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New Asian Sony A-Series Features 64GB Flash

By: Andreas Ødegård on September 16, 2009 2:15 AM

sony-a840.jpg

While most companies use the same players worldwide, Sony unfortunately runs with two lines of players; the NWZ players in Europe/US/etc, and the NW players in Asia. The NW series tend to get the better deal when new players are announced, and the new Sony NW-A840 is a perfect example of just that.

The 7.2mm(!) thick device sports a 2.8" OLED screen, 29 hours of battery life for audio and 9 hours of battery life for video along with "premium" headphones like other higher end Sony players comes with. A new feature is TV out, supporting up to 480p (720x480). It will arrive October 31st with capacities of 16GB, 32GB and 64GB making it the second player to the market and first non-iPod player with 64GB of integrated flash memory. When or if this will ever make it to the US and Europe is unknown, and frankly unlikely, but these specs deserved a plug anyways.

[Sony Insider]

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Comments

Andy on September 16, 2009 5:47 AM

Sony make some nice players alright.

waris on September 16, 2009 6:37 AM

Not that Mickey Mouse D-pad AGAIN.

Other than that, looks swell.

FutureManFromTheFuture on September 16, 2009 8:48 AM

Me want. Me want real bad.

This player is in my mind exactly everything my dream player had to be.

Pricey, but man, I love it.

Skobbolop on September 16, 2009 9:47 AM

Andreas Ødegård is a News Correspondent at anythingbutipod, but at the same time he has his own homepage where he reviews iPods and iPod apps... it actually seems like he owns an iPod...

i thought the crew at anythingbutipod were against Apple players.. hence the name ?

Joe Edwards on September 16, 2009 11:03 AM

I just got the ZuneHD for music playback (don't tell my Sony X-1050) as my iPhone just doesn't have the battery life for phone, text, apps AND music. :( Love the ZuneHD...and it does unicode!!!

Nonetheless, I will definitely be importing this model if the U.S. doesn't get the NWZ version of it this fall.

My love of Sony (30+ years now) is stronger than that for Apple and MS.

I guess everyone knows where the balance of my student loans go, huh? :)

Yazad Dhunjisha on September 16, 2009 11:38 AM

Looks really good and it is sooo slim. For a non touch screen player it has a very big screen which is awesome. High resolution too and TV out. Nice job Sony.

FutureManFromTheFuture on September 16, 2009 1:07 PM

What is WQVGA in human terms?

Superkris on September 16, 2009 3:34 PM

Damn... i have been waiting for this for many years. I had a 32GB zen, and now a 32g S9, but they are all to small to mee. After owing a hardisk player (sony nw-A3000) i was never going to buy a hd based player again. I want many gigs of flash!!!

GimmeTheLoot on September 16, 2009 10:01 PM

btw, this also has the S-Master digital amp.. may be the same as in the x-series and will BLOW anything away in terms of audio quality.

olle on September 18, 2009 1:56 AM

does it have bluetooth?

jo on September 19, 2009 1:58 PM

How much does it cost?

Joe Edwards on September 19, 2009 11:44 PM

If someone has decent Japanese skill please confirm that these players have the option of drag-and-drop.

My Japanese skills are very limited, but from what I could read (and from the pictures) it seems drag/drop is an option now.

If this is the case..wow!!!

waris on September 20, 2009 9:01 AM

"it seems drag/drop is an option now."

...welcome to (late) 2007?

Andreas Ødegård on September 21, 2009 8:32 AM

@waris: While NWZ players have been using MPT/fallback-UMS for years, Asian NW sony players have actually still been using the old sony system including atrac files etc.

Sony owner on September 21, 2009 7:02 PM

If drag n drop is an option, how would one transfer files to the player? Does the Asian version get a decent media software?

Let's hope Sony includes a decent media software instead of their dreaded Content Transfer or Media Manager software!

When available, you can always buy from HK shops since many REPUTABLE ones are online with their brick n mortar stores!

Though it'll be expensive though!

Amazon JP lists high Yen amounts so using ~92USD conversion rate, it'll be over $300 esp. the 64Gb version!!

Mp3 owner on September 23, 2009 12:13 AM

Let's hope Sony does NOT screw up with the newer A-Series like it did with the E- or S-series.

Sony can NOT make ANY media software to go with their mp3 players or SE phones! Period!
Content Transfer is a JOKE!
No Ripping, No file editing and no video conversion/ripping!

How the Hell does Sony expect to use their player?
Try WinMedia Player! Who the hell uses WMP?!
It's just as BAD!!!

Sony makes good hardware but can NOT create software for their products! Do research on Sony and you'll find out that the company is all screwed up as different divisions do NOT communicate with each other!

No wonder that company is NOT doing well financially!

SwayDizzle on September 23, 2009 3:16 PM

woah Mp3 owner u can use most the music software with their newer mp3s, no1 is forcing you to use sonys own software.

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