Sony's OLED Walkman coming April 25th to Japan, starts at $400 for 16GB
By Ross Miller 
posted Apr 14th 2009 1:08AM
posted Apr 14th 2009 1:08AM
[Via Impress Watch]
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And here I thought Apple was rough with prices? o.O
i agree
Sorry Sony.
That's not competitive with the iPod touch/ iPhone.
I too agree. They could have least included an SD card slot. My music library is just passing the 32GB amount.
Not too fond of the sparkly front either.
It looks really good, not $400 good, I'm afraid.
No way this can compete with the iPod Touch.
The iPod touch is more like a pda.
Those are some crappy-looking icons, the same as on my PSP 2000. They ought to spruce them up with some color or something. I've always owned Sony products, but I'll pass on this Walkman. iPods for me, all the way. With this product you need to carry a PSP since I guess this Walkman doesn't do games.
If you prefer one product over another and say so and get ragged for it, it's just par for the course at Engadget. People still buy Sony products and like them and they're not that bad at all. I still think my PSP is an excellent product, one of the best devices I've ever owned. It's tough and very versatile. Sony could have gone a lot further with that product, but didn't. It doesn't even have an easy YouTube type player which would be great for the PSP. It would have made a decent home/portable streaming device for any wireless router. Except Sony tied it to their own proprietary device that probably nobody has or wants.
yeah really. Guess what Sony ... FAIL!
Other than noise canceling there is nothing that this device has over the iPod Touch and frankly I'd take the ability to install applications over noise canceling any day. Not to mention that an iPod Touch is actually $100 cheaper...
This article is ridiculous. The cost for a 32 gb iPod Touch in Japan is ￥47,800.... so this is on par with competitive pricing in Japan. You cannot convert foreign currency to USD and say that is how much the product will cost in America. I do not know why this is so hard for Engadget, but this is the second (maybe third time) that they have done this with the walkman alone.
On the other hand, I am excited that this is coming out pretty soon.
Walkmans starting at $400, earplugs that are $230, what the hell is going on? Is the dollar now worth the same as vietnamese money (the dong as it's called)?
PASS..............
To sum this entire thread up- Sony and their prices are like Amy Winehouse, way to high and not that attractive.
LOL.
Do you mean "FAIL"?
Wow, way to stay competitive.
It is maybe? I´m don´t know what the Cowon S9 which features similar specs goes for in the US but pricewise this is rather similar over here in the EU. But as long as people keep comparing this to a low-end iTouch yes then it seems expensive, but then we also like to compare the iPhone to a RAZR and then cry the iPhone is expensive isn´t it ...
Anyways I got myself an S9 a while ago and i´m rather happy with it, the screen is unbelieveble as well for the sound quality. Sofar that´s something Apple never can compete with and for sure is the few extra euro´s worth it.
Looks like a decent alternative to an iPod touch, but that's just too expensive for the storage amount. I can't see anyone spending more than $300 for a 16GB unit in this market.
A bit pricey. Hopefully the US version is priced more reasonably.
It'll be reasonably priced... compared to the Australian and European release!
the 16 GB costs way too much, but the 32 GB is double the storage for 25% more cash ($500). still too expensive.
its a super computer¡ looks like SCEA has price this, i mean i love my ps3 but sony $400 for everything now is sad! I m fine with my Zune
So sony is bringing the flat fee concept to its marketing,which you would think would be great. Unfortunately, they set standard price a tad bit too high (kind of like Amy Winehouse...) T.T
+1.
I have a zune and it was my best purchase for any MP3/Video player ever.
So well built, excellent software.
120GB with an AV/Kit for $250 CAD!
All you Ipod people just care about others looking at it and saying, "got an ipod? YA I DO".
Us Zuners, we look at Ipods and laugh at them!
HAHA!
@Someone is here: Which makes you just as pathetic as they are
"Someone is here", please don't do what Apple fanboys do, I'm happy with my Zune, but I will only talk about it in a relating subject and without making it seem like Zune users are kids who want to act all cool and hip with "HAHA"s ending their statements.
There is a proper way to say anything in life, and what you did wasn't a proper way.
