Sony Walkman NWZ-A815 review

Average user rating

9.0

spectacular

Average user rating from 2 users

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Sony Walkman NWZ-A815 user reviews

October 22, 2007

Posted by: Strange Visitor

"Perfect for me"

What I like:

Menu system; build quality; bright, high definition screen; sound quality

What I don't like:

non-standard USB connection; cannot create playlists "on the fly"; no bluetooth

Review:

I finally got frustrated with the "touch-sensitive" navigation of the Samsung YP-Z5, so decided to purchase another MP3 player.

I've had MP3 players since before the advent of the iPod, and decided I would again avoid following the masses and look for a non-Apple player.

My first "personal stereo" in 1985 was a Sony Walkman cassette player, and the brand has always been associated with quality personal audio, so this was the first brand I looked at.

What has put me off in the past is that my wife had an A1000 and I put the songs / playlists on for her and I found the bundled software so frustrating to use.

Given that this software (SonicStage) is no longer necessary on these new models (A815,6 & 8) and the review on CNet was so positive, I decided to purchase the A816.

The screen is bright and sharp. Photo's look excellent on it. The menu system is simple and intuitive with many tweaks to customise the settings.

The 3.5" jack is in an unusual place (bottom left) but this doesn't cause a problem.

The buttons are clearly labelled and set out. I find this system much better to use than the touch sensitive ones of the Samsung YP-Z5 and the iPod range.

Tracks can be dropped directly into the "Music" folder using Windows Explorer. However, the only way I could get the player to accept a playlist was to sychronise the whole library and playlists using WMP11. I tried using MediaMonkey and an old version of MusicMatch, but found WMP the most reliable method.

There doesn't appear to be a way of creating playlists on the player (I was able to do this on the Sony Walkman w810i phone, that I had last year, so I was surprised that facility was missing on this MP3 player).

This player is attractive, has excellent screen and sound quality. It's light, robust and easy to use.

It would have been nice to have had bluetooth on this machine (similar to the new Samsung YP-T9) but this omission doesn't detract from what is an excellent media player.