Sony NWZ-A845

Sony Walkman NWZ-A845 review

You can put Apple's ownership of the portable music market down to two things: Steve Jobs' marketing nous and (iPod designer) Jonny Ive's understanding that most people value convenience and gadgetry above audio quality. So it's easy to believe that Apple doesn't give much thought to fidelity. Thankfully, judging by our review of the new Walkman NWZ-A845, Sony thinks differently. Music player first For music lovers it's hard to pick fault with Sony's thinnest-ever Walkman. Feature-wise, the NWZ-A845 is bound to appeal to anybody who wants a high-quality portable music player. It has 16GB of memory, an S-Master digital amplifier, Digital Noise Cancelling, EX headphones and an impressively bright 2.8-inch OLED display. And the feature list ends there. There's no Wi-Fi. No 3G connectivity, no touch screen, gaming or App Store. This is a music player first and a (really good) portable video player second. Sony makes no attempt to compete with Apple's iPod touch. If you want a mobile internet device and personal media player that plays music occasionally, then by all means shell out a few quid more and buy yourself one of Apple's latest MIDs (mobile internet devices), because the iPod touch is a wonderful pocket computer.