Audio (4858)

Sony NWZ-A820 Walkman video MP3 player launched

Bluetooth-enabled

20 February 2008 10:23 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

Sony has launched the NWZ-A820 Walkman video MP3 players in the UK.

With a 2.4-inch screen, an "extra-long" battery life and wireless Bluetooth headphones the black NWZ-A820 is available in two sizes, the NWZ-A828 with 8GB of storage claims to offers 30 hours and 40 mins of video/audio or 1850 songs while the 4GB NWZ-A826 gives you 15 hours of video or 925 songs.

The battery life allows up to 10 hours of video playback or 36 hours of uninterrupted music playback which drops to 7 hours of video or 15 hours of music with the Bluetooth stereo enabled.

Support for Bluetooth stereo means streaming to a Bluetooth stereo or speakers is a built-in option as is the hook up with the supplied Bluetooth headphones, in this instance Sony DR-BT21Gs.

The NWZ-A820 supports Windows Media Audio (WMA), copyright-free AAC, MP3 and Linear PCM music formats, plus JPEG files for photos.

Video codecs support playback of AVC (H.264/AVC) Baseline Profile and MPEG4 video files with the QVGA screen supporting video playback at up to 30 frames per second.

The player will accept dragged and dropped files from Windows PCs or there is Sony's Media Manager for Walkman software bundled in.

Sound quality is apparently assured thanks to in-house Sony technologies while the interface is claimed to be easy to use and intuitive with "super-quick" scrolling.

Available from April, the new models will be available to pre-order soon from Sony's online store. Pricing to be confirmed.