Archos

Archos 43

First of all, thank you to advancedmp3players.co.uk for making this review possible.

Specs:
Dimensions: 135x65x9mm
Weight: 130gram
Screen: 4.3inch resistive touch screen, 854x480 (true 16:9)
Battery life: 36h music, 10h video, 12h web browsing
Operating system: Android 2.2
Capacity: 16GB
Colour: black
Price: £157

Included accessories:
USB Cable (micro USB)
Earphones
Quick start guide

Disclaimer:
The Archos 43 and the Archos 70 are identical, except for a very few differences, so this review will be a repeat of that of the Archos 70 a few weeks ago.



Build quality and hardware:
The Archos 43 is built on a metal frame with high gloss metal and plastic covering, which makes it feel very sturdy and exclusive.
One of the differences between the two models is that the Archos 43 has a 4.3-inch resistive touch screen. Resistive screen, I hear you think, but even if it is a resistive screen, and as such cannot compete with a capacitive screen when it comes to responsiveness, it is one of the best, if not the best resistive screen I have used.
On both sides of the screen, or more rightly above and below the screen as the 43 is meant to be used in portrait mode mainly, you have the built in stereo speakers, which sound very good for their size.
On the right hand side of the Archos 43 you will find the power button and volume controls, on the left hand side of the player you have the micro SDHC slot and a mini HDMI port, at the bottom you will find the micro USB port and 3.5mm earphone jack, and finally on the back of the player there is a kickstand and a HD 720p video camera. Of course there are WiFi (b/g/n) and Bluetooth 2.1 EDR modules built in as well as a g-sensor, it can also be used as a USB host. The Archos 43 also boasts UPnP support, which means that you can stream media from your home network or media server over WiFi.



Menus and overall usage:
The Archos 43 and the Archos 70 share the same Android operating system, all menus etc are identical.

The options are endless when it comes to personalising the layout of the menus and general use of the device. There are five different home screens which can be accessed by swiping right/left on the screen, each of these home screens can then be set to your own preference by changing/adding gadgets and widgets, icons, wallpapers and live wallpapers, etc. Lets just say, everything can be set to your own liking.
Android marketplace is not loaded on the Archos 43 straight out of the box, it can be easily side loaded though, and as such give access to hundreds of thousands of applications.
When connected to a pc the Archos 43 will utilize the MSC mode, meaning that Windows see it as a mass storage device, with drag and drop support for file transfer.
The power button is also a hold button for the screen and with a long press it brings up a device mode menu where you can set different modes for wireless connections and sound as well as deep sleep mode, the volume controls do as the name suggests.

Another thing worth noting is that Archos are very good at bringing out new and improved firmware versions for their products. The firmware can be freely download from their homepage, or when connected to a WiFi network the newest firmware will be downloaded and installed automatically by the player.



Audio:
The Archos 43 has the exact same audio capabilities as the Archos 70.

There are a number of music player applications one can use on the Archos 43, Winamp, Cube, Poweramp and Rockbox to mention a few, but I will concentrate on the native music player application.

The Archos 43 can play mp3, wma/wma-pro 5.1, aac/aac+ 5.1, ogg, flac and wav files, and with an additional plug-in it also plays ac3 sound.
There is no gapless playback on the native music player application, but installing Rockbox enables gapless playback.
As usual, I plugged in some high quality earphones to really get the best out of the Archos 43.
The sound is very nice indeed, and when using the Rockbox application it becomes excellent.
The sound characteristic is very neutral, with no apparent emphasis or roll-off over the audible spectrum. While the sound may not quite reach the Cowon X7 standard, it is not far off, and using different applications available the sound can be tweaked to near perfection.

There is a built in equalizer with five different settings as well as a user definable one. The music library can be searched either by folders or ID3 tags, and you can create playlists on the go. There is also the option to add favourites, songs or full albums and they are then very easy to locate in the menu for quick access.
The now playing screen is informative and nice looking with the big album art and all the playback controls easily accessible.





Best tip for music playback, use Rockbox, while it is still in beta for the Android platform it works and it sounds very, very good.

Video:
Again the Archos 43 and 70 are identical.

As with the music player application, there are many video player applications available for the 70, and going through them all is next to impossible. Some of them are, QQPlayer, Realplayer, Vplayer, there will be a version of the Vlc player for Android as well, sometime soon.

