Sony Walkman NWZ-A828K (8GB, black)

The good: The Sony NWZ-A820 Walkman MP3 player series offers high-quality music, photo, and video playback, along with built-in Bluetooth audio streaming, EX-style earphones, and phenomenal battery life.

The bad: The Sony NWZ-A820 series doesn't come cheap, and it lacks an FM radio, voice recording, memory expansion, and a standard USB connection.

The bottom line: The Sony NWZ-A820 is the best sounding, best-looking Walkman series yet, and the inclusion of Bluetooth audio makes it a top choice for cable-hating audio enthusiasts.

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Sony NWZ-A810

The Sony NWZ-A820 Walkman series is a subtle evolution of the NWZ-A810 series we enjoyed in 2007. This year, Sony is treating us with a larger screen, built-in Bluetooth, and a more assertive design, offered in 8GB ($270) and 16GB ($320).

Design
Given Sony's track record with curvy, rounded designs, the Sony NWZ-A820 is refreshingly square. Measuring 2 inches by 3.75 inches by 0.4 inch, it has a metallic body and a 2.4-inch screen. The NWZ-A820 is a little larger than its predecessor, but it maintains a slim, pocketable profile. The circular four-way navigation pad found on last year's Sony NWZ-A810 has turned into a more solid-feeling square on the A820, flanked by two small option and menu buttons. All other buttons are confined to the right side of the player, including a rocker switch for volume control, a Bluetooth activation button, and a hold switch. The bottom of the A820 Walkman features a headphone output and proprietary USB connection.

One little design detail that distinguishes the Sony NWZ-A820 from last year's model is the inclusion of a detachable kickstand for hands-free video playback.

Features
The Sony NWZ-A820 is stocked with features, including music, photo, and video playback, and built-in Bluetooth audio streaming. On the audio end of things, Sony is continuing its support for MP3, AAC, WMA, WAV, and DRM-protected subscription music files. In typical Sony style, the restrained design of the music playback screen betrays the awe-inspiring music enhancement technology working behind the scenes, such as a 5-band EQ, Clear Bass, Clear Stereo, DSEE high-frequency restoration, and dynamic normalization.

With its 2.4-inch QVGA LCD and excellent video battery life, the Sony NWZ-A820 is the most video-worthy Walkman we've seen. Sony offers limited video format compatibility, however, including MPEG-4 and H.264 sized at a strict 320x240 ratio. Fortunately, the popularity of the iPod and video podcasts has made the QVGA MPEG-4 file format one of the most abundant on the Web.

The Sony NWZ-A820 is a solid player with plenty to brag about, but the exclusion of features such as an FM radio, voice recording, and memory expansion, is worth keeping in mind as you compare the Walkman with its competition.

Bluetooth
Sony makes the whole Bluetooth pairing process exceptionally elegant on the NWZ-A820, both functionally and aesthetically. A push of a button sends the Sony NWZ-A820 into Bluetooth discovery mode and activates a blinking blue light on the top-right edge of the player. Once the Sony NWZ-A820 has been successfully paired with a Bluetooth device (headphones, stereo) the indicator light changes from a frantic flash to a slow pulse. During our informal testing, we were able to get a useful range of about 30 unobstructed feet between the NWZ-A820 and our Logitech Freepulse Bluetooth headphones. Access keys for previously paired devices are conveniently stored in the Sony NWZ-A820's memory, allowing you to pair your various Bluetooth accessories with a minimum of fuss. If you're just dipping your toe into the world of wireless Bluetooth audio, the 8GB version of the NWZ-A820 (the NWZ-A828K) comes bundled with pair of Sony Bluetooth headphones.

If you could care less about Bluetooth, the Sony NWZ-A720 series offers all of the features found in the NWZ-A820 series, with the exception of Bluetooth, at a reduced price.

The Sony EX earphones included with the NWZ-A820 Walkman series put Apple's white iPod earbuds to shame.

Performance
Year after year, Sony's MP3 players demonstrate some of the highest standards for audio quality. Even at its factory setting, the Sony NWZ-A820 radiates with fidelity that just gets better as each one of its many sound-enhancement features activate. Listening through the excellent pair of included Sony EX in-ear headphones, the rattling saxophones of Moondog's "Dog Trot" were vibrant and easy to pick out in the stereo soundstage. Renowned for its buttery bass performance, the Clear Bass enhancement EQ feature perfectly sweetened the rolling dub synth notes of Squarepusher's "Port Rhombus" with no noticeable distortion.

Videos appeared bright, crisp, and colorful on the Sony NWZ-A820. The Walkman's screen is 0.4 inch larger than the screen found on the third-generation iPod Nano, and it shares a similarly impressive pixel density and sharp picture quality. Videos can be rotated between landscape and portrait view on the Sony NWZ-A820, and audio and video files are automatically bookmarked when the player is stopped or shut down.

Sony rates the NWZ-A820's battery life at an impressive 36 hours of audio playback and 10 hours of video. We'll update this review with our CNET Labs battery results once testing is complete.