A good value for the price

Author's Rating:

Pros: Very light, comfortable; good sound quality; 6 EQ presets; FM radio tuner; HOLD switch

Cons: Limited capacity, not expandable; volume range; menu navigation; won't play protected WMA's

The Bottom Line: 
Good for active people who want a small, lightweight MP3 player/FM radio, but if you can afford to spring for the SW30, with twice the capacity, do it!

Author's Review
128 MB capacity; supports MP3 and WMA formats; USB 2.0; 6-10 hour battery life (1 AAA Alkaline); 2.4 oz; includes carrying case and armband; FM radio tuner with 20 presets; 6 EQ presets including one customizable; supports MP3 bitrates of 8 to 320 Kbps and WMA bitrates of 32 to 192 Kbps; can also be used for data storage.

I received my Panasonic SW20 MP3 player as a door prize about three months ago and have used it several times a week ever since, mostly when jogging, biking or working out at the gym. While there are several things I'd change about it if I could, I think it is a good value compared to other ultra-portable flash-based MP3 players, and that's the only thing it's fair to compare it too.

Yes, the song capacity is limited (if I were buying one, I'd probably choose the 256MB SW30). Hey, if I had the cash, I'd gladly get myself a 20-gig iPod too, but could I wear it much at the gym -- or rollerblading? No. That's the major selling point of the SW20 and players like it.

Now for the lowdown:

1. Portable - ultralight - just 2.4 oz with the battery! Comes with a case which can be clipped to clothing or the adjustable armband which is also included. It doesn't get in my way whether I'm running, skating, weight training, whatever.

2. 128 MB capacity - I wish it were expandable with CompactFlash or something. This is room for about 30 MP3's at 128 Kbps, or between 1 1/2 and 2 hours of music. If you use WMA's at 96 Kbps instead, you can fit about 1/3 more and the sound quality will be equivalent.

3. FM radio with 20 presets - A great feature. Many MP3 players DON'T include a radio tuner. Figuring out how to set the presets is difficult and time-consuming, but the manual explains it and hopefully you'll only have to do this once.

4. Battery Life - the manual claims you can expect about 10 hours play on MP3/WMA, 6 hours for FM radio. This is strange to me; I would have expected the player to consume more battery life than the radio. At any rate, for 1 AAA battery, that's quite good. However, I'd rather it took 2 AAA's or had a storage space for an extra one so I didn't have to keep one in my pocket or gym bag. It does have a battery life meter, but it only has three 'ticks' and you get absolutely no warning when the battery is getting low.

5. EQ presets - includes Normal, Rock, Jazz, Classic, Pop and User presets. The User preset allows you to adjust Treble and Bass values from -4 to +4. The sound quality of the player is good to begin with and these make it even better. (Speaking of sound quality, it's shockproof; I've never heard the player skip -- except when there was an error in the MP3 file itself -- even while I was running.)

6. Repeat and Random (Shuffle) Play Modes - I don't use these, but some people might.

7. HOLD switch - One of those great little underappreciated features. It's easy for a CD or MP3 player to get switched on by mistake when tossed into a purse or backpack. Suddenly, you turn on your player, and those batteries you just replaced are dead. The HOLD switch is an easy way to prevent this.

8. Can be used for data storage - I've never tried this, but you can create a special data folder for files and use the player for backup (though you have to bring along the USB cable to transfer the files).

9. Durable - I've dropped it a couple of times with no apparent ill effects. It seems to be well-made and reasonably rugged, and the case offers some additional protection. It is also quite scratch-resistant. I haven't treated it with as much care as I probably should -- it has been knocking around my gym bag with my headphones, CD player, pencils, etc. for three months, and yet both the display and, more remarkably, the silver trim are scratch-free.


Now for some of the drawbacks:

First and foremost, the menu navigation isn't the simplest or most intuitive one I've ever seen, by a long shot. This doesn't matter as much as you might think, because the basic operations you use most often (play, pause, skip, set volume, switch to radio) are all simple. For more involved stuff, like setting the radio or EQ presets, you'll have to study the manual a bit. This is difficult to avoid with small players.

Volume Range is from 1-25; sometimes 1 is not quite quiet enough and 25 is not loud enough. A little wider range would have been nice.

Display - only shows the filename by default, so unless you include the artist/album/etc. in this field, you'll have to enter "info mode" on the player each time you want to see this information. It takes several button presses to get there, so it's a definite inconvenience. Again, hard to avoid with these smaller players. One good thing about the display is that you can change the contrast settings for different lighting conditions (I haven't found this necessary).

It WILL NOT play protected WMA files - such as those you might purchase from aol.com, musicmatch, etc. Whether this is a big drawback depends, of course, on how many of these you have. I have only a couple. (It is possible to burn these files to CD, then rip them to MP3's, if it matters to you).