Sony Walkman NWZ-A840 review

The Walkman I am reviewing is the NWZ-A845, which features a rather limited 16GB of storage capacity. The new A-series should have been Sony's premier and flagship Walkman, but for whatever reason Sony decided that the flagship Walkman should remain the X-series, which has an in-vogue touchscreen display. It isn't even cheap (£140 for a 16GB DAP isn't what I would term as value for money these days). The review also applied to the 32GB A846 and 64GB A847 should Sony ever decide to release the damn things here.

If some of these sounds familiar, it is because I've copied and paste of my other Walkman reviews where the features overlapped.

Design

The A840 is solidly built. The front is dominated by a glossy scratch resistant glass with an OLED display beneath it. The rest of the DAP's case is made of some kind of metal, giving it an extremely premium look and feel. The A840's design is a natural progression to their popular S639/S739 DAPs and A820-series. It is also the thinnest Walkman ever built at just 7.2mm deep.

The A840 marks a return of the hardware buttons. This, in my opinion, is a welcomed move as I much prefer the tactile feels of buttons to touchscreen-only devices. You will find the usual volume controls on the side. The bottom contains both the WM-Port USB connector and 3.5mm headphone port. Unfortunately the buttons just aren't as good as the one found on previous Walkman DAPs. They just do not offer the same tactile feedback. But better to have them than none I guess.

Screen

The new A-series features a brilliant looking (better than the X-series in my eyes) 2.8-inch OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) display with a resolution of 400x240. This isn't Sony's first OLED PMP (that honours belongs to the Clie VZ90 released way back in 2004), nor their first Walkman with one. The advantage of using OLED is its power requirement, or lack of. OLED works without backlight due to the way its pixels gives off light when electrical current flows through the panel. This negates the need of bulky and power hungry backlight.

Because of the way OLED pixels directly emit light, they show a greater range of colour saturation, higher contrast and has a quicker refresh rate. Even when viewed at a 90 degree angle, the OLED display on the A-series remains equally as stunning as when viewed from the front. Black remains true black, unlike that of a normal LCD display (even one equipped with LED backlight). They also have a faster response time than a standard LCD screen, ideal for watching video. They work okay under the sunlight, no better or worse than most of their modern contemporaries.

UI & Controls

With the A840, Sony has decided to finally updated their none-touch UI to greatly resemble the the X-series. When you first switch it on you will be greeted with the familiar grid layout. It is as intuitive to use as the UI that graced their older none-touchscreen Walkmans.

The previous 'now playing' shortcut that can be toggled anywhere within the system by pressing the 'Options' button has been replaced by 'to playback' shortcut that isn't available everywhere, but a whole a bit more useful than the previous incarnation as it presents more shortcuts depending on where in the system you are on. Tracks can also be added to a 'wish list', which is useful for people with a subscription based music service. For people who likes to purchase CDs (like me), the feature is kinda redundant, but it is there for those who wishes to use it.

The system as a whole felt slightly slower, but I didn't find this a major issue for day to day usage. We are also still cursed with only two custom EQ slots, and the lack of quick find (the table with alphabets is missing) is also irritating, particularly if one is planning on installing hundreds of albums. On the other hand fans of podcasts (fancy word for pre-recorded radio) will be happy that the A840 supports them out of the box.



Bundles

Sony is well known for bundling good sets of headphones with their mid to high end Walkmans, and they did not stop with A840. The headphone bundled here features a design similar to Sony's EX500 and EX700 IEMs with dynamic transducers. This is a hybrid canal earbud that is designed to work with Sony's noise cancelling system. The way the A840's noise cancelling engine works is by analysing the waveform of ambient noise collected via the microphone, and generate a reversed waveform that cancels out the noise. With the A840, you not only have a stock headphone that works pretty good (but not perfect) at cancelling out background noise, but also offers excellent sound quality (in comparison to the majority of bundled headphones).

Features

The A840, unlike the X-series, has almost no extra features really worth mentioning. It is as it is - a no frills music player. Sure there's video support but nobody I knows buy a Walkman for the video. As such there's no silly stuff like YouTube or web browsing support (might as well, there's no WiFi here). There's also a FM radio for those still listening to such things and a folder for your Podcast (amateur radio).

You can't create, edit or delete playlists on the device itself (it must be done on a PC, which isn't really difficult). This is something that irritates many, but to me isn't a huge deal as I don't tend to use playlists a lot. But what I do wish is for Sony to bring back SenseMe, the auto-playlist generator that I loved so much on the S630/S730. It was a brilliant piece of innovation. Another thing I would like Sony to support is last.fm integration.

There is also a TV-out function, but this requires the purchase of a separate cable. The output isn't in HD, so I honestly think this feature is a mere token inclusion and should not be a factor in getting this.

Content

It isn't really that amazing how far Sony has opened up when it comes to their newest and (not so) greatest Walkman. I swear the next person who complains about Sony and SonicStage I would personally... well, I can't slap them through the internet but I would if I could! They have ditched SonicStage for years!

Transferring content is a doodle. The player is MTP compliant, meaning you can just plug it in and immediately start dragging and dropping content into their appropriate folder (up to eight level deep). No proprietary and bloated nonsense like SonicStage or iTunes to worry about. For those who prefer some form of music management software, the A840 supports a hold host of applications including Windows Media Player, Sony Media Manager, iTunes and my personal favourite, MediaMonkey. And you can force it into UMSC mode if you desire. Connecting Walkman DAPs to Windows and Linux machine has never been easier.

Audio

The Walkman supports basic audio codecs such as MP3 up to 320kbps (as well as those encoded in VBR) and WMA. Lossless fans will be disappointed by the lack FLAC, WMA Lossless or even ATRAC3 Lossless. Gapless is also sorely missing, which in the case of this blogger, is more of an irritant than something crucial. The only way to play full CD quality music (including gapless) is through Linear PCM (not a problem with 64GB, but dear Sony release the darn thing already!). A couple of sound effects are present for those who likes to tinker around including the 5-band equalisers (four presets and two user definable, and great as ever), VTP Surround setting (which I advice to ignore), DSEE (this is only useful for low bitrate files), Clear Stereo and Dynamic Normalizer.

