carry. Personal opion, with the exception of camera capability the iRiver just takes pips this product to the post. Sony sort yourselves out so your products will work on Windows. This product could have been perfect.

I bought this from Dixons after much searching. In fact, I bought an Ipod mini for my wife, so I have some experience of both brands.

For those who love their music quality and want some style this machine is a great choice.

1. It is a 40GB player - you will struggle to get 40GB for £199 anywhere else (even if it is being discontinued.)

2. The screen is ace, and displays almost all the information you could ever want to see of any track i.e. The track title, The Album cover, The Artist, The sequence number of the track (1 of 11 of an album or 211 of 9880 if you are just playing randomly from tracks on the machine), The elapsed time, The track length, and a graphic of how far along in the track you are, The current time, The battery life, That is a lot of information to put on one screen.

3. Browsing is made easy. When displaying albums. It displays the artist if the album has one artist. When searching the track, it displays the artist as well.

4. The sound quality is excellent, and there is EQ management.

5. The cradle is a boon. It keeps the machine protected and sturdy, and provides drop in and out when connected to either the PC or stereo equipment.

6. Navigation is simple once learned. Same with ipod, you have to learn it first.

7. Robust build quality.

8. Battery life is excellent. I get at least 20 hours. (That is with a mix of Atrac3+ (64kbps)and mp3(192kbps) files). Every review I have seen quotes 20 as the minimum so I am amazed that a previous reviewer quotes 5 hrs. Maybe they have a battery that is faulty.

9. The searching mechanism, (with the firmware upgrade,) means I can search through 9600 tracks in about a minute, just by keeping my finger on a button. this is impressive.

I have had to reset it twice, (or thrice) I think, but on the whole it is an absolutley excellent machine and well worth the money.

It is let down by the software - Sonicstage - which must be used to manage the music on the player.

Sonicstage is not terrible in it's functionality, but in it's operation (although there are some real holes e.g. not being able to create playlists on the PC, and transfer them to the player without re-transferring the tracks). It holds up the PC it works on and is generally slow. Once the music is on the player however, you are free and can enjoy it.

With the firmware upgrade, you no longer need to convert mp3 files to Atrac. They just copy directly onto the player.

It uses USB2.03 so is very fast.

I love it! I have 9882 tracks on mine, and have nearly 5GB left. This is in addition to hundreds of pictures.

I thoroughly recommend this piece of Kit.

I recently bought a Sony VGF-AP1L (the 'L' part indicates 40gb version) for £199 from Dixons. My first impressions were that it was rather large, and it had a wierd touchpad device. The touchpad has 25 buttons, you move the cursor by moving your finger across it. To select an option the button is pressed. This idea is good, and it is faster to use than a iPod or Zen ect. This takes a little getting used to but it is good once you have mastered it. Sony make your life difficult by not allowing you to upload MP3s directly. You have to install Sonicstage, this converts your MP3s to Sony's own 'ATRAC3' format. I have my songs on 256kbps, which is the highest bitrate option (with the latest version, transfer speeds are very fast). The sound quality is excellent and it can be adjusted by the equaliser option. I currently have 1568 songs, and this has taken 8.1gb.

Being a picture viewing device, you can connect a digital camera directly to the player via the small docking station. I managed to upload pictures from a Fuji camera, and I have uploaded files and MP3's from a variety of other MP3 players.

Pictures can be attached to individual tracks, so when a track plays the picture is shown. The screen is 2.5'' and a decent resolution. The battery lasts about 5 hours from a full charge.

Overall the player is quite well priced at £200, you can store your whole music collection with 40gb space. This would be ideal to store digital camera pictures when travelling, without the need of dozens of memory cards.

I got a Sony Vaio Pocket VGF-AP1 the other day and I am completely in love with it! The features are great and I have easily transfered all my CD collection over to this, keeping it all in MP3 format. A great move for Sony to finally support MP3 (if you receive one of these with the 2.1 Sonic Stage, a quick download from the sony site will update the the software and your player).

I was suprised at all the goodies I got with my player. A great, sturdy docking bay; a three line remote control; american and european/U.K power cables (I do a lot of travelling so this is fantastic); and a nice swish, sexy, solid carry case (though I have a feeling this was an exclusive addition as the packaging of this case was all in japanese, and the site says this is not an included item).

The G-Sense pad is fantastic. Of course it takes getting used to for some, but after a bit its just second nature.

The battery life was superb. The packaging claims 20 hours battery life and this is easily achievable. I found though that charging fully everytime, from the moment you get it gives you longer. I timed exactly the first time and i got 23 and a half hours. Off the record sony did say in interviews that 24 hours was more like the maximum battery life, why they put 20 hours on the packaging is beyond me!?

The hold/power switch is fine in my experience. I haven't actually accidently turned it off. Its pretty darn hard to. But just a warning.

Also some of you WMA lovers will have to convert to MP3 or the numerous different types of ATRAC, to get your songs on your player. Really if you still really like Windows Media 10, you should set you player to always record to MP3 format.

Also the photo feature and having the cd sleeves on the player next to the albums is great. The display is crystal clear (I hear that it is a higher resolution and has far more colours, don't know the exact figure).

Also, if you'd rather have a longer battery life aswell as a far smaller player (smaller than ipod mini and has a 30 hour battery life, as well as a 20gb HDD!) in return for sacrificing the colour screen, I strongly suggest the NW-HD3. It's fantastic and my brother recently purchased one.