Sony Prices & Dates New NW-X1000 Series Touch Screen Walkman In Japan

Sony on Tuesday announced the Japanese pricing and release dates for its two Walkman NX-X1000 series media players first introduced at the start of the year at CES. The NW-X1050, which has 16GB of built-in flash memory, will cost the equivalent of about $403, while the 32GB NW-X1060 will cost $503. Either will be available in red or black when they are released on April 25th.

Both new-generation Walkmans are the first ever to use touchscreens and also sport built-in Wi-Fi that allows for browsing the web, downloading podcasts and viewing YouTube videos. A digital noise canceling feature uses software to filter out ambient noise. Integrated FM and 1Seg TV tuners provide mobile radio and TV, and similarly allow recording of content in markets that support the broadcasts.The players are seen as serious competition to the high-featured and popular Apple iPod products, specifically the iPod touch, with the standout features being their 3-inch OLED touchscreens which provide richer colors and have quicker response times than LCDs. Users can also control the operation of the players with more conventional side-mounted buttons that allow hands-free use.

The players support AAC, MP3 and WMA audio files as well as MPEG-4, H.264 and WMV videos; they should also be cross-platform and support at least basic drag-and-drop music loading in Mac OS X as well as sync in apps that support it. In-ear EX headphones with their own integrated passive noise reduction are bundled with each Walkman NW-X1000.

Sony today also unveiled a range of accessories for the Walkman NW-X1000s, including a leather case that doubles as a stand, a screen protector, privacy filter, silicon case and pair of black or clear hard plastic protection cases.