Sony Walkman NWZ-A866

Sony's portable Walkman NWZ-A866 player concentrates on the basics: music, video and photo viewing, with a notable absence of the apps and web-browsing capabilities that proliferate on other similar devices.

Smaller and slimmer than most phones, the 32GB player has a plastic-covered metal body giving it a high-quality feel. Helpfully, it also has physical buttons for play, pause and track skipping, as well as a volume control on its side that can easily be accessed from a pocket.

The player was quick and responsive. Its crisp 2.8in touch-sensitive screen was pleasant to use and we were navigating through a large music library using its intuitive menus in no time at all.

Loading files onto the device using Windows Media Player or Windows Explorer was simple and quick, and, crucially, sound quality was the best we have heard from this type of device, with rich bass and crisp treble. This was in part due to the high-quality supplied earphones.

Along with supporting the most common audio formats (MP3, WMA, WAV and AAC) the player works with some others: we were surprised to find it played .3GP music files from a phone.

Video playback was smooth and stutter-free and two different zoom levels are available to suit the relatively small screen.

Other features include an FM radio, voice recorder and a karaoke/language-learning mode that displays lyrics or words from podcasts on the screen. However, this only works if the file is embedded with this information.

It also works with Bluetooth for wireless playback with a suitable accessory: we tested it with a pair of Nokia Bluetooth headphones and Parrot Party Bluetooth speakers and had no problems connecting either.

Surprisingly, though, sound quality was not particularly good at all: we'd recommend sticking to the wired headphone connection.

For the same price as a 32GB iPod Touch, the Sony Walkman NWZ-A866 is an excellent alternative for those who are not interested in apps or web browsing. It's also worth noting that a 16GB version is available for a much cheaper £149 and should provide enough storage for many people's music collections.

The Sony Walkman NWZ-A866 is available from Advanced MP3 Players.