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Sony's new A910 series hits the 16GB mark
comment: 21 | Thursday, September 27 (2007) 04:36AM | Posted by Michael
Remember when we all dreamed about 16GB flash players months ago? Our dreams became a reality recently with the arrival of the Creative Zen, Sansa View, and iPod Touch. Now, Sony wants a piece of the action. They just announced the A910 series in Japan. The player will range in size from 4 to 16GB. The A910 has an impressive array of features, including built-in noise cancellation, and the ability to watch and record television (via 1seg broadcasting).

Features
:

  • Capacity: 4, 8, and 16GB
  • Display: 2.4" TFT (320 x 240)
  • Audio: MP3, WMA, ATRAC, AAC
  • Video: MPEG-4, and H.264
  • FM Tuner
  • Line-in recorder
  • Built-in antenna for watching and recording TV
  • Noise-Cancellation function
  • Battery Life: 36 hours for audio, 10 hours for video, 6 hours for watching TV
  • Dimensions: 86.8 × 48 × 12.3mm (74g)
  • Colors; Black or Silver


While I won't praise the A910 for its design, I still have to give props to Sony. They're almost always playing catchup when it comes to new trends. Of course, Sony couldn't leave without frustrating us a little. It seems like SonicStage has reared its ugly head again and will be needed for transferring music. The A910 will launch on November 17th, which coincidentally was the launch day for the PS3 last year (useless info FTW). Pricing will be as follows: 4GB for 30,000 Yen ($262US), 8GB for 35,000 Yen ($305US), and the 16GB for 45,000 Yen ($393US).

LINK (via, AV Watch)
Comments

pata2001

Comments: 141
Sep 27 (2007) 05:04AM  

Don't worry and don't bother. This is Japan only. Sony products are so great that people cannot even buy them locally anymore. Sony is so smart in doing business that when Apple released the iPod Touch worldwide, Sony releases their products only in Japan, and much later.
[ edited Sep 27 (2007) 05:07AM ]




Steve

Comments: 1197
Sep 27 (2007) 05:41AM  

I like the design. It looks like a pda, or if you turn it on the side it could resemble the Zen. I think it's a very attractive design, and the good features speak for themselves. Unfortunately, the bad features speak for Sony.




Michael
Location: New York City
Comments: 2786
Sep 27 (2007) 05:52AM  

Have you seen it in Silver? My first thought was that it looked like a generic player that I see on Chinese dap sites (see: imp3.net). Black is nicer though, but I still expect more considering it's Sony.

I just think Sony could make something sexier than this:






[ edited Sep 27 (2007) 06:16AM ]




Steve

Comments: 1197
Sep 27 (2007) 06:53AM  

Well, i'm a sucker for squares and straight lines, no doubt about it. I think the generic pda look is a proven design that works. That's why I think the Chinese dap makers use it, too. I"ve seen very few attempts to deliberately depart from it that I like. The Rio Carbon is an exception that worked extremely well, but it's rare. The Trekstor Vibez is an example that tried to be diametrically opposite, and it made me sick.




Agent Smith

Comments: 83
Sep 27 (2007) 11:50AM  

The TV tuner is useful, but the SonicStage, price, and lack of a SDHC expansion slot kill the deal for me.

Not having an expansion slot is retarded. A slot costs the manufacturer almost nothing, yet makes the player attractive to a larger market.




bloodycape

Comments: 705
Sep 27 (2007) 04:24PM  

I like this but the fact that it is sonic stage kills it for me.




Shippy

Comments: 22
Sep 27 (2007) 05:10PM  

if this comes to the us it probably won't have sonic stage or atrac




Michael
Location: New York City
Comments: 2786
Sep 27 (2007) 05:18PM  

I don't think it'll come here though. Well, not a TV version at least. We'll likely see a slimmed down one here.




undesign

Comments: 786
Sep 27 (2007) 06:08PM  

There have been so many complaints about what sony does for so many years now. Is it any wonder why their company is losing millions of dollars in profits?

Everytime they release something, there is always a huge amount of potential for their product, but its held back by some kind of idiotic decision from an employee at sony over one MAJOR (really stupid) flaw. Releasing that thing on sonic stage and calling it a mistake is far too generous. I don't see Sony lasting a long time in the dap industry, steve jobs and his RDF have taken over to such a degree, it would take something extraordinary for sony to reclaim its 'walkman' days.

