One of the world’s leading mp3 player manufacturer’s Sony has come up with a flash-based MP3 player that holds up to 8GB of music and video with superb audio quality. The new Sony NWZ-A818 is built with style and function in mind and is direct competition to Apple’s iPod Nano.

It boasts a 2-inch QVGA (240-by-320-pixel) TFT color display and is available in either a black or a silver case. It supports various files including .aac, .mp3, .wav and .wma files and syncs perfectly with Windows Media Player 11. This unit can play music for about 30 hours on a full charge. With easy navigating four-way main control buttons and dedicated ‘option’ and ‘back’ buttons, navigation is a snap. Using just one hand, you can easily shuffle songs and search for photos or videos. The Sony NWZ-A818’s signal-to-noise ratio was 75 dB (where a higher number means a cleaner signal). Using a proprietary 22-pin connection to establish a USB link to the computer, it is very convenient to store songs in this mp3 player.

Overall, this 8GB Sony NWZ-A818 delivers impressive sound quality through its excellent supplied ear buds.