The MZ-E30 is really small, not as small as some of Sony’s newer models, but small enough to fit nicly in a shirt pocket, about the size of and just a bit thicker than two stacked MD cases. It comes in three colours, blue, silver and orange. In my opinion the blue one is the nicest looking, and the orange the worst. The unit has a clamshell disc loading mechanism, which helps to keep it thin. It feels very robust, and the surface is hard to scratch. If you do succeed in scratching it though, it gets very ugly. (I accidentally put mine in the same pocket as my keys...). There are four play modes, normal, repeat all, repeat one, and repeat shuffle. The buttons are logically placed, with the exeption of the play mode button, wich is too small and on the side of the player.
The unit has an acceptable 4 hour playing time with the included NiMH battery. This can be extended to about 10 hours when using the external battery compartment with a AA-battery. If you really can't live without your music, it is possible to change one battery while the other one is inserted. :-) The external compartment has a DC-in for a power adaptor, but this has to be bought separately. The included battery takes about an hour to fully recharge.
The sound is like the best portable CD players I have listened to, which is extremely good. There are three digital Mega Bass settings, off, level one, and level two. With level two, some distortion can sometimes be heard when playing at very high volumes, but if you use the AVLS this is eliminated. The AVLS and Mega Bass swithes are on the back of the player, which is OK since you don't change these very often. The player has a 10 second shock buffer, which is enough if you don’t plan on keeping it in your pocket while jogging.
The remote is, well, good I guess. It is the RM-MZE50MP, and it is shipped with other portables as well. You can control everything except Mega Bass and AVLS from it, and the time and song/disc title is displayed only on the remote, not on the unit itself. Both the unit and the remote has an indicator for the disc (if it is playing, fast forwarding, seeking and so on), AVLS indicator, battery level indicator with four levels and a track number display. The remote display has a multifunction dot-matrix part which shows a volume bar, the title and playing time, depending on what you have selected. The remote does not feel as robust as the player, and it will probably not last as long.