Sony finally acknowledged the existence of its Walkman S series today, but it also took the wraps off a budget model with lesser features.
The Walkman S appeared on a French Web site earlier this month, in a 16 GB model sporting built-in noise cancellation, an FM tuner, a microphone and a QVGA screen. We now know that the screen size is 2.4 inches, and Sony confirmed that there's an 8 GB model as well. The battery inside is good for 42 hours of audio playback, or 6.5 hours of video through the headphones. Battery life drops considerably during speaker playback, lasting 17 hours for music and 5 hours for video.
Most of those things we deduced from the earlier rumor. What remained a secret was the Walkmen E Series, a cheaper model with slightly downgraded features. Compared to the S Series' price tag of $110 for 8 GB and $130 for 16 GB, the E Series costs $80 and $100.
So, what do you lose? Most notably, the speakers, which wouldn't be such a loss if Sony wasn't insisting on their superior quality, with features like "linear phase correction" and "virtual bass." The E Series also shaves 0.4 inches off the screen size and loses 12 hours of audio play time and 2.5 hours of video time.
Still, the speaker is the only actual feature that's missing from the E Series, and I'm not sure it'd be worth the extra money. Even if it sounds decent, I doubt that it's loud and clear enough to use in any meaningful way. Sony markets it as adding "a new social element to the world of digital music and video," but MP3 players are inherently not social unless you hook them up to a sound system at a party. A pair of tiny speakers isn't going to change that.
