Sony's Bluetooth-enabled Walkman A820-series unhanded

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.

Gallery: Sony's Bluetooth-enabled Walkman A820-series takes on the iPod touch

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[Will @ Feb 20th 2008 2:13AM]

Meh, I still like my IPT.

[Mr.Tech @ Feb 20th 2008 2:18AM]

Isn't that a iRiver MP3?

[Will @ Feb 20th 2008 2:20AM]

No, iPod Touch
I P T

[Raheem @ Feb 20th 2008 7:34AM]

Why are we ranking Will down? Meh... *goes along with the crowd*... sorry Will :P

[Will @ Feb 20th 2008 1:25PM]

=(
you guys make no sense

[Hung @ Feb 20th 2008 9:03PM]

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.

[Mr.Tech @ Feb 20th 2008 2:17AM]

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.

[mushyho @ Feb 20th 2008 3:31AM]

......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

[Mr.Tech @ Feb 20th 2008 3:39AM]

Mn... you have a good point there. I guess I have to listen to a Sony Walkman hands on than.

[Geir E @ Feb 20th 2008 6:23AM]

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.

[Tony C @ Feb 20th 2008 8:20AM]

Can't compare an MP3 phone to an iPod Touch? So does that mean you can't compare an iPhone to an iPod Touch...?

[Mush @ Feb 20th 2008 10:39AM]

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

[r_tsai @ Feb 20th 2008 2:23AM]

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.

[guerilla779 @ Feb 20th 2008 5:18AM]

use the sony EX series headphones with your walkman , ull forget what ipod sound quality is.

[Akshat @ Feb 20th 2008 2:23AM]

"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.

[w00t @ Feb 20th 2008 2:33AM]

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.

[rav0 @ Feb 20th 2008 7:29AM]

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!

[Raheem @ Feb 20th 2008 7:36AM]

Rav0, you're obviously not familiar with the recent spate of stabbings/assaults associated with approaching the offenders.

[John @ Feb 20th 2008 9:22AM]

The truth hurts. Too bad.

[Xzavier @ Feb 20th 2008 9:27AM]

"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!

[tumnasgt @ Feb 20th 2008 2:24AM]

I could swear I saw someone with one of these on the bus today, unlikely, but still.

[Mindfield @ Feb 20th 2008 2:30AM]

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.

[Tony @ Feb 20th 2008 3:01AM]

What? Why would this be compared to the Touch? Is this even touch sensitive?

[Baba Booey @ Feb 20th 2008 3:23PM]

@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.

[Sp1n @ Feb 20th 2008 2:31AM]

ahaha..nice one sony...i really like this one. Sony always would come out with sexy,sturdy and comfortable units....

[Ridley @ Feb 20th 2008 2:32AM]

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.

[Tony C @ Feb 20th 2008 8:30AM]

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.

[@sushi @ Feb 20th 2008 2:35PM]

maybe it has a user replaceable battery. that's certainly something that apple hardly ever thinks of including...

[johnbob @ Feb 20th 2008 2:35AM]

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.

[M3 Bimmer @ Feb 20th 2008 7:50AM]

Its rectangular and has a screen, its obviously an Ipod Touch clone!

[Mindfield @ Feb 20th 2008 12:31PM]

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.

[Daniel @ Feb 20th 2008 2:37AM]

how exactly is this taking on the ipod touch? it seems to be missing a fairly significant feature, wifi

[Thomas Ricker @ Feb 20th 2008 3:49AM]

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

[derX @ Feb 20th 2008 3:56AM]

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*

[Sp1n @ Feb 20th 2008 2:37AM]

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.

[Erik @ Feb 20th 2008 3:21AM]

Reading that made my head hurt.

[Loonie @ Feb 20th 2008 2:44AM]

Nuthin' icky 'bout ATRAC, provided other codecs are supported. Sonic Stage is another matter.

[Caliboy99 @ Feb 20th 2008 3:18AM]

SONY please please please.. don't include Sonic stage for this sweet looking PMP!!

[Jagannath A @ Feb 20th 2008 2:51AM]

why every other mp3 player post should have ipod touch mentioned in the title ?

to increase keyword density ?

[Colin @ Feb 20th 2008 3:04AM]

Because the iPod line is the most popular DMP out there. Until that changes, everything will be compared to it.

[pete @ Feb 20th 2008 2:51AM]

sony just won blu-ray now they think they can beat mp3's with ATRAC? Old habits die hard.

[Mii @ Feb 20th 2008 3:10AM]

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.

[pete @ Feb 20th 2008 3:20AM]

"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.

[Mii @ Feb 20th 2008 6:08AM]

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.

[pete @ Feb 20th 2008 2:39PM]

Were MD encoded with ATRAC? If so then I understand if not then whats the point.

[Kitarist @ Feb 20th 2008 3:03AM]

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

[Tony C @ Feb 20th 2008 8:40AM]

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.

[derX @ Feb 20th 2008 3:51AM]

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?

[Andy @ Feb 20th 2008 3:07AM]

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.

[Ludovic Halary @ Feb 20th 2008 3:14AM]

@ 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.