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Sony NWZA818 - 8GB Video MP3 Walkman - Upto 30hrs Battery Life - Black | 
 enlarge | Brand: Sony
Category: CE
Buy New: £122.46
New (8) Used (3) from £79.99
Rating:  167 reviews
Sales Rank: 1242
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Fragile: No
Batteries Included: No
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.1
Dimensions (in): 0.4 x 0.4 x 0.4
MPN: NWZA818B.CE7
Model: NWZA818B.CE7
EAN: 4905524442373
ASIN: B000VD2130
Release Date: September 14, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | SONY MP3 PLAYER | | • | 8GB MP3 PLAYER | | • | VIDEO AND PHOTO | | • | UPTO 2.4" LCD SCREEN | | • | IN BLACK |
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| Accessories:
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| Customer Reviews: Read 162 more reviews...
 Excellent product August 22, 2008
Ian Gledhill
This is a really nice player - sound quality is excellent and battery lasts a long time (though I don't get the claimed 33 hours). I've had this player for 6 months and am very happy with it. Previously I didn't like Sony players after I bought one without realising it was tied to Sony's truly awful SonicStage media manager software - thankfully, this now works with WMP11 and Windows Explorer and works with it very well.
Pros: sound quality is excellent; simple to use; nice display
Niggles: cannot create playlists on the player itself (they have to be synced from WMP); getting video on to the player is too difficult; it doesn't use a standard USB sync/charge cable (though to be fair, most MP3 players, incl iPods, don't either).
 Superb ! August 14, 2008
Mr. P. G. Hopgood (Essex)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Superb quality product. Had almost two weeks now, as unfortunately had to return Creative Zen because it 'froze' twice, within a few days of ownership. Found Sony ear phones with player too tinny, unless I play around with equalizer settings to increase bass. They are very clear though. So have just purchased some very good & portable sennheiser PX200 headphones. Must say cheaper option delivery service from Amazon on both products very quick ! Very easy to 'Drag & drop' music through Windows Exporer. Same with Photos. Had problem with videos. Could not get video clips/films onto player. However, for others struggling suggest searching Google for "DVD Catalyst 3". It is fantastic & so easy to use. Any negatives: Screen a bit small. Would not want to view films, just clips. Ok for photos. Cannot delete music direct on player. Have to delete it through Windows Explorer with Mp3 connected. No Mains adapter. Otherwise a Great player. Ideal size & very easy menu to follow. Buy it !
Absolutely superb player and transfer softwware. No mains charger, though. August 11, 2008
C. Nation (Bristol UK)
After an awful time with 2 Creative Zen Vs, one of which was incurably corrupt and the other unworkable with Creative's s/ware, I wrote off the 28 I spent on this garbage and went for the Sony. Can 138 5* reviews be wrong? NO!
This player is so good. Why? Sound quality: really superb. Ease of music transfer: very easy indeed. Operation: simple, intuitive. Options: The EQ and other options for repro are outstanding. Design: sleek & neat. Manufacture: it's metal, not cheap-feeling plastic [like the Zen]
AS a music player, this device ticks all the boxes. There are those who moan about watching videos on it. Why anyone would want to watch a video on a screen the size of a Christmas postage stamp, I can't think. What a waste of file space.
So why deduct 1 star? I think that Sony have seriously short changed us by not including a mains charger. After all, this player almost certainly will go on the road with its owner, way out of reach of a recharge from a prolonged spell connected to a PC. Someone has mentioned, in a comment on a review, a charger 'on eBay/Amazon for 5'. I have not found one on Amazon, probably because Sony themselves do not list one in the accessories available for the NWZ-8xx series. I have found a useful mains + car-charger + USB cable for 20 inc p n p from Singapore on eBay. They say that the cable is a genuine Sony one. Why Sony don't even list one is a big mystery and rather dopey.
There's been some rather petulant spouting about file types and compression rates versus library size. I have written in more detail about this as a comment to one of the 1 star reviews but I'll summarise by saying that this player will provide anybody with less than barn-owl hearing ability and studio quality headphones with many hours of pleasure listening to music transfered at at least 128 kbps. This is NOT cd quality but for most people, in most realistic listening situations, it's perfectly adequate. I was prepared to trade 25% library space by using 160kbps for a notional 25% increase in quality - but only probably audible in a quiet hotel room or such.
The only way I can think of to improve on this 8Gb player is to get one with more capacity. Then maybe go for the wireless Bluetooth option. I've heard an MP3 player [don't know which make/model] through Bluetooth cans and the sound was brilliant.
