[photopress:sonya820.jpg,full,center]
New Sony portable media players for your viewing pleasure. The NW-A820 series was just announced in Japan, where it’ll be released on March 20. (No release date for the U.S. has been announced. Sony hates us.) Two versions have so far been spotted, a $350ish 16GB model and a $260ish 8GB model.
Now, then, what does it do? First, what it doesn’t—there’s no Mac support, which makes me wonder why I should even care about it. That aside, you’ve got Bluetooth (for wireless headphones) and some sort of built-in noise cancellation feature. The screen is a generous 2.4-inches, which is only a little smaller than the iPod Touch’s. That’s about it; it’s just a simple media player.
Aside from the built-in Bluetooth, I really don’t see anything to get too worked up about here. There’s nothing particularly innovative (maybe Apple has spoiled us?) about the player. And who knows, it could well end up being Japan-only, just like the A910.
Sony NW-A820 Walkman [AV Watch (Google translation)]