If you decide to use the native video player, I would suggest buying the cinema plug-in to enable ac3 and mpeg-2 decoding. With this plug-in you can play the following formats on the Archos 70, avi, mp4, mkv, mov, wmv, mpg, ps, ts, vob, flv, rm, rmvb, asf, 3gp.
External subtitles supported are, .srt, .ssa, .smi, .sub.
The only limitation of the video player is that it can only play up to 720p, full HD content will not play. You can connect the Archos 43 to an external screen or HDTV with a mini HDMI cable.



The native video player is excellent, and with the cinema plug-in it can play just about every possible format in an excellent manner.

Photo:
The photo application is the same as on the bigger brother, with the exception that there is a direct access icon to the camera. You can zoom, rotate and slideshow the pictures. Nothing extraordinary, but all works as it should. Of course you can install a more powerful image viewer or editor if you like.

Extras:
Again, the Archos 43 can do exactly the same as the Archos 70.

The Archos 43 is capable of the same tasks as any netbook. Thanks to the USB host function you can connect external hard drives to it, external keyboards, either USB or Bluetooth ones, connect it to an external screen or HDTV. There are a multitude of applications freely available to make the Archos 43 a fully fledged mobile office, Word and Excel apps, Skype, a plethora of web browsers and email clients to choose from, navigation apps (requires a GPS receiver).
The built in 720p camera is a nice touch, but cannot really compete with a standalone camera. There is no radio in the Archos 43, but then again you can listen to internet radio. There are endless amounts of games to download, I have tried a few of them and the Archos 43 is a really nice game machine as well.



Conclusion:
What’s not to like about the Archos 43, it has great features in a great form factor at a really great price. Highly recommended.

Archos 70

First of all, thank you to advancedmp3players.co.uk for making this review possible.

Specs:
Dimensions: 201x114x10mm 8GB, 201mmx114mmx14mm 250GB
Weight: 300gram 8GB, 400gram 250GB
Screen: 7inch capacitive touch screen, 800x480
Battery life: 36h music, 7h video, 10h web browsing
Operating system: Android 2.2
Capacity: 8GB SDD or 250GB HDD
Colour: black
Price: 8GB £212, 250GB £269.99

Included accessories:
USB Cable (micro USB)
220 volt charger
Earphones
Quick start guide



Build quality and hardware:
The Archos 70 is built on a metal frame with plastic covering and as such it feels very sturdy and well put together. The 7-inch capacitive touch screen is very responsive and bright with excellent viewing angles. On both sides of the screen you have the built in stereo speakers that sound surprisingly good for their size. To the left of the screen there is a built in VGA web camera for video calls/chat. On the right hand side of the Archos 70 you will find the power button and volume controls, on the left hand side of the player you have the micro USB connector, a micro SDHC slot (only on the 8GB model), 3.5mm earphone jack, a mini HDMI port and the AC input, and on the back of the player there is a kickstand. Of course it has WiFi (b/g/n) and Bluetooth 2.1 EDR modules built in as well as a g-sensor, it can also be used as a USB host. The Archos 70 also boasts UPnP support, which means that you can stream media from your home network or media server over WiFi.



Menus and overall usage:
As the 70 use Android operating system, the options are endless when it comes to personalising the layout of the menus and general use of the device. There are five different home screens which can be accessed by swiping right/left on the screen, each of these home screens can then be set to your own preference by changing/adding gadgets and widgets, icons, wallpapers and live wallpapers, etc. Lets just say, everything can be set to your own liking.
Android marketplace is not loaded on the Archos 70 straight out of the box, it can be easily side loaded though, and as such give access to hundreds of thousands of applications.
When connected to a pc the Archos 70 will utilize the MSC mode, meaning that Windows see it as a mass storage device, with drag and drop support for file transfer.
The power button is also a hold button for the screen and with a long press it brings up a device mode menu where you can set different modes for wireless connections and sound as well as deep sleep mode, the volume controls do as the name suggests.


The background is a live wallpaper, this is why it looks blurry.



Another thing worth noting is that Archos are very good at bringing out new and improved firmware versions for their products. These firmwares are free to download from their homepage, or when connected to a WiFi network the newest firmware will be downloaded and installed automatically by the player.

Audio:
There are a number of music player applications one can use on the Archos 70, Winamp, Cube, Poweramp and Rockbox to mention a few, but I will concentrate on the native music player application.



