Great Mp3 player (Sony Walkman NWZ-A818 8 GB)

Member Name: Clayton101

Product:	Sony Walkman NWZ-A818 8 GB
Date:	04/06/09 (20 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Drag and drop functionality; slick design and smart looking; good sound quality.

Disadvantages: Video playback necessitates video conversion software, which is annoying.

It took me a while to get my act together and buy an MP3 player, and invested in this Walkman a little over a year ago. It is the first (and only) MP3 player I have bought, and my main reason for choosing this one was the drag and drop functionality, which works very well.
You simply drag whatever music you want into the relevant folder when the Mp3 player is connected to your laptop. I found the idea of this preferable to be locked into Apple's proprietary software/music system that accompanies the iPod.

The design of the NWZ A818 is very slick; I couldn't believe how small and smart it looked when it arrived. A free carry case or screen protector would have been nice to help maintain it in mint condition, personally I invested in a carry case for a couple of quid to help protect it.

The music quality is very good, with various options and functions that technical people can manipulate to their hearts content. Personally I've been very happy with the music playback out of the box.
Other extras include being able to view photos, and sorting songs by album, artist, year etc. with various shuffle options. A slight negative is that you cannot manage assemble playlists on the go. You can drag and drop playlists from your computer, but can only manage your music into various folders when it is also connected to your computer. This is a small issue I find.

My main criticism of this MP3 player is the video playback, which is not as easy as music playback. Unfortunately the video has to be in MP4 format, and in specific dimensions. It takes some fiddling to find the appropriate software you can use to convert videos, but once you have it is fine, and the quality of the video is very good. Great for train journeys into work in the mornings!

The quality of headphones is very good as well, far superior to the majority of cheap/low quality headphones that complement most other MP3 players I have seen.

The 8GB of space could potentially be a limiting factor for those with massive music libraries, though I have found it more than adequate for the music I want to listen to, and can't seen myself filling it anytime soon (personally I think massive space on an Mp3 player is overrated).

I have had my this Mp3 player for a little over a year and have had no problems for it. On balance there are likely cheaper players out there, but this one is definitely high quality and very easy to use. I would easily recommend it to those who prefer the simplicity/no hassle of this Mp3 player.

Summary: Not the cheapest of players, but smart design, good sound/video playback & reliability win the day

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