Sony Walkman MP3 players have never been too popular, at least from what I’ve seen. In the past, you’ve been forced to use Sony’s dreaded SonicStage software or convert your music to the proprietary ATRAC format. Well all that is in the past now with the new Sony NWZ-A810 Video Walkman.

The NWZ-A810 is a pretty slim player, comparable in size to the 2nd generation iPod nano. On the sides is a chrome finish that complements the black, silver, pink, or white finish on the front and back of the player. The A810 comes in capacities of 2, 4, and 8 gigabytes. On the front you’ll find the 2-inch 320×240 display, a navigational pad, a dedicated play/pause button, an option/power off button, and a back/home button. On the side is a volume rocker and on the back, a hold switch – which should have been located somewhere easily accessible. You’ll also find a proprietary dock connector on the bottom.

Since Sony ditched SonicStage, the NWZ-A818 supports DRM and non-DRM Windows Media Audio (WMA) formats including Rhapsody and Napster. For video, the A810 supports both MPEG-4 and M4V file types. The A818 had no problem displaying video, running fluid and crisp depending on the encoding. Once you turn on the A810, the interface is nothing like an iPod but is well-designed and organized. You’ll find nine icons in total that magnify and pulse when highlighted. The now playing screen features album art and other information about the current song. The screen itself is very bright, crisp, and easy to read outdoors in sunlight.

A nice touch was the included in-ear earbuds. Usually when you buy an MP3 player, the first thing you’ll want to replace are the headphones. That’s not the case with the A810, which included earbuds that are similar to some of Sony’s other in-ear type like the EX85′s. Noise isolation was surprisingly good and sound quality was above par. Battery life was also something to note, Sony is rating the device for 33 hours of audio playback and 8 hours of video playback. In the 3 weeks that I’ve been testing it, I’ve only had to charge it once the entire time.

Extra features like an FM radio tuner and voice recorder are not included in the device but users not needing these features will still be pleased. A memory expansion slot would also have been nice for users who need more than just 8GB of capacity.

If you’re looking for a viable iPod alternative with great sound and picture quality, be sure to take a look or give the Sony NWZ-A810 Video Walkman a try.

Pros

• Bright, crisp screen.
• Ditches SonicStage for Windows Media.
• High quality earbuds included make for pristine audio quality.
• Slim design.
• Long battery life.

Cons

• Hold button located strangely on the back.
• No FM tuner, voice recorder, or memory expansion slot.

Final Verdict
4.5 out of 5 stars.

The iriver clix Rhapsody is… well, a Rhapsody version of the popular iRiver clix flash-based MP3 player and offers lots of good features but comes with some quirks in the interface and featureset. On the front is a 2.2 inch OLED screen with vibrant and bright colors. If you have a Rhapsody account the clix can sync your purchased music, but the software to load these songs is somewhat sluggish.

The interface of the clix Rhapsody is very unique since it is controlled by the four edges of the device that can be “clicked” to navigate throughout the UI. One quirk was that the volume control seemed to be reversed so when you tried the lower the volume, it actually raised it. Besides this, the clix Rhapsody (and therefore the clix), is a blast to use. Unlike the competitively priced iPod nano, it doesn’t have a shuffle mode, but it does play video unlike the shuffle which may be a thumbs up to a video-junkie.

The 4GB iriver clix Rhapsody is available for $189.99.

While the Sansa View is a pocket-able player–one of the slimmest on the market today—it features a large 4�?widescreen display for optimal viewing. In addition to a DVD-like quality video experience, the Sansa View can display photos (up to 16 megapixels), play music, or even combine the two in a slideshow format. The durable player also comes equipped with an integrated speaker for watching and listening to any content on the player with a friend.

The Sansa View has 8GB of internal flash memory to store up to 33 video hours or 2,000 songs or thousands of photos . Its flash memory expansion slot allows for additional memory capacity and playback of content found on SD and SDHC cards, such as Disney® Max Clips™.