Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7616 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Sony
• Model: NWZA818B.CE7
• Released on: 2007-09-14
• Dimensions: .39" h x .39" w x .39" l, .12 pounds
• Display size: 2

Features

• 2.0" QVGA Screen
• MP3 AAC WMP WMA Audio Playback

Manufacturer's Description

The Sony Video WALKMAN NWZA Series

Easy Operation Crystal clear display coupled with a simple user interface means that you can find your music, video and photos quickly and easily. Intuitively designed, the WALKMAN video offers enhanced searching (and cover art display) meaning you can conveniently access every classification (artist/album/genre etc) from the Now Playing page.

Video Playback Video playback lets you play video 'podcasts', downloaded content from other internet sites, TV content recorded directly to your PC, and even movies you shot on your camcorder. It's versatile and easy to use. You can change screen format from vertical (portrait) to horizontal widescreen (landscape) and you can zoom in during playback. Stores up to 1000 video files. High speed playback, up to 30 frames per second for smooth viewing. With the 8GB version, you can store as much as 32 hours of video (at 384kbs).

Photo Playback Your mobile picture library. Play your photos individually or use the slideshow setting. Plus you can even enhance the experience by adding a soundtrack. Easy to use, you can display your photos in portrait or landscape. The display format of the photo list can also be changed to your preference: ‘Title Only’, ‘Title With Thumbnail’ or ’Thumbnail Only’.

Your Music Downloads Your WALKMAN NWZA is WMT compatible, so you can purchase and download music from most online music providers – look for the ‘Plays for sure’ logo.

Easy Music Transfer Transferring music to your WALKMAN couldn’t be easier – simply select, drag and drop compatible files using ‘My Computer’ and you are ready to go!

Multi Format Music Playback The WALKMAN NWZA series plays a variety of file types including WMA / MP3 / AAC / Linear –PCM Intuitively designed, the WALKMAN video offers enhanced searching (and cover art display) meaning you can conveniently access every classification (artist/album/genre etc) from the Now Playing page.

4 Clear Audio Technologies WALKMAN has always stood for the highest quality portable audio. The WALKMAN video NWZA has four ‘Clear Audio’ technologies: Clear Stereo: Technology keeping the two signals clearly separate. So what you should be hearing in your left ear will never ‘leak’ into the right ear. Digital Sound Enhancement Engine (DSEE): This unique feature improves compressed audio quality restoring high frequency signals to poor recording. Clear Bass: Gives clear, rich bass without distortion. EX-Headphone: The unique shape of the earphones allows the biggest possible sound unit (13.5mm) whilst maintaining the most comfortable in-ear fit.

Display 2" QVGA colour LCD, high resolution (320 x 240), high brightness, high contrast and superior colour reproduction display your videos at their best. To avoid the problem sometimes experienced when viewing small screens, Sony has used its TV expertise to create a great picture. For example, using a low temperature poly-silicon TFT panel with LED backlight to reproduce 262,144 individual colours so mobile viewing does not mean compromising on quality.

Battery Life Prolong your entertainment with the WALKMAN video. Fully charged you can access thirty hours worth of music playback or eight hours of video. To fully charge the battery takes only three hours. *Music: ATRAC 132 kbps **Video MPEG-4 384kbps

Dimensions Big sound and big screen performance doesn't need to weigh you down. When you're on the move with a WALKMAN video, size is everything. Length: 88mm Width: 43.8mm Depth: 9.1mm Thinnest part of WALKMAN: 8.3mm Weight: 53g

Colour And Memory Options 8GB - Pink / Black / White - up to 5500 tracks or 32 hours of videofiles 4GB - Pink / Black / White - up to 2700 tracks or 15 hours of videofiles 2GB - Black / White - up to 1300 tracks or 7 hours of videofiles

Box Contents

• Main unit
• USB cable(Wmport to USB A Trype)
• Headphones (MDREX082)
• CD-ROM

Customer Reviews

Wow! What a great player!
Initially I fell in love with the ipods, having played around with the new ones; small, very intuitive menus and great looking, and that super click wheel (you really need to experience it for yourself before you know what I mean about the click wheel) - but after a long hard look at many reviews decided to go for the sony and boy am I pleased i did!

The player is very small and sleek, comparable to the nano ipod. Menus are straight forward, while not as nice as the ipods click wheel, its very easy to use - I never even bothered with the manual as if you've used any type of mp3 player its fairly stright forward to work out all the buttons. It works straight out of the box (after charging of course) - I found I had no need to even open the manuals/cd.

