Sometimes
large corporates like Sony can release a gadget and plug away at it
without realising what they have. This is true for the Sony Walkman
range, for while all the eyes have been over on the iPod stand Sony
have been building a little belter of an MP3 player the NWZA818. Now
the NWZ series have been about for some time but this 8gb model
really makes some sense when you look at it against the rivals. It
will come as no surprise that Sony make a good user interface but we
are sure that the full details of this sub £100 player will raise a
few eyebrows.
Measuring 88 x 44 x 9.1mm and weighing 53 grams the Sony NWAZA818
has an 8gb payload which is plenty for most music collections and
even a substantial amount of video when encoded QSIF at a bit rate
of around 500k MPEG-4.
The 2" QVGA screen has a resolution of 320 x 240 but the figures
don't tell the whole story, Sony have packed some of their vast
experience of Brava TV panels into this screen and the Picture
punches well above its weight when playing video.
Battery life is nothing short of stunning with us getting 32 hours
when playing MP3 files, just short of the stated 33hours and you
should get just under 8 hours of video playback too. Now if only and
iPod could manage that kind of performance. Plus it takes just 3
hours to fully recharge the 33hr capacity so it will easily top up
when at home or in the office.
Thank god Sony moved away from Atrac only devices some time back and
fully embraced the MP3 world and also WMA as long as there is no DRM
applied (so no support of online music stores then). They boast
support of plays for sure just as Microsoft walks away from the
standard but hey at least it all works well. We easily synced
straight from windows media player to the NWZA818 and managed to
play MP3 and WMA files ranging between 128 and 192kbits. Files are
moved to the device using fast USB 2.0.
Audio quality is top notch, Sony really do produced a good device
and this little network walkman is no exception, we'd go as far as
to say that the audio quality is better than an iPod especially when
used with a good set of earphones. It may be an idea to pick up a
set of isolating earphones to go with the NWZA818 as the supplied
set have a very very short cable making it hard work unless the unit
is in a top pocket. Presumably Sony think sales will mainly be to
Oompa Lumpas or those dinosaurs with short front legs.
The
video performance is rather good too, yes the 2" screen is a bit
small to watch a movie but as small screens go this is a peach. We
tested with some encoded movies and were surprised at the lack of
blur and smearing normally seen on most small MP3 devices.
As with most things Sony there is more than a smattering of style
and the NWZ-A818 is a very natty little number with its screen
glowing and 4 way pad with centre select. The side is styled silver
and contains volume control buttons.
Best of all is the user experience, the menus and intuitive and very
sleek, album art is used to good effect and photos are thumb nailed
to make JPEG display easy. You hardly notice that there isn't a
click wheel and we would think that if an Apple iPod user could be
prized away from their pod they would be very impressed, perhaps
even jealous of the little Sony.
That's high praise we know, but the Sony NWAZ181 deserves it as
sadly many people will just pass it by on the way to the Apple
store. However if you are an individual and want great sounding
music and a whopping 32hrs replay time then why not pick up a Sony
8gb player for just £99. Stand out from the crowd?
Sometimes
large corporates like Sony can release a gadget and plug away at it
without realising what they have. This is true for the Sony Walkman
range, for while all the eyes have been over on the iPod stand Sony
have been building a little belter of an MP3 player the NWZA818. Now
the NWZ series have been about for some time but this 8gb model
really makes some sense when you look at it against the rivals. It
will come as no surprise that Sony make a good user interface but we
are sure that the full details of this sub £100 player will raise a
few eyebrows.
The
video performance is rather good too, yes the 2" screen is a bit
small to watch a movie but as small screens go this is a peach. We
tested with some encoded movies and were surprised at the lack of
blur and smearing normally seen on most small MP3 devices.
