You don’t have to listen carefully to realise that the Sony Walkman NWZ-A826 is one of the better MP3 players on the market. In terms of sound quality it’s one of the best, perhaps even the best. And you’ll realise this pretty quickly because it’s so easy to set up. Plug it into your computer with the USB cable and then simply drag and drop your music, videos and photos into the corresponding folders on the NWZ-A826. Simple.

Sony’s NWZ-A826 plays a variety of music files including MP3, WMA, AAC, and Linear PMC, so even if you are using iTunes and encoding in AAC you will be able to use your music files.

Navigating through the NWZ-A826 is something Sony wouldn’t bother teaching to pre-school children. The main buttons include the play button in the bottom-middle of the device that is surrounded by four arrow keys. There is also a ‘back’ and ‘option’ button on the face as well. These are the buttons you’ll be using the most. The only major problem we faced was the once you move away from the track you are playing, the only way to pause or stop it is to navigate back to the menu and click on the ‘now playing’ icon, which can be a few clicks away at times.

It gets a bit annoying having the volume on the side of the device as well rather than just being able to use the up and down keys to change volume while you are listening to a track. Joining the volume keys on the side are the Bluetooth connection button and the hold button, plus a rather odd link that allows you to thread a wrist strap through.

Bluetooth did you hear us say? Yes, we said it, but we aren’t going to make too much of a fuss about it. Bluetooth is handy in that you don’t trip over your own wires, but the sound quality is a bit crap and it sucks a bit out of your batteries as well.