Samsung and Apple aren’t the only companies out there still making PMPs. (Well, there’s also Cowon, but those are rarely seen in the west.) No, Sony is still a chip off the ol’ dedicated media player block. Unlike its two biggest competitors though, Sony has forgone the addition of smartphone like features and a mobile OS with apps, instead choosing to keep the focus on the music… man. The introductory level model, the E380 (above), has a rather small 1.77-inch display, but that’s plenty of room to navigate the up 8GB of music with the D-pad on the front. And you can be sure that while you’re kicking out the jams for 30 continuous hours on a single charge your tunes will sound top notch thanks to the five-band EQ and bevy of sound-enhancing technologies like Clear Bass and Clear Stereo.
The E580 takes things up a notch, pretty much across the board: storage maxes out at 16GB, the screen moves to 2 inches and battery life more than doubles to 77 hours of audio playback. Plus, a pair of noise-cancelling headphones are included for blocking out the world around you. But, again, the big focus here is on audio quality. You get all the same sound-enhancing tech as you do on the 380, plus a few new additions like DSEE (Digital Sound Enhancement Engine), which tries to restore those precious high frequencies lost to audio compression. Though, if you’d rather not deal with audio compression at all, the E580 supports both Apple Lossless and FLAC. We’re left guessing on price for the moment, but both models should land on European shelves before the months end.
Gallery: Sony Walkman E380 and E580
Filed under: Portable Audio/Video, Sony
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