The Sony NW-A1000 reviewed by Trusted Reviews

[Pooh]

Verdict

Despite the software, this Sony player is still an excellent piece of equipment. Sound quality, gorgeous design, superb battery life and ease of use make it the best high-capacity digital music player from the big S yet.

But is this 6GB device better than a 4GB nano? The answer, unfortunately for Sony, is a resounding no, notwithstanding the advantages I've just mentioned.

The nano not only looks as good, it also beats the Sony in virtually every other category. It's smaller and has a colour screen, it has iTunes, it has Apple's unbeatably easy-to-use click-wheel interface, and though it is 2GB lighter than the NW-A1000 and a tad more expensive, the fact that it is a flash memory device makes it a more attractive option, especially in the gym.

For full review, please follow this link:

http://www.trustedreviews.com/article.aspx?head=39&page=5180

[lamewing]

Verdict

Despite the software, this Sony player is still an excellent piece of equipment. Sound quality, gorgeous design, superb battery life and ease of use make it the best high-capacity digital music player from the big S yet.

But is this 6GB device better than a 4GB nano? The answer, unfortunately for Sony, is a resounding no, notwithstanding the advantages I've just mentioned.

The nano not only looks as good, it also beats the Sony in virtually every other category. It's smaller and has a colour screen, it has iTunes, it has Apple's unbeatably easy-to-use click-wheel interface, and though it is 2GB lighter than the NW-A1000 and a tad more expensive, the fact that it is a flash memory device makes it a more attractive option, especially in the gym.

For full review, please follow this link:

http://www.trustedreviews.com/article.aspx?head=39&page=5180

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While I am not please with the screw-ups Sony is making (Connect software)....I should say, repeating... It should be noted that this player really should have been compared to the iPod mini. It is too bad the A1000 (and A1200 in Japan) couldn't have come out a YEAR ago. This is comparing apples to oranges.

The comparison to the nano should be the A608, etc.

The author of the article makes a comment that seems rather odd. He says he wouldn't be cause dead with the white headphones...as he doesn't like following the crowd.

Really, who uses the crap earbuds that come with ANY player, white or not?

Edited December 17, 2005 by lamewing

[ajitp]

i think you´d be suprised. Almost every iPod user keeps the white buds and uses them.

[Ascariss]

4 gig nano sadly competes now with the A1000, while the 2 gig nano competes with the A608 here, prices are the same.

as for the review, the person seems to have only done a 1-2 day review, the real differences come when you own it for more than a week.

[Guest Stuge]

I don`t like the start of the review at all ...but pages2 & 3 are ok

Also rating should be 6 instead of 8 because oF software

[lamewing]

4 gig nano sadly competes now with the A1000, while the 2 gig nano competes with the A608 here, prices are the same.

as for the review, the person seems to have only done a 1-2 day review, the real differences come when you own it for more than a week.

←

Yep, that is how things turned out, but I seriously doubt that Sony intended to run a microdrive unit against a flash-based unit. They were expecting to run against something like the mini and well, Apple trumped them.

I don't think the review can ever be complete until Sony gets off its duff and write decent software. Right now there are features that aren't even usable on the A1000. I just don't understand how Apple can write a nice program like iTunes (it is stable and does trasnfer well) while Sony cannot seem to do the same. Can it really be that hard?

[Pooh]

Yep, that is how things turned out, but I seriously doubt that Sony intended to run a microdrive unit against a flash-based unit. They were expecting to run against something like the mini and well, Apple trumped them.

←

When I returned my NW-A1000, I picked up a nano 4Gb to replace it, even though at the time (Amazon UK had the NW-A1000 on sale) the Sony player was much cheaper. The reason I chose the nano was twofold: firstly, I had just bought a 60 GB iPod 5G and was very pleased with it; secondly, there was nothing else on the market that suited my requirements in terms of size, features and reputation.

Some time ago, I posted an article here which gave a blow-by-blow account of what had gone wrong at Sony. One of the very senior Sony executives was quoted as saying that he really didn't realise how low Sony's reputation had sunk in much of the DAP market until it was brought to his attention by an underling. If the Connect software is anything to go by, it seems that the knowledge he gained has not as yet been translated by Sony into any kind of really effective action.

As an aside, I just bought my girlfriend an Archos AV560 (a 60GB version of the AV500 which only seems to be on sale in the UK) for Christmas. It's selling for £299 here which I think is a real bargain. I've been checking it out today to make sure it's OK and have been utterly blown away by it. Had I seen this before I'd bought the 5G iPod, I definitely would have bought this instead. I realise though it will be seen as far too large for most people's needs. For those who are interested, here's the recent CNET review of this model (I hope no-one minds me posting this here, but it's hardly competition for the Sony players):

http://reviews.cnet.com/Archos_AV500_Mobil...7-31517717.html

[Dinko]

Careful though... if I have my Archos models right, this one seems to be having some LCD troubles that Archos won't aknowledge.

As for Nano vs. A1000... I think the comparison is fair. The Nano replaced the Mini, and it only shows how much further Sony still has to go. Sony came up with a competitor to the Mini, while Apple was killing off the Mini and moving on to something completely different. And, as Ascariss pointed out, in Canada, both the A1000 and the 4GB Nano are selling for exactly the same price ($299CDN). The A1000 has 2GB of storage more than the Nano, but the Nano has many more features, which easily compensate for the 2GB of storage it's missing.

And when it comes to earphones that come with players... I keep the ones the come with the player. Most of the portable music players I've had (going back to the cassette Walkman days), were Sony players and I was always satisfied with the provided earbuds. There are two exceptions: PSP and Nano. Both came with horrible-sounding earbuds (interestingly both are white). Other than those, I still haven't found earbuds that sound better than the ones Sony provides with its players. Real (the over-the-ear type) headphones sound better, but not all Sony players can power them properly, and they're not very convenient relative to earbuds anyway. I ditched the Nano earbuds pretty fast, but so far, I really haven't found good-sounding earbuds bought separately, regardless of brand or price. The closest I came to good sounding earbuds other than Sony ones provided with the player was a pair of Sennheiser buds bought from Minidisc Canada, but those broke down after less than 6 months. Talk about quality! Sony earbuds bought separately from the player have always been disappointing (lack of bass on one model, uncomfortable in the long run on another, weird feel and overall not very good for music when you're walking on the street - a noise-cancelling pair). So... I just keep the Sony earbuds that come with Sony players and then use them on other players too.