That thing is ugly.

Ill second that. $180 for an ugly 1GB bean? no thanks...

It's supposed to be "cute cool and [insert highly subjective pop adjective here]." In fact the Sony UK site for it reads like it was written for eight-year-olds.

The Bean is actually palm-sized, and is supposed to be ergonomic for both hands (apparently the OLED display will accomodate either orientation, though there are no photos available to demonstrate this). Thing is, palm-sized is way too big for an MP3 player these days. Oh, and once you are gripping it properly, the length of your thumb is conveniently obscuring the screen... way to go.

I can't believe the Sony UK site actually says, "The Walkman Bean is perfect in every way."

I own a Sony NW-E407 (red), and that's way better than this Bean (NW-E200/300 series). The 1-line OLED display on this thing is a joke.

I'll stick to my cigarette lighter-styled player with the nifty Bubble, Clock, Clock2, Aquarium and Stardust screensavers...

I have the sony bean and i think it's good, the screens fine, i have a pouch for it so the screen and buttons are all easily accessible and all of my friends preffer my bean to their Ipods, i mean EVERYONE has one * aka ipods * so how does that it make it cool?.
Second of all if you see it in person it's not ugly at all, it is quite tiny and nice looking.

First off Palm sized is wrong coz it's smaller than that and i think saying that palmed sized is too big is kinda hypocritical aint you even seen how big the fucking ipod mini is, it's like a frickin' brick!!!!

Your probally just a bunch of sad morons who all have ipods * gee no shock there * * rolls eyes *

I also have a bean and I must say I absolutely love it! It's not as big as the initial review makes you think it is. It's about 2 inches by 1 inch which I would have to say is fairly reasonable. Unlike the SanDisk Sansa and quite a few other Mp3 players out there you don't have to subscribe to a music service to be able to make playlists and what not. The internal USB plug is really conveinant and you don't have to worry about the battery getting drained when you transfer music because it charges through the USB. One of the most amazing features would have to be the fact that 1 full charge gets you at least 45 hours of playback...thats something you can't say about a whole lot of players on the market.

I have a bean player, really awesome device. I like the battery length, size and little weight, only problem is that it is too flimsy. After 2 weeks of use, somethin happened to the little joystick.
and it stops and plays for no reason. (i guess it broke or somethin in my back pack. but besides that its freakin sweet.

come oooooooooon haters...the bean is a very nice buy...its ATRAC3 formatted songs are half the size of an mp3 and it accepts WAV and WMA formats...(apple will never have this feature) and the bean has a few displays to see while listening like a DATE AND TIME (again...not even the new 30GB video ipod has this...quit missing the simple things apple!) not palm sized...very small actually. i can control it and hold it with one hand very easily. it also comes with a usb cord to connect from your bean to the computer if your bean wont fit in the usb port (because of other cords in the way). basically it kicks the shuffles ass with an OLED screen to actually see what your playing..but does have a nice shuffle feature if you just feel like listening to whatever. and not to mention the FM tuner...its about time someone did this(learn from it apple) the ipods are overpriced and oversized. nice buy here. i can fit a lil over 1000 on my 1GB bean and thats all i need.

I just picked up the 1GB Sony Bean last night, and I can't say enough about it. The software is straightforward and simple, and the charging time via USB is unbeatable. 15 minutes out of the box, and my bean was loaded with 4 of my CD's (that I had to upload), fully charged and ready to go...that was last night at 7:30 and my bean still has a full charge (10:30 the next morning). I picked this up to use while running on my treadmill, and I have no complaints as of yet! From what I've seen of the IPod, this little bugger beats it hands down...especially considering I only paid $107 (after coupons...$139 retail).

they're cool and work nice, but the design of the player sucks! they're sooo easy to break.

I have the little bean and i love it
epecially it has little playings when your listening to music and that doesnt waste battery
i only charge for say 5 minutes and im ready to go for the whole day. It also has the usb inside of it which makes it much easier than a cord because with a cord you have to plug it here and then on the device or the cord is too long or too short the bean has it inside of it and then it just pops out i LOVE IT!

I love this thing although I found that the hold button isn't reliable and often it played in my bag wasting the battery. this happened on anumber of occasions and as I was travelling it was harder to get it charged.

can someone please tell me how to use the hold button! i am haveing a hard time with it, very hard time.

