It’s getting hard to follow Sony lately, with all its media players activity, which gets into high gear on recent weeks, especially in Europe, with the E-Series showing up almost� a month ago, and now the S-Series that was listed up on a French retailer website called Materiel’s , featuring the 8GB NWZ-S544 and 16GB NWZ-S545, both equipped with a 2.4-inch QVGA wide-screen display, along with an FM tuner, a mic, built-in stereo speakers, an integrated stand for landscape video watching, and a strong Li-ion battery that can deliver up to 42 hours of audio or 6.5 hours of video, whenever it plays one of the supported formats, including MP3, non-DRM AAC, WMA, H.254, MPEG4, and WMV. In terms of pricing, the S-Series is priced at 129 Euros (about $180) for the 8GB model and 149 Euros ($211) for 16GB flavor. Still no official announcement from Sony, nor any Stateside availability details, so stay tuned for even more to come.
Update1: Apparently Sony America has just gotten official with the S-Series walkmans. The new lineup will include the 8GB NWZ-S544 and 16GB NWZ-S545, both equipped with the aforementioned specs. Mind you, playing music via speakers will make your battery going drained after only 17 hours of audio workout or 5 hours of video playback. The good news are that Sony has plans making them available Stateside (either in black, pink, violet, or red), next month, priced at $110 and $130, respectively. Hit the jump to read the official announcement.
Update2: And if you care watching Sony’s latest sleek and thin S-series walkman in action, looks like Sony Europe’s marketing division is now up with a new promotional video footage, featuring this minuscule bad boy in all its glory. Hit the jump to see the rest.
Update3: Sony adds two more version to its all new S series of players. Both walkmans, S640 and S740 boast a 2-inch display, pumped to 720×480 screen resolution via TV-output. And while the first (S640) houses either 8GB or 16GB capacities, the second (S740) has an additional 32GB model to offer aside from the other two. Other than that, both machines are equipped with noise cancellation filters and presumably expected to go out in Japan somewhere this month, with prices ranging from ¥16,000 ($155 USD) to ¥25,000 ($278 USD). Colorful image of the new joiners is right after the break.
[Via Sony Insider]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksp9TJxubos[/youtube]
SAN DIEGO, Aug. 25, 2009 Sony today unveiled the stylish new S Series Walkman Video MP3 player, featuring high-quality built-in stereo speakers that allow users to share music out loud.
By outfitting this Walkman with internal speakers, we feel that we are adding a new social element to the world of digital music and video, said Katie OBrien, manger of the Walkman business for Sony. . Consumers now have a fast, simple and easy solution for sharing their personal music and video library with others.
Even with the built-in stereo speakers, the new Sony S Series Walkman player features a slim, compact and lightweight design, measuring less than a half-inch thin. It has a bright, high-contrast 2.4-inch QVGA LCD screen (measured diagonally) that has an ultra-quick response time, with smooth playback at up to 30 frames per second. And thanks to the unique Clear Audio and Digital Linear Phase Speaker System technologies in the S Series, this new model carries on Sony’s legacy of superior sound quality, both inside and out.
Further, the S Series Walkman player has an exceptionally long battery life, with up to 42 hours of music playback and up to 6.5 hours of video playback through the headphones. Through the speaker output, the new model features up to 17 hours of music playback and up to 5 hours of video playback.
The new S series also introduces a voice recording and FM recording feature. This enables recording favorite songs from the radio, or capturing quick messages and reminders on the go. Importing music, video and photos is quick and easy, with simple drag-and-drop from your compatible PCs media folder or via iTunes 8.1 using Content Transfer.
The new S Series player supports a variety of codecs, both of the audio and video variety. Audio codecs supported include MP3, WMA(DRM), AAC(non DRM) and Linear PCM. The video codec support includes AVC (H.264/AVC) Baseline Profle, MPEG-4 and WMV(DRM). The new model also supports JPEG photo format.
