Sony goes back to its roots: After trying to copy Apple's touch screen, Sony has gone back to basics with the latest addition to the A-Series Walkman line, the NW-A840 series. The new Walkmans don't do touch or the Internet. Instead the emphasis is on playing music and videos. They do this with a beautiful, albeit small, 2.8-inch WQVGA OLED screen. Moreover, the included software automatically converts video to the codecs that the NW-A840 models use. You can also hook up the NW-A840 models to a TV and play video straight off them at a standard digital 720 × 480 resolution. On the audio front the new Walkmans come with digital noise canceling, with a choice of settings such as for riding on a train or bus. Actual audio playback quality is a weak point for the various iPods, and Sony goes for the jugular by including top-drawer MDR-EX300SL earphones with the new models. While they are still not proper headphones, they do offer a distinct upgrade on the mediocre ear buds that Apple typically offloads on iPod buyers. The new Walkmans also display JPEG photos, but without slide shows.
The NW-A840 is 7.2 mm thin and a typical candy-bar shape. The other dimensions are a length of 105 mm, a width of 47 mm and weight of just 62 grams. The arrangement of controls below the screen, somewhat resembling Mickey Mouse's face, takes getting used to.
Battery life is good at 29 hours for audio playback at 128kps and nine hours for playing videos at 384 kbps using the MPEG4 codec. Storage errs on the generous side with a starting point of 16 gigabytes for the NW-A845, 32 gigabytes for the NW-A846 and maxing out with the 64-gigabyte NW-A847.