We have always been impressed by Sony Walkman series and we were anticipating the new arrival. This latest model - also known as the NWZ A820-series or along

NWZA828KB and NWZA828K - takes over from the NWZ-A810 series and adds Bluetooth stereo, plus a host of other improvements. It is currently available for around £ 160, but will we be as impressed this time?

Design

Sony players never fail to earn style points with us. The A828 is elegant, with an aluminum body and a beautiful 61mm (2.4 inch) screen. The 320×240-pixel screen is bright and has great density produce a strong image. You will see bright colors and black decent on the screen. Slightly larger than its predecessor, the A828 navigation pad has also been redesigned - a four-lane control button is located in the middle. Dedicated “back” and “option” are buttons on each side the most mobile phones.

What we do is quite as dedicated button to switch Bluetooth on and off - it is extremely useful. However, the player uses a USB cable, so you you want to relaunch if you lose one provided.

Features

Clearly, then, Bluetooth is a feature and you’ll find a Bluetooth headset in the box - they are very average, but - with the standard earphones. The reader pair with Bluetooth technology and other speakers headphones - we hang them easily to a pair of Etymotic ETY-8s. Unfortunately, you can not synchronize with a PC in this way.

Audio formats supported include MP3, protected and unprotected WMA and AAC unprotected simply video includes MPEG-4. Napster purchases and “Napster To Go” songs without problem, and synchronization with Windows Media Player, Napster or Windows Drag ‘n’ drop is about as painless as riding in a pile of marshmellows. Album art is supported, also .

The use of the reader, could not be simpler, unless, of course, you were doing with your mind. The menus are basic and attractive, with no obvious stumbling blocks for beginners or digital technophobes. Most police and clear screen you will not be squinting to the player while you change tracks. A thumbnail layout attractive and give slideshows JPEG photos and videos even feel a commitment.

The organization of training your inspiration playlists - the theme from Rocky, Eye of the Tiger, etc. - can be done in Windows Media Player, but they can not be created on the fly in the drive itself. The bundled software is convoluted feature-wise, but will take care of your podcasts and even flows Flickr. You can easily add the flow of your contacts latest additions photo and their photos automatically appear in the player of the photo library when you connect to a PC.

The podcasts are synchronized in the same way, if they appear in artist / album lists as if they were music. There is no position to lecture bookmark for podcasts, however, you will not find support for audio downloads, FM radio, voice recording or gapless playback.

Performance

Fortunately, these shortcomings are overshadowed by the A828 on its excellent quality. It’s really one of the best players survey we have ever heard. It is on an equal footing with bids and Cowon Creative and Sony signature low-heaviness is immediately apparent through our Denon AH-D5000 helmet reference.

A deep and warm in tone Ingrid Michaelson beautiful song masochist was our first clue that we were dealing with a player sonically impressive, as well as the clarity and power with which the rest of the song was delivered sealed the deal. The same goes for Linkin Park’s exceptionally mild and U2-esque way Shadow Of The Day. It was full of detail and depth - what we hoped Sony Walkman expensive.

You can not be said for video. If the drive is full of potential - thank you on the big screen and H.264 support - it was almost impossible to get the video to the player as a result of the strict properties needed for video files. We were very confused, and it took hours of trial and error with four different software. We finally succeeded and the results were fantastic. The video is sharp, smooth and easily comparable to the iPod nano - but you’ll have to work much harder than necessary to get it.

Finally, battery life is estimated at 36 hours to 10 hours audio and video. Come back soon for our updated as to whether we have reached these figures in our tests.

Conclusion

Sony NWZ-A828 is a fantastic player and easily one of our favorites of the year so far. It blew us away with his brilliant performance audio quality and screen, and it is beautifully designed and easy to use as well. It is regrettable that its awkward video was a major turn-off.

We would say that Apple iPod nano is slightly easier to use and offers more simple function video. It is more affordable, too. It may also be Creative Zen if you want more memory for less money, and the iRiver Clix 2 offers some additional features on the Sony. All these elements are borne by the Bluetooth feature, though.