Sony’s NWZ-E budget MP3 player range leaked
(Image courtesy of Sony Insider)
Sony New Zealand managed to leak information of an upcoming range of new budget MP3 Walkmans. It seems the information has now been removed again from their website, but not before several other sites could grab the details.
In what looks to be another bid for the iPod Nano market, Sony is releasing 3 tiny MP3 players carrying the model name NWZ-E. They will come in 2GB, 4GB and 8GB capacities and have the following features:
- 2-inch QVGA LCD screen
- 8.5mm thickness
- 50g in weight
- 29/7 hour battery life (128kbps music playback/384kbps video playback)
- Drag and drop song transfer compatible with Windows Media Player and iTunes
- FM tuner
- Playback of MP3, WMA, AAC, Linear PCM, H.264/MPEG-4
You can expect to see the NWZ-E range appear on sale before the end of September, but no details of pricing have been made available yet. The 2GB NWZ-E435 will be available in black or pink, 4GB NWZ-E436 in black, blue, pink or red and the 8GB NWZ-E438 in just black.
Read more at Sony Insider and the TFTS blog
Matthew’s Opinion
I think all that any manufacturer can do now to compete with Apple is release totally open players. They need to be able to play as many formats as possible, have no proprietary software involved and be rich on features.
The NWZ-E range seems to have a good mix of features, but nothing that makes them stand out. If they had thrown an extra 8GB of storage in, or even released a 32GB version, then there would certainly be a reason to choose this player over some others.
Price is also going to be a key factor in deciding to purchase one of these. Sony products usually carry a premium, but I don’t think they can afford to apply one when it comes to MP3 players. They need to be cheaper than the Nano and at least comparable with other players in the same category.
