Sony NW-A1000 review

It's fair to say that the iPod's design has become something of an icon.

We haven't seen many MP3 players that match it for looks and ease of use, but that doesn't stop manufacturers from trying. Sony's latest effort certainly looks unusual, but it's not as stylish as the iPod.

The NW-A1000 uses a 1in hard disk, which can store up to 6GB of songs. That's enough to hold around 1,500 tracks.

It's a little larger and heavier than other mini hard disk players we've reviewed and its rounded shape is a bit like a bar of soap. It also has a simple monochrome screen that, when's it not giving you song information, displays the meaningless slogan 'every moment has its music'.

This Walkman supports MP3 music files, but it won't play tracks that are encoded using Microsoft's WMA format, which is widely used by online stores. Instead, these must be converted by the supplied Connect software, which is quite clunky to use. This isn't too much of a problem for WMA files you've made yourself, but you can't convert protected files purchased from online stores, such as Napster. If you want to buy music online, you'll have to use the Sony Connect store.

Sony supplies an AC adaptor with the NW-A1000, which can also recharge over its USB connection to a computer. It played music continuously for over 13 hours on a single charge, almost matching the iPod nano. Music sounds pretty good through its colour-coded earphones. It sounded even better with the two pairs of high-quality headphones we tried.

The NW-A1000 has three times the storage of a 2GB iPod Nano, which costs about the same, but we wouldn't like to be limited to Sony's online store. We'd rather use iTunes or buy a player that supports protected WMA files, such as iRiver's H10, reviewed in December 2005. This costs about £10 more, but it comes with an FM radio.

Author: Simon Handby