How much is a one-seg TV tuner? The US version won't have that and will most likely be cheaper because of it. They could put in a digital tuner I guess but I doubt it.
I want any fan of this device or anybody in here to give me some good reasons why this is more expansive than the iPod Touch and why I should buy it? I'm really mind boggled!
OLED's not exactly cheap
Not a fan but I'm guessing its more expensive because of the one-seg TV Tuner and an OLED screen.
Made in Japan? I'm guessing it's to do with the yen strength to dollar (like price increase in all LCD tvs and DSLRs), plus Sony is probably riding on the wave of 'this walkman sounds better then anything else' on the market including the ipod.
Remember that 11" Sony OLED TV that cost around $7000?
It's a Sony...
This product is not more expensive than the iPod touch. The price for an iPod touch is a little bit less in Japan, however you cannot just directly convert Yen into USD for electronics, since it is less expensive in America.
As for why someone would want this beyond other PMPs:
- Sound quality: Sony PMPs have some of the best sound quality (I could tell you from personal experience how true this is)
- Noise canceling unctionality along with really nice head phones come with the player
- Can be used on any computer and operating system (well at least OS X, Windows, Ubuntu, and Fedora)
-Does not need proprietary software.
I tried a Zune a couple of years ago, and was not impressed by the sound quality at the time (on par with the iPod), so I was wondering, what other functionalities make people love the Zune so much? (Note: this is truly inquisitive, and was in not way meant to be insulting)
what the !!!!!!!
$400 for 16 gb,will seriously fail here in america,guaranteed!!
That coming from a sony fanboy.,in order to try to dethrone pmp king,ipod touch .
Rule 1 is to be priced accordingly $229 or less.major fail!!!!!!!!
Wait, you're a Sony fanboy? Where's the real Shank?
I don't get what the hell is with Sony. Why doesn't the mobile division talk to the entertainment division and just make a PSP phone?
I swear these huge conglomerates can be so slow at times.
People don't seem to understand that this product is for Japan only. It will never be sold in America, because there is no oneseg service there. If you live in Tokyo, you'd understand how useful oneseg is for many people. However, IMO most people who would buy this product would already have a oneseg phone. If the I bet some people will buy it for the OLED screen if it looks better than a regular screen, and for that reason alone.
Let's see this gain any market share as long as Sony is in charge of their own supporting software. Remember all those fond hours you spent fighting with "Connect"? No thank you.
Connect is gone - long gone, thankfully. I never used it and I got 10 free downloads with a Walkman I bought a couple of years ago.
Either way, you don't need any software with recent Walkmans. Sure, there's a CD in the box, but it really doesn't need to be there.
lol $400...LOL typical Sony price fixing i am still mad over buying a mini disc player a few yrs ago
I used my mini-disc player for all of 3 months, then went back to CD players. I was in eighth grade at the time and learned that I don't listen to music enough to ever pay that much for a damn PMP. I use my phone now, and for $400/$500 I can get a phone that plays music and the corresponding 16gb memory card ( 32 soon enough) and do more than play songs and music. Maybe this little bugger will please audiophiles with quality, but to the general consumer it will go the way of the mini disc. Cool for 3 months to a very very select group.
I know I sound like a broken record, but the prices on these personal devices are absolutely ridiculous. I know there is more than just the cost of parts and labor to consider, but cmon... you can get a freakin LAPTOP for $400 that does a helluva lot more than a little media player. You can't tell me these things are worth what they're demanding.
Yeah, you can keep your $400 laptop, with its amazing 2 usb ports, vga/s-video out and athlon single-core (my dad just got a cheap laptop, thats what its got).
But yes, $400 is too much. Perhaps its too early/expensive for the OLED?
Well I know it wouldn't be top of the line, I'm just giving an example of what can be sold for $400.
Imagine what you can get for the $700 Apple wants to rape you for for their iPhone, or the $1200 HTC wants for their high end phone. It's ridiculous.
Oh my, I'm not even going to give it the slightest bit of interest at such an horrendous price point. I'd much rather spend that on a new phone with mp3 capabilities, or a high capacity iTouch.