Sound quality

Out of the box, the A840 is one of the best sounding DAP on the market. This is because of the bundled ANC headphones which surpasses many (if not all) usual bundled headphones. You will need to set aside at least £30-40 to gain any sort of improvements, and even then it would only be slightly.

Now, the most important bit: how it sounds with a high quality headphone (in this case the reference headphone I used here would be my old and trusty Sennheiser IE 8). With the X-series, there was a very very slight hiss compared to the S630/S730 series. With the A840 the hiss has gone. Yes gone. I have never been bothered by the hiss on the X-series, but it is nice to know that it isn't audible on the new A840.

Sound signature is similar to the X-series and it should, they share the same S-master technology.

Like the X-series, the sound signature isn't neutral (based on my limited knowledge on what actually defines neutral...). Again it is pleasantly warm, unlike how you would expect from a 'digital amp', and exactly like how you would expect a Sony to sound. The amp here isn't as powerful (or it may be a bureaucratic decision) as the one that powered the X-series or S730/S630. With the old X-series I rarely ever go above 12/30 (max 15 before it gets too loud), but with the A830 I would need go increase it to 20s to get to a comparable loudness. Not a problem with my IE 8, but this may be an issue with people with more demanding headphones.

Clarity wise there is nothing wrong with the A840. Everything is tight and clean and the bass is powerful (at the sufficient volume). Bass head will be pleased to find that the Clear Bass setting is ever present (3 notches). Two user customisable EQ slots are available, in addition to the presets. The EQ is unsurprisingly effective and scales well. I know some audiophiles may scoff at the use of EQ, but whatever the EQ here does not distort the sound at all. On the other hand I suggest steering clear of other audio enhancements like DSEE and Clear Stereo, especially if you have good quality rips. Sound quality is good, but not on par with the X-series.

Sony has set the bar very high with the X-series, so the A840 always had plenty to prove. Unfortunately whilst the A840 is very good, it just isn't quite as good as the X-series. The headphone-out quality is still brilliant but because the amp is comparatively weaker, you wouldn't want to use it with a more demanding headphone.

Battery

I've never had a problem with any Walkman when it comes to their respective battery life. From their classic Walkman to MiniDisc players, it just isn't an issue. With the A840 series, Sony claims a battery life of 30 hours for audio playback. This will be sufficient for most people. Based on my experiences with other Walkmans (and I had many) I've no reason to doubt the claim.

Conclusion

The NWZ-A840 is a pretty darn looking Walkman. It has style and it delivers where it should - the sound quality. But in typical Sony fashion, they had to remove the one other feature which would have made this a hit - the higher capacity models.

The A840-series was supposed to be a strong follow up to the immensely brilliant X-series, a potentially great product that could help Sony gain back market share. But by not releasing the 32GB and 64GB options here, Sony has given owners of 32GB X-series and 16GB S-series no legitimate reasons to upgrading. Great sound quality isn't enough. The X-series sounds just as good, is more powerful and comes with more features and finally - is available at a larger capacity.

It is a good player, trust me on this, but there are better alternatives out there by Sony. I honestly do not understand Sony. They are made up of some of the best engineers in the world (when it comes to consumer electronics at least) and come up with a great sounding product, but decide to cripple their products with arbitrary limitations like volume and limited storage.

The limited volume should not be a problem if you are using a IEM, and I can recommend the A845 if you are fine with 16GB and do not mind the fiddly buttons. Otherwise spring more for the X1060 32GB.

+ Fantastic sound quality
+ Fantastic OLED screen
+ Amazing build quality
+ Good ANC bundled headphones
+ Good battery life
+ Drag and drop
+ Quick navigation and UI
- No gapless for MP3/AAC/WMA files
- No compressed lossless playback (in NWZ versions)
- Some functionalities not brought over from previous A/S-series
- Accessories a bit hard to come by
- None replaceable battery
- No 32/64GB available

Sony Walkman NWZ-A840 UI demo

Here's a quick video I recorded earlier, demonstrating the new Walkman NWZ-A840 series's UI. The UI is heavily borrowed from the touchscreen based X-series DAP, features a couple of downgrades when compared to the basic looking but highly intuitive one found previously on the A810, S630, S730 and others.

The previous 'now playing' shortcut that can be toggled anywhere within the system by pressing the 'Options' button has been replaced by 'to playback' shortcut that isn't available everywhere, but a whole a bit more useful than the previous incarnation as it presents more shortcuts depending on where in the system you are on. Tracks can also be added to a 'wishlist', which is useful for people with a subscription based music service. For people who likes to purchase CDs (like me), the feature is kinda redundant, but it is there for those who wishes to use it.

The system as a whole felt slightly slower, but I didn't find this a major issue for day to day usage. We are also still cursed with only two custom EQ slots, and the lack of quick find (the table with alphabets is missing) is also irritating, particularly if one is planning on installing hundreds of albums. On the other hand fans of podcasts (fancy word for pre-recorded radio) will be happy that the A840 supports them out of the box.

You can't create, edit or delete playlists on the device itself (it must be done on a PC, which isn't really difficult). This is something that irritates many, but to me isn't a huge deal as I don't tend to use playlists a lot. But what I do wish is for Sony to bring back SenseMe, the auto-playlist generator that I loved on the S630/S730. It was a brilliant piece of application.

So one step forward, but two steps backwards. Not good Sony.

Sony Walkman NWZ-A840 first impressions

I've only been listening to the Sony Walkman NWZ-A840 series for a couple of hours and has so far I've been impressed by it. The sound quality is pretty good, but I'll give it two weeks of intense listening and comparison with other DAPs before I comment further.

The amp here isn't as powerful (or it may be a bureaucratic decision) as the one that powered the X-series or S730/S630 that much is true. With the old X-series I rarely need to go above volume 15/30, but with the A830 I would need go increase it to 20s to get a comparable loudness. Not a problem with my IE 8, but this may be an issue with people with more demanding headphones. I haven't touched the bundled headphones yet, but they look good and should sound better than most bundled headphones. I still suggest investing in an aftermarket higher end headphone.

