Sony took its time getting into the solid-state digital music market, and many were a little disappointed with its original Memory Stick Walkman. The new NW-MS9 is an updated version and is much more like the product we had originally expected from Sony.

The NW-MS9 looks absolutely stunning in a brushed-silver finish. It's about the size of a cigarette lighter, and weighs only 37g. One major improvement over the original model is the adoption of Sony's standard 'chewing gum' sized rechargeable battery instead of having the power cell integral to the unit.

Both the battery and the Memory Stick live adjacent to each other at the base of the unit behind almost invisible covers, while the USB connector hides behind an equally ingenious flap at the other end.

A rocker switch next to the LCD display is used to play, stop, skip and rewind the music while the first-rate display offers a multitude of options.

The main problem with Sony's products is that, unlike every other MP3 player on the market, the Sony units don't actually play MP3s. Sony has chosen to use its own ATRAC compression technology which it has been using on MiniDiscs for years.

There's no doubt that ATRAC produces superior results when ripping music from CD but, if you already have a large library of MP3s on your hard disk, you'll have to convert them all to ATRAC in order to play them. Not only will this take time, but it will take up a lot more space on your drive unless you delete the MP3 original when it's converted.

That said, at least the version 2.0 of OpenMG Jukebox that ships with the NW-MS9 allows you to convert MP3s to ATRAC and export them to the 64Mb Memory Stick simultaneously.

The NW-MS9 is the best looking and sounding solid-state music player on the market, but its inability to play MP3 files and a high price lets it down.

CONTACT: Sony
08705 111 999
www.sony.co.uk