16 September 2009

New Sony Walkman Music Players

It's been awhile since I update the audiophile hobby of mine here, but today I've been very excited since getting updates of the new Sony Walkman music players via the subscribed RSS feeds.

First off, the mid-end S series, S640 & S740.

S640
Sony Walkman S640

S740
Sony Walkman S740

Screen: 2.0" LCD (TV output at 720×480 (SD) resolution available)
Storage: 8GB, 16GB & 32GB (S740 only) flash memory.
Earphone: MDR-EX300SL (S740's earphone is similar to MDR-NC33)
Sound Enhancement: Noise-cancelling (S740 only), Clear Bass, Clear Stereo, and DSEE.
Functions: FM Radio, ability to display lyrics (might be limited to Japan models only), play speed control
Battery life: 42 hours music playback. 10 hours video playback.
Codec:
Music -MP3, WMA, AAC, HE-AAC, ATRAC, ATRAC AL, PCM/wav.
Video - AVC (H2.64), MPEG-4, WMV.

The difference between the S640 & S740 is the design of the player (S640's plasticky feel while S740's metallic feel), the noise-cancelling function (exclusive for S740), the earphone and the 32GB which is exclusive to S740.

Sony Walkman S640 & S740

I had the previous generation S730 series, and still using it now. Quite happy to see the improvement in the hardware and quality, but sad to see the demise of the auto playlist SensMe Channels.

Next up, the higher-end version A series, A840.

Sony Walkman S840 black

Sony Walkman S840 brown

2.8 inch WQVGA OLED screen (with TV output function at 720X480 resolution)
Slim design with the thickness of 7.2mm.
Storage: 16GB, 32GB, 64GB
Sound Enhancement: S-Master digital amplifier, Digital Noise Cancelling, DSEE, Clear Stereo, Clear bass, and lyric display.
Earphone: MDR-EX300SL (with NC function, similar to MDR-NC33)
Battery life: 29 hours audio listening. 9 hours of video playback
Codec:
Music - MP3, WMA, AAC, HE-AAC, ATRAC, ATRAC AL, PCM/wav.
Video - AVC (H2.64), MPEG-4, WMV.

Another fine piece of gadget by Sony, this is the new flagship model which I believe will get along together with the current flagship touchscreen X series.
I'm kinda interested to know which would sounded better, though I'm slightly biased towards the A series due to it's better earphone, the MDR-EX300SL.

Sony Walkman S840

The new S series & A series is likely to be available by November. Still don't have much idea bout the pricing but I guess there's a price to pay if you wanna enjoy high quality music.

For me, I'm actually tempted to get the A series in the future. Love the sound of the current player, but A series will definitely sounded better as it comes with the S-Master Digital Amp that builds in within the player itself. Besides, I love the noise-cancelling function too, glad it didn't been taken away heh.
A 16GB is not enough for me, so I'm likely to get 32GB or 64GB model. Budget budget, hmm.....

Left to right: A840, S640, S740, S730.
Sony Walkman Music Player

Anyway on to give my advice whether you should get the new Walkman players or not, do take a few points into consideration:
- It performs superb in music-playback but doesn't comes with fancy application like those in iPod.
- Video-playback is average. Screen is not the biggest and limited codec supported, which means you gonna convert the videos into compatible format (most commonly WMV).
- Noise-canceling only works with the bundled earphone.

Otherwise, it's a real nice piece of gadget to enjoy music-listening to another higher level. :)



P/S: It is OK if you can't really differentiate the model based on the pic, because the design is more or less the same. It would have been better if Sony put in some effort to make each of the series' design unique so that the consumer can easily recognise the model instead of scratching into the details (which most of them wouldn't bother much).
Blogged by at
Labels: ,

6 comments:

  1. guardogSeptember 17, 2009 12:42 AM

    err... got price info? I wanna noe wat's the market now, haha.


    Damn, those are really nice **looking at my NWZ S616F that I bought for RM 500+ 2 years ago, Sigh...

    ReplyDelete
  2. CLFSeptember 17, 2009 12:49 AM

    according to my source:

    The NW-S740 series comes in black, gold, green, violet, and has 8GB (NW-S744, Y16,000), 16GB (NW-S745, JPY 19,000), and 32GB (NW-S746, JPY 25,000) capacities. Sony Japan is also selling a S740 Walkman and matching color speaker bundle, known as the NW-S744K (JPY 19,000) and NW-S745K (JPY 22,000).

    not sure how much it'll cost back in M'sia, but a decent model would likely to cost above RM 500.

    ReplyDelete
  3. CLFSeptember 17, 2009 12:50 AM

    add on:

    The only difference between the Sony S640 and S740 Walkman lines, other than the colors, is that the S640 doesn’t have noise canceling. The NW-S644 (8GB, JPY 14,000) and NW-645 (16GB, JPY 17,000) also have included speaker bundles – NW-S644K (JPY 17,000) and NW-S645K (JPY 20,000).

    can consider getting one if you're serious into listening music. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. JaneSeptember 18, 2009 2:14 PM

    I like them all. If only I'm rich. Thanks for sharing. By the way, these best gifts that you could give your better-half might interest you too. Thanks and have a nice and fulfilling day.

    ReplyDelete
  5. emilySeptember 18, 2009 4:35 PM

    i would like to say..


    it is not easy to come out with good design!! design need cost!

    so i think, since it is about the same, sony is producing it for 2 different markets with the similliar design.

    ReplyDelete
  6. CLFSeptember 18, 2009 9:04 PM

    Emily:
    well that does make sense, but the thing is that they've been sticking with the same pattern (diff series but same design) for the past few generations, it's time to change!
    or else, Sony will still find it very hard to fight against the iPod.

    the Walkman is a worthwhile product, but if they still stick with such strategy, I fear the collapse of the Walkman line someday.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)