Build quality wise, the A840 passes with flying colours. The OLED screen is dominated by a visible glass layer that gives it an extra class though I worry about the durability (plastic is generally more crash-proof than glass). The buttons on the front are nicely build but do not provide enough feedback. It should have been raised so as to provide a better tactile experience for people who want to control it 'blindly'.

Transferring music is quick! Despite being connected via MTP, it is so much quicker to move music onto the A840 compared to the X1060. More later!

Just a note on Sony's confusing way of naming products: NW means it is for Japan and NWZ is the international version. A840 is the series as a whole and the last digit represents the storage capacity. So A845 is for 16GB, A846 for 32GB (so far only available in Asia Pacific and Japan) and A847 is for 64GB (which does not exist outside of Japan).

Walkman A840 in my hands!

Our post lady has just dropped off the Walkman A840. If you have any questions about it please post them in the comments section (this one please) and I would do my best to answer them here or in the forthcoming review.

Walkman NWZ-A840 incoming

Well due to a couple of requests I've decided to order a Sony Walkman NWZ-A840-series DAP not long ago. Yes with my own money (just so you know I've never had freebies from Sony before - not that I would complain!). The A845 16GB version is due to arrive late this week/early next week because I can't be arsed to pay Amazon UK the 'upgrade' postage fee.

I am getting a bit excited about it right now. Not to say I'll be keeping it (16GB isn't enough), but I am curious to hear if it would match or even better the formidable X-Series. Both has the same(?) S-master amp powering it, so on paper it should match the X-Series although some reviews are already indicating that it doesn't... I'll give it the usual 1-2 weeks of intense listening before writing the review and would definitely post thoughts via twitter or this blog, depending on the circumstances. Should I also do an unboxing...?

Still I can't help writing that I am very disappointed in Sony Europe for sticking their middle fingers at us, first, for only making this series available 6-7 months after it was announced, and second, for not making the 64GB A847, or even the 32GB A846, available here!

Walkman A840?

Dear Sony Europe,

Now that Microsoft has announced the 64GB Zune HD, will you finally remove your head out of your arse and release the 64GB Walkman A847 over here? It has been seven months since the A840 series was announced and as of April 2010, no release date has been confirmed for Europe or indeed anywhere else. Think of all the lost sales by not releasing it when the hype was still fresh.

Judging by the many positive comments and experience by X-series owners on this little blog, there is a market out there for a pure digital audio player. Are we just not worthy enough to experience it?

Or maybe you just want us to buy Cowon's new and sexy (but not quite as sexy as yours) J3.

Thanks,

A disillusioned Walkman fan

Evolution of the Walkman

I bought my first Walkman in the mid-90s. It was a great player and one that changed the way I listened to music forever (sorry I can't remember the model number). It even had a microphone attachment thingy that I used to interview people for a school project. I wasn't loyal to the brand though. My first portable CD player for example was a Panny and so was my first MiniDisc player (SJ-MJ70).

My dabble with the Walkman brand continued with Sony's line of extremely sleek and portable MiniDisc players (the 100 hour battery life MZ-E900 was my favourite - in fact I had two of them). MD may be derided in North America, but it was a success in Europe and Asia. Hell, as late as last year large supermarket chains in the UK were still selling MiniDisc blanks, so please US-centric blogs spare us your condescending opinions. When I finally decided to freecycle my blanks two years ago it wasn't difficult to find anyone willing to collect them. In fact I had to divide up my collection in batches and give it out equally.

Sony had been a bit slow and behind when it came to their digital players though. The first DAP Walkman I owned was the A818 - which in many ways was close to perfect. It was a no-nonsense player, with an intuitive UI and usable button system, is drag-and-drop compatible, highly pocketable and offers a great battery life. The S630 and S730 series were merely a natural progression of the A810, and the X-series blew me (and judging by your comments, you readers as well) away when it came to the sound quality.

Sony are on a roll when it comes to their reinvigorate Walkman brand. Unfortunately their marketing team seems to operate in a 1990s fashion. Where is that A840 that was released in Japan some time ago? Judging by the comments on this blog and many others, many are waiting to hand over their hard earned cash for it. So why is Sony Europe dilly dallying in releasing what could be their best ever Walkman model over here, in a year that is obviously historically important to the brand?

Tutorial: Creating playlists on Sony Walkman (and other MTP devices)

I recently received a comment critical about Sony's apparent lack of will to create a music management software for their Walkman DAPs, and the difficulty in getting playlists on them. Whilst I understand that Sony is a bit foolish for suggeting people to use Windows Media Player to manage their music and playlists when they are tons of better and free alternatives out there, transfering music (including embedded album art) and creating playlists is actually pretty easy.

All western bound Walkman DAPs (designated NWZ) has been MTP/UMS compliant for the past two years. On a modern Windows machine (running XP SP2 and up), the Walkman will show up as a MTP device. Here, dragging and dropping your music files is the easiest way to get music inside. Using a software like MediaMonkey or Songbird is also another alternative. I personally use MediaMonkey as I love the amount of features it offers to power users. It may lack the glossy facade of iTunes, but it works just as well and you do not have bloat to content with! It will even send any compilations you have with the proper tags/album art, putting them in the 'Various Artists' folder whilst also retaining the individual artist tag.

Creating a playlist on a Walkman (or all MTP compliant DAPs like those made by Creative, Samsung, SanDisk, iRiver, Cowon etc.) device is even easier. No Windows Media Player, MediaMonkey, iTunes or any third party software are needed. Just right click on a track or album folder, and select 'create playlist', then drag it (it has a *.pla extension) to the playlist folder. Open it and then just drag and drop any music you already have on your device to the playlist, no matter which artist, album or genre they are from, as well as removing or reordering them. It would not create any duplicates files as the music files are already on the device, it merely creates a link to the file (with embedded tags and all). I have been using this method for the past year and never had any problems with it - it is that simple.

Another thing I want to add is Sony does have a music management software. It is called SonicStage and Sony made it a requirement to use the software (like iTunes and Zune Desktop) to transfer music to their Walkman devices. Unfortunately it kinda sucks, causing crashes and whatnots. Basically SonicStage was a PR disaster for Sony, and their market share fell further. This is why all western-bound NWZ Walkman DAPs for the past two years do not work with them, even when SonicStage has improved tremendously. Not many people wanted to buy a Walkman with it (including me). We like it when we can choose how we transfer music onto our DAP.

