Sony NW-HD5 worldwide launch in May
By Barb Dybwad 
posted Apr 6th 2005 7:30AM
posted Apr 6th 2005 7:30AM
So the official deets are out, and we can add a little bit to our initial list of specs. That 40 hour playback time is only for strictly ATRAC3Plus, and expect about 30 hours from regular old MP3 playback. The "Follow Turn Display" feature will automagically switch the display orientation depending on how the user holds it, as well as changing the orientation of the function buttons. It will weigh in at 125 grams and be debuting in the US, UK, Europe and Far East markets in May, to be followed up by a 30GB limited edition version in June. The 20GB NW-HD5 will drop in at about £200, or $375USD.
30 hours is still pretty good for a 20GB player. But I wonder if that's for CBR, which is much less processor-intensive than VBR (which is what any sane person uses). Curious to see some tests when this finally comes out.
Specs don't support an iPod-level price.
I find the buttons look very cheap. I also doubt if the controls are as good as the iPod.
And very important, how about the software. Until now it was crap from Sony.
But hey: competition benefits everyone!
What are you saying, Christopher?
the creative zen touch 40 gb costs 330$(compuplus sells them a 275$) , and battery life of 24 hours(cnet got 26hrs) and sound quality of 97db.
so i'll buy a zen touch 40gb ;-)
could they have made it any uglier?
I don't think features alone would woo potential customers away from the iPod. This costs more >_<
The NW HD1 and HD3 were almost too sexually attractive. What happened here? It looks like Fisher Price started making cigarettes....
The HD3 should of been the one that Sony put out there... I really hope a redesign is on the cards, cos this one realy does look like a pack of cards.
The display does not "automagically" rotate - its orientation is a user setting.
The NW-HD5 will go on sale in Japan from 21 April priced at 35,000 yen.
Has anyone heard of one difference between the American market and the Japanese market?
Ask yourself how much more you'd be willing to pay to make your 20 Gb iPod a tiny bit smaller.
From what I've heard, (and please disagree with me if I"m wrong) the Americian market would balk at the idea and would rather just pay less for the same device.
While the Japanese market would likely plunk down an extra $50, maybe $100.
Thus I think the pricing is with the Japanese market in mind.
Of course this deals with the hardware only.
Also, does anyone with an NW-HD3 know if it has "gapless playback"?
And what happened to the NW-HD4? Google didn't turn up much.
Oh... It's sooooo ugly! ;)
Or maybe not. Scratch that last comment on the "auto-turn" feature - I'm an idiot.
As for the why there was no NW-HD4, I assume they skipped it because one of the
pronunciations for "4" in Japanese is the same as that for "death." As a result, it's obviously not considered a lucky number by most Japanese.
I guess asking for MSC support is way-the-hell too much?
"Ask yourself how much more you'd be willing to pay to make your 20 Gb iPod a tiny bit smaller."
I have an Archos Gmini XS200, and I'm paying in shorter battery life, though I saved a fair amount of money ($245 for Gmini + car charger) and size (it fits easily in my pocket) in the trade-off. At this point, I'm perfectly happy to wait until Hitachi serves up those 20GB microdrives in 2007.
Not knowing much about the follow turn display feature, I sure hope it can be turned off; would be a nightmare to navigate by touch if, say, you keep the player in your coat pocket and can't see which way it's oriented.
Sony assures us that the display is controlled by the same G-Shock sensor that protects the hard disk from damage. It detects the orientation of the unit and automatically switches the display AND the button functions. See my previous post from Sony’s web site whre these details are found in the features unique to this NHD5.
ITMedia has reviewed the NW-HD5 and note that the orientation of the display is set when the powered is turned on. Once the power is turned on, the display retains the same orientation until the next time the power is cycled. Left-handed users will be happy to know that having the control buttons on the left is also no problem.
http://www.itmedia.co.jp/lifestyle/articles/0504/07/news002.html
The only thing I'd like to ask is why haven't Sony, yet again, included a Remote Control?
The slick little remote controls that came AS STANDARD with MD players, seem to have been dropped in favour of the old 'put it in your pocket take it outta ya pocket' technique for changing your tracks.
Also, I do hope that the 'hold' switch has been relocated, from it's position on the bottom of the HD1/2/3, to a more useful location.
Sony seem to be raising their bar in millimetres which just isn't good enough considering that you know Apple are going to raise their, respective, bar by metres.
Any bets on a minimum 30hr battery life on the next generation of ipods?
I hope the hd-5 doesn't have the same sound limitations enforced on it like the hd-1 & hd-3 did. I found my hd-1 was way too quiet. You shouldn't have to go into a service menu to get the volume at an acceptable level!
