Meet a possible and real competitor to the iPod Touch:
Remember that time Sony invented the portable music player? But then refused to embrace the MP3 format? And wound up getting burned by Apple when the iPod came out?
Sony certainly remembers.
After years of trial and error with various substandard on-the-go media players, Sony is finally flexing its competitive muscle with the Series-X: an OLED-flaunting, Slacker-enabled, web-browsing, noise-canceling device proudly flying under the banner of “Walkman.”
Sony dropped off an early build of the X Tuesday. Here are our impressions after fiddling with it for the last 12 hours. Keep in mind that this isn’t a full test; these are just our initial reactions after playing with hardware that’s not 100 percent fully baked yet.
The Hardware
Typical Sony (i.e., freaking nice). It looks like a Danger Mouse–style mashup between a Microsoft Zune and an iPod Touch. Flanking the sides are controls for volume and noise canceling. Noise canceling is actually handled by the included earbuds — you can just switch the feature on and off from the body of the device.
The 3-inch touchscreen is by far the X’s best feature. Brilliant, colorful, and OLED-based, it’s also super-duper sensitive. I’m talking iPhone levels of sensitivity. I hate, hate, hate comparing every touchscreen-based electronic device we handle to an iPhone or iPod, but they represent the gold standard for touch-based input. And the X-series can hang with any Cupertino device in terms of touch sensitivity.
The User Interface
The menus are set up in a logical grid. Icons let you access Slacker, the FM radio, YouTube, still images, the video player, music, noise canceling options, podcasts, the Web browser and the X’s internal settings. If you want to select something, merely touch it, the icon illuminates, and a small bubble pops up above it and indicates the application you’re selecting. Input ambiguity? There really is none. Provided you’re not typing a URL. (We’ll get to that later.)
Music Player
You can sort by song, artist, genre, release year, playlist or file folder. You can also link individual tracks on Yahoo One Search or YouTube for videos. I immediately brought up Ice Ice Baby on the device, linked it to YouTube, and within seconds was watching Robert Van Winkler prance about in a black-and-silver-sequined power suit.
What We Think
I like the damn thing. While it’s not as polished as an iPod, it’s certainly more smartly assembled than the oafish Zune. What’s better, it has a few features the iPod Touch doesn’t: Slacker service, physical buttons, integrated noise canceling. What’s worse, though, is a web browser that’s fairly crappy. Inputting text is frustrating and error-prone, and the battery doesn’t seem to last more than five hours of continuous use.
Overall, this is a nicely appointed, well-featured device. I’m just surprised there isn’t a phone built into it somewhere.
The X-series Walkman is available for pre-sale now and will start shipping in the middle of June.
UPDATE: Prices will be $299 for 16GB and $399 for 32GB.
Scroll down for the full spec list from the Sony press release.
Photos by Jon Snyder/ Wired.com
Sony X-series Walkman®
A slim noise-canceling video MP3 player
Product Bullets:
• OLED Video experience with a high quality 3” wide display (WQVGA)
• Incredible sound quality with digital clear audio technologies, S-Master™ digital amplifier and digital noise canceling with airplane, train, bus and office mode
• New content experience: Podcast download, YouTube™ streaming, Yahoo!® search, Music Meta Link, Slacker® Personal Radio
• Multi Audio/Video Codec support: Music - MP3/WMA/AAC/L-PCM and Video - AVC(H.264/AVC)/MPEG-4/WMV DRM
• Hybrid Operation system allows you touch panel & buttons operation
• 13.5 mm Noise Canceling EX Headphones included MDR-NC020
• FM Tuner
Key Features:
• Quality of Sound: Digital clear audio technologies, S-Master™ digital amplifier, digital noise canceling function with Noise Canceling EX headphones (MDR-NC20)
• Discover Music: Slacker® radio offers free personalized music that uploads to your Walkman® player when the player is connected to a wireless LAN and when you are in a WiFi zone (Slacker registration is required after 30 days).
• OLED Display: OLED technology has a response time suitable for movie playback. A wide viewing angle of nearly 180 degrees gives consistent tone and stable contrast, as well as, a wide range of color reproduction and a high contrast ratio.
• Hybrid Operation: The benefit of both “touch panel” and “button” operation makes the X series easy to use while using its different features.
• Internet Connectivity:
o Podcast download, register podcast on browser and link to podcast web site
o “Related Links” function relates web content with music content playing on your Walkman® X series
o Connect directly to “YouTube™” and “Yahoo!®”
o Internet Browser
o Wireless LAN (Wi-Fi) connectivity to Home Wireless LAN and to public Wireless LAN. Supports Wi-Fi Protected Setup
• Drag and Drop Functionality: Easily load your music, pictures, and video onto this player by dragging and dropping them into the video MP3 player on your computer.
• Multiple High-quality Video Formats: This player supports multiple high-quality video formats as well as a variety of audio codecs, giving you more freedom to download the kind of music and video that you want.
• Long Battery Life: Equipped with a long-lasting battery that enables you to listen to up to 33 hours of music and watch up to 9 hours of video without needing to recharge.
Audio
• Antenna System: FM: Headphone Cord Antenna
• Audio Power Output: 5 + 5mW
• Equalizer: 5 Band: Heavy/Pop/Jazz/Unique/Custom1/Custom2
• Format(s) Supported: Audio: MP3/WMA/AAC/L-PCM, Video: AVC(H.264/AVC)/MPEG-4/WMV DRM
• Frequency Range: 87.5 to 108.0 MHz
• Frequency Response: 20 - 20,000Hz
• Tuner: Yes - FM
Audio Features
• Sound Mode : 5 Band equalizer (Heavy/Pop/Jazz/Unique/Custom 1/Custom 2) and Clear Bass
• Surround Effect : DSEE (on/off)
Capability
• MP3 Player : Yes
• Radio : Yes
Convenience Features
• Multiple Language Display : English/French/German/Spanish/Italian/Russian/Japanese/Simplified Chinese/Traditional Chinese/Korean/Portuguese
• Search Features : All Songs/Album/Artist/Genre/Release Year/Playlists/Folder
Display
• Screen Size : 3.0” WIDE OLED Display (WQVGA)
General
• Music Storage Capacity (Approx) : 16GB or 32GB
• Recommended Use : Music/Video/Photo/FM/Podcast/Internet Browser/YouTube
Hardware
• Display : 3-inch, OLED color display, WQVGA (432 x 240 Pixels), 262,144 colors
• Headphone Type : MDR-NC020
To see the rest, go here
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