The 70 can play mp3, wma/wma-pro 5.1, aac/aac+ 5.1, ogg, flac and wav files, and with an additional plug-in it also plays ac3 sound.
There is no gapless playback on the native music player application, but use Rockbox and voilà we have gapless playback!
As usual, I plugged in some high quality earphones to really get the best out of the Archos 70.
The sound is very nice indeed, and when using the Rockbox application it becomes excellent.
The sound characteristic is very neutral, with no apparent emphasis or roll-off over the audible spectrum. While the sound may not quite reach the Cowon X7 standard, it is not far off, and using different applications available the sound can be tweaked to near perfection.

There is a built in equalizer with five different settings as well as a user definable one. The music library can be searched either by folders or ID3 tags, and you can create playlists on the go. There is also the option to add favourites, songs or full albums and they are then very easy to locate in the menu for quick access.
The now playing screen is informative and nice looking with the big album art and all the playback controls easily accessible.



Best tip for music playback, use Rockbox, while it is still in beta for the Android platform it works and it sounds very, very good.

Video:
As with the music player application, there are many video player applications available for the 70, and going through them all is next to impossible. Some of them are, QQPlayer, Realplayer, Vplayer, there will be a version of the Vlc player for Android as well, sometime soon.

If you decide to use the native video player, I would suggest buying the cinema plug-in to enable ac3 and mpeg-2 decoding. With this plug-in you can play the following formats on the Archos 70, avi, mp4, mkv, mov, wmv, mpg, ps, ts, vob, flv, rm, rmvb, asf, 3gp.
External subtitles supported are, .srt, .ssa, .smi, .sub.
The only limitation of the video player is that it can only play up to 720p, full HD content will not play. You can connect the Archos 70 to an external screen or HDTV with a mini HDMI cable.



The native video player is excellent, and with the cinema plug-in it can play just about every possible format in an excellent manner.

Photo:
The screen really shines when it comes to showing photos. You can zoom, rotate and slideshow the pictures. Nothing extraordinary, but all works as it should. Of course you can install a more powerful image viewer or editor if you like.

Extras:
Where do I start? The Archos 70 is capable of the same tasks as any netbook. Thanks to the USB host function you can connect external hard drives to it, external keyboards, either USB or Bluetooth ones, connect it to a external screen or HDTV. There are a multitude of applications freely available to make the Archos 70 a fully fledged mobile office, Word and Excel apps, Skype, a plethora of web browsers and email clients to choose from, navigation apps (requires a GPS receiver). The only thing missing is a radio, but then again you can listen to internet radio. There are endless amounts of games to download, I have tried a few of them and the Archos 70 is a really nice game machine as well.



Conclusion:
For the price and size and overall usability, the Archos 70 is very, very hard to beat, if not unbeatable. Highly recommended.

Cowon

Cowon i9

First of all, thank you to advancedmp3players.co.uk for making this review possible.

Specs:
Dimensions: 95x43x9mm
Weight: 40gram
Screen: 2inch, 320x240
Battery life: 29h music, 7h video
Capacity: 8GB (4GB and 16GB)
Colour: black (white, silver and red)
Price: 8GB £79

Included accessories:
USB Cable (proprietary)
Earphones
CD with software and quick manual


Build quality and hardware:
The i9 is made of plastic and is very light, but still feels very sturdy and well put together. The screen is very nice to look at but rather small for anything more than album art and menu navigation.

On the left hand side of the i9 you will find a volume rocker and a microphone, at the bottom of the player you have the 3.5mm earphone jack and hidden under a hatch the proprietary USB connector, on the right hand side you will find the on/off combined hold slider button and a menu toggle button. Below the screen there is a touch pad, for play/pause, ff/rev and next/prev, up/down and left/right, and a back menu control, and below the touch pad you have the built in speaker.


Menus and overall usage:



There are two different ways of displaying the home screen, both are icon based with either bigger icons filling the screen diagonally or smaller icons with a big analogue clock on the screen. To toggle between the different layouts, press and hold the menu button on the right hand side of the i9.
The volume button can be set to act as ff/rev, next prev when the hold mode is on.
As with all Cowon players, the i9 can be used either in MTP or MSC mode, meaning that Windows can see it as either a media transfer compatible device, with playlist and sync support, or a mass storage device, with drag and drop support.
It takes a bit of practising to learn how to use the menus and the touch pad, but once you get used to it, it is not bad at all.



Audio:
The i9 can play mp3, flac, wma, ogg, wav and ape files, and most importantly, it also supports gapless playback. Thank you Cowon!

