Sony Launches Walkman W and X Series Players

[madhyena]

The Walkman has come a long way since its clunky, yellow, cassette-playing roots. Sony just announced its two latest Walkman players, the W series and the X series.

Walkman W Series
The W series device has an integrated headphone design and fits over your ears. A small cable runs behind your head, connecting the two earpieces. The Walkman W doesn’t have a display; it instead uses a jog dial. Its Scan Song feature plays the first 5-15 seconds of your songs song, like a radio scan. It’s made for those with an active lifestyle, like runners, bicyclists, etc. In other words, not the desk jockey type.



We love that the W series can offer 1.5 hours of playback after just a 3-minute charge, and a full 12 hours of playtime after just 30 minutes plugged in. It will be available this spring in black and pink, but pricing has not been released yet.

Walkman X Series
x2_2This is the device we’ve been waiting for. The X Series will sport a capacitive touch 3-inch WQVGA OLED display. The benefits to an OLED are plentiful: these displays are typically brighter, more colorful, offer better contrast (10o00:1), and have excellent 180-degree viewing angles. Sony is holding out on pricing announcements thus far.



The X Series includes digital noise cancellation, and it’s the first device to combine an OLED display with this technology. Sony wouldn’t confirm whether or not it would include content from Amazon yet, but it did say that the X is capable of playing videos from Amazon’s Unbox service.

The X Series also sports Wi-Fi capabilities, and will be available with 16GB and 32GB solid state drives. Sony claimed it was focused on audio and video playback, so it’s uncertain whether there will be an application store similar to Apple’s for the iPod touch.

Unfortunately, the X series doesn’t have a speaker, so you’ll need to use the 3.5mm headphone jack at all times to jam.

The device will be available in early summer.

[deoWo]

Sony is coming up with another version of its Walkman that limits the length of wires, it is especially cool for the gym. It supports MP3/AAC/WMA (DRM)/L-PCM and WMT files and fully charges in 30 minutes for over 12 hours of music playback. It offers 2 GB of storage and comes in black and pink. It will be available in April 2009 for $70.

[need Tos]

Sony is coming with a new PMP featuring WiFi connectivity and web browsing that allows users to stream videos from YouTube and download Podcasts directly from the internet. Features include Digital Noise Cancellation, FM Tuner, 3.0” OLED display (WQGA) and a touch panel. It supports MP3/AAC/WMA (DRM)/L-PCM and WMT audio files and comes in 16 GB and 32 GB. It will be available in early Summer 2009, no information about the price.

[Wingit]

The X continues Sony's recently opened-up support for AAC/MP3/WMA audio and MPEG-4/H.264/WMV video, and should be system-independent. Sony doesn't plan to ship the X series until the summer but promises 16GB and 32GB models.

Runners and other exercisers are being directed towards the NWZ-W202, one of the few if not only screenless Sony music players available; it builds a music player directly into a set of earphones and thus eliminates the usual cord. Like the iPod shuffle, Sony mitigates the lack of a screen by implementing controls for semi-random playback. A pure shuffle mode is available but can be assisted by a ZAPPIN system that plays short samples of each track until the wearer stops at a preferred song.

battery life is curbed to 12 hours on the W, a quick-charge mode gets about 1.5 hours of playback after just three minutes of power. The lone model carries 2GB of music and will ship in April for about $70.

[opaper]

The Walkman NWZ-X1000 is its first touchscreen media player in North America and aims squarely at the same field as Apple's iPod touch or the Samsung P3. The player claims a much more vivid picture through a 3-inch OLED touchscreen which is both more color-rich and quicker to respond than LCDs. Sony also asserts that the X series is easier to control as it has hardware side controls that can be used in addition to finger input.

Again like its close competitor, Sony also includes Wi-Fi and uses it to fill out the device's experience, with a web browser, podcast downlading and YouTube letting owners use it semi-independently. New to any player, Sony says, is a new, purely digital noise canceling that blocks ambient sounds in software rather than relying on potentially expensive hardware. A bundled pair of in-ear EX headphones add passive noise reduction of their own.