Review: Sony Walkman Video NWZ-A818

Posted by: dgoldring on Oct 05 2007 - 22,040 views

When I heard the Sony Walkman was going to be relaunched this year, I knew I had to review it.  I have been a fan of the Walkman for…well, pretty much my whole life.  As I recall, the Walkman will play audio cassette tapes in a bidirectional format, has a digital tuner for both AM and FM, and includes “MegaBass”.  So, put on those leg warmers and get out your favorite mix tape because…wait, excuse me for a moment, I am receiving a message…

This just in, apparently, the new Sony Walkman does not play audio cassette tapes, or do any of the other things I mentioned.  In fact, Sony has asked that you not get out the legwarmers…Flashdance is so 1983, anyway. 

So, what does the newly relaunched Sony Walkman offer?  Well, let’s take a look at the A818 Video Walkman.  I think you will agree, is a vast improvement over the 1985 version (even without the legwarmers).  Hit the jump for more, and I will see you there.

What’s In the Box:  In addition to the player itself, the package includes everything you need to get started right away.  In the box, you will find:

• a USB sync/charge cable
• earbud style headphones with an extension cable
• CD-ROM containing all of the necessary software
• Quick Start Guide
• Dock (Optional) Adaptor Plate

One noticeable omission here was the lack of 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.  Even if you plan to purchase a different case from Proporta, Boxwave, or any number of other companies, including a case with the player ensures that you can protect it right out of the box.  When you spend that much money on a device, the last thing you want to find is a scratch on the finish the first time you take it out of your pocket.

Quick Overview: Before we go any further, let’s take a quick look around the unit and see what we have here.  The first thing I noticed is how thin the Sony is. 

 

Here it is with my Sandisk Sansa e280R (a fairly skinny device in its own right).  In the picture on the lef, the Sony is on top.

 

The left side has no controls.  The right side, however, has a recessed reset button which will turn the unit off and then on again (just like a soft reset), and a lanyard loop if you wish to attach a wrist lanyard or neck loop for carrying it.  Frankly, I was surprised that a lanyard was not included in the box, but that was not a significant issue for me as I do not typically use a lanyard.  On the top of the right side is the volume control.

The top of the unit also has nothing to see.  Although, I do wish the headphone jack had been located here.  Instead, it is located on the bottom, which seems a bit odd if you are putting this in your pocket.  The headphone jack is a standard 3.5 mm earphone jack, which I was happy to see.  Too many devices are trying to conserve space by utilizing a 2.5 mm jack,which does not fit most headphones.  Also on the bottom is the proprietary port for the sync/charge cable.  I was extremely disappointed to find that Sony had not adopted the more universal micro or mini USB connection.

 

The back of the unit contains the hold switch.  Obviously, when this is in the hold position, the controls will be deactivated.  I found that the controls on this unit could be extremely sensitive and would frequently get bumped in my pocket, so I did appreciate this hold button and found I used it much more than with other devices. 

Well, I think I have stalled you long enough, so let’s take a look at the face of this device.  This is really where you will spend most of your time.

The first thing you will notice is a 2 inch high (the materials did not provide a diagonal measurement) QVGA screen with 240×320 resolution.  I was actually very impressed by the clarity of this screen, despite its small size.  More on that later, however, when we talk about the video.

Below the screen are the controls, which are very standard.  There is a large play/pause button surrounded by a control wheel.  The wheel does not spin, but has a button for each of the four directions.  Additionally, on the right is a back button and an Options button which will display a different menu based upon your current screen.  Push and hold the Options Button to power off the device.

 

Menus: Every function on the Sony Walkman can be accessed from the main menu.  This menu consists of nine icons, each of which controls a specific activity or option.

• Intelligent Shuffle allows you to shuffle your music.  From here, you can select to Shuffle All or enter the Time Machine with Time Machine Shuffle.  This will randomly select a calendar year and play only songs from that year.
• Initial Search allows you to search for a specific Artist, Album or Song beginning with a letter or number you enter.
• The Clock Display will display a full screen clock which shows the time and date.  This clock will also be used as your screen saver while listening to music.
• Photo Library will allow you to view any saved photos on your device.
• Music Library allows you to listen to the music saved on your device.
• Video Library allows you to watch the videos saved on your device.
• Settings allows you to control virtually every aspect of your Sony Walkman and personalize it to your preferences.
• Playlists allows you to access any playlists you have saved on your device.  These can be created in Windows Media 11.
• Now Playing will return you to the song or video which is currently playing.  You can listen to audio while accessing any menus.

The menu on the Sony Walkman was easy enough to use.  I liked the fact that from the main screen, you could quickly access any function of the player.  When you select a menu icon, it will be highlighted on the screen and change color and size, making it extremely easy to navigate.   

