Cut the cable clutter and go wireless with built-in Bluetooth and wireless headphones. Ultra-compact 8GB music and video player with superior quality 2.4" LCD screen, drag and drop... more
A review by roktimdutta on Sony NWZ-A828 8GB June 11th, 2009
Author's product rating:
Sound Quality
Excellent
Ease of Use
Simple
Look & Design
Excellent
Range of Features
Diverse
Value for Money
Good
Advantages:
Too many, read the review .
Disadvantages:
None really to underline
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
I have had never any doubts about the quality of Sony Audios. They can do lots of things but not a thing when quality is the watch word. I have been using a Creative Muvo for quite some time, it is very tiny the size of a USB flash drive but had no video play back for it and I was grumbling about it for a long time. I decided that enough was enough and I need something which is good enough for both and my priority was the quality of audio out put. So I decided to go for Sony NWZ-A828 (8 gig) now I rue the fact that I didn’t go for 16 gig, since the price wise it was not really big deal compared to the 8 gig, the problem was its popularity, it sold so much that they go out of stock frequently and it would be one month, atleast, for that stuff to have fresh stocks again, they said. So I had to pay price for my ipatience.
They are is no point giving you the technical specification because it speaks for it self and there are few deviations from what Sony claims to have staked in it. Beside excellent music quality, the video play back is reasonably good and the plus feature is it JPEG photo play back.
Although the bluetooth is definitely a welcome feature but it’s performance is not above distrust, but never trust your bluetooth has become a proverb, for the simple reason it does act finicky sometimes. It’s also true that it has got problems in playing certain file formats but then do you require all of them at this age when iPods are getting popular and popopular and the formats they support get the priority. the popularity of the iPod and video podcasts has made the QVGA MPEG-4 file format one of the most abundant on the Web. The Sony NWZ-A828 has got no problems with this particular format.
Writing about its video play back, the Sony NWZ-A828 has got a beautiful 2.4” LCD screen, which is a good .4” addition to the third generation iPod Nano, the play back is crisp, sharp, colorful and bright, in one word scintillating giving a resolution of 240x320 pixels and just think the videos can be rotated between landscape and portrait view!
It has got highest standards of audio quality, which is Sony trade mark. Listen to Louis Armostrong in this player, I’m sure you will re-discover him and be more convinced that he is great man, Pink Floyed’s Dark side of the Moon will aptly make it clear why they have to delve into the darker side of moon, specially “Money” will make your head spin. Every detail is so musically highlighted, for that matter just put on “Gig in the sky”, you will realize what a great piece of music work it is. You catch every thing a small tweak on the string, a bang on the piano and the booming bass is absolutely stunning. Even Yoko Ono will sound great. The band EQ is just great but never mind the default settings of the Sony NWZ-A828, it is enough to make you feel dizzy. Even the presets are great like you can set it to the genre of music you are playing, Pop, Club, Jazz, Arena, Heavy, Custom, Studio and Unique. Just a note the “Unique” mode fits great with all genre.
Probably it’s best feature is the battery life, but I must say there is a deviation here from the technical specs, because it claims 36 hours audio play back but I had problems getting more than 28 hours for audio and about 7 and ½ for videos (it claims 10 hours) may be due to the conditions, possible. But at any standard it is excellent and the batteries charge in a just over 3 hours.
The bluetooth is exceptionally elegant, I’ve experienced a succeful pairing within an unobstructed distance of at least 22 feet, just bang in on the bluetooth button it send the NWZ A828 into discovery mode and the blue light on the top right edge comes alive and the moment it is paired it becomes less frantic and settles into slow pulse. It’s functional. It’s aesthetic. The technology is so good the pairing with various bluetooth accessories can be achieved with the minimum of fuss.
The headphone supplied is of superb quality, no boubt about that. I must say that Sony has become more democratic as far as designing is concerned because this stuff has square corners in place of Sony trade marked rounded corners.
Just fish out £138 and get it. Run my dear and dip yourself into wireless fantasy. Dizzy, mind-blowing little product. Tiny but powerful, have a bet.
Note of caution: I have not talked about wattage and stuff like that on purpose, so don't get swayed please. First check out. (Surprising it has no FM radio)
Advantages: small, wireless headphones, quality sound,easy to use,drag and drop, battery life Disadvantages: supplied software slow,clunky, limited video compatability,bluetooth a bit fussy with other gadgets
...usual in my experience for Sony barring the Sony vegas video software. However on the upside you can use Windows media player to drag and drop which makes the Sony software redundant.
Very fussy about video codecs (h.264/mpeg 4) only. I used dvdfab to do conversions but was still fussy about the settings. So was a bit of trial and error.
Could not get this to communicate with my phone/pc/ps3.
All in all. Practical for holidays/quality sound/wireless ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Easy to use, ear buds that you dont normally get Disadvantages: 3 hours to charge full battery but not too bad
This MP3 player is brilliant. It's small, and looks fab. The sound quality is really good and the screen is so crisp and clear. A fantastic price for a great piece of equipment from the masters at Sony. Way better than an Ipod and cheaper too!
You can drag and drop songs from a CD onto the Walkman it's simple and easy to do.
I really recommend this, you don't need external batteries just plug into USB and charge (it does take 3 hrs to fully charge ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Advantages: good battery life, easy to transfer files and music, easy to find music, good value for money Disadvantages: only available in black
I recently bought this mp3 after running out of room for music on my old mp3. i find this mp3 brilliant as it stores all my music in folders by artist, song, genre etc. i find this helpful as i spend alot of time listening to music and dont like to spend time searching my entire mp3 for one song. the way music is stored means i can easily pick a song or album that i would like to listen to. i also find this mp3 useful as it fits perfectly into trouser ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Advantages: Awesome sound quality, Good video playback, Sexy design, 36hours battery life! Disadvantages: No fm tuner, the bluetooth function is a waste of time.
...this is the first time Sony has incorporated Bluetooth into its player. Sure its a good idea, but will anyone actually use it? Well to be honest i don't use the bluetooth function(I got the model that doesnt come with the bluetooth headset). This is for a number of reasons: Firstly, buying a pair of bluetooth headphones isn't too friendly to your wallet. Secondly, these earphones dont really sound as good as wired ones. Thirdly, I just dont see the ... ...you can get a better pair, there is really no need to do so. The sound quality on this thing is also superb(its the main reason i got it). This baby totally kills the ipod when it comes to sounds. Its clear crisp sound and deep bass makes it far better than any ipod out there(yes, i do prefer it to the touch). Aside having a boatload of sound enhancing tools, it also comes with around 36 hours of battery life. Well to be honest is says that on the ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful
Playback Modes: A-B repeat, repeat shuffle, repeat all, random play / shuffle, one track repeat
Features: JPEG photo playback
Manufacturer's product description
Cut the cable clutter and go wireless with built-in Bluetooth and wireless headphones. Ultra-compact 8GB music and video player with superior quality 2.4" LCD screen, drag and drop file transfer and an incredible battery life of up to 36 hours.