The iPod is alot prettier, however, Sony's sound quality is really unbeatable. I have an iPod and a HD3 and you really can tell the difference- the iPod sounds tinny in comparison to the rich Sony sound. I don't care about some gimmicky screen-turning or how the thing looks- what's the point of having something beautiful that gives an inferior sound?!
I recently bought the new Sony NW-HD5 from a store in Akihabara, Tokyo. Cost: about $325 (U.S.).
The Pros:
(1) The player is significantly smaller and lighter than the 20 gig ipod. The external casing is made out of a metallic material that feels sturdy and is hard to scratch.
(2) The player itself has vastly superior sound options to the ipod. It has a 6 band equalizer system that allows you to control bass and treble which produces amazing sound. If you listen to bass heavy music (reggae, hip-hop) the NW-HD5 is a must.
(3) It can be charged with a simply charge (a basic wire attached to a plug) that is easy to carry on long trips. Also, the NW-HD5 comes with the option of replacing the battery!!
(4) The battery life on the NW-HD5 is LONG! If you like to switch songs often, adjust bass and treble levels or just simply have fun with a player then the NW-HD5 is for you. If you want to recharge everyday (or twice a day) then go with an ipod. I’ve used it liberally for a week on one charge.
Cons:
(1) You have to use Sony Sonic Stage program which consistently fails to recognize the names and tiles of songs and albums. This means that you have to spend a lot of time manually inputting in the titles of songs (and artists) before transferring them into the NW-HD5. The solution is to use the i-Tunes software to transfer songs from a CD to your hard drive in MP3 format. Then using the Sonic Stage Software, find the songs/albums on the hard drive and transfer the songs onto the NW-HD5. The entire process is very easy and takes almost no time.
(2) The NW-HD5 does NOT come with a remote control for the player (the kind you clip on your shirt). But if you already own a Sony portable audio device with the remote control then you can simply use that control on this new device without buying a new one. HOWEVER, the older remote controls do not allow you to control all the functions on the player. For example, you can’t see the song or album title or control bass/treble. But you can skip tracks, control volume etc.
(3) There is a lag (delay) in accessing some of the main menus. When accessing certain menus and functions on the NW-HD5, it runs slower than the ipod. Often the lag is up to 3 seconds. An “Access” message appears that tells you that the machine is thinking. Though surprising, I didn’t find it to be much of a problem.
(4) The resolution on the NW-HD5’s screen is inferior to the ipod’s. Although the screen it is large, easy to read and provides all the information you might need, the screen on the ipod is sharper, clearer and has better resolution. Also, a “ghost trail” occurs when the device is scrolling through the titles of songs that do not fit completely on the screen. This seems to be caused by some sort of lag or slowness in the screens ability to process the information. I think it’s a bit weird but certainly not a major problem.
So ipod or the new sony mp3 player?
UK customers - i sent Amazon a note saying Dabs had the NW-HD5 for £186 incl delivery, and it's now on Amazon for £184 all in. Not bad, price has dropped by £16 and it's not out for another 2 days.
Though I can't find any US information on the HD-5 release, I just bought one yesterday at my local Circuit City. Cost is $299.99 plus tax. Pretty good unit so far, but Sonic Stage is far inferior to iTunes. Sonic Stage tends to slow down and freeze and do weird things at times. But the Sony Unit itself is very good, so far.
Well here's my verdict. After buyiny my friend an I-pod mini, (with his money) I must admit that they are very "fashionable" and its obvious that Apple wanted to add features that supported the units good looks, however what they have made is a simple, easy to use no-frills mp3 player that can be modified like mobile phones can. They have a range of colours and other I-pod models with ranging memory. But the battery life is appawling and I dont even care if they are supposedly meant to last 18 hours, I just cant get to a power socket that often. So I got an NW-HD5 for these reasons, the battery life is very long, and when the cell does eventually die I can fit another one- which is useful because after speding £200 I am not going to be buying another mp3 player in the near future. The 20GB memory is absolutely adequate because there is no way I am going to be able to listen to all those tracks in much under a month, and then when I do Ill just delete them all and load up another load of tracks. I like sony as a company and the unit is actually really nice looking, its small, slim pocket sized and yet robust. The screen is clear (a little pixelated) but still good. and the sound quality is superb. I am absolutely certain that if I worked for sony I would have been able to iron out the bugs, but I still dont think they've done a bad job. If I was to suggest a player I would suggest the NW-5 because I think the only I-pod you can compare it to is an I-pod mini, and it clearly dominates that unit. I really dont think anyone is going to be able to create a higher selling unit than the I-pod now, because it has such a huge die-hard following. I think the quest now should be to make a series of units to suit their operating conditions, eg: who can honestly rock climb with an I-pod?, who can cycle or run with an NW-HD5 without breaking it if it falls out of their pocket? who can sit through a boring maths lesson without having their bulky mp3 player taken by their teachers? Why are we all so bothered about mp3 players when there are so many other major issues we should be dealing with