In a world of MP3 players already filled with all sorts of products, each and everyone of them offering lots of attractive features (unfortunately, also quite similar ones, for that matter), we rarely see something that has a very innovative feature. However, the company that invented the concept of portable music, Sony, has just launched its next generation of portable music players included in the already famous Walkman family, which will be available throughout Europe from April, and the features offered by these small and elegant devices are really quite interesting.

First of all, the new players have a very original and appealing look (the devices are available in 6 colors: pink, blue, silver, violet, black, and lime green), clearly designed in order to attract the young users, but in this case, there's more to the little gadget than meets the eye. Thus, the Walkman family also has some very interesting technical features that set it apart from the competition. And one of this technological edges is what Sony boasts to be the battery with the best recharge time/playback time ratio on the market (more precisely, 3 hours of continuous playback for just 3 minutes of playback), a battery that also offers 28 hours of playback for all the songs in the ATRAC3 format developed by Sony.

But this compression technology also offers another big advantage, namely the fact that allows a huge volume of music to be crammed into a relatively small storage space (even if, unfortunately, the quality of the sound is not exactly great). Thus, the player offers maximum storage of up to 90 CDs for the 2GB model, 45 CDs for the 1GB and 22 CDs for the 512MB at 48kbps.

Uploading the songs into the gadget's memory is also quite easy, because it offers easy download capabilities by direct connection through the USB port. Each player comes with the latest SonicStage 3.4 software version for easy music management and transfer of listeners' favorite tracks.

Here are some of the most important technical characteristics of the new Walkman family from Sony, as released by the company:

- Ultra slim and compact body - measures just approx 79mm and weighs approx 25g;
- Rechargeable battery with stamina of 28 hours during continuous playback in ATRAC @ 132kbps at Super power save mode;
- Quick-charge feature: 3 hours battery life in just 3 minutes charging during continuous playback in ATRAC @ 132kbps at Super power save mode;
- Direct USB with high speed transfer;
- 5-band Equalizer;
- Bright and clear 1 line dot matrix organic LED;
- ATRAC, MP3 and WMA (non DRM) compatible;
- FM Tuner with MHz range from 87.5 - 108.0 (optional on 1GB and 512MB players);
- Attractive range of casing colors (pink, violet, blue, silver, black and lime green).

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