After the European PR agency seemingly jumped the gun, we finally get some actual press and hands-on shots of Sony's newest video Walkman. The NW-A820 series as it's known in Japan does everything its other
NWZ-A820 brother can do in Europe (and presumably
the US) only with that icky ATRAC and SonicStage baggage in tow. Sony also announced a new ¥20,000 (about $186) VRC-NW10 cradle with video-out and trick little video-in capability for real-time MPEG-4 recordings straight back to your A820-series player. A SRS-NWT10M external speaker is priced low enough at ¥3,000 ($28) that every teen-age jackass riding the subway will have one. Japan will see the new players in black, white and pink and in 16GB and 8GB models priced at ¥38,000 ($354) and ¥28,000 ($260), respectively. Check the gallery for hot A820 on iPod touch action.
posted Feb 20th 2008 2:05AM
Meh, I still like my IPT.
Isn't that a iRiver MP3?
No, iPod Touch
I P T
Why are we ranking Will down? Meh... *goes along with the crowd*... sorry Will :P
=(
you guys make no sense
It's probably because no one knew that you were talking about the iPod Touch.
Seriously, let's leave the txttlk 2 BFFs Jill + Rose.
it's a ipod ripoff oh well. you can also check my post on http://wiresmash.com where i posted chinese fakes.
Have fun guys
No, derX, you're not missing anything -- Touch comparo is just a gimmick to get your attention. This Walkman is little more than a standard musicphone without the phone. Novelty features include the noise cancellation and video-in recording when you buy a nearly $200 cradle.
I would pick the iTouch in a heartbeat because the sound quality is incomparable. I have a Sony Ericcson Walkman phone and the quality isn't as nice as you would think but I rather have a Cowon for a MP3 player.
......you cant compare a mp3 phone to the ipod touch......i agree the sony walkman phones suck...but sony mp3 player are stellar in sound qualiy
Mn... you have a good point there. I guess I have to listen to a Sony Walkman hands on than.
I would like to know what Sony Ericsson walkman phone you are refering to since I happend to have owned alot of SE phones over the years and can't for one second say anything bad about the sound.
And no I havent owned an ipod so i cant compare, but I do have mid class headset and a mid class stereo to compare to.
Can't compare an MP3 phone to an iPod Touch? So does that mean you can't compare an iPhone to an iPod Touch...?
well yes u can compare the iphone to the ipod, because iphone is a ipod with phone capabilies, and imo SE walkman phones are phones with mp3 capability
Sony dropped atrac and sonicstage in North America with their last walkmans (a810s i believe), but it is still used in Japan. Sound qualities on walkman's (not sony erricson phones) are supposed to be better than ipods, I don't know about ipod touches though.
use the sony EX series headphones with your walkman , ull forget what ipod sound quality is.
"A SRS-NWT10M external speaker is priced low enough at ¥3,000 ($28) that every teen-age jackass riding the subway will have one"
That is some bizarre teen bashing.
Disclaimer: I recently exited my teens.
He does make a good point though... Seems every time I use public transport there's some twit forcing his crappy music on you through tinny phone speakers, drives me mad.
Nobody is forcing you. If you have a problem, take it up with the offender. Doing nothing other than being grumpy then whinging later is not a solution. Talk to the person!
Rav0, you're obviously not familiar with the recent spate of stabbings/assaults associated with approaching the offenders.
The truth hurts. Too bad.
"A SRS-NWT10M external speaker is priced low enough at ¥3,000 ($28) that every teen-age jackass riding the subway will have one."
Thomas Ricker/Engadget simply have very little respect for people and they have poor taste in their journalism! Anything to get some comments on their readers... tisk tisk tisk!
I could swear I saw someone with one of these on the bus today, unlikely, but still.
I like how they show photos with the iPod Touch's screen off. Let's have a user interface-off and see that battle.
Oh yea, nice screws on the back there Sony . . . way to go on your industrial design.
I like how the Touch's LCD is almost as big as this entire Walkman. =)
Are they supposed to be crossing swords just because they're thin and have a big screen? Because it's more like an LG Chocolate or Venus with the phone guts hacked off.
maybe it has a user replaceable battery. that's certainly something that apple hardly ever thinks of including...
ahaha..nice one sony...i really like this one. Sony always would come out with sexy,sturdy and comfortable units....
Sorry, Sony. You've got a very long way to go indeed before I part with my Touch. Besides, you haven't been relevant in years.
What? Why would this be compared to the Touch? Is this even touch sensitive?
@Mindfield:
I have a Cowon D2 4gb. If I want more room, all I need is an sdhc card. I paid ~35$ for an 8gb card and a 16gb is around 70. I don't need to buy a whole new unit just to have more room. And btw not needing iTunes, having 52 hours audio, 10 hours video battery life, and having .flac and .ogg files support all help.
The Sony A810 series has incredible sound quality for a digital audio player. Much better than an Ipod touch, which has a killer hiss. In terms of sound quality, apple has a lot of work to do. Then again, apple fanboys don't care about obvious things like sound quality as long as Steve Jobs says it's awesome.
Its rectangular and has a screen, its obviously an Ipod Touch clone!
