US Sony Walkman X-series unboxing and hands-on
By Nilay Patel 
posted July 27th 2009 2:56PM
posted July 27th 2009 2:56PM
posted July 27th 2009 2:56PM
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@Mr. 14: Sony hater? LOL. Then why would I be so excited for the Android based Walkman to come? :P Without using it? Sure, go ahead make your assumptions. I already clearly indicated what I don't like about the Sony players, mainly for the lack of gapless playback support for common codecs. I consider that, by itself, as a defect, but no, all the Sony fans keep defending their players using lame arguments like the OLED screen, etc etc, without addressing the primary function of the device to play music properly. Inability to play music properly IS an abomination against music. And for a premium price to boot? Obviously, I see all the Sony fans don't care about music pretty much, so I stand by my points as stated above.
You apparently forgot the days when iPods were bashed left and right to no end when they lack gapless playback. Now, everybody is defending Sony for not having that capability. Love the fanboys. LOL. :P
First off, you never said you were excited for the Android-based Walkmans, only that you were aware of them. I'm not defending Sony for leaving out gapless playback or a large amount of codec support, but you're making a huge deal over these things which (IMO) aren't "dealbreakers". And whenever someone expresses an opinion which differs from yours, then they MUST be a fanboy, right?
Like others have pointed out, sound quality relies much more on the hardware than the audio codec, and personally I can't fit all my music onto my player in a lossless codec unless I can get more than 64GB, which is why I still use the Zune80. And like you said before, gapless playback is possible with WAV files, so they don't entirely lack gapless playback.
is that a slacker radio logo in the upper left of the screen?
I have the X1060, the faux granite thing is way cooler in real life guys.... It's got a very cool texture to it and also grips well in your hand. The screen really has to be seen to be believed. OLED allows the device to render true black which basically gives it phenomenal contrast...On the media player, with the black background, the album art and text look like they are displayed on to the body surface, it's just gorgeous!! :D I love the interface too... really easy and fun to navigate. Another killer feature for video is that it can break the video in to parts in 15 second to 5 minute intervals and you can navigate through thumb nails of them! Its great when you want to quickly find a scene? You can find it straight away... The browser isn't as bad as people have made it out to be, but you have to decide the extent of web browsing you'll be doing on your device. It's got a really powerful wifi antenna (stronger than my E71) that picks up my universities wifi from my room and the youtube app is really slick... which makes the web browsing trade off for the best sound quality totally worth it! It sounds unbelievable... I used the same headphones on my cousins ipod touch and played the same song file on the X Walkman on the same earphones, the difference was so obvious! The only conclusion is that Sony really knows audio... apple can write clever software, but the people at sony REALLY know audio... I mean REALLY REALLY... and it's got a perfect display too!
Hahaha, Sony knows about audio? More like Sony knows that they have fanboys that would buy anything with Sony name on it, regardless of price. If Sony really knew audio, they would've focus on proper music playback first, not some fancy OLED screen.
Not to disagree...it seems okay and the OLED screen is very nice, but I saw it in person the other day at a local Sony Style. The "faux granite" looks exactly like the grey Styrofoam that lines things like bicycle helmets; I'm really not a fan.
Ironic that the Sony devices sound 100x better than anything Apple have ever produced....
Clueless idiots live to hate Sony, their loss..
Hey pika2000, what portable music player do you think does audio better than the X walkman? Have you even heard it? I'm not a sony fanboy and i'm not the only one saying the X walkman is the best audio player. but the fact is between the X and the touch (which seems to be the benchmark), the sony wins hands down on sound quality for me... and for EVERY review i've read so far...
Krbanton, I guess it's a personal thing then... I saw it first at the sony store too and I thought it looked kinda tacky especially the shiny metallic paint finish at the back, but I bought it anyway for the sound, but I think it looks amazing now - it was the finger prints that made it look really bad. But I love the granite finish though... :D it feels great and gives a sort of earthy feel to the device... like it's not just another hitech gadget, but part stone that plays some great tunes... lol
I would agree that the audio quality is better on a Sony device. I've played the same mp3 file on a nano and iphone, and then compared it on the X1050 and even on the PSP, using the same headphones, and you can hear a big difference.
it's not much of a competition when it comes to sound quality. I had a 1G Ipod Touch for a while, but ended up selling it because, for all its cool features (LOVED the giant album art, the web browser and some of the apps), the SQ was too shitty (hollow as hell) to put up with. My Toshiba T400 4GB wiped the floor with it, as did my Rockboxed Toshiba Gigabeat F40 and my Samsung i-617 phone. Maybe they improved the SQ on 2G, i dunno, but I think I'll be waiting for either the Nokia 5530 or the Zune HD before I consider wifi+music on a single device again.