My oh my, companies and their rediculous way of thinking.
Sony, this isn't a PS3.
Ugh. That is a horrible price. It will fail quickly.
It's interesting to note that the Japan version of this Walkman also includes a 1-seg TV tuner, which of course the US couldn't utilize. That could account for the price. Only if we had a standard digital TV signal that could be included in small portable devices like this...
But anyway, this is Engadget, so I suppose I should continue bashing Sony for having high prices. :-P IMO, there is still a place for sound quality and design. I'll leave my final opinions of the device and final US (not Japan) pricing when that is formally announced and released here. Until then, we can save our whining about Japanese prices we're not being asked to pay in the first place.
lol sony is about sound quality? on an mp3 player? dude, you need to get over yourself. I'm sure you have golden ears and can hear the difference, but the reality is more likely that you're just a tool who likes to pretend you're better than a lot of people - what with their inferior sound quality mp3 players. lol douche.
oh I almost forgot, design too? its a rectangle with a touch screen, that's impressive and thinking outside the box (no, it is a box)
I don't need to get over myself. I'm just someone who's preferred the sound of Sony portable music players over the years. And if you really knew me, you'd know I don't find myself better than others. It's apparent my sarcasm and poking fun at the general theme of replies on sites like this is lost on you. Apple = Great, Sony = Bad, etc, etc. But I digress. Enough time wasted posting to a tech blog where it's difficult to have useful discussion! :)
@ Dustin
Sony bundle premium earbuds with their players, and yes, there are people that can notice a difference between different players at 256kbps with the same headphones. Just 'cause you can't, doesn't mean somebody else can.
"oh I almost forgot, design too? its a rectangle with a touch screen, that's impressive and thinking outside the box (no, it is a box)"
You can say the same about every touchscreen device as being un-original using that reasoning. Or anything else. Like a car - they all have four wheels and people sit inside. Or all phones are the same - they are square and all have buttons for making calls.
The 16GB iPod Touch is ￥35,800 or 357.6778 U.S. dollars. . .
And in USA it is just $299.
It seems everything is just more expensive in Japan. I'll wait for US pricing.
What is 'open price'. It sounds like MSRP.
People are just being idiots, you can't directly convert the price from Yen to USD because the Yen has been rising very aggressively lately (much to Japanese firms' chagrin since it lowers their profits). They're not going to price it like the Yen conversion because the only reason the Yen conversion is so high in USD is because of the lousy exchange rate right now. They'll price in each market like people are used to paying, just like Apple does for the iPod touch, it's not like Apple lowered the price because the Yen went up.
And this thing won't have a TV tuner stateside so that might very well save Sony on some manufacturing costs anyway.
400$ for phone without contract, kinda normal price... You can't get unlocked iPhone on eBay for that price, even 8gb version
In EU probably it will cost 500$+ :(
It's...not....a phone...
reading comprehension fail
In a surprising twist the sony OLED TV's are 3.5 inch but their new OLED walkman screen is 52 inches. (mixup at logistics)
humm
I then feel stupid of having payed my Sony NWZA829B 16Go with bluetooth 349$ last year.
It is presently 239$ canadian.
I don't care, money is made to be spent!
People are stupid and always complaint about price, don't you guys remember back in the 80 when a 40Mb hard drive was 5000$
There where people out there buying them so there will be people out there buying that 400$ player.
you probably don't remenber because you were not born!
Oh snap, bringing on the "not born yet" burn!
Also, why are your $ signs after the number, not before?
Noah: It makes more sense.
Ah so you say this will be put in a timemachine and be sold in the 80's for $400+.
It all makes sense now, thanks for explaining! And thanks to sony for not forgetting customers in the past.
to anyone who ever buys stuff in japan, this isn't that expensive
Dunno where you buy your electronics in Japan. If you go to Den Den town in Osaka, the sidestreet shops in Akihabara, and stay the HELL out of Ginza, things are priced pretty reasonably.
i import stuff so my perception may be skewed
Not as skewed as it would be if you worked at sony it seems.
$400... wow, The iTouch 16GB retails for $300...
