Video Killed the Radio Star - NW-A800 Series Is Official
Photo - Music - Video; QVGA; 262,144 colors; TFT color display with white LED-backlight; ATRAC, ATRAC Advanced Lossless, MP3, WMA, AAC, MPEG-4, AVC (h.264); 53 grams & 8.3mm width; 30 hours music, 8 hours video playback. Click to watch rad video introduction of NW-A800.
The Walkman of the 21st century has arrived.
After speculation induced by ATRACLife with our stunning initial spy pictures and specifications, Sony has announced the NW-A800 series on March 1st, 2007 or what will forever be known as V-Day. Three models will be available: NW-A805 (2gb), NW-A806 (4gb), and NW-808 (8gb) in black, white, pink and violet. Drag and drop video and picture functionality will be present, however audio transfers will still require the assistance of Sonicstage. The product will ship with Sonicstage 4.3, Image Converter 3, and a new Walkman portal-esque program dubbed Walkman Launcher to ensure true ease of use for newcomers and seasoned veterans of the Sony personal entertainment experience.
How is the screen? QVGA (240×320) and 30fps, which is about twice the size of the Nano display. For a 2 inch screen, that is stunning. Brightness is somewhere between the iPod Nano and iPod Video, and color reproduction and contrast is higher than the aforementioned competition. Videos and pictures can be played vertically, or horizontally (both ways, left and right). Don’t want the annoying 16:9 bars with status information at the bottom? No problem, take it full screen and enjoy the content. Watch a photo slideshow whilst listening to music. Video playback will ooze a sense that this is a high-quality premium device.
The user interface is akin to the NW-A3000/A1000’s 3×3 interface, but has been revamped and features a more attractive flow. Icons glow, menu transitions are steadfast and there are a sea of options to ensure that the experience is right for everyone. There are three methods of search: Artist, Album and Song. Searching for music is easier now as the letters can be side-scrolled alphabetically at the top to get to your favorite artist quickly. Albums can be searched via title, title and cover art, or cover art only. This is only the tip of the iceberg; there is much, much more.
Audio offerings are good; Linear PCM is not supported, but ATRAC Advanced Lossless is. MP3, WMA, AAC and ATRAC are all supported up to 320kbps (ATRAC3plus to 352kbps). Three sound technologies are also included: DSEE, Clear Bass, and Clear Stereo. MDR-EX082 13.5mm headphones are included with the package to ensure a relatively decent stock listening experience.
The NW-A800 series will debut worldwide in April. More pictures (high resolution shots here) after the jump.
A Drag and Drop in a Sony Walkman? Are you kididng me?
Drag and drop for video and pictures only. Music is still hampered with unnecessary reliance on SS for transfers….Plus the PRICE!!!! I am sticking with Cowon.
prices in canada:
$169 for 2GB
$229 for 4GB
$299 for 8GB
this is very competitive price up here, right on the money with the nano, available in may 2007.
I find the device to be quite attractive although Sony could have done better and incorporated design elements of s7. SQ wise I´d expect the A800 to be exactly the same as s7. Omission of noise canceling AND radio is painful and along with SS4.3 a deal breaker. Plain ridiculous marketing move of the likes I have come to expect from Sony Marketing. If I wanted to buy I´d wait a few weeks and see how street prices come down. Here in Germany a 8 gig Nano sells for 216 so 299 is way to much for A800. Overall this move by Sony is far from impressive. They have added a bigger Screen to a Nano design + Video.
Well, everone owning a K800i can imagine what video will look like on the A800. Far from impressive, a gimmick. There is a reason why Apple reserves video for larger screens.
Noise Canceling???
Does anyone know if Sony are planning to release a new 20GB (or higher) model with video too??
It’s astonishing that Sony hasn’t put down Sonicstage yet..
Drag and drop video/pictures not Audio??? You have to be kidding me. There is no reason for that other than forcing us to use SS.
Colour me impressed - particularly about the price. The CDN 8gb is going to retail for $299, which is about US$270. So for maybe 20 bucks more than a Nano - and exactly the same price for us - you get video, better sound quality and battery life, more formats supported and headphones actually worth keeping? That’s pretty incredible. I’ll be interested to see this new ‘Walkman Launcher’ - hopefully it makes things straightforward for your average user.
