Sony NW-A1000 review

This fellow is Sony’s latest attempt to bite back a chunk of Apple’s portable player sales. In doing so, the NW-A1000 brings something the previous contender, the NW-HD5, lacked: curves.

Sexy Sony

They’re covetable little gems. If violet isn’t to your taste you can take your pick from black, pink and silver versions. From the ‘floating’ screen – the upper half of the machine is seamless, appearing as one glowing den of digital tunes – to the backlit buttons, this Walkman begs to be caressed.

On the spec count, the player concentrates pretty much on tunes – there’s no slide show or FM radio – and accessories include a pair of buds, a charger and Sony’s Connect Player software.

We’ve not been overly enamoured with Sony’s stabs at MP3 software and although Connect is its best yet, it still doesn’t match iTunes. But if you want this machine, get used to Connect – it’s the only way to transfer music.

A tasty sonic treat

In action, at least, the 6GB Walkman delivers tasty sounds; the buds could do better but music still sounds punchy and avoids the nasty treble of lesser rivals. Best of all, the player’s operating system is Premiership footballer-proof.