Finally: the Zen V which was a complete dud was ceremonially stamped to atoms under a stout boot heel. It was all it was worth.
It just blows them all away August 10, 2008
C. Raeburn (Basingstoke UK)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
It would be easy to just jump into the anti-Apple corner and send this Sony player up without anything concrete to put it there - but this is not really helpful to people looking for facts.
Initially I was going to buy an older model of this about 2 years ago, but when I found out there were some rather nefarious issues with the bundled software and formats supported I switched to an I-pod at the last minute. This was the beginning of a 'hate hate' relationship with one of the most awful devices made by man.
I had frequent crashes of the software on the I-pod itself, it would randomly do odd stuff. The control of the unit with 'that' dial was just rubbish - especially if you had anything other than the exact required amount of moisture to dirt on your fingers. The top mounted headphone socket had that wonderful 'fill me with water when it rains' design 'feature' to it. On the plus side it had big storage, albeit of the delicate moving-parts HDD variety.
Where the I-pod experience was totally awful was I-tunes. I could start the program and go for a twenty minute jog before the thing had finished scanning my large library on my home PC. It's buggy insistence to keep trying to calculate useless playtime information and download cover art was infuriating. It crossed my mind that by requesting cover art it was telling Apple Central just what I had on my home PC and a TCP dump of the communication taking place pretty much proved it. Then followed weeks of trying to find third party replacements for I-tunes to integrate it with Windows (I gave up with it on my native Linux box as it would not play). After finding expensive plug-ins that corrupted the device from Media Player I finally found a godsend called 'Anapod Explorer' from Red Chair Software. This allowed the basic explorer to i-pod drag and drop needed. Problem is the seeds were sown for me. With the dial being awful (navigation,volume and all user functions being dependent on it, and the sound quality not really being all that I gave the thing to my daughter and hunted for a replacement. Enter stage left this tiny Sony.
After checking reviews on Amazon I found that it no longer had any of those nefarious software issues left over from the great root kit scandal. The box had a bit of weight to it, but after extracting the tiny player this was all down to to the various documents and packaging. I wanted this player to be quick and easy to use without having to put any software on to my computer, and without the need to read the manual. I got what I wanted.
Now, being an awkward customer I run a Linux PC (Ubuntu as it happens). This makes any hardware a bit a of a challenge to say the least. In went the USB lead and presto! It appeared on my desktop as a 'Walkman'. I was able to drag and drop mp3's to it in seconds (yes us Linux users have desktops too - it's not all command lines). It took about 3 minutes to transfer 150 tracks onto the player (all 320kbps I'm fussy). Not the fastest transfer, but considering I-tunes would still be booting I was not put off.
The battery was all but charge out of the box so I was able to test the unit at once. Navigation was simple and a breeze. The layout logical and positive. The display was bright and welcoming and every function was logical without the need to look at any manual. There was no nasty 'dial', just positive buttons. It is also half the size of an I-pod (seriously, it is). I stuck in the included headphones and the sound quality hit me as miles better than the Ipod. On full pelt it did not start suffering from distortion in the output stage. But then it's a Sony init!
My one disappointment came in the volume. It was not loud enough for me and I did not like the in-ear cans that came with it (I'm old school). With heavy heart I stuck a cheap pair of Panasonic cans into it expecting it to get worse, not better. To my surprise the volume jumped up to a level that someone as deaf as me could enjoy.
So after all this waffle and a-b experience comparison, what is the conclusion? It blows the I-pod away. It is out-of-the-box compatible with multiple operating systems appearing as a 'drive' the way it should. The sound quality is awesome, video is crisp if you really want to waste storage looking at it. The build quality feels better, the design over-all is just better by miles.
The tradeoff? Well, of course it does not have masses of storage. But it has plenty for people who rotate their music and want a good on-the-go player without the delicate hard drive to trash when they drop it. In the land of the MP3 player, if you get the basics such as usability, availability and sound quality right you have a winner. A lesson Apple need to learn.
NWZA818 WALKMAN August 8, 2008
Mr. A. Chamberlain (UK)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Superb machine,excellent sound quality charged up and loaded with music within hours of receiving no problem.Also a big plus if you connect to your PS3 a walkman icon appears and you can play or view content via tv or surround sound system.The only downside is the lack of mains charger,however i have purchased the sony usb mains adapter which works fine.Highly recommended.
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