bryue

I personally don't think that they will release a firmware, otherwise, it'd cannibalize the sale of the A818 for countries that has the A808 already. In my local Sony Store in Canada, they don't even have the A810 series in their shelves, they only carry the S610 series.

It is nice to see Sony using space more efficiently on such a small unit. But I agree that it doesn't look as stylish as the previous ones, this new unit looks like more like a PDA. According to the specs, the size is pretty close to the A810 and A610. A910 = 47.2 x 86.0 x 12.3mm (W x H x D) A810 = 44.5 x 88.0x 9.6mm (W x H x D) A610 = 42.0 x 79.5 x 11.5mm (W x H x D) I got a bad feeling that this unit will be so expensive to the point that I think I might just keep using my PSP instead haha. EDIT: Found the price tag: 47,800円 (approx. 413.35 USD or 414.26 CAD as of today)

How large is that screen? It looks sweet!

I was wondering... The A810 has an clock display right? How accurate is it? Because on my old E507, the clock becomes slightly off after a while (eg. 2 minutes late compared to, let's say, the computer time).

What is the real difference between a DAP with built-in Noise Cancelling technology and the same DAP with only an earbud (noise blocking) earphones? Should they sound really different? I've been using the famous EX71 from Sony for more than 2 years for daily purposes. (Btw GREAT earphones! Who said these breaks so easily???). It blocks exterior sound incredibly when you use it for the first time but after a long term usage, you become used to it and you somehow develop a way to hear noise again, at least for me.

I wonder which one has a better video quality...

8 inch is way too large to fit in your pockets as a Walkman. I think most people perfer something more portable than that. The PSP itself is already too large for pockets but it has a very good screen, so I'd say the perfect video walkman would be something like the PSP, however, with Walkman audio quality. The PSP doesn't require any proprietary cable nor does it use SonicStage for music transfers

I seriously wouldn't mind paying a bit more for the noise cancelling feature if it really improves audio quality. So far, I'm still hesitating which of the new Sony DAPs to buy or should I just keep waiting... So tempting to buy one right now haha...

I'm surprised that nobody replied to this thread as this one actually interests me the most. I've been looking for a mp3 player for quite a while now... My last DAP was a Sony NW-E507 with Sony MDREX71SL earphones. Yea... I'm pretty outdated but I enjoyed the sound quality from the E507 but I heard stories about the significant better audio quality from more recent Sony DAPs. At some point, I was hesitating between the A800 series (now A810 series) and the S700 series because I had no idea which one sounded best. Can anyone else confirm this thread for me?

Okay, I've done some research on Sony website for specifications today. So I'm going to share what I found out. My laptop is USB 2.0 compliant. Sony's website states that the S70X series are Hi-Speed USB via WM-PORT. It also states that the S20X series are also Hi-Speed USB ( USB mini-B ). So, I assume that they are the same speed during transfers. Then it means that the E50X series were slow in transfers. I heard that the E50X was using USB 1.1 or something. I'm not sure. As for ATRAC encoding, I'm already aware that it would take a bit more time for conversions. Anyways, I'm still wondering how does the USB via WM-PORT look like. Can anyone provide me a picture of the connectors? Thanks!

Hey, Stuge. Nice review but I have some questions, since you've owned the NW-E505 (as listed on your profile), does the S70X transfer much faster? The transfers done on my E507 was horribly long and laggy using Sonic Stage CP. My father owns the S20X series and his transfer was so much faster than my E507. Can you help me confirm? The other question is do you still need the same kind of USB cable as the E50X to transfer with the S70X or is it different? Thanks!

Hehe, thanks for the info, this is tempting me to buy one and try it out.

I was wondering how good is the NW-S70X series. I'm a proud NW-E507 owner along with Sony's MDREX71SL Fontopia headphones. But I'm interested to know how does my E507 stands in terms of sound quality compared to the S70X series. How much am I missing without the built-in noise cancelling technology? Thanks!

It's actually not that hard to open the lid and clean the dust out. You do need to be careful is not to lose the 2 tiny buttons for Display/FM and Search/Menu. You can separate the glass and the color plastic lid easily too; this is where the dust is stuck inbetween. I didn't use any liquid to clean, I just used a soft cloth to wipe the surface lightly. Now, my NW-E507 looks better like new (with minor scratches from daily use). Here's a tip: try to wear a disposable latex glove for this operation; you do not want to leave your fingerprints on the back of the lid after you assemble it back in one peice.