Included Software: The Sony Walkman is designed to be able to sync with your desktop computer using Windows Media 11.  Of course, this is the latest version of the Windows Media software, which is included with Windows Vista.  For those of you who are still using Windows XP (and I know there are a lot of you), no need to worry.  Sony has been kind enough to include Windows Media 11, along with an MP3 conversion too so you can quickly and easily transfer any content to your device.

Personally, I found that I never even touched the included CD.  Since I already use Windows Vista, I was set up and ready to go with Windows Media 11 and I have plenty of conversion tools, so I did not need one more on my hard drive.   For most of you, however, you will likely find some of this software to be extremely useful.

Finally, the CD-ROM includes a free trial of Napster.  I pretty much ignored this like I do with most of the “free trials”, adware, and bloat that come with my devices.  But you might like to give it a try. If you want it, it is there for you.  If not, leave it on the disk like I did.

 

Included Headphones: Typically, one of the first things I do when I buy a new media player is toss the headphones.  Generally, what you get with a portable media player is a scratchy and uncomfortable in-the-ear headphone.   These are almost never comfortable, nor do they deliver high quality sound.  This is one of my biggest frustrations with portable media players.  After spending several hundreds of dollars on a media player, I then have to sink another $100 or so into headphones that work.

Portable media player manufacturers need to get with the program and include functional and comfortable headphones with their players.  So, I was extremely surprised and excited to find that this is exactly what Sony did.  They included a fantastic pair of earbud style headphones, which are considerably more comfortable and offer better sound quality, as well as noise isolation, when compared with the typical “rest in the outside of your ear” headphones which most media players offer.  In fact, the pair which come with the Sony Walkman are styled in the same manner as many of the highest caliber headphones, and are very similar to Sony’s MDR-EX85 headphones.  I was also impressed with their noise isolation.  Typically, when I am waiting on the train platform, you just have to resign yourself to the fact that trains are loud and will often drown out the music in your ears.  The Sony headphones actually withstood this background noise, and I was able to enjoy my music even while walking past the engine.  These are certainly no throwaway headphones. 

If you are a true audiophile or audio snob then you may still find fault with these.  Heck, after the Shure SE530 headphones, which I reviewed earlier this summer, I could find fault with almost any headphones.  Nonetheless, for the average listener, these offer great sound, noise isolation which is comparable to some of the best headphones I have used, and a design which maximizes comfort.  These are far from your normal free headphones.  Not only were they duly pardoned from an express trip to the garbage can, they have ultimately replaced my everyday headphones.  Not many free headphones can make that claim.   

Of course, the headphones are not the main attraction here.  But like an appetizer at a fancy restaurant, when they are good, it makes the whole main course seem that much better.  With that in mind, maybe it is about time we stop with the appetizers and move along to the main course.

 

Obtaining and Transferring Media: Well, now that you have everything set up, the first thing you will want to do is transfer media onto your new Sony Walkman.  As I mentioned, it can play video, music, and photos.  There are two ways to transfer media.  First, you can simply drag and drop it in file explorer.  The labels on the Walkman folders are clearly labeled “Music”, “Picture” and “Video”.  Or, you can also sync with the Walkman using Windows Media 11.

One note here, if you are dragging and dropping, make sure you pay attention to your folder hierarchy.  With music, you can use up to eight levels of subfolders with no problems.  With video and pictures, however, the player will only recognize the first level of subfolders.

I found it was surprisingly easy to transfer content.  I have used some players which utilize complicated proprietary software which must be used to transfer content onto the portable player.  I have never found a good reason for this, and I am glad that Sony shunned this approach.  Nothing can be easier for a seasoned Windows user than dragging and dropping files.  That is something we have been doing for decades.  And for those of you coming over from the iPod/iTunes, Windows Media 11 is very easy to learn and sync.

Music: Sony has long (and I mean looong) been a leader in portable music.  Years before the iPod was even a glimmer in the eye of the Great and Mighty Jobs, the Sony Walkman ruled the musical Earth.  For years after the first Sony Walkman was released in the late 1970’s, Sony has pretty much been the first and last place you looked if you wanted to listen to music on the go.  Of course, in recent years, Sony seems to have lost this berth to the iPod, which almost single handedly created the digital music revolution.  The question now is, has Sony been in hibernation too long, or like Rip Van Winkle, can they reappear after years of hibernation to regain their status in the portable music landscape?  The new Sony Walkman is smaller, thinner, and more sophisticated than ever.  One thing remains the same, however, they offer the still offer the highest level of innovative features and customization options.  Let’s take a look at some of those features and see if they are more than enough or too little too late.

