Walk into the best sound around

The F800 runs on the Google Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system and is powered by an NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core 1 GHz processor.

It comes with a 3.5-inch touch screen display with 800 x 400 pixel resolution so the F800 can be used to play video and watch photos apart from playing MP3 songs.

It has Wi-Fi connection so it can actually function like a 3.5-inch tablet, allowing you to check mail, update your Facebook status, browse Internet as well as watching YouTube clips.

It also has Google Play Store for you to download and install more Android apps and games. You can even synchronise your Gmail contact list with the F800, whatever you can do with an Android 4 smart phone or tablet. All the smart phone functions can be performed through the Wi-Fi connection.

The NWZ-F800 series Walkman also has built in GPS and G sensors required for numerous apps and positioning features. It also has a built in clock function with alarm and sleep timer functions.

The F800 sounds really great. It comes with MDR-EX0300E earphones which sound great during the test.

Its impressive sound quality is credited to Sony exclusive S-Master MX and Clear Audio technologies, which maintain the highest sound resolution at any volume level. The F800 uses Clear Stereo, Clear Bass, Clear Phase and Digital Sound Enhancement Engine to restore the clarity and depth of digitally compressed music. The player also has integrated 5 band equaliser for further adjusting sound quality to suit your taste.

During the test, I found that the music was reproduced with good detail of voice and instruments and deep and strong bass. I love listening to saxophone sound of the “Sax for Sex: Beautiful Night” album as the instrument was played sweetly. The “Best Audiophiles V” album also played beautifully, featuring outstanding voices of the female singers with very good details in the musical instruments.

When I listened to “The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking” by Roger Waters, I could hear tiny sounds to enhance the progressive songs, like birds chirping.

The F800 also comes with Sony’s proprietary Virtual Phones Technology (VPT) that enables you to enjoy movie-theatre-like “live” surround sound. The technology positions the sound outside your head so that the sound field is created in a way that the listener hears the equivalent of a conventional 5.1-channel speaker system.

Another nice feature is Dynamic Normalizer, which balances the volume level between songs. With this setting, when listening to album songs in the shuffle play mode, the volume level between songs is moderated to minimise the difference in their recording levels.

The F800 has a built in compact speaker for sharing your music or listen without headphones. And it comes with xLoud technology that lets you enjoy high volume levels using the smaller speaker with reduced distortion.

The F800 also has an FM tuner with up to 30 FM station presets.

The package comes with Media Go application for Windows, which allows you to transfer your favourite music, videos, playlists, and photos to your F800 easily. You can also drag and drop the data from iTunes for Windows or Windows Media Player.

Sony makes an outstanding package for the F800. The outside cardboard box looks like a biscuit box and the package inside looks like an ice cream sandwich.

Two models of the F800 series Walkman are available in Thailand – NWZ-F804 (8GB) and WZ-F805 (16GB), which retail Bt7,990 and Bt8,990 respectively.

 

 

        Key specs

_ Equaliser: 5 Band Equaliser with 6 presets: Heavy/ Pop/Jazz/ Unique/Custom 1/

Custom 2 & Clear Bas 

_ Audio Format Supported: MP3 / WMA / FLAC / L-PCM / AAC / HE-AAC

_ Video Format Supported: AVC / MP4 / WMV

_ Frequency Response: 20 - 20,000Hz

_ Display Technology: 3.5-inch TFT color display with white LED-backlight, WQVGA (800 x 480 Pixels)

_ Headphone Output(s): 1 (3.5mm stereo mini jack)

_ Audio Power Output: 5mW+5mW

_ Tuner Frequency Range: 87.5 to 108.0 MHz

_ Storage: 8GB/16GB

_ Battery: USB based charging: Approx. 3.5 hours charging; 25 hours audio playback

_ Dimensions (Approx.): 57.0 x 114.6 x 8.9 mm 

_ Weight (Approx.): 100g