nw-a800
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Keepin' it real fake, CES edition: Sony's NW-A800 has a secret admirer
Sony's been certainly making strides in its DAP lineup this year, and this here is just further proof of its success: a cheap knockoff version of the NW-A800. We've got nothing in the way of specs, other than the "Digital MP4 Player" title, which we're guessing means exactly what it says. Look how convenient that record button is, folks! Another shot (which we spotted at an entirely different distributor) is after the break.
Sony NW-A800 gets reviewed
While we wait twiddling our thumbs in the States to get ahold of Sony's new supposed hotness, the NW-A800, French DAP site GenerationMP3 has snagged itself the first review of the player. They seem to have good things to say, but unfortunately they're all in French. From what we gleaned, there's some good stuff going on here, with the 2-inch QVGA screen setting it well apart from the nano, and a good feel to the controls and shape of the player. The battery is apparently much easier to get at than that of the iPod -- though still a bit of a chore to replace. On the software side, Sony's made some big improvements, since they've not only spruced up SonicStage, with transcoding and the like, but also allow you to manage your player completely without it. Sony also has a new RSS app, for subscribing to podcasts, photo streams and videos to place on your player, but GenerationMP3 ran into some trouble areas with it. Battery life isn't quite at the 30 hours Sony was promising, but 22 hours for ATRAC and 5 hours for video ain't too shabby. Of course, codec support is quite commendable for Sony, with AAC, WMA and MP3 (all non-DRM) in addition to the regular ATRAC. The GenerationMP3 folks gave this player a 4/5, we'll be keeping an eye out for a review we can actually comprehend.[Via dapreview]
Sony's NW-A800, Samsung's K3, and Apple's iPod nano stacked
With Sony's NW-A800 Video Walkman (pictured center) now globally released, we thought you might like to see how it stacks up -- literally -- against the Samsung K3 and the notoriously thin iPod nano. As you can see, Sony opted for chub and squat over slim and long by comparison. But just look at that relatively huge, 2-inch display for video playback -- something neither the K3 nor iPod nano can do. Now go check the rest of the pics over at French site Le Journal du Geek. Fortunately, the thousand words spoken by pictures don't need machine translation.[Thanks, Aniki]
Hands-on video with Sony's new NW-A800
While some people are already slinging around such terms as "too little too late" for Sony's new NW-A800 video Walkman, we're saying the verdict is out until we get one in-hand. The next best thing to having one in pocket is this hands-on video from the YouTubes, which gives a nice little preview of the device. The software looks solid, though not incredibly flashy, but we like how responsive the unit is looking. Our friendly narrator finds the video quality to be "excellent" and the bundled headphones of a pleasantly surprising quality. Nothing here has us drooling, however, and we probably aren't going to automatically rush out and buy a dozen once Sony makes these available, but there's certainly some cautious optimism about this new offering from our ATRAC-pushing buddies at Sony. The video is after the break.[Via Engadget Chinese]
Sony's NW-A800 launches
We were expecting the A800s March first, and with the ides of March marches in Sony's NW-A800 flash Network Walkman. Outfitted with up to 8GB of memory and a supposed 30 hour battery life (surely that's playing ATRAC files, as always), the A800 also has a 2-inch QVGA display -- not too bad, especially considering it plays back H.264 video. Audio codecs are the usual: AAC, WMA (sorry, no PlaysForSure support -- maybe Sony's being forward thinking here), MP3, and ATRAC. Models listed on Sony's Euro sites are A808 for the 8GB, A806 for the 4GB, and A805 for the 2GB -- what, was A808, A804, and A802 too hard to name 'em? Whatever their reasoning, we're a little baffled by the price: £199 for the 8GB, which is close to $400 US (that kind of pricing sound familiar?). Seriously. Granted, these will probably get a little cheaper when they head stateside, but we're definitely shaking our heads at you, Sony, on behalf of our European readership.[Via Engadget Japanese]
Sony's NW-A800 Series outed
Things are finally heating up on the Sony DAP front, with those NW-A800 players we've been hearing about finally getting their first spy shots thrust into the public eye by the shameless Sony fanboys at ATRACLife. Not a lot of info can be divulged just yet, other than those 2-8GB capacity and 10 hour video battery specs we were hearing earlier, but Sony.de has a countdown to March 1st going on, so we're guessing we'll be learning more then, if not before.[Via ATRACLife]