To begin with, I was extremely impressed by the various listening options available in the Walkman.  Of course, you can select an individual song, album, or artist to listen to.  To do so, most players would require you to scroll through a long list of names, and find the one you need.  The Sony, however, offers the Initial Search option, which allows you to jump right to the songs, albums, or artists beginning with a particular letter.  This makes finding the music you want considerably easier.  Of course, you do still have to know the name you are searching for.  Even Sony can’t help you find, “That song, y’know.  The one by that guy with the band.  That goes…dee-de-de-deee-deedle-de-dooodle-doh.”

Of course, sometimes, you just want to be carried away by the music, and not worry about dialing up a new song every couple of minutes.  Or, you just want to be surprised with a song you may not have heard in a decade. This is how I usually like to listen.  Just hit random or shuffle, set it down and let her rip.

Sony offers two options here.  First, of course, they offer Intelligent Shuffle, which is similar to the shuffle feature in most media players.  Intelligent Shuffle will randomize your library or playlist You can transfer any Windows Media playlist to the Walkman).  I was impressed by the infrequency of any repeated songs in Intelligent Shuffle, which was exactly what I wanted. 

The second option is unique to the Sony Walkman, and has become one of my favorite features.   In fact, the Time Machine Shuffle is the kind of innovation which has consistently thrust Sony to the top of the pack when it comes to music players.  Time Machine Shuffle will randomly select a year from your music library and randomly play all of the songs associated with that year.  This is a fantastic way to relive a bygone era, or just identify some of the musical trends running through the years.  It would be nice if you could select a particular specific year, rather than only having the device choose one at random, but this did not impact my ability to enjoy this feature at all. 

I would have liked a radio included in this model.  It is a nice feature for catching a baseball game on the road, or just listening to your favorite talk radio show.  Some of the 600 series players do include a radio.  The 800 series, however, ditched this feature in favor of upgraded headphones.  Maybe I am just greedy, because I wanted the headphones (which really are very nice) and the radio together. 

I was also disappointed to find that the Sony Walkman does not include a Bluetooth radio.  I probably should not be disappointed by this, because almost no portable media players include Bluetooth today, a fact which has never ceased to amaze me.  With Bluetooth headphones becoming increasingly prevalent, it seems that the portable media player market is simply falling behind in this area.  Again, a Bluetooth radio is among the easiest options to add, and is probably one of the most important omissions from virtually every portable media player I have used, including the Sony Walkman.  Fortunately, I spoke with a product manager at Sony, who assured me that this was something they would be evaluating in the future.  Hopefully, we will see this important addition soon.

These minor deficiencies aside, I was extremely impressed by the customization options for you listening experience.  The equalizer an Surround Sound allow you to replicate virtually any listening environment, or create your own custom environment. 

Finally, a quick note on the display.  In such a small screen, the Sony Walkman provides you with a wealth of information about each song.  On the screen, the player will show the song title along with the album cover art.  Beneath this is the artist, album name, genre, and year.  At the bottom is a counter which shows how much time is left in the song, a battery indicator, and the play mode.  If you adjust the volume, then a volume indicator will be temporarily displayed in this section.  I was disappointed, however, to find that I was completely incapable of getting my album cover art to display.  The Sony, however, simply would not find my cover art in either .WMA or .MP3, regardless of whether I dragged and dropped the song or synced it using Windows Media 11.  (As an aside, the player will also recognize .WAV files and most AAC-LC, meaning that most major music codecs can be played).  Regardless, this was unfortunate, but not a significant concern (and could very well have resulted from user error more than anything else.)

Pictures: One of my concerns with viewing pictures on the Sony was the size of the screen.  With a two-inch tall screen, I could imagine myself squinting through a lot of unidentifiable pictures.  What I found was a pleasant surprise.  Sure, the screen is small, so don’t expect to do a whole lot of detail work with this thing.  But it really is crystal clear.  I was extremely impressed with the quality of the images on the screen.

One thing I look for here is the ability to play a slideshow while also listening to music.  You could not view the song information during the slideshow, which would have been nice, but is not critical.  The important piece here is that a device of any kind should always offer features which allow it to conform to the way you want to use the device.  It should not require you to change your habits in order to use it.  With the slideshow feature, Sony offers the flexibility to view pictures any way you choose, rather than simply looking at them in whatever manner the player chooses to toss them up on the screen. 

On a more personal note, many of you are aware that we recently had a baby.  When I went back to work, everyone wanted to see pictures.  Rather than lugging around a stack of pictures which could get easily smudged, torn, or damaged, I just loaded all of the digital pictures into my Sony Walkman and hit Play to display a slideshow of my new daughter.  As they say at Stapes, “That was easy.”