Note: I do not work and has never worked for Sony or any of their subsidaries. This is just a tutorial for those who has trouble creating playlists for their Walkman. Thanks for reading.

Sony Walkman A840 (OLED, 64GB) announced

Readers of this blog will be aware of how much I admire Sony's line of Walkman DAPs (MP3 players to you simple folks). They just sound so darn good. If you are like me (a music lover) and want the best possible sound quality without resorting to a separate amp, then do check them out.

I am pretty excited by the announcement today of the new high-end S-series and A-series Walkman. First, the S-series (pictured above). The S640 series (which replaces the S630) and S740 series (replaces the S730) will be bundled with the EX300SL in-ear canal phones. These, I have read, are pretty good headphones though obviously no match with high-end IEMs like the Sennheiser IE 8 or Klipsch Custom 3. But I am sure they will make do for the majority of people. The S740, like the S730 before it, will also have built-in Active Noise Cancellation. Not something I would bother personally, but it's there for people who do. Both will also feature TV-out abilities (720x480 resolution). Battery life is rated at 42 hours for audio - which is what you would expect from a Walkman. They will be available in capacities up to 32GB.

So that's the new S-series out of the way. Will I get it? Nope. Only because I have already set my eyes on the new A-series. The A840, which replaces the Bluetooth equipped A820-series, features a 7.2mm thickness profile and will come equipped with a stunning WQVGA OLED screen. This is the same screen that powered the gorgeous X-series. It will also have TV-out and comes bundled with a pair of EX300SL variant headphones. Now the most important bit - it will feature the same(?) S-master amp that powered the X-series! Brilliant isn't it? The same sound quality and the same OLED screen, in a package smaller than the X-series! No WiFi here (not that I care honestly - the web browser was rubbish) or touchscreen (the buttons make up for it). Best of all? It will be available in capacities up to 64GB capacities (A847)!

Knowing the way Sony numbers their Walkman series, I am curious as to why they designated the 64GB model as A847... A 128GB A848 model in the works perhaps? ;)

All of these models have yet to be announced for the Western market, but I am sure they will eventually arrive here. In the mean time while away by reading my reviews of the A818, S639, S739 and X1060 first.

New Sony Walkman E-series E440 DAP

Sony Europe today announced a new E-series Walkman. While likely not to challenge the X-series for sound quality department, the NWZ-E440 series ought to satisfy those on a budget. The entry level Walkman will be equipped with 2" 240x320 LCD screen and is available in either black or red and will feature a slim sexy design not too dissimilar to certain Sony Ericsson phones. Like Sony's other previous high and mid-end Walkman, this will be the first E-series Walkman to feature some of Sony's audio enhancement technologies (which I do not recommend you turn on as they sap up more power), including a five-band equaliser and Clear Stereo.

No compressed lossless files are supported, though it will support lossless PCM Linear WAV out of the box. In addition to that, the E440 will also support MP3, WMA, WMA-DRM and AAC audio files. You will also find a FM radio tuner built-in. 30 hours of music playback on a single charge is sufficient for most people, but will come as a disappointment to those who owns previous A and S-series DAPs. Like all new Walkmans, no proprietary software (like iTunes) is needed to transfer files as it is MTP/UMS compatible and will support drag and drop. You can also use other third party music management software like the brilliant Media Monkey or Windows Media Player to transfer tracks. Unfortunately the new E-series will still be bundled with throw-away headphones, unlike the A and S-series DAP, that are bundled with EX082 or their noise cancelling equivalent.

No pricing details yet, but I am going to guess based on their last few releases that this will be incredibly good value. I am tempted to pick this up to review it, but we will see how it goes. Perhaps someone at Sony will listen to my pleas. ;)

Sony Walkman X-Series 32GB NWZ-X1060 review

The NWZ-X1060B is the 32GB version of Sony's new Walkman X-series. This is now Sony's premier and flagship Walkman, with a price tag to match. It is also a first of many for Sony's Walkman heritage, being the first to ship with a full coloured OLED screen (the MZ-RH1 Minidisc, NW-A1000, NW-A3000 and various small Walkmans had OLED screens as well), S-master class-D digital amp, touchscreen, WiFi and digital ANC. Priced at £289.99 retail (US$399 for the X1061B version), it isn't particularly cheap, but you will be able to get it cheaper online (£229 to be exact at Amazon UK). We will see if it is worth stumping up for.

Design

Like (almost) all Sony products, the X-series is well build. The glossy glass front and back plates is susceptible to picking up fingerprints, but isn't too bad. The side has a faux granite texture to it and improves the grip by quite a bit. Despite the 'dandruff' appearance in promotional pictures, it is actually quite nice in real life. The design bears some resemblance to Sony's Clie TH55 PMP/PDA of yore with its large touchscreen panel on the front and some hardware controls on the top. It is also surprisingly small. I was surprised to find it just a bit thicker than my S639/S739 and has almost the same footprint. At 98g, it is fairly hefty which lends weight to its solid feel.

In order to compliment the set of hardware buttons, Sony has moved the 3.5mm headphone-out socket to the top. This makes sense as Sony expects most users to leave their X-series in their pocket with the top controls easily accessible. On the side you will find the usual volume controls, reset hold and the ANC switch. The bottom contains the WM-Port USB connector. The back has a rather large hold switch, which you can set to only disable the touchscreen if you like. Finally the front houses a large HOME button at the bottom of the screen. The HOME button acts as the power on, power off as well as a shortcut for the user to easily jump back to the home screen.

Screen

The X-series features a 3-inch OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) resolution of 432x240 and 262k colour support. This isn't Sony's first OLED PMP (that honours belongs to the Clie VZ90 released way back in 2004), nor their first Walkman with one, but it is their first mainstream touchscreen Walkman with a full colour OLED display.The advantage of using OLED is its power requirement, or lack of. OLED works without backlight due to the way its pixels gives off light when electrical current flows through the panel. This negates the need of bulky and power hungry backlight.

