This A Series player is the latest version of the Walkman - cling on to that seminal product name, Sony - and accompanying its birth is the sweet stench of botched software death. In the package you find the bearable Windows Media Player 11, not the unbearable SonicStage and, as of now, Sony's Connect music store is on its way out. Rubbish. Bad. Goodbye to. So now that the company has accepted its software was junk - sorry, is 'giving customers flexibility' - we can concentrate on what it does best: make utterly excellent portable music machines. Load some tunes onto the A815 and it sounds exceptional.

Music romps dynamo handles frequency extremes with flair (think high treble and low bass), and even low bit-rate tunes sound as sweet as the sound of an ATM rapidly delivering everything you asked for. Switch to video replay, and the Sony flicks its aspect ratio to deliver a small but glistening image. There's just a 2in screen on view, but pictures are punchy, detailed and silky-smooth. Add mitten-friendly navigation and a pleaSingly retro look, and you've got your next MP3 player. Or, rather, Walkman.

Onside: The Sony screen switches aspect to sideways for widescreen movie viewing, making the best of its compact 2in screen. Deep fill : Even though it's holf as deep again as a Nano, the A Series chassis is still smaller than a tiny thing, and its supreme build feels classy and durableCancel the wheel reinvention :There's no touch screen, no Click Wheel and no fascia clicking - just clearly labelled buttons. And guess what? It's the simplest here to use.


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