Sony NWZ-A816B 4GB video walkman MP3
10 October 2008
An easy-to-use, bright, and reliable media player.
Plays MP3, ASF, MP4 and Wave Riff audio file formats;
MP4 Video file format;
JPEG photo file format.
USB rechargeable internal battery.
Smart, Flexible and Good Value.
LITREV Rating 4/5
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The Sony 4GB Video NWZ-A816
media player is a slender, attractive and well-designed player.
It plays MP3s and displays video and photos.
The selling price is around £55-£65.
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The display is bright and crisp and the
easy-to-understand icons give ready access to the player’s various functions.
File transfer is easy, file navigation on the player is
also quick and easy.
Despite being rather quiet, the in-ear earphones produce a c lear,
penetrating sound, but are not as comfortable as standard
earphones.
The player’s buttons are intuitive, easy-to-use with a
dedicated volume button.
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NAVIGATION
Buttons
Navigation is done by a five-way button, a back button and an options button. These
are placed in a thumb friendly arrangement and can easily be told apart by feel and
position.
File Navigation
Music navigation is done by MP3 tags – artists, albums, tracks and genres plus year
of release.
Video files are navigated using filenames. Photos can be browsed using a preview menu
which allows display of several thumbnails at once.
Not all pictures displayed as expected, but the vast majority were fine.
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DISPLAY
The player has a bright display; images appear crisp and are well defined.
SOUND
The sound quality is great – with various controls including graphic equalizers to
give the sound output the shape you want.
PLAYBACK
During playback, fast forwarding and rewinding happens at a speed which varies
slightly depending on whether you pause play before cueing and on how long you press
the cue buttons.
It can take a little while to navigate through a long podcast.
DATA TRANSFER and SOFTWARE
Data transfer and battery recharging is done via USB using the specialized Sony cable
which is provided.
Recharging is fairly quick, and the speed of data transfer is impressive.
Software
The box is labelled as Certified for Windows Vista and carries the Playsforsure
Windows Media audio label.
The Software provided includes an MP3 conversion tool and Windows Media Player 11.
Playlists that were created with the previous version - Windows Media Player 10 –
could not be retrieved on the player’s playlist menu.
BATTERY
Battery life is excellent. A full charge lasts pretty much the whole day for music
playback.
Recharging takes about 3 hours for a full charge.
OTHER FEATURES & CONCLUSION
An attractive and easy-to-use player.
The player doesn’t have a huge range of features but what it does it does well.
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