OHHHHHHHH MY GOD!!! IT´S AMAZING!!! I LOVE IT THIS MP3 CHANGE MY LIFE!!! I DON´T NOW HOW WOULD MY LIFE BE WITHOUT IT!!! I HAVE IT PINK AND I LOVE IT... IT´S SO COOL!!!

has air

I have the pink one, I just founded last week on a flight from Europe (it is so small that probably someone just left it on the plane) I was so happy it was my first MP3! ! !. Bad thing was that I founded with really bad music (crap for that matters) and just have to wait til get to the airport to erase everything; well what can I expect, I got it all for FREE, And am still trying to figure out how to get all the music I want in a faster way. I tried the "Connect player" from Sony, that thing just sucks!; it's kinda stupid when you search your music and put into your MP3 (which for me seems like forever to get just a song burned in such a tiny device). Anyway I just love the way it fits, is really handy.
...Well now that I have one I just realized how popular is for people to have an MP3 in these days...(even 10 year old kids have one) so far it seems like every single person I know has an "ipod" or some soar of "Digital Music Device". No offense, I prefer having this baby.
Just for make things even more cool, I now also have the white one, which I also founded in the same way I did in the first one. Is people really that stupid to left such a cool and expensive thing on a plane?.

its SOOOOOOO small i love it

Juan you sure are lucky.To find 2 sony mp3 players is a real deal.I bought my NW-E207 last week and I really like it.The playback is really good although the shop assistant kept persuadeing me to buy one of thouse Ipods shuffle or something like that.This Ipod even don't have a screen how the fuck can I see what it's playing?!The assistant also said the Ipod has more clear and louder sound,but this thing is fucking big and with a size like a box of cigarretes,a little slimmer maybe.This guy was like sony are shit they don't have the sound like the apple's gadjets.The other player he recommended me was on iRiver with 5Gb hard drive.These are nearly the same money,but i was thinking like look at this Sony what a shape,it has a screen too.It's not like the iRiver's 65k display but it dosent matter i don't need such a display for a thing that plays music.And these iRivers are fuckin big i don't have enough space anymore-my celly my keys my wallet shere will I put it?!.I need to see the track and the other thing is to easy surch for a track.It has these 2 features so I'm really happy with it.Nice sound nice shape,even the headphones are bean-shaped it's cool and easy to handle it feels good in my hand not too big not too smal and the buttons are easy to use only with one finger,without putting it out of my pocket.So i said to the assistant while he was explaining how good iRiver's are that I'll take the Sony,because Sony is simply sony and now I'm happy. 1Gb is enough for me and it's so easy to change your songs with the sonicstage software.The only thing that is shitty is this slide cover.The usb pops up very cool and evrything but don't you have problems sometimes when you operate with it and just push slightly the slide cover it shows hold on the screen and it blocks your action but infact the slide cover isn't on a hold position you just pushed it a little,why the fuck this happens,is it only with my player?!

Ok guys look. I'm with the haters on this one. The hold feature is crap. There are a ton of MP3 players out there that have voice recorders and FM Tuners that are far more durable than the Bean. For example: I have an iRiver and it kicks ass. The hold feature is simple. Changing tracks and volume is simple. It has a 3 line screen. It's about 2.5 inches x 1 inch x 1 inch. The screen is like 1.5 inches long and like .5 inches wide. The earphones work perfectly and so do the voice recorder and the FM Tuner. Mine is 512 MB. So there. I'n my opinion you should sell your IPods and Sony fucking Beans and get yourself a perfectly flawless iRiver. The Beans tiny screen really is annoying. I got my hands on one the other day and you might not say that it's big, but it's fucking bulky. I don't think the reset feature is very useful. And just for the record...most of you need to learn how to speak. If you don't live anywhere where the main language being spoken is English, then my apologies. But for the rest of you...get a bit of practise.

well i like it maybe even love it the 50 hours batt is well gd wen ur out and about i have naver charged it for the purpose of chargeing lol it just duz it wen im putting new songs on looks cool feels g8 and sounds amazin :P so go buy one now or just find one or maybe 2 lol

This thing seriously does kick ass. Seriously. Screw all those I-poders with there fancy cliques. Just a bunch of stuck up emo kids anyway. It's not like I'm trying to watch movies every goddamnn second I'm away from the house. I dont even like movies! I-pod shuffle! please... give me a break people. And whats all this stuff about breaking! Do you have any clue how many i-pods my friend has gone through! He didn't even drop the damn things they just stopped working. You can't beat having an fm tuner especially in emergency situations. This is the best christmas present I've got.

