Sony's NW-A800 Series outed

Things are finally heating up on the Sony DAP front, with those NW-A800 players we've been hearing about finally getting their first spy shots thrust into the public eye by the shameless Sony fanboys at ATRACLife. Not a lot of info can be divulged just yet, other than those 2-8GB capacity and 10 hour video battery specs we were hearing earlier, but Sony.de has a countdown to March 1st going on, so we're guessing we'll be learning more then, if not before.

[Via ATRACLife]

[Robert Preseau @ Feb 16th 2007 5:06PM]

I read "outed" as "outdated".

Made for a confusing read the first time through.

[resource @ Feb 16th 2007 5:21PM]

I'd go for outdated...

I'm not a Sony hater, in fact I would like more companies to compete with the iPod, but that is the ugliest PMP I've seen by a major company.

That looks like something from the Radioshack clearance shelf. Geez.

[Kev50027 @ Feb 16th 2007 6:26PM]

Are you kidding? that thing looks awesome, however my Samsung YP-T9 still looks better.

[appleuser @ Feb 16th 2007 5:34PM]

atraclife? seriosly, is there ANYONE that likes atrac?

[erik @ Feb 16th 2007 5:53PM]

Me, I own NW-S605 which uses ATRAC. Its not so bad, so where is the problem?

[jamma @ Feb 16th 2007 6:03PM]

Firstly, I have a NW-E005 and i use ATRAC, it's actually quite good. Secondly, sony, gve up with just more DAP's without any improvements, and put more into the sony ericsson walkman range and the PSP. Last of, this must be photoshopped, sony wouldn't bring out something this fugly, or would they?

[Sam @ Feb 16th 2007 6:51PM]

How does this look 'awesome' at all?! It looks like a standard design for a 'DAP' in fact they should just name it 'generic DAP.' It's the Ford Taurus of audio players.

[Bob @ Feb 16th 2007 7:21PM]

Actually if we go by the number people that own them the iPod would be the Ford Taurus of audio players...just sayin'.

[3rdsun @ Feb 16th 2007 8:27PM]

This looks better than any iPod ever. Who want a DAP with a small screen and big ass wheel ,or worst yet no screen at all. Not me for sure. This looks like the W810 phone without the buttons

[Cramidy @ Feb 16th 2007 8:29PM]

Just an FYI:
Up untill recently, most major films recorded all location sound onto Minidisk using sony's "famous" (yeah right) ATRAC format, and was among the prefered audio formats for film. Then it went from mini DVD to HDD as the prices for those formats fell. The point? Most of you couldnt tell one pile of crap from the next. If youre going to hate somthing, at least learn about it first.

... atrac is kinda meh though from an audiophile POV. But then again, so is mp3.

[tekdroid @ Feb 16th 2007 9:53PM]

Cramidy,
MiniDisc (Hi-MD) these days can record with no lossy compression (since 2004).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MiniDisc#Hi-MD

As far as I can tell ATRAC has never been a 'standard' for location sound for major films. Care to name any?

But that's besides the point. People bash ATRAC 'cause it's Sony (or related to SonicStage's bad history with DRM), not because they can necessarily say it's any worse than their MP3s, IMO.

I think this device is miles ahead of the fingerprint-laden plasticky reflective devices that came before it - looks-wise AND functionality-wise. Would I ever buy it? No way. There are far better competitors offering open-source codecs like FLAC and Ogg Vorbis that don't require clunky Windows software to get it on the device.

[Castle @ Feb 16th 2007 9:54PM]

Looks very good, video is definitely a plus. The iPod is also suffering from overexposure.

It comes down to the price, if this thing is priced similar to an iPod nano, I would consider it a good rival, however if its a dollar more its pointless.

[Jeff @ Feb 16th 2007 10:03PM]

It's not like, ugly...it's just, there's no reason to buy it over any other device from Creative or SanDisk.

[Sam @ Feb 16th 2007 10:11PM]

I was actually talking about design when referring to it as the 'Ford Taurus' of DAPs.

[Grutt @ Feb 16th 2007 10:21PM]

At Least it has video the Nano has Nada

[olivernward @ Feb 17th 2007 6:10AM]

even if this device, with it's questionable good looks, had the best features of any DAP out there, the software that will inevitably be included to transfer your music WILL be the most godawful pile of crap, that it will render the whole package completely worthless. i had an 8gb sony mp3 player 12 months ago, i used it for 2 months straight and was so infuriated by the player and it's accompanying software that i took it back and got a refund.

[�COM-4 @ Feb 17th 2007 9:59AM]

Why the hell would ANYBODY buy one of these??? It uses ATRAC and looks generic as hell...whoah check out the cool blue!

The Cowon D2 craps all over this POS.

[navsimpson @ Feb 17th 2007 4:09PM]

It's possible that they'll have to use new software for this, as Sonicstage doesn't currently do video.

Also, the fact that people reading a tech site think Sony players still only do ATRAC shows just how poor Sony's marketing has been - they now natively do MP3, WMA, AAC and, of course, ATRAC and ATRAC Lossless.

[mdsjack @ Feb 18th 2007 10:31AM]

The old nano looked better, but this one beats the new nano. it's metal bodied and has a big oled.
awaiting for more specifics, though.

[TJ @ Feb 18th 2007 1:44PM]

if this device ain't shopped, i totally agree with com-4, go check out the Cowon D2... that thing RELY kicks this fugly blue thing's ass to the moon..