But for now, I’m going to secretly hope my current Walkman breaks…
Very nice price for the functionalities: including video but most importantly supplied MDR-EX082!!!
I can’t believe people are still biased about SonicStage. Lastest version is really not bad at all.
[...] The Walkman of the 21st century has arrived - AtracLife, March 1 2007Â Â Â Â [...]
“Drag and Drop” is just an interface used to transfer files to another device. Sonicstage is not that bad. It always the user better file management tool, so that you can arrange your files.
Having an Application that managers the location of audio, video, and picture files would be the best. Some media players require the user to search for the content that they want to use. Sony should improve Sonicstage so that it can take a larger workload.
The features of the NW-A800 is very impressive. It could be better. Sony’s products have always come at a premium, and yes it is worth it. Sony has earned their reputation over of several decades.
Will it break the iHype, such as “iPods look the same since the very first.” Actually it has changed, not signifcantly (and there were complaints) but it changed.
Seeing the official photos, I’m really liking this device. The headphone jack on the bottom isn’t so exciting, but I can deal with it. The new interface reminds me of screenshots I’ve seen of the Walkman 2.0 interface on SE Walkman phones.
Something I assume is missing from this device is video out support, like the PSP. You can watch video on the screen, but not watch it on a bigger TV (like the video iPod.) By no means a deal-breaker, but could’ve been a nice touch. The BT dongle add-on for wireless headphones/stereo streaming is nice, but would’ve been cool to have added in. I think it would have put them ahead of the competition. It’s something that’s in SE”s Walkman phones, why not this too?
Any word on if this device will have visualizations for music? They added it to the PSP after launch via a firmware update, but what a great way to use that nice big screen. I would even be OK with the same ones from the PSP.
I’ll be interested to hear what the US price will be, once it’s formally announced for here. Nice work, Sony.
Hey how about lyrics display? that’ll be so cool if that was to be included as well.
Worldwide in April, you say? Here I thought Sony was snubbing everyone but Europe for the next 6+ months.
Only a few years behind.
Drag/drop pics mean nothing.
Drag/drop video takes the work off of Sony as now we will need a 3rd party converter to meet the limited video standards of the device. I see there is no Xvic support. …/sigh
If this had pure drag-drop on all files and a wider video codec support I MIGHT be interested, but the price just is not up to par.
Come on Sony, you just don’t get it…
@Damage:No! Only videos can be drag and dropped.
The interface looks very nice, much better than I expected. But they should add lyrics support and include browse by composer. It’s good to know navigation is fast, since that was one of the big problems with previous Walkmans. I hope this means cover art pictures show up fast as well, as with the Zune. One question is if it displays information all the time or goes dark, as the A1000/3000. But based on the reactions I’ve seen so far, it will be one more Sony effort to be wiped by the iPod, unfortunately. Sony could address that by eliminating the need to use SonicStage. The ability to use drag & drop, or any program that can sync with a mass storage player, would certainly destroy many of the arguments people have against Sony.
Oh, and I see this as a music player. Really, video on such a small screen is not very useful. I think the iPod’s 2.5 inch screen is already tiring enough, what to say about this one?
finally,a sony walkman player you can really consider more “up-to-date”.now all they need is a big hard drive video player and their set.maybe the psp2…
but anyway this is gonna be sweet when it debuts in April.
Well, the new Walkman is really promising and I like it. Especially the sound quality will be exceptional. But I am not going to buy this. I have moved to Sony Ericsson. There I have a Walkman plus a mobile phone in one device. Perfect audio quality, multi-format support, MPEG4 video playback and built-in A2DP Bluetooth. Look at the new Sony Ericsson W880i - this is the true iPod Killer, about same this as the iPod Nano, very sexy looking. This is the future: Sony Ericsson Walkman Phones. Sony should better try to better support them!
Its only in my mind
But which way its better than any sellphone whith broken gsm/cdma? Only 8 gb - Storage device - wow cool. It have poor sound like all flash hdd sony stuff. Look at psp - great video to go, look at old cd 98X or 2000 walkman - its sound way better then atrac loss shit. Its all way bad “player” with big memory.