Because of the way OLED pixels directly emit light, they show a greater range of colour saturation, higher contrast and has a quicker refresh rate. Even when viewed at a 90 degree angle, the OLED display on the X-series remains equally as stunning as when viewed from the front. Black remains true black, unlike that of a normal LCD display (even one equipped with LED backlight). They also have a faster response time than a standard LCD screen, ideal for watching video, though on the X-series this is a wasted opportunity (more on this later).

Update: The OLED screen here works well under sunlight, provided the backlight setting is set to maximum.

Controls

The X-series shares the same basic UI as their none-touchscreen Walkmans, but with some changes to the control layout to suit the more touchscreen approach. When you first turn it on you will be greated with the fimiliar grid layout. The touchscreen here is a capacitive one, meaning you do not have to use a stylus. It is both a blessing and irritation at the same time (I always prefer the accuracy of a stylus, but that is just a personal preference). Because of the lack of front buttons, blind control is no longer a possibility (duh).

The touchscreen interface is actually rather nice. There are some gimmicks, but clever stuff too. You tap an icon, item etc. in order to select/launch it, and you can drag your finger up and down to scroll through a list. Flicking through the list will allow for faster scrolling. When you listen to a music, the UI shows the name of the track being played, artist and album it is from. The large cover art is displayed in the middle. Four shortcuts of various functionalities are available on the bottom. These allows quick access to your library, YouTube and Yahoo! search and audio-related settings.

Tapping the album art will cause a set of on-screen controls to appear. If you flick on the album art, you will be able to scroll through a 3D slide of album arts, where you can select another album to listen to. It is a bit of a gimmick, but fun way to browsing through the library. Traditonalists will also be happy to find that folder browsing is available, in addition to the hierachy interface pionereed by Creative years ago.

Bundles

Sony is well known for bundling good sets of headphones with their Walkmans. The headphone bundled here is similar to the one bundled with the S730 series. This is a hybrid canal earbud that is designed to work with Sony's noise cancelling system. The X-series's digital active noise cancelling engine analyses the waveform of the noise, and generate a reversed waveform tha cancels out the noise. With this, you not only have a stock headphone that works pretty good (but not perfect) at cancelling out background noise, but also offers excellent sound quality (in comparison to the majority of bundled headphones). You can even use the supplied audio input cable and airplane stereo adapter, coupled with the X-series as a middle man, to listen to an airplane's audio system.

Features

Sony markets the X-series as primarily a music player first and that is how I am going to see it. Everything else is just frills. A FM radio is available here, though the reception isn't the greatest (maybe it is just where I live as I always have problem with gaining radio reception here). Podcast (fancy word for pre-recorded amateur radio by bloggers), as well as wallpaper support is available. A competent video player is also present, but it only has support for 320x240 resolution files despite the obvious higher resolution screen. This reminds me of the PSP when it first came out when Sony restricted MemoryStick playback to 320x240 files. A very simple and disappointing NetFront web browser can be used to surf mobile friendly websites via WiFi. Finally a surprisingly decent YouTube application allows for quick music video viewings.

Sadly, the auto-playlist generator in the form of SenseMe, previously seen in Sony Ericsson phones and the S630/S730 series, is missing. I have no idea why Sony decided to excise this neat feature as I have grown to love it. Hopefully Sony will see fit to reinstate the feature with a firmware update.

The US versions, X1061 and X1051, will also be bundled with the Slacker radio app. Due to outdated copyright rules and stuff, the Slacker service is not available in this country. A darn shame really.

Video Playback

First and foremost, the X-series is not designed with primary video playback in mind. If video playback is what you are seeking foremost, a separate device like the Archos or Sony PSP would be better suited. Like their other Walkmans, the X-series is capable of playing files encoded in 320x240 resolution using h.264 (Mpeg4-AVC) video format, as well as WMV9 files encoded in either 320x240 (main profile) or 480x270 (simple profile) at a maximum of 30fps. Video playback is smooth and the OLED display will highlight any flaws you may find in a badly encoded file. The X-series would make a great video device, if the option for high-resolution playback is available. As is I still prefer using my PSP as a portable video player (bigger screen and all).

Transferring Content

It is amazing how far Sony has opened up when it comes to their newest and greatest Walkman. Transferring content is a doodle, if a bit slow. The player is MTP compliant, meaning you can just plug-in and immediately start dragging and dropping content into their appropriate folder (up to eight level deep). No proprietary and bloated nonsense like SonicStage or iTunes to worry about. For those who prefer some form of music management software, the X-series supports a hold host of applications including Windows Media Player, Sony Media Manager, iTunes and my personal favourite, MediaMonkey.

Audio

The Walkman supports basic audio codecs such as MP3 up to 320kbps (as well as those encoded in VBR) and WMA. Lossless fans will be disappointed by the lack FLAC, WMA Lossless or even ATRAC3 Lossless. Gapless is also sorely missing, which in the case of this blogger, is more of an irritant than something crucial. The only way to play full CD quality music (including gapless) is through Linear PCM. A couple of sound effects are present for those who likes to tinker around including the 5-band equalisers (four presets and two user definable, and great as ever), VTP Surround setting (which I advice to ignore), DSEE (this is only useful for low bitrate files), Clear Stereo and Dynamic Normalizer.

Sound Quality

Out of the box, the X-series is one of the best sounding DAP on the market. This is because of the bundled ANC headphones which surpasses many (if not all) usual bundled headphones. You will need to set aside at least £30 to gain some form of improvement, and even then it would only be slightly.

Now, the most important bit: how it sounds with a high quality headphone (in this case the reference headphone I used here would be my Sennheiser IE 8). The X-series has a very very slight hiss compared to the S630/S730 series. It isn't as much as my old A818, but it is there. I have no problem with it as it isn't audible during playback.

Without EQ, the sound isn't as neutral as one might prefer. Despite using a digital amp, the sound signature is pleasantly warm, just like how Sony tends to sound. With my S730, I can comfortably listen at a volume setting of 14/30 in outdoors, where as with the X-series I have the volume at 11/30. In quiet areas my volume setting is 3/30. They sound very aggressive, and yet smooth when playing back more laid back genres like jazz and ambient music.

Compared to my S730, the bass here is tighter and cleaner. It is also very powerful. Even with dynamic normalizer turned off, it is very loud. It seems to have a bit more dynamics and clearer cleaner sound overall with top notch clarity. A very musical device indeed, one that has a greater instrumental seperation in comparison to my other Walkman. Fans of portable amps will be sad to find that there isn't a line-out cable available, yet.