I dunno where you're hearing hiss, but my iPod Touch is silent -- both my previous 16 gig and the 32 gig I replaced it with have had no hiss or interference whatsoever. Lack of a customizable EQ aside, the sound quality has been excellent.
ahahah...look at apple fan-boys wake up and start talking stuff...
oh man, especially funny was the comment where the guy compared sony Ericsson ----phone audio quality--- with the one of ipod Touch.
Whenever I take an ipod in my hands...the first thing in my mind: "HOW IS THE SOUND QUALITY?" and then I get disappointed, because, well, you know it yourself.
Reading that made my head hurt.
how exactly is this taking on the ipod touch? it seems to be missing a fairly significant feature, wifi
yeah, that title didn't fit the story which changed as Sony released more official pics. At first we just had impress' side by side with the touch. Definitely not a direct competitor to the iPod touch -- this pup's gunning for the nano.
Title updated.
Thomas
Hey, Ricker, while you're at it, could you delete my other posts in this article, they're in reference to the comment now deleted.
It'd be much appreciated. Now they just seem like random ramblings.
*prays this reply goes to correct thread...third time's a charm*
Nuthin' icky 'bout ATRAC, provided other codecs are supported. Sonic Stage is another matter.
SONY please please please.. don't include Sonic stage for this sweet looking PMP!!
sony just won blu-ray now they think they can beat mp3's with ATRAC? Old habits die hard.
I think the ATRAC is there in case you want to transfer over your songs from your network MD players, it plays other formats like MP3 (that makes ATRAC a FEATuuure). Seriously, MD was great before MP3 players came around, they were DRM free, re-writable, and everyone made them, not just Sony.
"I think the ATRAC is there in case you want to transfer over your songs from your network MD players"
No offense, thats just like buying hd-dvd player and sayings its a feature 3 years from now. Unless someone bought the source of music from ATRAC it doesn't make sense. If some one did they made a mistake as you don't hear much ever about purchasing online ATRAC music.
Many people have, MDs were used for mainstream music release in Japan, during the heyday, you wouldn't see anybody dragging around a portable CD player in the streets of Tokyo. Not so in the US, but then we were never that gadget friendly until recently.
Were MD encoded with ATRAC? If so then I understand if not then whats the point.
why every other mp3 player post should have ipod touch mentioned in the title ?
to increase keyword density ?
Because the iPod line is the most popular DMP out there. Until that changes, everything will be compared to it.
This is more of an iPod nano competitor than an ipod touch...especially since it's not even a touch screen and doesn't have any of the psuedo pda functions that the itouch has (ie. internet browser, email, 3rd party apps, etc...).
The sony is more of just an mp3 player, which is closer to what people buy the nano for.
Regardless, this is Engadget, an electronics blog: comparisons should be relevant, not the product of a product's popularity (unintentional alliteration: nice). I was confused, I looked over the pictures several times and reread the article looking for details of WiFi or a touch screen to no avail. The only similarity I could find were the storage capacities. It's like when the RAZR was at its summit and everything was compared to it, like a comparison of the RAZR to an MPX220--yes, they're cell phones (and coincidentally made by the same company), but they're house very different features and are for two different crowds.
The iPod Touch is in a very niche field--between a PMP and (an anemic) UMPC: not many PMP's should be compared to it.
I'm left thinking, is there something I'm missing?
I have a S705 (noise canceling is godly, especially when you don't have to lug around an extra bulk piece) with the same earbuds featured in the A820 photos and I also have an 30gb iPod (video) and straight up--the iPod is an utter fool in terms of sound quality--seriously, my Ericson w600 sounds just about on par with what the iPod offers (I only got an iPod for storage capabilities, and because the Zune was still weak in terms of firmware back then, sigh (didn't know they'd let me update, unlike evil Apple, grr), and even 'Bass Boost' is a better EQ feature than anything Steve Jobs could put on the iPod. The only thing Apple has is sex-appeal, charismatic Steve Jobs, WiFi, and gimmicky touch (uh, Nintendo had the 'touch' idea before you guys)--but audiophiles know that Sony's been king of the mountain before ya iPod noobs were born.
@ pete: did you even read the article? Atrac is for Japan only, its still popular over there. The Euro/US models will have Drag n' Drop support.
This is the first Sony Walkman i'm actually considering over an iPod.
"@ pete: did you even read the article? Atrac is for Japan only, its still popular over there. The Euro/US models will have Drag n' Drop support."
I have but I read it as the US model could still have ATRAC. I can see it being interpreted another way. Thus, my opinion.
Exclent, built in noise cancelling! Wireles headphone/bluetooth speaker Support! Drag and drop support! I like the stand for watching movies/slideshows aswell! , Ill be picking one of these up!
That's a freaking nice looking Sony Walkman. Even though ipod Touch has more features. I'm totally not interest in large size MP3 players. This is a nice compact design.
Wow, that was sooooo not where that was supposed to go.
The reply above (assuming it hasn't been screwed up again) was to....Oh, I see, Daniel's thread...comment I was replying to was deleted...I am going to assume and hope these two have the same fate.