@trew & KC: The number of Sony fans defending their defective Sony products are hilarious. Again, if Sony really are concerned about music, maybe they would focus first on PROPER music playback. Obviously you guys don't even understand/respect proper music playback as intended by the artists. I never said the Sony X series sounded bad, but all the hype done by Sony fans are just that, hype. SQ is extremely subjective, and unless I see an actual ABX test, I rather buy a device that can actually reproduce music properly. There no point in spending a premium price for a defective music player. But hey, whatever, enjoy...... your OLED.... screen while..... listening to gaps.
It's even ironic that all Sony fanboys can bash is Apple. Guess what, Rockbox = gapless. Cowon S9 = gapless. Even MS put some effort on the Zune. Sony = expensive yet defective music player.
@ichheissesuperfantastisch: "but I think I'll be waiting for either the Nokia 5530 or the Zune HD before I consider wifi+music on a single device again."
Wise decision. Any sane person would at least wait till September/ZuneHD, and/or for the Android based Walkman. Paying $$$ for this standalone music player is just silly. Like I said, I expect Sony to cut the price or put it on clearance soon.
@pika, "if Sony really are concerned about music, maybe they would focus first on PROPER music playback. Obviously you guys don't even understand/respect proper music playback as intended by the artists."
Guess what? If you walk into recording studios, guess what brand gear you'll find? Nokia? Zune? Sansa? Creative? Who owns most of those labels?
I guess I shouldn't feed the troll...
lol i keep forgeting to reply to the other person on every message! but trew yea I really don't get how anyone can say this doesn't sound good... they've definitely not heard it! but like u said - their loss! lol... and i dont get what he was talkin about not focussing on sound quality! It's got a Class D amplifier for god's sake! It's got all the sound processing and surround effects which reminds me - the 'live' surround made Metallica's S&M album really come alive!!!! I've NEVER experienced such a difference in the sound stage before... especially in a freakin portable device! I'm guessing that was tuned to make live albums sound a lot cooler... it DID! :D DSEE is supposed to work as a sort of audio upscaling software to enhance highly compressed tracks. this did make a minor difference, but i'm guessing it would be more noticeable on 128kbps files which I don't have...
SCREEN IS SMALL. IF THE SCREEN IS 4" OLED. I WILL GET IT RIGHT THE WAY.
Yes, the X-Series does have a Slacker application. The songs are cached in memory so you can still listen to Slacker when you're not hooked up to Wifi (skip limits still there unless you subscribe though). I own both an iPhone and this, and I have to admit the sound quality is superior, even with the pack-in headphones which blow the iPhone's ones away. The browser blows, but for a media player, it's tough to beat. Works great with OSX too.
I have to say, I feel like I've been ragging on just about everything Sony's put out these last few years (especially the PS3), but they got something right with this device. So much so, in fact, that I bought it. It sounds absolutely fantastic, relative to the 5G iPod and the 80GB Zune that I've used previously, and it's really a joy to use. The UI is far superior to the Zune's, and I feel it's a fair amount better than the iTouch's as well. The device is quite intuitive, the screen looks fantastic, and you're not forcibly bound to some draconian proprietary software with regards to syncing media to the player (iTunes with its giant list view and crash- and freeze-prone operation; the resource leeching Zune software from hell, etc.) The only real gripes I have with the player are the lack of gapless playback and missing FLAC support.
It's clear that most of the people on here dropping hate bombs on it haven't ever used it before, and really; whining about the faux granite seems extremely superficial, especially in light of how great it is when holding onto the device. Is it drop-dead-sexy? Well, no, though the rest of the player certainly is, but one cannot argue it isn't extremely functional, which is a tad more important in my book.
Incidentally, the headphones that come with it are pretty decent, though they certainly aren't replacing my SE310s, but when thinking about the price you should in mind that those things are easily worth $50. Certainly they're far above and beyond the garbage that's shipped with the modern Zunes and iPods.
I've owned a plethora of different mp3 players and to be honest, while video playback is cool, the main thing for me is always and has always been sound quality of my music. This is where Sony wins. I've had the Cowon S9 and now I have the Sony X series. The noise canceling is cool but a little unnecessary if you plan on upgrading your headphones which I've done and the quality is stellar. The web browser is a neat feature but I couldn't care less if it wasn't there. Like I said, my main concern is how the music sounds and if I can pick up on every little detail and this is where the X series really excels. Rock on.
Recession Antidote...this...please...
With the Creative Zii coming (and ZuneHD, and 3G Touch), the only thing left is how quick Sony would put this on clearance. LOL.
seriously there are test out there that proove that the sony X have the best sound quality of every mp3 player on the market... it use a new different chip that the one in the A-820 series (which was already awesome)