Like their previous flash-based Walkman, the EQ is very effective. I know some audiophiles may scoff at the use of EQ, but whatever the EQ here does not distort the sound at all. Bass head will be pleased to find that the Clear Bass setting is ever present (3 notches). Two user customisable EQ slots are available, in addition to the presets. Clear Stereo is designed to work with the bundled headphones, but there is a difference with my IE 8 when enabled. I can't decide whether I prefer it enabled or disabled, so I leave it turned off. DSEE on the other hand works by aiming to improve the overall sound quality of low bitrate music files, and there is a noticeable improvement on badly ripped tracks. Disable it if you have good rips.

Overall, the sound quality here is an improvement over the S630/S730. It isn't a massive improvement, but that isn't surprising considering the headphone-out quality of the aforementioned models. Sony has already set the bar very high from their previous models that surpassing them is already an achievement. Still, it is noticeably better overall.

Web stuff

The X-series comes with a WiFi 802.11b/g module allowing and supports up to 50m range. I had no problem using it in my bedroom despite our (still not broken) wireless router sitting two walls away. It supports all the usual security protocols, including WPA2. You can also edit the proxy server and port number manually.

The NetFront web browser is sadly disappointing. I guess it shouldn't be a surprise considering that the X-series isn't running on an uber operating system, but I expected a bit better. If you are expecting a desktop like web experience like you can obtain using NetFront for Windows Mobile, you will be sadly disappointed. Rendering is slow and there is absolutely no support for text only rendering, like you get with their WinMob version. Three rendering modes is available, including NetFront's Just-Fit and Smart-Fit modes. These two modes work very well on their Windows Mobile application, but not here. Even stupider is the requirement to type in "http://" first. My advice to those seeking an X-series for web browsing: don't bother. Pick up a HTC Touch HD or Nokia 5800 instead.

The X-series also has built-in support for YouTube. The integration is pretty good. Just fire up the application and a list of videos will appear, where you can tap to a video to watch it or search. Videos can be searched through featured videos, most viewed, related videos and through a keyword search. You will also be able to filter the videos through regions/countries and timeframe. When you watch a video, you can bring up or dismiss the control buttons by tapping the screen (just like how you would control the music playback program).

Battery

Sony quotes a battery life of 33 hours for audio playback. Based on my previous experience with their other Walkmans, I have no reason to doubt that estimate. Note that to achieve that level fo battery life, you will need to turn off all sound effects (which you ought to anyway). Bitrates also affect battery life, as is the use of different codecs (AAC-LC files at the same bitrate will use more power). The same applies to playing videos. Finding the balanced between achieving acceptable battery life and sound quality is something different people will have to do for themselves. Turning off ANC and WiFi will also help.

Conclusion

The X-series if one of a slew of device that Sony has released in order to gain back the market share that they once dominated. I am not quite convinced that the X-series have what it takes. It does excel in the most important area: sound quality. Sadly mainstream consumers do not really care about audio anymore. They want a good browser, eye candy, video games and 3D effects in their DAP. The market is saturated with plenty of such devices. With the X-series Sony do have the necessary ingredients to succed, but the execution can be poor in some areas, while great in others.

One thing I can't understand is the lack of SenseMe playlist generator, or the lack of on-the-go playlist. These are features that can be easily implemented and require no hardware add-ons. They also ought to finally start thinking of implementing gapless support (or at least cross fade) for lossy playback, as well as supporting at least one lossless codec. Hell, even if it means opening up Atrac3 Lossless to the public... (a note here: the Japanese version designated NW-X1060/X1050, does have support for Atrac3 Lossless)

The 16GB S639/S739 still represents amazing good value for money for around £100 of your hard earned money, and I am not sure if it is worth paying an extra £100 for the 16GB X1050 especially if you do not need the other features. (edit: Amazon UK has cut the price of the 16GB X1050 to £179.99, which is a bargain). At £249.9 (edit, now £229.99) via Amazon UK, the 32GB X1060 is actually cheaper than some of their competitors like the Cowon S9 and iPod Touch, and it comes with a better set of headphones. The S9, despite the lack of WiFi, will likely appeal more towards power users and the Touch, while not being equipped with an OLED screen, does have access to third party applications and a huge array of accessories.

Despite all that, the X-series is still quite the player. It is a fantastic digital audio player and if you have no qualms paying for it you will not have any regrets, especially you like the Sony sound. Overall the X-series is a great hardware and offers fantastic sound, only let down by slightly poor software implementation. Regardless, it is the best sounding Walkman available (and possibly the best unamped DAP) and if you value sound quality over everything else, you will not be disappointed.

+ Fantastic sound quality
+ Fantastic OLED screen
+ Amazing build quality
+ Good ANC bundled headphones
+ Good battery life
+ Drag and drop, oh yes
+ Quick navigation and UI
+ Good YouTube integration
+ Good value (at Amazon UK)
- No gapless for MP3/AAC/WMA files
- No compressed lossless playback (in NWZ versions)
- Some functionalities not brought over from the A/S-series
- Piss poor web browser
- Accessories a bit hard to come by
- None replaceable battery

The X-series is available for pre-orders from Amazon UK and Amazon.com. US customers can also get the X-series now via Advanced MP3 Player.

Update (27/11): As you may have known (if you read the review above), the browser on the X-Series is piss poor. Sso it may come as a relief to many to know that Sony and Access has finally listened to user complains and release a new firmware update, with a new version of NetFront that supposedly improves displaying and navigation. As usual with all firmware updates, make sure you back up your content first and that your battery is fully charged.

Sony Walkman X-Series 32GB NWZ-X1060B first impressions

Here it is folks, quite possibly the single most important Walkman in Sony's recent history. The X-Series is the first Walkman DAP to feature an OLED screen, WiFi, web browser, digital ANC and S-Master digital amp. And it is a stunner. It is also their first mainstream portable OLED PMP since the Japan exclusive Sony Clie VZ90.

