The Sony X Series Walkman: A Competent IPod Challenger

Sony's Walkman range has come a long way in its 30 years in existence. It began as a modest portable cassette player and today its latest avatar the NWZ-X1051 competes with the iPod Touch in features and price. Also known as the Sony X Series Walkman, it is really top-of-the-line. Sony X Series Walkman is available in two versions. The 16GB version costs $250 while the 32GB version costs $350. This Walkman is Wi-Fi enabled, has a touch screen and includes the usual Web services like Slacker Internet radio and YouTube. This latest version of the Walkman is sturdy and has a forceful implementation. Sony X Series Walkman has full-bodied music and a great video player. Other features include built-in noise cancellation and earphones with user-adjustable equalizer for the player.

So far so good! On the flip side, Sony's Web browser is no great shakes. The browser doesn't hold a candle to Apple's Safari. Nor does it have the powerful recourse to an App Store of an iPod touch. With all that, you should still put your money on the Sony X Series Walkman. It has a good design and is superior to all other devices that do not center on iTunes. For one thing, it is sleek. Sony X Series Walkman measures about 3 inches to 2 inches with a depth of less than half an inch. Its all black exterior and silky smooth body enclose a tremendous, 3-inch Organic Light-Emitting Diode touch screen. The iPod Touch, on the other hand, has a larger screen and better resolution. Ultimately, both offer comparable sharpness.

The display takes up a large part of the front panel of Sony X Series Walkman, but as in the case of the iPod Touch, this Walkman has a Home button which takes you to main menu. The accessories include earphones with noise cancellation facility; a data cable, an airplane adapter, a custom audio cable, auxiliary inputs for docks, and some basic bundled software. All this with a coupon for 100 free songs from Sony MusicPass, and that is a certain plus!

Yet in Sony X Series Walkman you will not get the excellent quality of noise cancellation from the Sony earphones that you get from Bose noise-cancellation headphones, though you can choose between different noise cancellation programs, or turn it off. The noise cancellation does not work with standard headphones, unfortunately. But Sony's customizable EQ tailors sound like on no other music player, and to some people, that could be a deal maker.

Source: Sony X-Series Walkman