[Xperia Z Accessories] Tom Fagerland:
I bought the MW1 last week, and I've had time to play with it, but not to fix the problems I've found, so partly to explain my problems to possible buyers, and partly to get help to fix my problems, I'm writing this review.

First of all, I listened to the headphones that came with the MW1 unit for all of ten minutes. I'm sure they were fine, wonderful and would imbue all music with a magic substance, but I already have a set of Shures, and I don't need them.

Pairing the MW1 with the phone was supposed to be a matter of NFC-touching, but that didn't work. Instead I used the "quick start guide", and it took me about three minutes to set it up once and for all, and it's automatically connected to the phone every time I've switched it on ever since. Basically, you switch it on, and all sound should output through the MW1 instead of from the phone. This is not always true, which I'll come back to.

Sound is fantastic. I can't head any difference between using my Shure through the MW1 and directly to the phone, although I've used my normal music files, which are in AAC ~192kbit VBR, so I'm sure someone with higher standards would find something to complain about. Since 90% of what I listen to is podcasts and audiobooks, we're well past my level already.

Now, the hardware: the unit itself has some pretty obvious faults, which makes it very obvious that this is 1.0 hardware. In fact, I would call it 0.5 hardware. Sony has made some very odd choices, and these are definitely the most important downsides to this unit.

First of all, both the microSD-card and the micro-USB port are inside a lid which looks so much like the lid to a USB-stick that I find myself wondering why they didn't do the obvious thing and simply add a normal USB plug so we could just charge it by sticking it into a computer/USB power adapter, instead of mucking about with a cable. The only thing they would have to move is the microSD-slot, which would fit behind the USB plug just fine.

Second, the power button. If you've seen any reviews about this unit, you'll have heard about the power button. It strikes me that whomever decided that the power button should be of the "hold in for three seconds"-type, be completely impossible to press without half-inch nails, and be located at the WORST POSSIBLE PLACE on the unit, decides ten lashes and a dishonorable discharge from the world of product design.

Now, this is about all there is to say about the actual MW1, but as promised, I'm going to try to talk about how it works with the Xperia Z.

First of all, you must understand that at least 70% of the reason I bought the MW1 in the first place is the lid over the headset-port on the phone. To have to fumble around with my nail to fit into a specific slot out of several completely identical slots around the edges of my phone was COMPLETELY out of the picture. And yes, this solves that problem.

Another problem, however, appears shortly after. I have several applications which play audio, and since I no longer pick up the phone, unlock the screen, (sometimes change application) and THEN press play in the app I want, the phone easily gets confused as to which app is to get the "play" message from the MW1. You'd think perhaps that the Walkman app would be in a default-position just like iTunes is on macs, or Windows Media Player is on Windows, but no - for some reason it just selects completely by random any old running app, and outputs the sound. For me, when pausing Pocketcasts and then pressing play again a few minutes later, it seems to be about 50% chance that Pocketcasts picks up again (which is almost always what I wanted, and ALWAYS what I want to have happen), 25% PowerAmp even though it is never loaded and just installed in case I ever want to play music from my phone at a party or something, and 25% a completely random audio player, including (but certainly not limited to) Smart Audiobook Player, Plex, Winamp, Walkman or ANY other app I have installed on my phone.

So in short: great unit, get it if you can, but if there is ever a version 2.0 of this device and they haven't fixed the power button, please apply for a position with Sony's hardware design group, cause apparently they're useless.

Also, if anyone knows of any way to permanently bind the play button to "whichever app I just paused, you nitwit", let me know.

Also, these units are pretty damn cheap these days, mine was well under 100 USD, and it's well worth it. If you need an extra pair of headphones - fantastic - but even the bluetooth unit itself is worth the price.