Performance
Fortunately, these inadequacies are overshadowed by the A828's amazing
sound quality. It really is one of the best-sounding players we've ever
heard. It's on par with offerings from Creative and Cowon and Sony's signature bass-heaviness is immediately apparent through our Denon AH-D5000 reference headphones.
A deep, warm tone underneath Ingrid Michaelson's beautiful song Masochist was our first clue that we were dealing with a sonically impressive player, and the clarity and power with which the rest of the song was delivered sealed the deal. The same can be said for Linkin Park's unusually mellow and U2-esque track Shadow Of The Day. It was full of detail and depth -- just what we were hoping from Sony's expensive Walkman.
The same cannot be said for video. While the player is full of potential -- thanks to the great screen and H.264 support -- it was almost impossible to get video on to the player as a result of the strict properties it requires for video files. We were very confused, and it took hours of trial and error with four different software packages. We finally succeeded and the results were terrific. Video is crisp, smooth and easily comparable to the iPod nano -- but you'll work much harder than necessary to get it.
Finally, battery life is rated at 36 hours for audio and 10 hours of video. Check back soon for our update about whether we achieved these figures in our tests.
Conclusion
Sony's NWZ-A828 is a terrific player and
easily one of our favourites of the year so far. It blew us away with
its stellar audio performance and screen quality, and it's beautifully
designed and easy to use as well. It's unfortunate that its awkward
video support was a major turn-off.
We'd say that Apple's iPod nano is marginally easier to use and offers simpler video functionality. It's more affordable, too. Also consider Creative's Zen if you still want more memory for less money, and iRiver's Clix 2 offers a few extra features over the Sony. All of these are at the expense of the Bluetooth capability, though.
Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Shannon Doubleday
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User reviews2
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Mike Buck 12 September 2008
Good: Ease of use, music quality
Bad: Could be cheaper, PC software is still rubbish!
Comment: Had this now for about 3 months, and i'm amazed with it, i'm not one of these, MP3 player means ipod people, personally I put quality of music playback ahead of it looking pretty, but this is as good looking as any ipod, the buttons are easy to use, and are well placed, the music playback is brilliant, either through the in-ear speakers or the bluetooth ones you get with it, the bluetooth ones are a bit chucky, but hey!
One thing that they need to resolve is the PC software, now called Media Manager, its still exremely average, and as much as it pains me to say this, itunes is in a different league compared to it. Media Manager doesn't cache changes to send them all at once, this means every time you add an album it send it to the player there and then and you have to wait for it to finish! But do what I did, and don't use it, the Walkman installs itself as a plug n play device on your PC so you can just drag and drop anything onto it! The software is better than it was, but thats not saying much. The other option is to use Microsoft's Media Player to do it.
Even so I'm still gunna score this on it music playing abilities cos thats why i bought it! and its brilliant. The battery lasts for ages, obviously if you use it with the bluetooth headphones, or a bluetooth speaker then it doesn't last as long but its still impressive. The menu is easy to use and the screen is clear. Its thin and light, sure it longer then the G3 nano, but its narrower.
So in conclusion, if you someone that wants an MP3 player as a music player and not as a fashion accessory, then this is the one for you! sure it costs a bit more, but i'll pay for quality.
Just remember, just cos more ipods are sold doesn't make them the best!
Peter Norman 4 May 2008
Good: The sound quality is fantastic, far better than any ipod
Bad: Bluetooth headset
Comment: I have owned 3 ipods including the ipod touch, none compare to the sound of the Sony Walkman NWZ-A828, and thats whats counts in the end
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