It is a Sony, so needles to say that it is a lovely, beautiful and very intricate machine- but I don’t understand why they have dismissed the radio. If they can put a radio in the sw-706, wich is much smaller, why can’t they put one in the body of this player?
Apart from the negative aspects pointed out above, I’m disappointed there’s no “music genre” search! I use it a lot to group similar artits and if I want to play all my rock songs I can’t, on this thing.
Please tell me I didn’t get it right.
I think three flasbased series (1xx,6/7xx&8xx) is too much; despite the video possibilities of the 8xx (hardly usuable on a 2′ screen), all three are basically flashaudioplayers.
On the official sony site it says 32 hours of video and 130 hours of audio on the 8 gig modle?!? Is that right?!?! Plus im v impressed. This isnt the ipod killer, no, but it shows sonys still in the game, and i look forward to hearing more about the other video products launching this year? Sounds like the start of big plans to me
Plus, is connect gonna be improved??? Video downloads etc???
Who actually uses a portable device to play back video and pictures. I have seen zillions of people with ipod nano’s but I have never seen anybody watching a video on one of them. Portable music players are almost a neccessity in the 21st century because we are always on the move, but portable video players???????? come on!!!!!!
Very impressive! It looks very nice. Oh, for Anthony, portable video players. That was one of the biggest things for the new iPod. Anyone remember the commercials. “IPOD NOW PLAYS VIDEOS!” Besides, I use ss and I like it! Congrats Sony, keep working!
There’s a hands-on video preview of the NW-A800 that I just uploaded here: New Sony NW-A800 Video Walkman: Hands on review
keen observation anthony. the point is companies like sony and apple want do sell their drm ridden video content to the crowd. the only environment in which lo-res, lo-fi bandwidth saving video will work is in the portable market. screens are limited so no need for qual. of course apple is going to change that to some extent with itv and sony is betting on ps3 to do the same job. personally i don´t care for video on the road..
hmm.. the headphone jack is on the bottom. what about putting it in a pocket? that’s just odd to me. it does look cool overall though. what happened to matching colour earbuds like the previous A-walkman?
It should have an expansion slot for magicgate sticks
EX082? Is it the same with EX085?
Who else thinks this will help launch the beginning of the Sony video store? If you look at the PSP connect site (psp.connect.com), it’s taking on the same look and feel of the Sony Connect music store (at least for the US.) I imagine they will want to start pushing video content on both devices at the same time here in the States. And there’s been talk for a while now about a video download service from Sony (note the clip of “Fast and the Furious” in the video above) … where is this store? Will the service also be compatible with the PS3? Maybe we can even plug in this device into the PS3 and watch videos on our TV’s this way… oh, the possibilities we can imagine.
The hardware looks impressive but SonicStage is the deal breaker. Say “No” to SonicStage. I don’t think I can buy another Sony walkman product. I’m not a fan of Apple but I got an iPod because it integrates with my car audio system. I think Sony kinda missed the boat for this round of portable music. I wish this product would just work with WMP. Sony can add their download store to WMP. Why sony why?
SS still required to transfer audio?!!!
These days, I just pop over to AtracLife for a laugh to watch the different ways Sony shoots itself in the foot every month.
Let’s pray this handicapped product fails once more to revive Sony’s fortunes in the DAP market. Perhaps another flop might get them to shake off the pressures from their music label and shelve SS once and for all?
I know this might be hard for some of you to believe, but there are advantages to using a program like SonicStage or iTunes to manage your music and transfer to your device. For example, you can create dynamic playlists based on ratings, the number of times played, most recently played, etc. An ideal device would allow both drag-and-drop and music management software.
So when will Sony USA be making their announcement about the NW-A800? I haven’t seen any press releases on Sony USA’s site. However, the NW-A1200’s are no longer able to be added to your cart on sonystyle.com. Any word on what’s going here in the US? Is April really still legit for the Americans?
What is wrong with SS?
Is a perfectly fine program, I’ve been using for years…
I’m still using NW-HD3, still working fine, but I have been drooling over new players…looks like it finally comes, but the HDD size sucks.
=)
Eugh, Sony kills me.
