Sony Walkman NWZ-A815 review

Sony Walkman NWZ-A815 Review

Reviewed by: Nate Lanxon

Reviewed on: 9 October 2007

Performance
Sony's signature of prominent bass was immediately noticeable, as were punchy, clear mids and razor-sharp highs. Dream Theater's excellent Stream of Consciousness -- an 11-minute track with a tight and progressive mix of complex instrumentation -- was superbly reproduced, with sonic accuracy across the board. Petrucci's powerful twin guitars were driven superbly alongside subtle, yet complex, keyboards and pianos. These were all undisturbed by the deep rumble of John Myung's bass guitar lines.

Your ears can be slightly protected by an automatic volume limiter, and a whole bunch of EQ presets and audio 'enhancements' will help you customise your music's feel. It's worth noting that there's no gapless playback option, so a split second silence is audible between tracks.

Video playback is top notch and videos with up to 320x240-pixel resolution are supported. We tried a widescreen video podcast encoded with a 320x180-pixel resolution and a data rate of 340kbps. The results were terrific and watching this short video on the small screen was perfectly enjoyable. We can't guarantee watching the Lord of The Rings trilogy would be quite as easy, mind you.

Battery life is rated at 33 hours for audio, eight for video. Check back soon to see if these estimates match what we achieved in our tests.

Conclusion
Sony's NWZ-A81x series is certainly impressive. It's easy to use, sounds great, looks great and -- now there's no SonicStage -- it's a delight to manage. The significantly lowered price tag should make this very capable player even more attractive to consumers, and a great alternative to Apple's new iPod nano.

If you'd prefer even more extensive control over your sound quality and a greater choice of codec support, consider Cowon's superb iAudio D2.

Available from AdvancedMP3Players. 

Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Shannon Doubleday