The NWZ-A820 to give it its full model number comes in a few variants, there is the NWZA828 which we have on test with 8gb of solid state memory and also the smaller NWZA828 with 4gb and the daddy NWZA829 with 16gb of storage space. For us the 8gb is the sweet spot, the average MP3 collection will fit on this or at least the proportion that you listen to.

On first glace the Sony A820 is a nifty little device measuring 93.6 x 50.2 x 9.3mm and weighing 58 grams, its styling is subtle and yet feels of good quality and not at all plasticy like some of the cheaper competition. This is a good point to remind you that the iPod Nano is a tad cheaper than the Sony and the iPod touch is around £20 - £30 more for the same 8gb memory.

Sony have stayed clear of the touch screen battle and aimed at the Nano rather than the iPod touch and have instead concentrated on the user experience and audio quality which we have to say seems like a damn good idea. The main selling point of the A828 we have here is the Bluetooth headphones which provide you wire free earphones so no messy cables to get tangled up or to feed through your jacket from the player. The Player supports Bluetooth but only the audio profile, so you can only send audio from it to either the supplied headphones or another Bluetooth enabled audio capable device (perhaps a set of speakers). Pairing the headphones is simple, you need to put the player into pairing mode from the menu and the top right corner lamp flashes blue repeatedly, the hold the button down on the headset until its Bluetooth lamp flashes rapidly, then search and select the headset on the A820 menu and enter the code 0000, then you should be paired.

The Headphones are very comfy and ideal for long listening stints, they work within a 10 meter range of the A820 unit which is plenty for normal walkman type use but not great if you intend to prance around the house with the player downstairs. Sony seem to have made the audio performance just right for the supplied headphones they sound great from the get go and didn't really make us want to test the unit with another pair. Of course we did and opted for the Shure EC3's which sounded pretty good but did expose a few flaws and the audio sounds a bit rough or squared and lacks subtlety that you can get from high end players. That said we doubt many users will notice this and will be more than happy with the overall performance with the Bluetooth headset.

Using the Sony A820 Mp3 player is a bit of learning curve, it is the same interface apart from some minor tweaks as the earlier Sony Network Walkmans, it takes some getting used to and is not that easy to use without a brief trip to the manual. However after the tutorial you will soon be zipping around the interface displayed on a bright and crisp 2.4" screen. You get all the usual features viewing tracks by artist, album etc and can build and store play lists, one small gripe is the shuffle which shuffles everything even our audio books! So just as you are grooving to one track expecting another and you get an audio book or children's story, would have been nice to shuffle excluding audio books and podcasts.

Sony have long since given up forcing Atrac down our throats and have opened up to the enemy MP3 and also WMA and even ACC in this model so you iTunes tracks should play fine.

Video is a big part of Sony's offering and you will be able to play MEPG-4 clips on the A820, we tried downloading a few from Sony's site and they do look good although the playback isn't as smooth as it could be but we suspect its the refresh rate of the QVGA screen. Photos can be displayed in a rather nifty little browser and most major formats are supported, however the lack of any memory card slot does rather limit its usefulness. Getting media onto the device is a drag and drop process so no special software needed and as the player is play for sure compatible windows media player can push files over for you if you prefer that option.

The transfer is via USB and a connector at the bottom of the A820 walkman which is also used to charge the monster 30 hour battery. In our tests we managed north of 28 hours layback time with mixed use between audio and video which is impressive from the wee player. Also on the bottom of the unit is a 3.5mm jack for use of conventional headphones.

Overall this is a neat player and an equal for the iPod Nano, its better in some respects (sound quality and wireless headphones) but lacking in ease of use compared to the Nanos wheel. If you are going to compare with the more expensive iPod touch then there is no comparison with the touch screen excellence of that model, but you will need to save up for an equivalent 8gb model.

The Sony is a nifty little bargain and will allow you to listen to music without join the Apple crowd.

Published - 08/08/2008

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