Sony's OLED Walkman priced and dated... in the UK
By Darren Murph 
posted February 25th 2009 9:43AM
posted February 25th 2009 9:43AM
[Via OLED-Display]
Read - 16GB Walkman
Read - 32GB Walkman
posted February 25th 2009 9:43AM
A look back on popular stories from today in a specific year.
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
£214 = $600 NZD = Damn.
Sony S639F - 120 pounds. Right now. No touchscreen and very attractive price.
£214.00 = $471 AUD 16gb
£283.00 = $623 AUD 32gb
GOD DAMN!
although your gonna get better battery life and much better sound that's like the cost of a frkn itouch 32gb when it came out like 2 years ago IN, AN ECONOMIC BOOM!!!....
oh and you sheep shaggers are getting pwned by the pound.
This thing has digital NC... That's why is expensive... and of course, 'Sony Tax'!!
Cheers
JC
What is digital NC?
A quick google doesn't seem to get answers very quick.
Digital Noise cancelling like the 400$ Sony Digital NC Headphones (MDR-NC500D) but inside the device. After you test them, you won't wan't any other NC headphones. They are the best in NC.
The 'Tax' that is relevant here to pricing is VAT, which is required to be added into the list price. UK's VAT is 17.5%. Aside from that money in £ tend to look expensive to Americans due to exchange rate and cost of living (a Big Mac meal is ~$7 in the UK), not to long ago £200 would have been close to $400.
I'm sure it has nothing to do with the OLED touch display or anything like that...
The Cowon S9 has also NC and is quite a bit cheaper while imo thats the only real opponent in this case. I don't know about Sony's sound quality compared to the Cowon though it has to be seriously good to be that much more expensive. And.. c'mon people who try to compare this with a Touch/iDildo... they aren't even in the same league. It's like comparing curling with ice hockey.
Sony's Digital NC is way way better than any other NC you can try, is DIGITAL NC and uses Artificial Neural-Networks to reduce noise. Not like the crappy ones that you get in other brands (that are purely analogue). And that technology is expensive!
But yeah, the OLED is also a huge factor in the price. Just don't underestimate the value of the Digital NC for some users that travel a lot like me. For me is more than worth it...
Wouldn't a pair of iems be better sound quality wise? I mean, it you're going to spend $400 on a dap, you probably would have a decent pair of iems. The NC degrades sound quality, right?
want one so bad..... (better start saving a lot pennies..... -.-)
F-Sony...
for $9.99 i can get an MP3-CD player that can hold many songs...
how do they justify the extra $300?
For cramming 22.8 of your CDs and the player into something to bigger than your palm with Noise Cancelling. That's how.
And...of course including the added functionality of videos, photos, fm, etc on it. Does it justify yet?
NO!
Who actually ever uses these things to show off pictures?
ooh look here i am doing something lame...
ooh and here i am looking like a douche...
FM circuitry is at most $0.50
and who actually can say watching a video on this cramped screen is useful
This is a device that gets purchased and then thrown in the box under the bed.
FAIL
and don't forget the web browser :D
@enohPi: We can all read your name backwards. So you don't use any of said features on your iPhone? Most hypocritical comment I've seen all day.
Yeah, you can have a cell phone not for $0.50, but for free, so why you went with iPhone if those said things are useless for you?
Nice find Muhammad-Oli.
*Laughs at enohPi*
Set yourself up for that one didnt ya?
As much as I despise this guy, I laughed so hard at this:
"ooh look here i am doing something lame...
ooh and here i am looking like a douche..."
Are the pictures dusty or just made of unfinished fiberglass? Covered in plastic wrap?
With that price I can get two iphone.
And then pay a minumum of 30 dollars a month for 2 years!! AWESOME!!
more like 60usd a month for 2 years.
Don't be stupid. The jesus phone is £349 with no contact.
So according to your logic, I can get an infinite ammount of iPhones for that price!
(Yeah, they're free on a 45 euro/month contract here)
Damn the lack of an edit button, I actually just saw an ad in which it was free for 28,50 euros/month...
