Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony Walkman NW-A1000 - Digital player - HDD 6 GB - MP3 - display: 1.5" - silver

I had always wanted an ipod mini pink but when i finally got round to buying one they were pretty much non-existant, not wanting a nano i had to look elsewhere, i considered another ipod, a creative zen and this sony walkman. I choose the 20gb version because up until that point i had been using a 512mb mp3 and couldnt wait for the opportunity to put all my music collection to take on the go with me. I had a few worries as i heard the software was no good but i found it fine, it would upload things quickly and transfer without any hitches. I ended up at one point getting the songs twice in my library but this was of my own user fault. I bought my sony in feburary it is mainly used on weekends for my journeys to work, or the odd weekday at college but mid july i experienced my first problem. I connected it up in the evening before bed to charge (it still had two bars left) it was charging next morning got up turned it on and it had only one bar left and started whining that it had no battery and died. This was only the beginning. It then started turned itself off randonly while i was listening which became a pain and eventually it stopped appearing in my ConnectPlayer so i couldnt add any more music onto it. Turns out my Hard drive had had it.

Other than that i found this product highly likeable its really easy to use (much easier than my boyfriends ipod) organized menus, ability to alter output (great for hooking up to stereo speakers) software is pretty simple to use once you learn not to input twice, and its doesnt mark that easily mine was carried around in my handbag with keys and alsorts and there are only a few minor marks that are only noticeable when you look for them.

I'm considering getting myself another but i may go for a 6gb or 8gb version this time just for the size value, the smaller gb will fit into my jeans pocket all the much better!

Good product, all other reviews say it all BUT on full volume, with "plug into ear canal" earphones you can still hear background noise. I may be going deaf but if this were the case, background noise should not be a problem.

Sony, I do love your stuff it is well made and is the rolls royce of tech, but trust us enough to not turn up the volume to the point of accute pain and deafness rather than limiting the volume of the NW-A3000 - it is the only flaw i have had with any of my sony stuff.

This is a suberb player. The hard-drive space is only 20gb which means you can store 20gb of data, but, thanks to Sonys unique music files you can actually fit around 65gb of music on to this in atrac format (sonys audio compression files) and none of the sound quality is lost.
On the other hand connect player is appauling so emailde them and asked if there was an alternative, they recommended sonicstage which does the same job as connect but is more stable, and they said that they are developing a new program.
I would recommend this to anyone and especially anyone who is thinking of buying an ipod. This simply does what it needs to:
-No video player (ipod batterey only last around 2hrs when playing videos)
-No games (ipods waste resources on games, and its an mp3 player so you listen to music not play games,when most of the time its in your pocket)
- Amazing 35hr battery life compared to ipods 12
- No colour screen to drain the battery (a unique OLED screen which uses minimal power)
- Pristine sound quality, and the sound does not distort when the volume is turned up

There are a lot of conflicting reviews on the product, as a long time user here'smy take.

As a storage music listening device, it's first rate, no other IPOD clone comes near it for audio quality at the higher bit rates, Atrac advanced wipes the floor with AAC and any of the MPEG formats. It's simply a better resolved audio format and the electronics inside are of ahigher quality and beter implemented design scheme than the other MP3 players out there.

If you want quality portable sounds then it really does start and stop here for the discerning listener.

However, if you want a slick easy to navigate and quick user interface, both on the player and the software, then look elsewhere. it's not the fastest to scroll through your songs and layer jumps in menu's take an age.

with the 3 updates in PC software application and 2 in the unit firmware, at least Sony keep you updated. and well they should because all the earlier versions of software were frankly C-ap. Resource hungry, slow, buggy the whole nine yards.

that's not to say they don't do what they say on the tin, they do, music is easy to rip and of high quality when transfered, if thats your thing. but even in it's current version, it's not the best application for moving huge amounts of files around between player and pc. sorry sony it just isn't.


if you want the best sounding unit on the market with the ability to handle all the major formats + ATRAC lossless, then this is the one. The electronics are absolutely first rate and the quality or headphone output is exceptional, able to drive even medium sensitivity studio headphones with no strain.

if you want a toy to use for transfering files left right and centre and updating songlists every day. then maybe try elsewhere. concinience is not it's strong point.

that said i certainly wouldnt change mine for any of the current players from other manufacturers, or indeed sony's new video unit.

I have owned my NW-A3000 since June 2006 and have had mixed fortunes with it.

Good points:

Sound Quality - the Earphones provided are more than reasonable, producing far better sound than most offerings

Sound options - you can adjust the sound to produce more base, or to settings such as 'pop, jazz or rock' for example which is a nifty idea. Furthermore you can choose a customised setting which I have used to good effect.

Search functions - These, along with the 'artist link' function operate fairly effectively.

Menus - These are well lit and not too cluttered at all.

Design - a very good looking mp3 player and the backlit display is really great. Violet is the best colour for this player.

Build quality - This player has withstood most things, with the odd scratch here and there.


The 'liveable' points:

Software ease of use - if you ignore the slow operation (mentioned below) then the connect software isnt hard to understand.

Favourite 100 - a good feature but it changes every time I put new songs onto the player, to include songs I either dont like or never play! strange!

The ratings system - another fairly good, if pointless feature and the ratings occasionally do get wiped off every time more music is added

Design of the headphones jack - I found the position of the headphone plug in point meant that the headphone wire was under a lot of pressure, and eventually the wire began to snap off.

Menu operation - well designed they may be, but they arent the quickest when sifting through songs. Dont perform a song search while a song is played, it is much quicker when nothing is.

Bad Points:

Software operation - The connect software is very slow to recognise the player, and often crashes. Then when you try to reload it the computer says 'connect player is already running'. Furthermore the time it takes to put songs onto the player is much slower than my father's creative Zen or Brother's i-pod. I can live with it, but dont expect to put songs on in a hurry!

Battery life - I bought this player mainly because of the 20GB storage and the claimed 35hour battery life. The latter simply is untrue in my case, because I struggle for it to operate 5 hours. Apparently the battery uses technology whereby leaving the charger on and plugged in doesnt affect battery life in the long run. All I can say is that this might not be quite right! Again its manageable, but occasionally annoying.

Design 7/10
Software 5/10
Menus 8/10
Sound 9/10
Features 7/10
Build Quality 8/10
Battery Life 4/10
Value 8/10
Support 7/10
Speed 6/10
TOTAL 69/100