April 14th, 2009
Sony Walkman X-series: OLED touchscreen to compete with iPod touch?
Sony Japan announced a new series of Walkmen today that may trump the iPod touch. The NW-X1000 series, or X-series, was introduced in January at CES, but will actually be released on April 25 in Japan. The NW-X1050 with 16 GB internal memory, and the 32 GB NW-X1060, have a 3-inch OLED touchscreen, Wi-Fi, YouTube support, and a noise cancellation feature.
Although it’s in Japanese, CrunchGear has a cool video posted which gives you a good idea of the X-series’ features. The Walkman lets you play your files in various formats. Audio files can be played in MP3/HE-AAC/AAC/WMA/linear PCM/ATRAC/ATRAC Advanced Lossless, and video in MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 and MPEG-4/WMV formats.
It is much smaller than the iPod touch, measuring 97.4×52.5×10.5mm. The OLED touchscreen has a 240×432 resolution, while the iPod touch has a 480×320-pixel resolution.
Akihabaranews.com said the X-series doesn’t offer an app store, which is one downside to the player.
Available in black or red, the 16 GB model will cost $400, and the 32 GB version will be running for $500. Sony has yet to announce a release date for the U.S. and Europe.
Check out CNET’s hands-on review.
Jennifer R. Bergen is a journalist and blogger living in New York City. See her full profile and disclosure of her industry affiliations.
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