Remembering that I praised the sound qualities of both the J3 and the X7 previously, I was very curious about how the older and smaller i9 would stack up against them.

As usual I plugged in some high quality earphones to get the best out of the player.
Once again Cowon have proved that their products are at the absolute top when it comes to audio quality, the i9 is a superb sounding player. The sound is identical to that of the J3 in other words, it is remarkable!
The i9 has the same BBE+ and JetEffect 3.0 settings as the J3 and X7 with the same 39 presets including four user definable ones.



You can search the music library either by folders or by ID3 tags, and of course there is support for playlists as well. The now playing screen is informative with easy access to all playback controls. Audio playback is stated as 29 hours.


Video:
File formats, xvid and wmv.
I would not recommend watching a full feature film on the i9, the screen really is too small, but if you insist, it works very well. The i9 has the usual Cowon video refinements, such as support for external subtitles and BBE+ sound enhancements. If you purchase the separate video out cable, you can watch the i9 content on a big TV screen as well.



The video playback is stated as 7 hours.


Photo:
Again, I would recommend keeping the photo viewing to a minimum due to the screen size. You can zoom, rotate and slideshow the pictures. Nothing extraordinary, but all works as it should.


Extras:
FM radio with 24 presets, audio/radio recorder, document reader and flash support. You can also buy separate cabling to gain TV out and line in functionality on the i9.
I have not tested these extra functions in any deeper sense, just enough to see that they work well and as meant to.


Conclusion:
If you can live with just the occasional video and photo viewing, the i9 boasts excellent sound quality, with gapless playback, in a light and small form factor. Highly recommended.

Cowon J3

First of all, thank you to advancedmp3players.co.uk for making this review possible.

Specs:
Dimensions: 106x56x10mm
Weight: 76gram
Screen: 3.3 inch capacitive AMOLED touch screen, 480x272
Battery life: 64h music, 11h video
Capacity: 8, 16 and 32GB + micro SD slot
Colour: black or white
Price: 8GB £169, 16GB £199, 32GB £239

Included accessories:
USB Cable (proprietary/Korean standard)
Earphones
CD with software and quick manual


Build quality and hardware:
The J3 is made of plastic on a metal frame and the screen is scratch resistant glass, it feels very sturdy and well put together.
The 3.3 inch AMOLED screen is the best screen I have seen on an mp3 player, it is very bright with excellent viewing angles and highly responsive.
On the left hand side of the J3 you will find the power/hold button, at the bottom of the player you have the 3.5mm earphone jack and hidden under a hatch the half-standard USB connector and the micro SD slot, on the right hand side you will find the volume controls, play/pause and ff/rew controls, and finally on the back of the player you will find a reset hole, a microphone and a speaker.


Menus and overall usage:
There are three different ways of displaying the main menu, one text based and two icon based options that can be tweaked to own preference. As if this was not enough, the J3 can be customized with flash based themes as well. There are hundreds of different themes and tweaks for the J3, everyone is guaranteed to find one that works for them and that makes the J3 a real pleasure to use.
As with all Cowon players, the J3 can be used either in MTP or MSC mode, meaning that Windows can see it as either a media transfer compatible device, with playlist and sync support, or a mass storage device, with drag and drop support.
There is also a G-sensor, so that when you tilt the player the screen rotates automatically, it can even be set to change tracks by a shake of the player.
Thanks to the tactile buttons the J3 can be used without having to use the screen.




Audio:
The J3 can play the same audio codecs as the recently reviewed X7, i.e. mp3, flac, wma, ogg, wav and ape files, and most importantly, it also supports gapless playback. Thank you Cowon!

Remembering that I hailed the X7 as the best sounding player I have heard, I was very curious about how the older and smaller J3 would stack up against it.

As usual I plugged in some high quality earphones to get the best out of the player.
The J3 sounds remarkable! There is ever so slightly less “body” to the music compared to the X7, but this is with highest end earphones and very critical listening. With normal listening there is no question about it, the J3 is a superb sounding player.
The J3 has the same BBE+ and JetEffect 3.0 settings as the X7 with the same 39 presets including four user definable ones.

You can search the music library either by folders or by ID3 tags, and the J3 supports playlists as well. The now playing screen is informative with easy access to all playback controls, and with the option to install new themes it becomes a visual masterpiece as well. Audio playback is stated as 64 hours.



Note, the music interface is a flash based third party application called Aero Music.


