Sony S540 Series Leaked
When the new Sony S series made it's first appearance in a leak a couple of weeks ago no specs were known, but now a French online store has gone the whole way and leaked the full specs of the new device.
Sony has gone the usual route of putting in a couple of new features but leaving the rest the same and this time it's a speaker, voice recording and a flip-out stand that are the new additions. The rest is the same old Sony setup with a 320x240 screen, h.264 video, MP3/WMA/AAC audio and a battery life of 42 hours for audio and 6.5 hours for video. it will come in 8GB and 16GB capacities.
Sony's way of updating their players sure doesn't give that much reason for celebration with each upgrade changing only the design and one or two features. This is the fourth generation MTP-capable Sony players and you won't notice many differences from the first generation, which is a good thing for people who don't want to upgrade but it can't be that good for Sony since well, people won't upgrade. So, if you're a soon-to-be Sony user or just really want an upgrade, there's a speaker and voice recorder in it for you and not much else.
Comments
Martin Sägmüller on August 9, 2009 9:12 AM
Disney might sue Sony over the button layout. :p
Michael on August 9, 2009 10:22 AM
Speaker and voice recording...they're actually pretty good additions, though Sony have definitely been milking it as they could've easily added these in the first or second generations of their players. Those earphones seem to be a bit of a downgrade though, and I hope they've fixed the bug from the A818 where any files transferred via copy+paste don't have the year on the info.
loconavi on August 9, 2009 11:31 AM
It better have a sleep timer and a alarm feature to take full advantage of the speaker.
MarvintheMartian on August 9, 2009 1:34 PM
Are they MTP-capable or MTP-only? I could actually ask that about all the Sony players, never having tried one.
Andreas Ødegård on August 10, 2009 12:10 AM
@MarvintheMartian: Sony Insider says its "drag and drop", which frankly doesnt say anything both because MTP can be called drag and drop and because SI also calls 320x240 a "16:9 screen" so I don't really think they know what the phrases they use mean (hence just ignore it). I'm guessing it'll be the same MTP system that the previous players has had that reverts to UMS if you use mac/linux or force it to
ascariss on August 11, 2009 2:35 AM
SI only quoted the information from the french website which stated that the screen is 16:9 and 320x240, clearly from the image it is not 16:9 which was mentioned on this site's forum.
you can force a walkman to UMS, I have done it on windows.
Jason on August 11, 2009 5:49 AM
Aside from the speaker, voice recording, and flip-out stand, will there be anything to differentiate this model from the previous one? That is, will there be any tangible improvement to SQ, UI, or battery life, or is this simply a cosmetic overhaul?
Personally, I think the previous S639 looked better.
ascariss on August 11, 2009 2:49 PM
It has a 2.4 inch screen vs the 2.0 inch screen on the older model.
Anthony on August 12, 2009 10:51 PM
"Disney might sue Sony over the button layout."
LMAO ^
skimhitz on August 13, 2009 9:54 AM
@Jason:
It's a Sony. They already nailed the SQ, UI, and battery life quite some time ago.