Anyway, nice product, awesome features, too many setbacks for a seller, typical sony of the last 5 years.




Design Fabulous

Comments: 1038
Sep 28 (2007) 03:00AM  

Good to see more 16GB devices in the market. I'm having mixed feelings about this... I really hate the design but it seems like a good product compaired to other crap they've been making.




Magicster

Comments: 15
Sep 28 (2007) 05:04AM  

I personally think sony would gain more customers if they ditched the TV tuner and replaced it with wifi




Design Fabulous

Comments: 1038
Sep 28 (2007) 06:21PM  

^ I'm just guessing but, if Japan was similar to Korea, a TV tuner would be much more preferred.




FenderP

Comments: 46
Sep 29 (2007) 02:25AM  

Why the hate for Sonic Stage? Sure it's not drag & drop, but ATRAC is decent and SS really improved. Plus, with ATRAC you get gapless again in a Sony player. It also supports ATRAC lossless as well as AAC (which may be gapless, too) and WMA. Codec wise, it's pretty complete for the non-open source ones (OGG, FLAC).

This looks way better than the iPod touch IMHO If they didn't have the TV tuner thing, it'd be much better, but then again, it's not going to be marketed here.

I just bought and returned an iPod Classic 160GB. Great features, but iTunes is a billion times worse than SS ever was and I couldn't deal with it. It made Sonic Stage look like the Mona Lisa and itunes was a drawing done with crayons. Horrible. All of my other DAPs (Sony, Toshiba, Rio, Cowon) were all better than the iPod.




Steve

Comments: 1197
Sep 29 (2007) 05:39AM  

How was the sound quality on the ipod classic?




FenderP

Comments: 46
Sep 29 (2007) 10:34AM  

SQ was fine. Not inspiring, but fine. SQ was not my issue with the iPod. Everything else was including the idiotic click wheel.




Design Fabulous

Comments: 1038
Sep 29 (2007) 02:37PM  

^ I absolutely hate the sound of my 5.5G iPod. Did Apple improve this time or something?




FenderP

Comments: 46
Sep 29 (2007) 06:46PM  

Never owned an iPod before, so you're asking the wrong person if it improved vs. an older generation.

Hoepfully I will never be forced to buy an Apple product again.




pata2001

Comments: 141
Sep 30 (2007) 06:59PM  

Hoepfully I will never be forced to buy an Apple product again.

I'm sorry, but who forced you to buy an Apple product?




Steve

Comments: 1197
Sep 30 (2007) 07:17PM  

Don't make him go there, it's too painful.




FenderP

Comments: 46
Oct 03 (2007) 04:55PM  

Well, at least in the US, discounting running Rockbox on some DAPs, name me a 60+ GB DAP besides the iPod that supports gapless out of the box?

Take out players that there is ROckbox for (been there, done that - too homebrew and kills battery IMO), or Archos (I don't want a PMP and do not plan on playing videos) - I know the market well. There are none. Sure, the new Sansa View is supposedly gapless but 16GB is nowhere near enough.

That's where the forced comment came from. My options were pretty much nil ... and I tried the iPod. Ugh.




akasan

Comments: 6
Feb 21 (2008) 12:02PM  

I went crazy two weeks ago and bought the 80 gig ipod classic. I loaded itunes on my computer and once I had it running, I thought WTF, people consider this buggy thing better than sonicstage? Luckily you can use Mediamonkey with the ipod and I would have been happy except the sound quality on this thing sucks with headphones. It isn't neccesarily bad, but it isn't sony. I thought about returning it but the strangest thing is that the back of the ipod seems to scratch if a slight breeze blows against it. And the 6g ipods do not run rockbox. I'll keep it for in house use, i hear the bose sound dock is good (feel free to suggest alternatives) but for portable use I shall be sticking with sony, and I'll be getting the 16gb when it is released here in the states. Funny that apple creates this fancy device yet seems oblivious to the fact that it is a MUSIC player. When I first put music on it, everything was distorted but then I ran all my files through mp3gain and then mediamonkey (which has the features of mp3gain built in and No I don't work for media monkey) and the distortion was gone but compared to sony the music is flat and why is it that I don't have to run my files through mp3gain to play correctly on sony (or almost any other player for that matter?)




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