I've got an A820, far better than any ipod I have had. Way better sound quality and the open approach sony has chosen with this is FAR better than the tight grip of itunes. So glad sonicstage is (almost, poor japan) gone!
looks funky enough....
come on sony, you should be pushing the limits..
still dont see the point in carrying an mp3 player and a phone... silly
Sony make it with 160GB and price it under the iPhone
I fail to see the point of these things, I can do all of this plus loads more with 1 device a Sony Ericsson P1
Better sound quality and most people (my friends anyway) fail to see the point of expensive phones, which are more than phones really.
I've had so far 6 Ipods and am glad I'm finally changing to another player. For me having internal A2DP Bluetooth is the best part, not using that stupid adapters for the Ipod. I would have liked 32gs and wifi, but A2DP its enough. Stereo wireless headphones for sports or planes or whatever is so amazing and just entering my car the player connects to my radio along with my phone, so sweet.
If the touch would come with A2DP I would definetly buy it but I'm tired of waiting for fkn Jobs to release his own BT headphones so he can enable the Iphone's A2DP (just a software update) or in the Touch. Bye Bye IPOD.
With BlueTooth, does the car receiver process the MP3 internally, or does it function just like an FM Tuner?
It process it internally, you can control de PMP from de reciever. All digital, no FM.
Is it just me, or are Sony MP3s looking more like Sony Ericsson phones, or is it the other way round?
Case in point, this and the W850.
It's a nice looking PMP and that stand and noise canceling is a nice convenience. It should sell well in Japan. iPods rule in America.
Yep, there goes the most opinionated/biased technology blog around whining once again about ATRAC -- proving that reading Engadget is like turning to the opinion pages rather than the technology pages in a newspaper. For slacker technosexual rants, come to Engadget.com -- for technological insight, look elsewhere.
What exactly is there to _like_ about ATRAC? Especially since nobody but Sony uses it and its market is pretty small in the DRM world whose relevance is highly questionable to begin with.
"What exactly is there to _like_ about ATRAC? Especially since nobody but Sony uses it and its market is pretty small in the DRM world whose relevance is highly questionable to begin with."
Best audio codec available -- extremely small file sizes for the audio fidelity you get. Also, gapless -- and clever hybrid lossless/lossy format called ATRAC Lossless where you get a lossless version and a lossy version (you specify the bitrate) in the same file.
I like the way the A820 looks it has an old-school kind of vibe to it with the metal accents. I have always liked Sony's design for their Walkman branded players (and phones as well)with their only real draw back in my mind being Sonic Stage. Oh and I have found their sound quality of both their audio players and stock headphones to be pretty good as well (although it seems the more you pay for Sony headphones the more disappointed you'll be).
its not the greatest looking mp3 player ive seen, but i like the bluetooth, what would be great would be if yu could link it to your ps3 so you dont have to copy all your music to the hard drive, just stream it wirelessly via bluetooth
Who cares...I want a PSP phone dammit!
Definitely my next player! I have a Sony NW-E407 right now and it sounds incredible (WITH ATRAC LOL) and lasts forever with its battery. Truthfully, ATRAC isn't bad because it provides great sound quality for the size of the file... Meaning I can fit a ton on a 1 GIG player. But I won't really be sad to see it go because SonicStage was a bit of a pain to use. In any case, this is an awesome looking player, can't wait till it gets released here.
kinda miss leading. NW-A820 series is Japan only with Sonic Stage.
But...
NWZ-820 is Europe and N. America with NO Sonic Stage. NWZ series support drag-n-drop, WMP11, and winamp, etc.
also...
Does no one care about Built-in Noise Cancelling function?
I understand some likes touch screen, but as for me I find it not so practical for music player.
I think this is a beautiful player!
I want to wait until the itouch SDK comes out to decide!
Jerome
Sony fanboy :P
I dont know how good it is as an mp3 player. But it looks damn sexy even next to the ipod touch.
another function people tend to miss out is:
Direct Video Recording function. NWZ-A820 series can record video from TV, Camcorder, or DVD recorder WITHOUT using PC.
Sounds great... but are you sure about that? Or do you mean the Japanese-only NW(Z)-900-something, which features some kind of TV-antenna?
I am not sure about US version but Japanese version with cradle it can do it. I don't have the cradle to try it on US model so I can't be sure. Bt Japanese NW-A820 can definitely do it.
Can anyone tell me plz what is the thing attached to the player on photo #10? (Is it a FM-transmitter or what?)
I have an ipod, my sister has an ipod touch. Obviously I made the mistake and bought what everyone else did. I used my Ipod less and less because of the sound quality.
I finaly had enough of it and did some research as I should have done before buying this eye candy, trendy more of a toy then a tool Ipod.
I bought Sony A 728 since I am not much interested on bluetooth nor capacity but sound quality. I remembered what a music player is suppose to do in the first place...DELİVER the MUSİC at its BEST.
I hear nothing but music anywhere I am with Sony. Crowd is no londer a noise, and my player is no longer a purselike fasion toy.
If you listen to the music and enjoy hearing all of it and nothing else like I do, go ahead and try one of these in a store. Your Ipod then will be a storage unit like mine is now.