Sony E440 & B140 Walkman Announced for the EU
I really do enjoy Sony’s mp3 players and even more so now that they are lightened up on their proprietary ways. However I’m not entirely sure of their strategy to blanket the store shelves with a new player every few months. I guess it keeps their product line fresh, but it is much of the same stuff rehashed into a different case.
This E series player isn’t too different from the last E series from what I can tell, but it does mention that this is the first E series with “Clear Audio” which improves the sound stage. This is found on the Sony X series and while I did find it to improve sound stage a bit I’m not sure it’s a feature worth upgrading for. But I likely will pick one of these up to see if it has a similar sound to the X series. I have been really enjoying the X-1000 lately and using it almost exclusively while I’m out and about. This E440 could be a nice alternative to the astronomically priced X series. If you are into something a bit more portable the B140 follows their familiar “stick player” formula like the B130 but with a nicer design and a "zap" feature allowing you to listen to random parts of a track.
The EU press release states that these will be widely available at the end of July. Nothing is said about the US but I'm sure we will likely see them shortly after.
[Press Release via Engadget]
Comments
thedarkside on July 15, 2009 6:23 AM
The S series, if it ever comes in 32gb - YES. This, the budget E series w/it's constant rebuilding of the library on almost every start - NO!!!!
pudsey456 on July 16, 2009 2:36 AM
This looks like the S630 in a new enclosure, because it's 2", has clear stereo etc, which is the same feature set as the S630. According to the UK website it also adds FM recording.
Sony tends to drop the ball on features by not including an obvious wish that everyone would have. e.g. there's no streaming internet radio on the X1000 unless you get the US version with Slacker. Sony apparently thinks direct podcast downloads is innovative enough... this is something they often do in product planning.
They also add features and capacity slower than the rivals, so I have to disagree and say Sony's yearly facelifts can help justify a purchase, if you're in the market for one. The second/third iteration of the same thing (e.g. the higher-quality looks of the S730 as opposed to the plasticky S710) can be a very nice fix.
humorsimpson on July 17, 2009 9:33 AM
Sony could stop with the refreshes as often if they would just update their firmware and build in capacity expansion, like mini-MS or better yet, micro SD slot. But then, Sony's a HW company, not a SW company, so they prefer to "force" people to buy new devices to get upgrades. Granted, that not all upgrades can be accomplished through firmware updates and require new HW.
A.A. on July 19, 2009 6:06 PM
Interestingly the E440 series has slightly lower battery life than the E430 series.
30hrs music/6hrs video vs 45hrs music/8hrs video on the E430 series.