The D3 done right?: Sony Walkman Z

[LukesRamen]

http://liliputing.com/2011/09/sony-l...e-android.html



A new Android 2.3 Gingerbread powered media player from Sony that has access to the Android Market.

Looks good to me

[sonic]

Thanks for the news. Good to see Sony combining their renowned hardware with Android OS. Should make for yet another nice Droid powered DAP to compete realistically with the iPod Touch.

If anyone is interested, here are the full specs I've come across:

• Android Gingerbread 2.3 OS
• 512MB of RAM
• 1GHz dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 processor
• 4.3-inch LCD screen (480×800)
• Mini-HDMI
• DLNA
• WM-Port/Mini-USB)
• Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n
• Bluetooth 2.1
• GPS
• Gyroscope

Sound enhancements and video playback includes:

• Digital noise canceling
• Built-in S-Master MX digital amplifier
• Music codec support: MP3, WMA, ATRAC, ATRAC Advanced Lossless, Linear PCM, AAC, and HE-AAC.
• 1080p/30fps through AVC/H.264 (10Mbps)
• MPEG-4 (.mp4, .m4v at 18Mbps)
• WMV (20Mbps) videos
• Clear Audio Technologies Mode (Clear Bass, Clear Stereo, and DSEE)

Realistically, if Cowon want to remain competitive, they should use the time between the D3 and it's successor to look at the Z from Sony (and any similar upcoming models from Archos, Creative, Samsung etc) and see how they can provide comparable or improved models. I'm glad Sony have put out a decently powered device (proper GPS functionality is a nice touch as well as the dual core CPU) for their first android DAP, a great treat for any Sony fans. Additionally it provides a good baseline for the other DAP companies (apple aside) to either match or exceed.

Seen this mentioned on other threads, but one extra they could offer (as well as matching/exceeding the above specs) would be phone functionality. Nothing complex req'd like having cameras built in for video conferencing, however I'm sure that many people would find it useful to have a premium quality DAP with phone functionality.

Note, although it's still 2 months from release, I'm surprised to see FLAC missing from the supported list of codecs since it's the most popular lossless codec from what I've seen