Sony Japan today announced [JP] the “nav-u NV-U35”, a portable navigation system that also can be used as a music and video player. The device comes equipped with 8GB of internal flash memory and a 3.5-inch LCD screen with QVGA (320×240) resolution. It supports video in MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 (Baseline Profile), MPEG-4 (Simple Profile) and WMV (VC-1 Main/Simple Profile) formats.
Music can be played in MP3, AAC, WMA, ATRAC, HE-AAC and linear PCM formats, while the NVU35 displays pictures as JPEGs. Buyers also get a 1W mono speaker, a USB port and a Memory Stick Duo slot.
The device is also water-resistant (IPX 5), comes equipped with quite powerful navigation software (that’s only useful within Japan though), features Sony Blu-ray recorder connectivity and has a battery life of about 4 hours (after a full charge).
Sized at 112×17.8×79mm, the NV-U35 weighs just 176g. It will go on sale in Japan on March 13 for $410. Sony hasn’t said anything yet about international sales but does offer those navigation systems outside Japan, too (this one, for example), which means a release in the US is possible.