Sony Walkman NWZ-F886 review

We like the way Sony doesn’t tie you to its own music store or a limited range of audio formats. Neither are you restricted to using Sony’s software to transfer tracks to your Walkman. You can drag and drop media on to the NWZ-F886 in Windows, but Sony’s Media Go makes it easy to organise music and videos, although it’s available only for Windows PCs.

In direct audio quality comparison tests with our iPod Touch using the same CD-quality files, the NWZ-F886 had a brighter, more detailed treble. This was noticeable in the clarity it brought to string instruments, but the audible difference between most of our standard quality tracks on the iPod and the NWZ-F886 was negligible. They’re capable of around the same maximum volume, too.

The NWZ-F886 is designed to play high-resolution audio tracks. Its high-resolution sound reproduction wasn’t as pleasant as the richer sound produced by our reference Arcam rPAC’s headphone amp. Even so, we were glad we could enjoy our high-resolution tracks while travelling. The Walkman compares well with its iOS driven rival in out battery tests, too, lasting for 22 hours of audio playback and four hours and 10 minutes of video.

At £250, the 32GB version of the Sony Walkman NWZ-F886 is a bit more expensive than the 32GB iPod Touch. We don’t think the NWZ-F886 is as pleasant as the iPod Touch to handle or look at, but you can’t fault its massive array of features. If you want a dedicated portable media player that supports high-resolution audio, this is a great buy.