I ride a bike and like to change tracks on the move, this meant Apples iPod controls were out as you couldn’t skip forwards/back easily with them. I went with the NWA-3000 as it has a large storage capacity and a lovely set of controls that mean I can precisely skip forwards, backwards and pause without having to get off my bike to see what I’m doing.
When I first saw this I was hopeful. But only 8GB maximum? Come on! My entire music collection has nearly filled my NWA-3000 and yes I could start picking and choosing what audio I want with me but I’d far rather be able to dump the whole lot onto my MP3 player.
In this day and age, they should have bigger storage options. As for SonicStage, don’t even get me started…
Anyone who suspects the Ipod killer has arrived or even that Sony will begin to rebound in market share off this limited product is deluded. It’s as snazzy and sexy in appearance as one could expect, but it still comprises fewer features than many other players. Additionally, I don’t think companies ever make bold statements belatedly integrating “new” features consumers now take for granted. Truly, I agree with those who have expressed Sony simply doesn’t get it. I, an allegiant Sony fan who uses Hi-MD and the NW-HD5, don’t expect they will anymore. It really does appear they’ve missed the boat on this round in the portable audio player market, and the game won’t be theirs until they’re willing to advance it. After all, Apple’s growing mammoth market share levels, given its own proprietary insanity, only induce its users to continue buying Apple. Buying anything else requires that one redo a whole music library, and swapping one for a Sony means redoing one in yet another proprietary format. Apple will reign as the proprietary leader. I don’t think Sony stands half a chance pretending it has any business holding on to that hope, either. This device looks great, and I’ll probably lust after the 20-gig version, assuming Sony is smart enough to release one. But it’s another failure. Easy.
It’s such a shame most of you don’t know what quality is. Sony is quality. I’ve already ordered this baby in violet from Japan and I can’t wait. This will be my 4th nw walkman and I love them all. No other player out today can provide me with the incredible sound quality sony products have put out from the start..And my god sonicstage is not that big of a deal…I honestly do not see a problem with it and i’ve been using it for almost 4 years…Ipod will always be the half-assed sorry excuse for a music player to me….just useless pieces of metal with flat sound.
[...] latest Image Converter 3 has landed! As we have reported previously, Image Converter 3 will ship with the new NW-A800 series and it will serve as the Walkman’s [...]
When oh when are Sony going to wake up and let us “Apple” people have a Mac ox version of SonicStage??? they must be loosing Millions by not providing this software.
I bought the 8GB walkman yesterday, and after charging it and transferring half my library, haven’t had time to actually play with it yet… but, about the headphone jack on the bottom… I think that is designed with a neck strap in mind. If you hang it around your neck, you want it hanging upside down so that when you flip it up to look at it it is right-side up… Someone mentioned putting it in a pocket, but just put it in upside down… you can’t see it, what does it matter whether it is right-side up or not??
I have a problem, i downloaded all the software(sonicstage,imageconverter and walkman launch).When i try to transfer music onto my mp3 walkman, a ERROR box appears and tell me that:”Omgjbox.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.”Anybody has any solutions?
Anybody have any suggestions cuz i called sony and nothing
I want one of these so bad. Credit card(s) in hand, I go to the sonystyle usa website only to find three idiot-looking mp3 players. Looking at the webpage, I thought maybe I went back in time 5-6 years. Go to sonystyle.com, you’ll see what I’m talking about. When the HELL is sony going to release the a800 in the US?
I just got the NW-808 and am most impressed with the sound quality and looks!
Just have to put up with the interface…
Ipod = great interface but lower quality sound
you must just decide what is more important to you…
Does anyone know where to purchase accesories for the NW-808?
I am looking for a waterproof housing…
Also does it come with an “itrip” ?
I bought one…the sound is EXCELLENT. I have 2 other MP3 players but
they are collecting dust now.
Only thing I don’t like….maybe I’m doing something wrong….I can’t seem to
transfer my existing MP3 files from my computer to the Sony Walkman. I can only buy the tunes from their website which sucks considering this was the sole reason I never went for Apple i-pod.
I have videos on my walkman that successfully were added from my laptop - I have just purchaced a new PV windows vista and loaded the softwear and no videos appear in the righthand list yet still show up if I plug walkman into laptop!
What’s happening?