Sony NWZ-A810 coming to an Internet near you
(Credit: Sony)Again with the Internet slip-ups, only this time the company itself is to blame. This morning, a new Sony MP3/video player sneaked onto SonyStyle briefly. As anyone who listened to my podcast rant about broken NDAs might infer, this tidbit was not welcome news first thing in the morning. (At least one other gadget journalist knows the sting of this pain.) I'd been sitting on the Sony NWZ-A815 info for a while, and I kept my mouth shut, even when a blurry rumor blog posted about it yesterday. But--I'm sorry--when the company itself cannot keep its own secrets, that's just too much to bear. In agreement with our contact, who wants to ensure that you get the most accurate information possible, here are all the official details:
- The NWZ-A810 series comes in a variety of flavors: The NWZ-A815 player has a total capacity of 2GB; comes in white, pink, black, and silver; and will cost about $140. Then, there's the $180 NWZ-A816, which has 4GB and comes in white, pink, black, and silver. The 8GB NWZ-A818 will be available in only black or silver and will cost about $230.
- Great news! Sony has given up the ghost on SonicStage. This player is an MTP/PlaysForSure device with all the trimmings: MP3/WMA/AAC support, including playback of subscription tracks downloaded from the likes of Rhapsody. (AAC is unprotected only.)
- This Walkman video player has a 2-inch QVGA (320x240 pixels) LCD screen capable of playing MPEG 4 and M4V profile at 30 frames per second.
- As per usual, battery life is astounding: as long as 33 hours of audio playback and up to 8 hours for video.
- This series of players comes with higher-quality Sony earbuds (model MDR-EX082), and it offers a variety of sound enhancement features: Digital Sound Enhancement Engine(DSEE), Clear Bass, and Clear Stereo.
- There's also a bidirectional LCD, meaning you can view photos or videos either vertically or in landscape mode (for wide-screen viewing).
The Sony NWZ-A810 series of MP3 players is expected to start shipping at the end of this month.
But when all is said and done, you will know this: a big part of what made Sony great is back in this Walkman. It is a beautifully designed hardware, it is easy to use (again, after the setup), it is focused on quality sound and imaging--seriously, you will touch, listen, see...and smile. While it doesn't change anything in the world of MP3s and won't out-innovate Apple with this attempt, it absolutely is one of the best crafted pieces of portable music engineering out there. Bravo Sony, especially for dropping that horrible SonicStage!