Do not purchase this device. It's a great size, yes, and wonderful to listen to while excercising...but the software is a complete nightmare. When I upgraded my PC to Windows XP, the original software and drivers would not install properly. Even after downloading a software upgrade from the Sony Web site, it could not find the device. Now I'm stuck with a $200+ MP3 player whose software will never let me get rid of the original 16 songs I uploaded to it! Will I have to listen to Rage Against the Machine forever?!!! Trust me, don't buy it!

While the unit is very compact, sturdy and plays high quality sound, the software that is required in order to use the unit is very unstable. It is due to software problems that I would not recommend that anyone buy this device. The unit does not actually play MP3s, but requires a proprietary system to convert MP3s to Sony's ATRAC3 format. This places a copyright stamp on the music, preventing other players from using the songs. If the software malfunctions (and it is common enough that this problem appears on many other review boards I've seen), then all the music you recorded is un-recongizable to both the program and the unit. The same thing happens if you attempt to upgrade the software. Imagine that you've spent hours importing and labeling all your songs. Then one day they are all gone for no particular reason. Sony can't do anything to get the files back for you because the problem is their proprietary copyright process. If your software "breaks" (which, like I said, is pretty common), then it thinks all the music on your hard drive must belong to someone else and shouldn't be shared. Avoid a frustrating experience and go with another player.