The player supports CD cover art which is a great touch, but it does mean you might have to get an ID3 v2 tag editor for your pc or apple to add the cover art if your mp3 files dont already have them (luckily there are a lot of good free/open source onces available). Once you add the cover art you can drag and drop the mp3 files as per normal in windows explorer (finder on macs).

The player has a small screen which unfortunately does *not* come with a screen protector - I would get one to avoid it being scratched, they are not expensive, any pda, mobile phone screen protector will do as long as it is big enough to cover all the screen, Im really surprised it didnt already come with one on. My other niggle is the hold button is hidden at the back of the player, so will take time getting used to, but its only a minor thing. Another anoyance for me is the lack of Most Played, Recently Added options on the menu, but again its only a small point.

Another thing surprisingly missing is a case. Most players at least include a sleeve or case to help protect the device, and I would have appreciated the same from Sony. When you spend that much money on a device like this, the last thing you want to find is a scratch on the finish, the first time you take it out of your pocket!

One of the things putting me off the ipods is its lock in to iTunes, this was similar with sony to its sonic stage/atrac rubbish, but luckily sony have got over their madness and you can use it like any other UMS device, i.e. simply plug it into your pc/mac and use windows explorer/finder to drag n drop files - couldnt get any simpler really. It was my main swaying point moving away from ipods. The player comes with software, but I didnt even bother installing it - I just drag n drop, and I'm up and running within minutes.

Sound quality is unbeleivable; really very good. The heaphones are the new type of in the ear headphones that goes completely into your ears and it was the first time I tried this type. I was very impressed with the quality and how comfortable it was on the ears, my only concern is the normal 'in the ear' headphones (you know the single lump) allows you to listen to your walkman at a relatively good volume while still being able to hear traffic around you (assuming your not blasting away at full volume). These heaphones block out outside noise so may be a bit more dangerous if your using it while walking/running/cycling. I suppose this is one of many reasons what makes them sound better, by taking out any distracting background noise. Apart from the safety issue, I really like the headphones.

The player comes with a usb charger which means you plug it into a pc/apple to charge it, but I can imagine this can be very annoying to someone without easy regular access to pc/apple. The player can be charged from the mains, but you have to buy the add-ons yourself. Having said that the battery life is fantastic.

For those of you interested you can mains charge through a cradle (which you can buy on its own - around £25 - or bundled with speakers - £70-100 unless your lucky enough to get the free speaker offer when you buy the player), or you can get a mains adapter which plugs into the player (around £10 and lower).

I got my player with the cradle/speaker offer. Amazon managed to bungle the order (maybe just the start of the christmas rush), but it eventually arrived. Incredible value for money - get it while it lasts! It also means for me, I can use the cradle to charge the player, rather than relying on a pc/apple - I can imagine it would be very annoying if you plugged it into your laptop, and the laptop goes into hibernation leaving with your player not charged.

The screen is a bit on the small size, but similar to the ipods. Probably a bit too small to watch too many full length movies on it. However it's bright and crisp and can be used in landscape orientation for viewing photos and videos. The main menu screen is well organised and playback screen displays cover art and a wealth of (ID3 tag) information. I like the fact you can browse your files and photos while the player is still playing music in the background.

*****

Bottom Line: Sleek, slim, very easy to use, incredible superb sound quality, plenty of sound enhancement options (accessable through the menu). Video very good. No built in radio, no voice recorder, no memory expansion slot (good 8gb storage space; should be enough for most people), no case/arm band, no screen protector or mains adapter included (usb adapter included). But the pro's for this device far outweigh the cons.

Overall a highly recommended item!

*****

Awesome!!!
Just got delivery of the 4gb version of this model and it is jaw-droppingly good. Now if you see any of my other reviews I have a resistance to iPods because of the lock in to iTunes and have bought the Toshiba gigabeat and two Zens which I can safely say pale into comparison. This piece of technology is sleek, intelligent, has more functions than the Zen (all be it without radio) has a better sound quality than any mp3 I have tried out inc Ipods and well what else do you need. The display is crystal clear and stylised with a clear vibrant layout and cool graphics. Now with the universally accessed Windows Media player the transfer of music is as it should be, straight forward and uncomplicated. 33 hours battery life they say, well even half of that beats an iPod or Zen! Until now I was totally a Zen fan but after my experiences of them I am convinced I have finally found an mp3 that will meet the heavy usage requirements that it will need and have all the functions to last in the ever changing market place for a good while yet!
Buy this machine in any format you won't regret it!

Excellent Player
Just received mine today, direct from Sony, it couldn't be easier to use; plug it into a USB port and synch it with Windows Media Player 11 (a copy of media player 11 on CD is included).

Headphones are great and the sound quality is the best I've heard so far.

Fantastic package; Apple eat your heart out.