The X-Series I have here is the 32GB model (NWZ-X1060B), but the impression and later review also applies to the X1050 (16GB) and the US-centric models X1061 and X1051 (which has Slacker radio application bundled). The build quality is awesome. It is quite heavy (about the same weight as my Nokia E51), but feels very solid. The OLED screen here is quite simply the most brilliant screen I have ever laid my eyes on. Photographs looks stunning on it. It is a shame that the resolution isn't VGA or above as that would make this a killer PMP.

Usability wise, the UI refresh a bit slower than the S739. For example is draws the album art a fraction of a second after the screen switches. Scrolling through the album art by flicking your finger upwards or downwards is a bit of a gimmick, but it should at least satisfy people into such gimmicks. There is a more traditional approach to selecting albums/genre/artists for people who value function over form. The web browser is also a bit of a downer. I am a huge fan of Netfront browser on Windows Mobile platform, but the lack of advance options and stylus makes it almost unusable. It is also very slow. My advice to potential purchasers of the X-Series interested in web browsing is to only limit yourself to visiting mobile friendly websites.

There is a very small hint of hiss, but nothing as bad as the A818. The sound is definitely warm, quite a surprise as I was initially expecting a digital sound due to the S-Master digital amp. So it was a surprise to hear such Sony-like warm music blasting through my headphone. The amp is also pretty powerful. With my S739, I tend to listen on a 14/30 volume level. Here I can comfortably listen at 11/30. 14/30 on the X1060 is too loud for me. If it helps, I did all my listening test with all enhancements turned off (including Clear Stereo which was enabled by default) via my Sennheiser IE 8. Between the S739 and this, the bass is similar in quantity, but the X1060 is clearer overall. Everything is just clearer with the X1060. I am very impressed.

Review will be posted next week. Please direct any questions in the comments section.

You can pre-order the US versions now. UK residents can get them from Amazon UK for less than RRP.

Sony Walkman NWZ-X1060 & X1061 officially announced

Sony has announced the UK pricing and release date for their OLED touchscreen equipped Walkman.

NWZ-X1050B.CE7 16GB £209 RRP
NWZ-X1060B.CE7 32GB £279 RRP

They will be available at selected retailers and Sony Style high street stores from 13 May 2009 (that's tomorrow!). Or, you can buy them from the web for a slight discount. Amazon UK is taking pre-orders for the X1050B for £199.99 and the X1060B for £249.99.

It isn't cheap (the weak sterling didn't help), but considering the technology (WiFi, OLED touchscreen, web browser, digital amp) and bundle (active noise cancelling in-ear headphones), it is still pretty competitive. In the mean time you can read my review of their S639F and S739F Walkmans.

Update for US residents. Amazon.com is now taking pre-orders on the X-Series Walkman. The US specific model numbers will be designated X1051 and X1061, and will feature the Slacker subscription-based personal radio app.

Sony Walkman NWZ-S739 16GB review

Introduction

This is a review of Sony's Walkman NWZ-S739F digital audio player. If the text appears similar, it is because it borrows heavily from my review of the S639. Both are exactly the same bar a few minor difference, namely the S730 series is only available in brushed metal black casing (in the UK) and comes bundled with an active noise cancelling (ANC) intra aural headphone.

The S739 is the 16GB version of Sony's new Walkman S730 series, similar to the S630 series but slightly more expensive because it has built-in noise cancelling function. This isn't their flagship Walkman, that now belongs to the OLED touchscreen Walkman X1000 series, due out this month, and already out in Japan. Despite that, the S739 offers tremendous value for money, costing an impossible £99 at Amazon UK (the 8GB version is available from Amazon.com for US$104). On the other hand Apple's iPod Nano 4G costs £138 for the 16GB version. You don't need to be a genius to see which offers more for your money. This review also applies to the Walkman S738 (8GB version) and the Walkman S630 series (but you may as well read my review of the S639 here).

Design

Compared to the Walkman A818 and S639, the S739 is similarly well built. The S730's aluminium case has a brushed metal finish in comparison to the A818's matte finish and the S630's smooth finish. Only the black version is available in the UK, which is a shame as I would rather have a red brushed metal version.

Unlike the A810's chrome surrounds, the S730 is surrounded with black plastic giving the player a better grip than it would might have been. The 3.5mm headphone socket is again sensibly placed on the bottom next to the WM-Port, great for fans of jeans and pockets. The ANC switch is also located here. At 46g, it is also 10g lighter than the A818 and has the same weight as the S630. I personally prefer the look of the A810 and A820 series, but to each his/her own. Having said that the S730 is well designed, offering extreme good function in a competent form factor.

Controls



Sharing the same UI and same basic control layout, the S730 is very easy to use and I didn't have to relearn anything. The front of the S730 features a layout similar to a mobile phone. Due to the design of the controls, some has quipped that it bears semblance to the classic 'Mickey Mouse' look, which I do not disagree. Compared to my S630, the buttons are a bit more raised, similar to those found on the A810. Either way, I personally found the A810 to be more intuitive for 'blind' control. Even the volume control on the S730 is harder to feel for. On the upside accidental button presses is less likely, and I am finding myself less reliant on the 'hold' switch. Overall the S730's buttons offers reasonable tactile feedback, which is better than any 'touch-based' controls can ever hope to offer.

Bundles

Like the S630 series, Sony bundles the S730 series with better than average earphones. The headphones bundled here is a hybrid in-ear headphone similar to the EX85 between an canal headphone and a normal earbud. The difference here compared to the EX082 bundled with the S630 is that these phones contains a built-in microphone that captures the surrounding ambient sound. The S730's active noise cancelling engine then analyses the waveform of the noise, and generate a reversed waveform tha cancels out the noise. With this, you not only have a stock headphone that works pretty good at cancelling out background noise, but also offers excellent sound quality (in comparison to the majority of bundled headphones).



Also included is a USB cable and 3 months free trial of Napster To Go, a music subscription service that I am going to guess most won't be bothered with. Still it is rather nice to have a trial to something that is longer than two weeks.

Features

Like any old DAP, the S730 is primarily a music player first. It does have other features that may prove useful to people who care. People who often find themselves bored with their own music collection will be pleased to find a FM radio here. This is also the first drag and drop Walkman to support Podcast (fancy word for pre-recorded amateur radio by bloggers) as well as wallpaper and themes. A competent video player is also present which increased the file support of those featured on their previous Walkman series to include WMV files (including DRM files). The video player is compatible with BBC's iPlayer. An auto-playlist generator in the form of SenseMe is available which generates playlists that is suitable for the time of the day.

