BIOS: Technology Means Business

Sony's Network Walkman NW-HD5 is one of the smallest 20GB hard disk drive-based digital music players around. With its relatively light aluminium body, credit-card-size dimensions and outstanding battery life, this ultra-compact model gives new meaning to the word high-capacity portable music. It has taken Sony a long time to get its head around digital music, but with Rio recently pulling out of the market, it finally looks like Apple has a worthy competitor that can hold its own in terms of both features and trendy branding. The Network Walkman NW-HD5 looks and sounds very good, but it lacks an FM tuner, line-in recording, voice recording and a colour screen, and it comes with clunky Windows-only software. But despite these shortcomings, it is easy to use and comes highly recommended.

Pros: Good looks, sound and build quality; 20GB HDD; great battery life
Cons: No tuner, line-in or voice recording; requires Sony software

The Network Walkman NW-HD5 (Best Current Price: £178) is Sony's fourth model in its hard disk drive-based Network Walkman family. Thankfully, this time the aluminium-encased player (89.3x14.5x55.9mm, 125g) is more than an update to the previous model. The compact NW-HD5 features a new portrait design that more closely resembles Apple's iPod (can still be rotated to hold on its side), and the circular control pad has been replaced by nine buttons. The device is available inblack, silver, and red.

The display has also been changed to an LED-backlit 1.5in. LCD from a similar sized organic LED (OLED) display. Other features include an impressively accommodating 20GB hard disk (enough to store around 13,000 tracks in ATRAC3 format), enough power for 40 hours of continuous playback when using ATRAC3 files (around 30 when listening to MP3s or WMAs) - roughly twice the iPod's battery life. There's also a USB 2.0 port, power jack (previous models required the use of an adapter), and hold switch to prevent accidental usage.

The NW-HD5 supports ATRAC3 and ATRAC3plus compression formats, Windows Media Audio (WMA), WAV, and MP3 files - AAC, WAV, OGG and AIFF aren't catered for. It also has the same selection of menu languages: Japanese, English, French, German, Italian and Spanish. It is a great relief that Sony has jumped on the MP3 bandwagon, especially as its first generation players only supported the company's restrictive ATRAC3 format. Having said that, the player still doesn't support native Digital Rights Managed-enabled WMA files.

Besides its compact form factor - significantly smaller and lighter than Apple's fourth-generation 20GB iPod - and attractive Sony styling, the player is further distinguished by its relatively large 7-line (1.5-inch) backlit window. The screen is only black-and-white though (can be inverted), so you can forget about photo or movie playback, but the built-in 'follow turn' technology automatically detects the horizontal or vertical position of the device and consequently changes the position of the display graphics as well as that of the function buttons. There's also built-in hard disk protection technology to help the drive when the player is dropped.

Decent headphones, as well as an AC adapter and a USB cable are included with the NW-HD5. You also get a copy of Sony's mediocre SonicStage 3.1 music management software which lets you convert and manage music from CDs in both ATRAC3plus and MP3, and provides access to Sony's struggling online music store, Connect.

The NW-HD5 is reasonably equipped, but frequent travellers will miss the lack of a built-in FM tuner and line-in recording. The menu system is also a little basic in its appearance, but this does make the player easy to use. We did, however, like the search function that lets you jump to songs that begin with a specific letter, and the ability to create standard playlists (Bookmarks) directly on the player. Unfortunately, these playlists can't be edited in the bundled SonicStage software. Likewise, playlists created in SonicStage cannot be edited on the player.

You can also search by Artist, Album, Track and Genre, set playback modes (repeat one song, shuffle tracks, and shuffle items), tweak the 6-band equaliser (only with ATRAC3 and ATRAC3plus audio tracks), as well as alter the screen's orientation, backlight and contrast levels. There's even an option to toggle the player's audio-out port between headphones and line-out in order to get the best possible sound.

The player's biggest drawback is its rubbish Windows-only software, SonicStage. While the software will be appreciated by computer newbies and those who haven't invested hours of hours into iTunes or Windows Media Player, you can transfer tracks to the NW-HD5 only via SonicStage, much like with Apple's iPod and iTunes combination. Not only that, but you have to 'authorise' the player via the Internet, which involves creating a Sony Connect account so you can use the player with up to five computers - otherwise, the player can be used only on a single computer. Wake up Sony - this sucks! [8]