A Review Of The Sony Dash

The Dash from Sony is a device that is designed for media consumption that has one major flaw. It has no battery. This means that it must be constantly tethered to a power outlet, which significantly limits its use as a portable media player. Sony have stated, however, that in the next generation of this device, they will be giving it a battery. For now, however, the power limitation still applies.

The Dash is a 7-inch touch screen device that can be used with its own speakers or with headphones. It has a USB port and a row of buttons on its top, including volume controls and a snooze button. It is a rugged device, covered in a rubber material that enhances grip. The device comes with 256 MB RAM and a 500 MHz processor, which makes it more powerful that the older Chumby and Chumby One, but not yet as powerful as it could be. The touch screen is clear and can be viewed from a fairly wide range of angles. The speakers, however, are poor quality, producing a tiny sound that distorts at high volumes.

The Dash is easy to navigate. Once it has been set up and linked to a wireless Internet connection, everything that needs to be done can be accessed straight from the homepage, where widgets can be placed as desired. The user also sets up an online account, in the same way as a Chumby user. This account can then be used to manage the widgets on the device, although this can also be done through the Dash itself.

The Dash can be used for a range of different activities. Sony has designed it as a personal device for viewing the Internet, with the intention that it should be used for content stored through cloud computing. The Dash cannot be used to stream content from a server or computer, which is another annoying aspect of the current design.

There are many different widgets that can be used on the Dash, including offerings from YouTube, Amazon, Netflix, Facebook and Twitter. The Dash works well with all of these apps, providing clear playback of YouTube videos, for example, but not necessarily the best route of accessing these sites. Some of the search interfaces are difficult to use, such as the YouTube one, and certain widgets are difficult to manage, so that it can take a lot longer to use through the Dash than through other means of accessing them. The Twitter widget, for example, is particularly slow, since there is no cursor to use if there is a mistake in the message that needs to be corrected.

Some of the apps on the Dash seem to fit in perfectly with the concept of this device. Playing online radio stations, for example, is easy and provides a sensible function for a device that cannot be carried around with the user. It can be left in the corner of the room, just like any radio.

The Sony Dash is a useful device for certain functions, but there are apps that are available on it, but which don’t seem suited for its design. Depending upon the uses to which a user wants to put their media player, they may find that the Dash suits them, or that they want to wait for a better alternative-either a later version of the Dash, hopefully with a battery, or a different device altogether.