While it's hard to imagine Sony recapturing the zillions of ears it commanded with the original Walkman, the A815 stands a fine chance of luring a few of them back. The 2-inch screen displays JPEGs and MPEG-4 video, and audio-enhancers — Bass Boost, Normalizer, Pseudo-Surround — abound, although the standard sound is so full you'll hardly need them.
WIRED: Thin and light (1.9 ounces) without feeling cheap. 29-hour battery life. Useful contextual menus. Savable custom EQ settings. Time Machine Shuffle selects tracks from a random year. Works with Windows Media.
TIRED: Cluttered main-menu icon grid. Lacks software to resize video. Hold button on back makes one-handed activation difficult. No FM tuner.
$140, sonystyle.com
Photograph by Gene Lee