Video:
File formats, avi, wmv, asf. Support for external subtitles.
The AMOLED screen will give you a great film experience it really shines when watching videos.
The audio settings can be used during video playback as well, the video can be cropped and stretched to fit the screen and external subtitles can be turned on and off and altered for colour and such. All in all a very nice set of features for the video playback. The video playback is stated as 11 hours.





Photo:
Once again the AMOLED screen shows its excellence, pictures look very good when viewed on the J3. You can zoom, rotate and slideshow the pictures. Nothing extraordinary, but all works as it should.


Extras:
FM radio with 24 presets, audio/radio recorder, bluetooth, calculator, hand written or typed memo, comic reader, document reader, flash support, stopwatch, alarm and a game called hunter. You can also buy separate cabling to gain TV out and line in functionality on the J3.
I have not tested these extra functions in any deeper sense, just enough to see that they work well and as meant to.


Conclusion:
Excellent sound quality and Pink Floyd friendly gapless playback, excellent screen, great battery life, memory expansion, great design and fully flash customisable. Highly recommended.

Cowon X7

First of all, thank you to advancedmp3players.co.uk for making this review possible.

Specs:
Dimensions: 127x79x14mm
Weight: 212gram
Screen: 4.3 inch resistive touchscreen, 480x272
Battery life: 103h music, 10h video
Capacity: 120 or160GB HDD, 2GB SDD
Colour: black or white
Price: 120GB £229, 160GB £249

Included accessories:
USB Cable (proprietary/Korean standard)
220 volt charger
Earphones
Hand strap
CD with software and quick manual

Build quality and hardware:
The X7 is made of metal and it feels very sturdy and well put together, with a nice weighty feel.
The 4.3 inch screen fills nearly all of the face of the player and even if it’s a resistive screen it feels very responsive and smooth in use, it’s also very bright and has excellent viewing angles. Below the screen you have the menu button and a built in speaker that sounds perfectly adequate. On the right hand side of the X7 you will find the power/hold button, at the bottom of the player you have the AC input and hidden under a hatch the half-standard USB connector and a reset hole, and the 3.5mm earphone jack, on the left hand side you will find the volume controls.

Menus and overall usage:
There are two different ways of displaying the main menu, either as text or icon based, both are good in their own right and very easy to get used to, my favourite is the text based one. The X7 can be used either in MTP or MSC mode, meaning that Windows can see it as either a media transfer compatible device, with playlist and sync support, or a mass storage device, with drag and drop support.
The tactile buttons can be set to act differently depending on if the screen is on or off, the power button is also a hold button for the screen or entire device, depending on the setting. In fact most of the menus and buttons can be set to your personal preference and altered to suit your needs. The X7 can be charged either over USB or with the provided AC charger.
Once you have gotten used to the X7 it is very easy and quite intuitive to use.
One more thing worth noting is that Cowon are very good at bringing out new and improved firmware versions for their products, free to download from their homepage.



Audio:
The X7 can play mp3, flac, wma, ogg, wav and ape files, and most importantly, the X7 supports gapless playback. Thank you Cowon!

Cowon, or iAudio as they also are known as, have always been known for their excellent sound quality, and the X7 continues that legacy.
Advancedmp3players had a “sound off event” not long ago where the customers voted for the best sound between the X7 and an iPod Touch, the X7 won comfortably.

So, with this in mind I plugged in some high quality earphones and hit play.
I can safely say that to this day I have not heard a portable player with better sound, it’s as simple as that. What is it then that is so spectacular about the sound of the X7?
In my opinion the JetEffect 3.0 and BBE+ offer a dynamic and true to life sound that is very hard to beat in a portable player.
There are 39 presets, of which four are user definable. Without going into too much geeky tech talk, lets just say that no other player offers such advanced tweaks for the sound, or what about a five band parametric EQ, bass/stereo/3D boost, reverb, mp3 enhance, and of course the BBE+ settings on top of it all. Everyone can find a setting that suits you and your earphones, or just leave all settings on flat and enjoy a untampered sound.

You can search the music library either by folders or by ID3 tags, and as already mentioned the X7 supports playlists as well. The now playing screen is informative and flashy looking with the big album art filling all of the screen with easy access to all playback controls. Audio playback is stated as 103 hours!



The excellent sound quality and the enormous battery life, and of course not to be forgotten the native support for gapless playback (rejoice Pink Floyd fans) makes the X7 the best portable music player I have had the pleasure of using.