Video Playback

First and foremost, the S730 is not designed with primary video playback in mind. If video playback is what you are seeking foremost, a separate device like the Archos or Sony PSP would be better suited. Like the S630, the S730 is capable of playing files encoded in 320x240 resolution using h.264 (Mpeg4-AVC) video format. It can also play WMV9 files, including those coated in DRM. Video playback is smooth and the vibrant LCD display makes watching videos easy on the eye. Options are readily available to the user who wishes to switch the display orientation. Personally I would prefer not to watch videos on the S730 as the screen is rather small. It is great for showing off a couple of music videos or maybe a 20 minute Futurama episode, but for anything longer I highly recommend a PSP or the new Nokia N97 (due out in summer) instead.

Transferring Content



It is amazing how far Sony has opened up when it comes to their newest and greatest Walkman. Transferring content is a doodle. The player is MTP compliant, meaning you can just plug-in and immediately start dragging and dropping content into their appropriate folder. No proprietary and bloated nonsense like Sonic Stage or iTunes to worry about. For those who prefer some form of music management software, the S730 supports a hold host of applications including Windows Media Player, Sony Media Manager, iTunes and my personal favourite, MediaMonkey. Linux geeks will also be pleased to find that the S730 will show up as a UMS device.

Audio

The Walkman supports basic audio codecs such as MP3 up to 320kbps (as well as those encoded in VBR) and WMA. Lossless fans will be disappointed by the lack FLAC, WMA Lossless or even ATRAC3 Lossless. Gapless is also sorely missing, which in the case of this blogger, is more of an irritant than something crucial. The only way to play full CD quality music (including gapless) is through Linear PCM, hardly the sort of thing you may want to do on a device with only 16GB of space. A couple of sound effects are present for those who likes to tinker around including the 5-band equalisers (four presets and two user definable), VTP Surround setting (which I advice to ignore), DSEE (this is only useful for low bitrate files), Clear Stereo and Dynamic Normalizer (do turn this on).

SenseMe



Disappointingly the S730 still lacks an on-the-go playlist editor, which is a crying shame in this day and age. Instead Sony has decided to introduced a feature dubbed SenseMe which analysis the music library and register the tracks into ten preset playlist categories - Pop Ballad, Relax, Extreme, Energetic, Classical, Electronic, Acoustic, Daytime and Lounge. No doubt some may accuse Sony of stealing this technology from a certain fruit company, but this nifty feature is actually a veteran function in Sony Ericsson's Walkman phones. Analysing takes some time and it took more than two hours for the Walkman to sort out 2000+ tracks I uploaded. Probably best to leave it to do its business over night.

I found SenseMe to be pretty accurate, with the odd niggles here and there that is probably best placed in another category. The classical playlist was spookily very accurate with mainly tracks by Bear McCreary, Joe Hisaishi, Vanessa-Mae, Hiromi Haneda (piano) and even 'Intro' from Muse's H.A.A.R.P. live album making the list. Not sure what is so classical about Cradle of Filth though...

Sound Quality

Out of the box, the S739 is one of the best sounding DAP on the market. This is because of the bundled ANC headphones which surpasses many (if not all) usual bundled headphones. You are going to have to spend at least £20-30 to gain some form of improvement, and even then it would only be slightly. As for the S730 itself, the lack of hiss even on sensitive phones makes it an improvement over the old A810 and A820 series. Apart from that the S730 is very impressive sound quality wise, surpassing even the venerable A810 in my opinion. Sound stage is also pretty wide.

Without EQ, the sound isn't as neutral as one might hope. Like the A810, the highs and lows are slightly more defined. Bass here is tight, precise and clean, on both my CX 95 and IE 8, wonderful if you love the warm Sony sound signature. Put is simply, the S730 is the best flash based Walkman yet, if judging purely form the perspective of sound quality, at least until we know more about the X1060. Shame that you can't buy a line-out cable for it yet, so portable amps fans will have to make do with headphone-out.

Battery



I've had the S639 for a couple of months and the S739 for a couple of days and the battery life is just amazing. They can easily go last a week with moderate use. I myself use it for a couple of hours a day and only need to charge it once a week.

A quick note on increasing battery life. Sony's quote of 40+ hours audio playback is impressive, but you will only ever reach that level of impressiveness if you turn off the all those sound effects settings. Bitrates also affect battery life, where the higher the bitrate the more power is needed to decode them. Finding the balanced between achieving acceptable battery life and sound quality is something different people will have to do for themselves. Turning on ANC will also affect the battery life.

Conclusion

Sony has a lot to prove in a market where they once had a monopoly of. The A810 series was a step in the right direction and the S730 and S630 series further proves their commitment. Despite the fair assessment, there are a couple of areas Sony should improve on. For one they ought to implement gapless support (or at least cross fade) for lossy playback, as well as supporting at least one lossless codec. Hell even if it means opening up Atrac3 Lossless. They should also really look into introducing flash based Walkmans with replaceable batteries. Remember those chewing gum Sony batteries? Well I do.

Overall, the S730 series is an amazing portable Digital Audio Player that offers great sound quality for very little of your money. At around £99, there is absolutely no excuse not to buy the 16GB Walkman S739 really, unless you want more space, in which case I suggest waiting for the X1060 OLED touchscreen Walkman.

+ Amazing sound quality
+ Great built quality
+ Good ANC bundled headphones
+ BBC iPlayer support
+ Ridiculous good value
+ Exceptional battery life
+ Drag and drop
+ Quick navigation and UI
- No gapless
- Bundled ANC headphones only work on Walkman models that support it
- No lossless
- Accessories a bit hard to come by
- None replaceable battery
- No 32GB models just yet

9/10

Sony has issued a firmware update for the S730 series. This small utility takes about 3 minutes to update and as far as I know does not format the content of player (well, it didn't on mine). Firmware 1.11 fixes a bug that sometimes (very rarely) causes a random freeze/reset on the player.

The S739 is available from both Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com