Video: Video and pictures really go hand in hand.  I mean, a slideshow with music behind it is just a small step from Video, right?  I played around with the video quite a bit on the Sony.  Of course, as I mentioned, the screen is a bit small, but I won’t get into that again.   The size of the screen aside, there was really a whole lot of good news here and just a small amount of bad news.

The good news here is in the quality of the video, which is really most important aspect.  I found it was exceptional.  I watched Star Wars, and soon became so immersed in it that I completely forgot the screen was so small.  The colors are true to the original, and there was no skipping, jumping or other playback problems.

I was also extremely pleased to find that you could rotate the video to watch in any orientation.  Let’s face it, a letterboxed video on this screen looks even tinier in portrait mode.  Fortunately, it is extremely easy to rotate and watch the video horizontally, making the screen fit the dimensions of the video.  Again, this is a perfect example of the player being able to meet your needs, rather than requiring you to change to meet its abilities.

The one problem I had, however, was that there was no good way to make the device stand on its own while watching.  A nice flipstand would have been perfect here.  Of course, there is an optional dock which you can purchase.  However, this does not help when you are traveling, and you should not have to pay extra money for this critical feature.  Of course, I resolved this problem by propping it against the other clutter on my desk.

Now for the bad news.  The Sony Walkman is terribly limited when it comes to video content.  In fact, it can only play .MPEG4 and AVC content.  Although these are said to be among the most common video formats, I was shocked by this, and more than a little confused as to why it would not recognize .WMV content from Windows Media.  It can play Windows Media Audio (.WMA) and it is designed to sync with Windows Media 11.  So, it should go without saying that Window Media Video (.WMV) would be recognized by this player.  Hopefully, future versions of this player will expand the available video codecs.  Since I obtain almost all of my content through Windows Media, the inability to recognize .WMV constituted a fatal flaw which made it extremely difficult and inconvenient for me to enjoy this feature.  

Memory:  The Sony Walkman includes 8 GB of internal flash memory (there is also a 4 GB and a 2 GB version).  This is a huge amount of storage space for music alone.  We are talking thousands of songs here.  In fact, if you want music and photos, you should still have plenty of space to hold hundreds of songs, as well as hundreds of photos.  You are only likely to have problems if you intend to watch video on the Sony.  Video takes up a lot of storage space  A single movie can be up to 2 GB, which does not leave a lot of space.  For this reason, I was disappointed that there was no opportunity for external memory expansion.  Allowing you to store your photos or video on an external memory card would have significantly enhanced your storage options.  Additionally, given the fact that most other players do offer a mini or micro SD expansion slot, this could put the Sony at a significant competitive disadvantage.

Battery and Charging: I was impressed by the battery life of this player.  I listened to music for an entire day (6:30 am until 4:30 pm) without connecting it to any external power source, and it was still going strong.  Of course, the battery is not replaceable, which I think is a problem, but not a terribly big problem.

The real problem I had was the adaptor which came with the Sony Walkman.  As seems to be a growing trend with Portable Media Players, there is no AC adaptor.  All that is included in the box is a USB sync/charge cable which charges the battery while it is connected to your computer.  The problem here is that when the Sony connects to your computer, it automatically enters sync mode, which means there is no way to play any content while it is plugged in.  Fortunately, I have a universal USB to AC adaptor which I was able to use here.  You really should never have to be put in a position of choosing between enjoying the content and charging the battery.  In order to make this a worthwhile player on longer trips, there simply must be a way to charge and listen (or watch) at the same time.

Conclusion: Sony is well known for the quality of their music players, and with this latest edition to the Sony Walkman line, that reputation really shined through.  Of course, this is also Sony’s first foray into digital video, and I thought that showed as well. The screen offers sufficient clarity to compensate for its small size, however, the limited video codecs meant I could not always load the content I wanted.  I also enjoyed the Time Machine Shuffle, a small touch that really made the Sony unique.  My main fear is that Sony misfired on a few options which are standard or should be standard in virtually every other media player on the market.  Most significantly, of course, is the inability to supplement the 8GB of included storage space.  Additionally, although it is consistent with the industry standard, I was extremely disappointed to see that Sony did not include Bluetooth, which is becoming an increasingly necessary feature.  Nonetheless, I found the usability of this device to be exceptional.  The menus and controls were easy to use and follow, and the playback, particularly of music, was superb.  Sony has done a great job with this player, which should do the Walkman name proud.

Vital Stats:

Name: Sony Walkman Video

Model: NWZ-A818

Manufacturer: Sony

Where to Purchase: Sony

Price: 199.95

Also Available:  4 GB ($149.95)

                      2 GB ($119.95)

 

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