14 DAY TRIAL // Sony's WALKMAN has become a household name in the field of portable players over the years, but has lost some of its luster lately due to the iPod's ascension, as well as several iRiver and Creative players. However, things might change on the future, as the company has just announced the release of the NWZ-A820 series, which comes packed with wireless Bluetooth connectivity, as well as several other attractive features on the side.
One's thing's for sure about Sony, they'll never release just one model in a certain family of products. Thus, the NWZ-A820 series is offered in a choice of four color variations (black, silver, gold, and pink), and will be available in three storage sizes. The NWZ-A829 (16GB) can store up to 62 hours of video plus sound or 3,800 songs, the NWZ-A828 (8GB) just 30 hours 40 mins of video/audio or 1,850 songs while the entry-level versions, the NWZ-A826 (4GB), can store up to 15 hours of video or 925 songs.
All the models from the NWZ-A820 series have been equipped with a clear, bright 2.4-inch QVGA screen that supports video playback at up to 30 frames per second with what Sony touts to be "excellent contrast and color reproduction". Moreover, for extra flexibility, videos and photos can be viewed in any screen orientation (left, vertical, right) to suit personal tastes, while photo collections can also be viewed as slideshows accompanied by the chosen music track.
And since we're on the subject of playback, it's also worth mentioning that the NWZ-A820 series supports a broad range of media formats, including here security-enhanced Windows Media Audio (WMA), copyright-free AAC, MP3 and Linear PCM music formats, plus JPEG files for photos. The devices also come packed with high quality video codecs support playback of AVC (H.264/AVC) Baseline Profile and MPEG-4 video files.
However, by far the most important selling point of the new WALKMAN series is the support for Bluetooth stereo, as the players can stream audio files and track/artist data through a Bluetooth stereo enabled micro hi-fi, as well as Bluetooth headphones or in-car units. Moreover, a conveniently placed button on the side of the player allows one-touch connection to other Bluetooth devices.
"We are continuing to add products to our WALKMAN portfolio that offer customers the flexibility and freedom to choose how they download and manage their digital music content, which only open standards can provide", said Paul Gyles, Strategic Product Manager for Audio Marketing at Sony Europe, in support of the company's latest players "And now with added Bluetooth compatibility in the NWZ-A820 series, it's never been easier to enjoy your music on the go, without the hassle of wires."
Sony's NWZ-A820 will hit the shelves around Europe starting April 2008 (although in some specific parts of Europe, like Romania, for example, they'll be arriving a bit later, in May) but unfortunately, no pricing details have been provided for the time being. However, I'm willing to bet that these things won't come cheap, taking into account the extensive range of features they provide.
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