Video:
File formats, avi, wmv, asf. Support for external subtitles.
The screen, even if the resolution is “only” 480x272 is bright and vivid and offers a pleasant watching. The audio settings can be used during video playback as well, the video can be cropped and stretched to fit the screen and external subtitles can be turned on and off and altered for colour and such. All in all a very nice set of features for the video playback. The video playback is stated as 10 hours.



Photo:
As with watching videos the bright and vivid screen makes pictures look very good, even with the limitations already mentioned. You can zoom, rotate and slideshow the pictures. Nothing extraordinary, but all works as it should.

Extras:
FM radio with 24 presets, audio/radio recorder, bluetooth, calculator, post-it memo (hand written or typed), comic reader, document reader, flash support, stopwatch, alarm. There is also the option to buy separate cabling to gain TV out and line in functionality on the X7.
I have not tested these extra functions in any deeper sense, just enough to see that they work well and as meant to.



Conclusion:
For a high capacity media player, with excellent sound quality, the Cowon X7 is hard to beat. Highly recommended.

Sony

Sony NWZ-A846

First of all, thank you to advancedmp3players.co.uk for making this review possible.



Specs:
Dimensions: 105x47x7mm
Weight: 62gram
Screen: 2.8inch OLED screen, 400x240, 262K colours
Battery life: 30h music, 6h video
Capacity: 32GB (8GB, 16GB and 64GB versions available)
Colour: black or white
Price: £189

Included accessories:
USB Cable (proprietary/Sony standard)
Sony EX earphones with active noise cancelling
In-line cable
Flight adapter (use the A846 and EX earphones for active noise cancelling when in-flight)
Software and manual stored on the player


Build quality and hardware:
The A846 is excellently built. It appears to be made of metal, with a scratch resistant glass screen.
The screen is one of the best screens I have seen on an mp3 player, very bright, excellent contrast and great viewing angles.
Below the screen you will find the home/back and power off/option buttons, play/pause button and a four way rocker wheel (next/prev and up/down, etc) and at the bottom of the player you have the 3.5mm earphone jack and the USB connector, on the right hand side you will find the volume controls and a hold switch.


Menus and overall usage:
First when I got the A846 in my hands, I looked for the power on switch/button, there isn’t one. There is a power off button though, but to power it on, press any button and it will come to life. Talking about the buttons, they are not backlit, which can be a little frustrating when using the A846 in the dark.



The home screen consists of nine icons that lead you straight to the desired application, music, photo, video, radio, etc. The menus are intuitive and easy to use.
The A846 uses MTP mode, meaning that Windows can see it as a media transfer compatible device, with playlist and sync support.


Audio:
The A846 can play mp3, aac, wma and wav files. Unfortunately there is no gapless playback.

The Sony EX earphones are the best supplied earphones I have heard, and the noise cancelling feature works very well. The noise cancelling can be set to different levels of noise blocking, and it works best for long term monotone noise like lawn mowing or in-flight, or why not use it on a track day if the engine note gets tiresome.



But as per usual I plugged in some high quality earphones to get the best out of the A846, and it sounds great!
The sound is warm, with a very nice and full low end, yet with a very detailed and clear mid and upper end as well. The A846 has a five band equaliser with four presets and two user definable ones, in addition to this there is also settings for clear stereo, virtual surround and sound enhance. With these settings each and everyone should be able to find a sound that suits their taste and earphones.
As said, the sound is excellent with a hint of warm lushness.



You can search the music library either by folders or by ID3 tags, including a cover flow style for album art, and the A846 has playlist support as well. The now playing screen is informative with easy access to all playback controls.


Video:
The A846 can play wmv, mp4 and m4v files.
The OLED screen is very good, but at least for my taste a bit too small for watching feature films. For shorter videos it is perfectly fine though, and it will give you a great viewing experience. You can zoom and crop the video to fit the screen.



Photo:
Once again the OLED screen is very, very nice, but the size means it is best for just the occasional viewing of pictures.

Extras:
FM radio with 30 presets, TV out with separately sold cable, podcasts, language learning mode, which enables quick rewind and repeat, and active noise cancelling.
I have not tested these extra functions in any deeper sense, just enough to see that they work well and as meant to.


Conclusion:
The Sony NWZ-A846 offers a mixed bag, the sound is excellent, but it doesn’t support gapless playback, the screen is gorgeous, but quite small and with a low resolution.
Highly recommended for the sound quality alone.