More Sony Players Emerging at IFA
We already saw the E430 series a few days ago and the rest of the new Sony players have now been announced at IFA. The new player lines feature a higher capacity version of the E430 which will take over for the S610 and S710 series and a new USB stick type player.
The S630 and S730 series' are almost identical in design to the E430 series, in fact the only difference I can see is that the S630 and S730 looks to be a bit longer. The specs are almost identical as well, with the same format support for both video and audio and an FM tuner. Compared to the players they are replacing the battery life is slightly improved with 40 hours of music and 10 hours of video and the new players also seem to be UMS and not MTP like their predecessors. Judging from the pictures the menu seem to be either skinable or at least support wallpapers now, something I know some people have been missing in Sony players. The S730 will be the noise cancellation version of the two new players, a feature I tested on the S710 and found to be rather useless with the earbuds that came with the player (and no other NC earphones are available for it). The S630 and S730 will come in 4, 8 and 16GB sometime in September. Update: Gizmodo reports that the S series will feature a mood sensing technology where you select the mood you're in from a list of 11 moods and the player will choose music that fits the mood. Sounds weird but also interesting.
The other new player announced was the B130. Originally there was supposed to be a new USb stick player released months ago but we haven't seen anything of it, so hopefully this one will actually be released in our part of the world. The B130 does however not hav a color LCD or the fancy interchangeable face plates the other player had. the battery life is equally unimpressive with 16 hours, but at least it has a fast charge technology that gives you 90 minutes of listening time from 3 minutes of charging.
[GenerationMP3 | Gizmodo]
Comments
nywytboy68 on August 28, 2008 10:43 AM
Still no 32gb model? What da' hell is with Sony? Great SQ, nice features, a slight codec expansion, but STILL ONLY maxed @16gb!!!! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!
Andrew T on August 28, 2008 11:40 AM
STILL no microSD Card slot?! What a dissapointment...
Skobbolop on August 28, 2008 1:24 PM
i need those 32 gb! I don't know what to do.. both iRiver and Sony players are maxed out at 16 gb...
why?
juggleboy711 on August 28, 2008 3:54 PM
I've had my playlists sorted by moods for years with my genres sorted by the style of music Limit: 10
grillface on August 28, 2008 5:41 PM
Any chance that those of us with an a72x.82x Walkman will get an update that lets us customise the menus?
Unlikely, but it would be cool.
Chowdder on August 28, 2008 6:16 PM
Well I wouldn't expect Sony to put out a MP3 player with microSD anyways. If they're going to put out MP3 players with expandable memory it's going to be using Sony's proprietary memory stick micro. I would buy Sony MP3 players if only they have radio and voice recording.
Gdog on August 28, 2008 9:19 PM
With a custom menu and 40hr batt this thing rocks. all it needs is 2.5"screen and mic. then it will make me my think twice about my Zen.
AA on August 29, 2008 4:36 AM
B130 is already released here in Australia.
but I know the S730's predcessor, the S710 wasn't available in Australia or NZ-it looks like only the E430/S630 will be released here.
Frodo on August 29, 2008 3:47 PM
what mood is happy hardcore?
Syndrome on August 29, 2008 9:20 PM
Whats with all the useless players from Sony? What happened to their old USB stick type players that could get 60 hours of battery life, and take a real beating? And sound good the whole time. Its starting to get really sad when you look at the dap market.
Andreas Ødegård on August 31, 2008 8:46 AM
@ Syndrome: O agree these players dont look that interesting, but remember they are an update to the S series and the introduction of a cheaper E series. The S series was due for a design update and I think they succeeded in that, and the extended battery life and mood sensing isnt bad either. With sony you get a bug free player at release every time, so they can afford to release players that are really only minor updates. Players such as the D2 still have firmware bugs after two years of firmware updates, if they were to release new players at the rate of sony they wouldnt be fully operational until 10 new models had been released.