Review: Sony NWZA829B MP3/MP4 Walkman

Overview.

I'm a huge fan of Sony products and have to say they have not once let me down when it comes to performance and quality.

The Sony NWZA829B (hate the name!) is a 16GB Bluetooth enabled MP3/MP4 player. Let's check it out!

Review.

Style:

The player is slim, compact and lightweight, weighing just 59 grams. It features a 2.4" widescreen QVGA LCD screen (320×240 res.) with a sharp and vibrant picture quality.

Below the display screen are the home and back keys, plus a four directional d-pad, which when pressed in the middle is also the play/pause button.

The left and top edges of the player are clear from buttons or sockets and the back has a small indentation for the kickstand.

The base contains the headphone socket / USB connecter.

The right edge has the volume controls, Bluetooth button, hold slider and wrist strap anchor point.

Features:

Well the great thing about this walkman is that it's Bluetooth enabled and can pair with Bluetooth earphones, mobile phones, other Bluetooth enabled players and wireless speakers.

It has a huge 16GB internal memory and can hold 4,000 music tracks or 62 hours of video.

The battery will last you around 36 hours for music, (15 if Bluetooth enabled) and around 10 hours for video (7 if Bluetooth enabled).

It supports MP3, WMA, AAC, DRM and MP4 file formats and also supports jpeg photographs that can be viewed on the walkman's picture viewer.

It has a user friendly interface, with 9 menu icons displayed on a 3×3 grid.

Music files can be viewed by artist, genre, album etc. and playback modes include a-b repeat, one track repeat, random play/shuffle, repeat all and repeat shuffle.

Files can be transferred to the walkman via USB with an easy drag and drop feature, or can be transferred wirelessly from other Bluetooth enabled devices.

The NWZA829B gives a clear, rich sound with deep bass, crisp treble and no noticeable distortion. This is thanks to the Digital Sound Enhancement Engine that restores high sound frequency, which can often be lost in compressed music files. The Clear Bass technology enhances the bass sound whilst minimising distortion and Clear Stereo reduces signal leakage from one channel to another.

The walkman also features a 5 band equalizer and a Dynamic Normaliser that automatically adjusts sound levels when a song becomes too loud or too quiet.

Videos appear bright, crisp and colourful, with a playback of 30fps. They can be viewed in portrait mode, or landscape mode via an option menu.

Unfortunately the walkman lacks a voice recorder, FM radio and memory expansion.

In the box:
Headphones
Extra ear piece
Software (WMPlayer 11, MP3 conversion tool, Media Manager for Walkman)
Stand
USB cable

Gaj-It Verdict:
Style 9/10
Usability 8/10
Functions 8/10
Value 9/10

We Say:
Now I love Sony, but there's just one thing I can't quite comprehend: Why would you make a great walkman, with fantastic sound quality and a huge memory, but fail to include something as simple as an FM radio and voice recorder? You can find such features on the cheapest of mobile phones these days and I’d have thought they would have come as standard with Sony.

Anyway, enough ranting about that. The Sony NWZA829B is a cool Walkman with some great features, great technology and more than enough memory to keep you content. You can pick one up for about £170.