(Yes, I'm just doing this to annoy you people from the US... :P)
But cheer up, your gas prices are way lower and so are a lot of other things...
With that price I can get two iphone that can do much more.
again...please only compare the unlocked price - think you will be hard pushed to get a full ifone for teh same price.
anyway why compare the iphone and not the ipod touch?
For that price i'll declare it dead before it's even out, sure it has a OLED screen but are they f*cking nuts, also Sony is a pretty known name that's it, but when it comes to quality it's a different story.
Sony players have always been very good quality wise. SonicStage was their major downfall, but with that gone they have no faults. They've always sounded miles better than any iPod ever will, and they sure as hell won't crack after a weeks use like an iTouch.
@Noodles2k, Now why ya people got to throw the iPod into everything? did i even say a iPod or a Zune would be better? Sony sucks face it!
seeing as you haven't used this - or any of Sony's recent players, I'm not quite sure how you are founding that statement? A quick flick through your history showed that you are somewhat an iFan.
Uh, you have no idea what you're talking about. Sony's players are actually some of the best.
I compared my Walkman NW-HD3 and my 80GB iPod 5G the other day. Same 320kbps mp3 file, same volume, neutral EQ.
Anyone who tries this comparison of any Walkman to any iPod for sound quality and tells me that the iPod comes out on top is an idiot.
The only advantage for an iPod for me (I understand not many agree) is the ease of the iTunes software for syncing and other tasks.
Ah, but did you use the line out? It makes a difference.
I was hoping I would be able to pick one of these up yesterday, I guess not. Now that I've seen the cost...holy moly! I think I'll stick with my minidiscs for now.
Don't worry about pricing, we in the UK always get shafted so it will be a lot cheaper (usually 33%) when it goes across the Atlantic.
What a rip off. As reference I picked up a 30gb zune a year ago for $99. Yea, $99. It works fine and plays all the same music the sony player does. $400 bucks is ridiculous.
First of all, as stated by about 5 people already, the price in dollars will not be the direct equivalent of the UK price translated into USD. However ignoring that fact completely, why would anyone ever spend more money on new electronics..... why did you buy a Zune for $99, when you could have gotten a used iPod, with more space, for less and eBay. Another example would include, buying a touch screen phone, when other less expensive phones can do the majority of the functions.
As for the "playing the same music", that is true if you do not care at all about sound quality, or to put it in other words, actually listening to music.Both iPods and Zunes have the lowest sound quality ratings, where Sony is listed as having one of the best. That, along with build in noise canceling (that who thing about sound quality again), I cannot say it is the best deal, but if you are into actually listening to your music, and a touch screen, I would say it is a good deal.
cool
tl;dr
For comparison, the iPod touch is *exactly* the same price in the UK.
Try £199 for the 16GB and £269 for the 32GB model instead please Sony.
But folks, if you take a quick glance over at the UK Apple store (online or in-store), you will find that the 16GB iPod touch goes for £214 and £283 for the 32GB model. Perhaps that was Sony's way of coming up with the UK price.
It WILL be cheaper in the US, a fair bit more cheaper indeed!
So, if it was just a measly £14 cheaper than the ipod touch, you'd buy it?
I think they need to be pitching it at the price of the Apple BELOW, in other words £165 for the 16GB and £214 for the 32GB.
I'm no Apple fanboi, but if Sony seriously expect people to pick theirs over the Apple (which like it or not, has a way bigger range of instantly compatible audio extension systems and other accessories, and actually looks better anyway) then trying to sell the same capacity at the same price is going to result in a massive FAIL.
some words are overused and tired. please something new!
maybe people who cares about SQ and not about good looking devices.
and btw, until apple put some real buttons in his ipod touch, i wont get it in my pocket, i wont take it out and put it in again every time i wanna do anything, THAT's a big fail
I so badly want one of those touch screen players, but when I think of the only time I would be using it (plugged-in to my car's aux jack), I'm way better off with my iriver clix2. I can flip through songs one handedly...without even looking at it. Cant imagine swiping my finger through the screen while driving :P
that is what the buttons on the top are for :p :D