For $400 you have the 32GB iTouch.
OLED or not, this thing cannot compete with the solid iTouch backed with the PDA/Game features and App Store...
Look like I will stay with my iTouch for long time...
Does it play ATRAC? LOL... Yeah i know they finally killed that format (wiki: "Sony has all but dropped the ATRAC related codecs in the USA and Europe and their SonicStage powered 'Connect' Music Service (Sony's equivalent of iTunes) on 31 March 2008. However, it is being continued in Japan and various other countries. From September 2007 Sony now only manufactures in USA and Europe one Walkman Product that supports ATRAC Advanced Lossless downloads / ATRAC - a portable minidisc player.").
(It's still funny that my car stereo and PS3 supports it, though...)
Anyhow...
A decent PDA with 2 8 gig SDHC cards would be cheaper and do a hell of a lot more. I'll stick with mine. Sorry Sony, I love your products but a lot of them just make no damn sense to even exist.
Wait the minute. This news is actually BIG! This is the first time that the Japanese model (note the model number starts with NW, not NWZ) actually support drag-n-drop via explorer! Previously, only non-Japanese models (starts with NWZ) that support drag-n-drop. Japanese models (NW) still require Sonicstage. This model, NW-X10xx actually supports both Sonicstage AND drag-n-drop, based on the translation. This makes it superior than the NWZ series as the Japanese model supports HE-AAC (NWZ models does not support HE-AAC), Atrac (thus gapless), and Atrac Lossless. DAMN Sony, you made something with great potential, yet keep it for yourself in Japan. The red and black ice models look very sleek.
Am I the only one noticing this?
oh.. you were sleeping for the last 3 years..
@pouet: Previous Japanese NW models require Sonicstage. This is the first time Sony allow drag-n-drop via explorer to transfer music on NW models.
Once again, this will be the best sounding mp3 player! If someone wants excellent browsing, itunes e.t.c. go itouch... For sound quality and superior bundled earphones go Sony. I own a lot of players including cowon, iriver, apple e.t.c.... Sony was always the best in terms of audio quality.
Oh please. Are you only going to use the player in a silent room? Once you go outdoors (where a portable player is more likely to be used), whatever minute increase in sound quality will hardly be noticeable, and any player will sound roughly the same. Proper playback of music (gapless) is more important than the illusion of "better" sound quality, which something that non-Japanese Sony NWZ models are lacking (unless you only use WAV).
Pika, sadly you are so very wrong. Headphone choice and player choice makes a big difference in sound quality. You talking about wearing them outside and having no quality difference leads me towards the assumption that you use earbuds, which is where your problem lies. Get some canalphones or some headphones and the difference between indoors and outdoor usage is decreased dramatically.
@ pikka2000
"Oh please. Are you only going to use the player in a silent room? Once you go outdoors (where a portable player is more likely to be used), whatever minute increase in sound quality will hardly be noticeable, and any player will sound roughly the same."
That's why it has noise cancellation built in.
I was hoping for a $180-$225 price. It's too expensive I think I'll stay with the cheaper Walkman models, those are very reliable and sound good.
This thing would've been overpriced at $250. Fail++
Serious - Sony usually produces great products, but it's funny to see all these iPhone copy cats pricing phones and mp3 players around $400-600.
Before the iPhone hit the market, there were a ton of killer cell phones..... in Japan. No one would bring 'em over. Now everyone can't stop throwing up new touch-screen phones.
Be unique folks- produce something that hasn't already been done- but then again, the history of products is to copy the great success over & over to rip off the last guy.
BTW, I'll be making a touch-screen, with an HD screen, optional slide keyboard, SMS text cell phone with music, a calendar, a 8MP camera, and LCD projection capability with apps to buy through my iMusic free software.
It's possible the only reason for a price equivalent to $400 is because of the one-seg TV tuner. I know for sure it wont have the tuner on a North American release. If its still $400 w/o the tuner then everyone has a right to bitch/complain about the price gouge and no one except hardcore rich audiophiles will buy it. But if it is $200-250 for the 16gig version (highly unlikely), it would still be a choice for budget audiophiles like myself.