Hammymad;on my second bean,joysticks crap and constantly switches itself on when in my bag/pocket making it impossible to use as the batterys flat.Anyway got so pissed off with this demanded a refund under sale of goods act.....not fit for the intended purpose...and today a result....sony shop agreed to refund.....only after I told em I was giving them 7 days before I took them to court .....via small claims....and i would!!

I have a bean but lost the directions. How do you get rid of the music you have on it so you can download more songs? Would appreciate some info.
Also I lost my usb cord where can I get another?

i also lost my usb cord, where can i get another one?

screw all you HATERS. for real...the Bean is KICK ASS. i love it. it beats..HANDS DOWN ---to the IPODS. it's NOT bulky or too big. it's PERFECT!. also...FYI to all who have a Bean....you can buy this charger thing for IPODS(around $19) it has a car charger and a wall charger...and you can plug your bean into it!!! i bought one...and so when i take road-trips i can chrage the beast. lol. and Sonic Stage is the SHIT. it's soooo easy to use. hecks yeah. i have the black one. my one sister who is 21 has the pink one, and my sister who is 23 has the blue one. we all love them. and my friends that have ipods say the bean is hella tight compared to the ipod. i mean shoot. it's a MUSIC PLAYER. not a friggin TV. shhhiiiitttt. ya'll want to watch movies and shit, and have stupid crap like that. it's a music player...it's meant to PLAY MUSIC. and the bean rocks. whats the world coming to...you wanna watch music videos...get a friggin tv. shooottt. i take my bean everywhere...i haven't really had any problems yet...and i think it's the most amazing thing ever. hands down.

stupid sony crap! i dont want to convert my mp3s i dont want your sonicstage BS. try to import 20000 tracks and it dies, just let me copy mp3s and play them idiots

Yeah the whole sonicstage program sucks but if you have half a brain its pretty easy to use. just time consuming if you have certain songs you want on it. I personally love my bean mp3 player. Its convenient for me I needed something small, light and the battery life on this thing is AMAZING! 50hours of playback 3 minutes on the charger gives you 3 hours and you just plug it into the comp the usb is built in super handy all I need is a computer to charge it! I got mine pretty cheap only cus I noticed it was on sale at the time.

i think these things rock i have one and their great

i think these things rock i have one and their great

i want to buy one... but i wanted to kno if u can use it with both the .1 an .2 usb ports.. cuz my ipod nano cudnt .. an aparently m laptop has both... so to fix it i have to pay the price of a new one :S... can anyone help me???

Kimberly....the usb plug is in the bean....you cant lose it, lol

I have the pink one, and i love it. Only thing is i broke it :( It's still working, even if it stops playing for nothing sometimes. Stop saying it's too big, childish, ugly, useless, and more. Just try one before, and too bad if you don't like it.

And it's waaaay more original than ipods. Everyone i know prefer my bean to their ipod.

And also, i only have to plug it once a week. Who wouldnt it make happy ?

hi,
i have problem with my e207, i formated it and after that i can't lisen no more music, it shows me "format error" what to do, pleees hellp me :) thaks :)

i really love the bean mp3..at times. its so small though that i can hardly keep track of it.
mine also always plays on its own because of the hold button, it unslides. i also don't like when the music note blinks when im listening to my music..i don't know if you can change that or not? but other than that i love the way it works and plays//.

the bean is the most awesome mp3 player made. it works good, it has a good make. i have had mine for 4 years and it still works like it is brand new! words cant explain how great the bean is!

the bean is the most awesome mp3 player made. it works good, it has a good make. i have had mine for 4 years and it still works like it is brand new! words cant explain how great the bean is!

the bean is the most awesome mp3 player made. it works good, it has a good make. i have had mine for 4 years and it still works like it is brand new! words cant explain how great the bean is! i absolutely detest ipods

I've had the bean for quite a long time. what it lacks in space and style, it makes up for in long battery life, volume, and the fact that I've had it for 4+ years and it still works like I bought the thing yesterday! It also has a super fast charge and the music transfer service is very user-friendly.