Sony's Video Walkman NW-A800 series Walkman will go on sale in Europe in April and then later in other markets.
There are three models: the NW-A805, A806 and A808 having 2GB, 4GB and 8GB, respectively.
The screen is a 2-inch LCD panel with QVGA resolution (240 pixels by 320 pixels). It's orientated in portrait form rather than the landscape form used on the iPod, but videos can be viewed with the device either held vertically or horizontally.
Audio playback in a number of flavors of Sony's ATRAC compression is possible, and Sony supplies software for converting Windows Media Audio, MP3 and WAV files to ATRAC. MP3 files can be directly loaded onto the Walkman, but battery life will be shorter. For video the Walkman plays back MPEG4 H.264/AVC encoded files.
Playback time for audio is about 30 hours for ATRAC files encoded at 132k bps while for video its seven hours for MPEG4 files encoded at 768k bps.
NW-A800 series is available in four color options; violet, black, white and pink.
Some very cool accessories include a car cigarette lighter power adapter for charging, a mini jack for playing through your car stereo system, FM and Bluetooth transmitter. The Walkman is 44 millimeters wide by 88mm high and is 9mm thick and weighs 53 grams.
The NW-A800 series will be available throughout Europe in April and in Canada in May at about US$150 for 2 GB, $200 for 4 GB and $250 for 8 GB.
The NW-A800 series will be available throughout Europe in April and in Canada in May at about US$150 for 2 GB, $200 for 4 GB and $250 for 8 GB.