If only they just got rid of the OLED, Wi-Fi, web browser, and market it as just a "Walkman" for $150. Audiophiles would be lining up all night for its release.
I'm willing to bet the Ipod touch costs about the same in Japan.
That price is really too steep. The other major 16GB players such as Cowon's S9 and Samsung's P3 are pricing themselves within striking distance of Nano at same capacity... and these are players with Bluetoth functionalities and have AMOLED or haptic feedback. It will be difficult to justify the additional spendings on the X1000 series given the price of the competition.
I can see why it will cost $400 and $500 - because of the OLED screen. But what does a music player need an OLED screen for? Sony are nuts.
Wow. So a 32GB iPod Touch will cost you the same as half the space of this Sony, yet the iPod Touch is much more useful thanks to its app store?
1 word for Sony:
No.
Oh seriously people. Just because it's priced at $400 in Japan does not mean it will be priced that here. A lot of Japanese goods are always more expensive in Japan, usually for extra features. Sony's not stupid, they'll make this competitive depending on local prices.
It seems like eons ago (especially for the younger generation), but you have to remember that Sony was once associated with extreme merit in design and reliability, long before Steve Jobs and Apple pretty much trademarked it.
Anything that came from their house was usually marked up at least 10-20% over the nearest competitor, but you got that back in terms of quality. Back in the 80s, a Sony television, Sony stero system, Sony Camera or Sony VHS player were almost luxury items - Something to brag about, really.
You couldn't pay me enough to buy another Sony MP3 player.
After they dropped support for their last store, they just told everyone to burn their music onto CDs, then rip them to MP3s. Yes, they told us to RIP the CDs, instead of just providing us with a tool to convert them.
After hours of fooling with it, I couldn't get their Sonic software to burn to a CD on my computer, so I just ended up using a file sharing software to get them. Well, while I was there, I found a few other songs I liked too.
Nice going Sony.
No bluetooth?
Well, if would be useful if Engadget explained two things:
1. It is $40 more than ipod touch in Japan.
2. You get TV tuner included for that $40 more.
And Sony is a stronger brand in Japan.
LOL, I just saw the video and the first thing I remembered was when some IDIOT on here told me that Apple CANNOT make an iPod Nano with a full touch screen, it simply would never work hahahah, well in your face Apple!! If Apple don't launch a similar sized touch screen player IMO it's Nano will loose sales to this, maybe the iPod touch will too?
i cant wait to get my hands on this walkman its soooooooo coooooooolll!!!!!
well I moved in a new neighborhood, i was searching for property to let in central london for quite some time and i accidentally found this amazing website no agents 24 with loads and loads of information about tips for tenants. I really like my new house. i went out for some fresh air today early morning, although i am generally not the morning person type but i have to admit i really enjoyed it.
The 32GB is already available to order on the SonyStyle UK website. £ 279, ships end of may.
That is $415, but don't forget electronics are always cheaper in the US (for various reasons, including lower vat rate).
So this article is BS, the 32GB will cost less than $400 in the US market, probably $300-350.
And the 16GB is £180 (ex vat) so you can expect it to cost around $250-275 in the US.
These prices are coming from the official SonyStyle store.
https://www.sonystyle.co.uk/SonyStyle/MP3-WALKMAN/Walkman-Video/NWZX1050B.CE7
Sorry iSheep,
This is being priced about 20 pound less than the equivalent ipod in the UK. Add into the fact that I wont need to shell out for new phones, a great screen and Sony build/ Sound quality I certainly dont think it a fail.
If the reviews say it sucks i'll agree, but I doubt it.
Great little MP3 Player, not some lifestyle accessory for the clones out there;)
for $400 you can probably buy some of the same crack they are on!
Only $400? I'll take 5 please! Does Sony know what recession means?
I agree with everyone else's sentiments, get the iPod
The best DAP on the planet.
I have one and I love it~
only an idiot would actually purchase that lol!!
this is partly why i never deal w/ sony for any product whatsoever.
however: http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/14/cowon-releases-32gb-s9-pmp-in-korea/