[wongle]

I'm slightly disappointed with Sony not implementing playback buttons on the top of the player ala X1000. Also not sure how I feel about the 3.5mm jack being on the bottom, but that's just me being fussy. It looks superb, hopefully their pricing will be reasonable *crosses fingers*

 

[FortisFlyer75]

Quote:

I'm slightly disappointed with Sony not implementing playback buttons on the top of the player ala X1000. Also not sure how I feel about the 3.5mm jack being on the bottom, but that's just me being fussy. It looks superb, hopefully their pricing will be reasonable *crosses fingers*

Tell us about it, no your are not been fussy!  it is such a common sense feature that should be on all their generation of touch screen Walkmans, but there you go.... the inconsistency of Sony varies to each generation of model they bring out. I certainly found it a god send on my X1060 to have those hard buttons on the top.
 
Even the new A series which does have them has even put them for some bizarre reason down the lower side of the player : ?
 
Seems like a small thing to be moaning about but is such an important logistical part of the player for ease of use if been used everyday on the move in a pocket and without it will be a very frustrating and annoying experience even though this will most probably not be enough to detract be from buying the new Z model. 
 
I just prey & hope one of these future models released by Sony will eventually have all those things we keep asking for in one package one day perhaps. 
 
The only plus point with the hp jack on the bottom is they can most probably incorporate a stronger more stable design as I believe some users reported their jack sockets failing on the X models but ideally if there was hard buttons on the top of the player it would need the hp jack on top once more. 
 
 

 

[Anathallo]

I understand the specs - I, too, have read the news release that came out with the announcement. That said, I have no idea where you got the impression that I 'under-estimated' any 'targeted demographic' - nor do I know how it is related to the conversation, but I severely doubt sony is specifically marketing this product to people who can't carry around a camera.
 
It's still overpriced.
 
Quote:

Lol, you have under-estimated Sony's targeted demographics for the latest Z1000 Walkman product. It's not just any other traditional Sony Walkman or Walkman phone marketed by SE, this comes equipped with a proper Android Gingerbread 2.3 OS like Cowon D3 (OS firmware upgradable in future and that means more newer features) and underneath with an impressive Nvidia Tegra 2 1Ghz Dual-core processor SoC in it, which has the native horsepower/capability to decode 1080p H.264 or DivX media contents, something which cannot be done on the older Walkmans or Cowon D3 for that matter.

Yes, although the Nvidia Tegra 2 may be commonly found in smartphone/tablet devices such as the Motorola Xoom, Atrix or the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, but you forgotten about one crucial thing that probably bothers many DAP users out there, which is they might prefer not to carry a device with a built-in onboard camera. So in some situations where you tend to work in sensitive companies that does not allow camera devices or in some circumstances, where you have to go back to serve your annual reserve military service training in your own country (like for example countries like Singapore or Taiwan), in such cases we really really appreciate quality DAP products that does not have any onboard camera device.


 

 

 

[wongle]

Yeah I like how I don't have to look at my X series Walkman when changing a song while driving, or pretty much any occasion which calls for blind controls. However the sheer power and features of the player seem intriguing, how it competes with the ipod touch may be another story though
 
Quote:

Tell us about it, no your are not been fussy!  it is such a common sense feature that should be on all their generation of touch screen Walkmans, but there you go.... the inconsistency of Sony varies to each generation of model they bring out. I certainly found it a god send on my X1060 to have those hard buttons on the top.
 
Even the new A series which does have them has even put them for some bizarre reason down the lower side of the player : ?
 
Seems like a small thing to be moaning about but is such an important logistical part of the player for ease of use if been used everyday on the move in a pocket and without it will be a very frustrating and annoying experience even though this will most probably not be enough to detract be from buying the new Z model. 
 
I just prey & hope one of these future models released by Sony will eventually have all those things we keep asking for in one package one day perhaps. 
 
The only plus point with the hp jack on the bottom is they can most probably incorporate a stronger more stable design as I believe some users reported their jack sockets failing on the X models but ideally if there was hard buttons on the top of the player it would need the hp jack on top once more. 
 
 

 

 

[FortisFlyer75]

@ Wongle - It's just a common sense thing Sony should apply to all their touch screen models every time, this is where they lack a simple consistency from generation to the next of their players they bring out.  It sure is a god send with them on top, I held the new A series in my hand yesterday at a Sony Centre and even though it has hard buttons on the side they are so small and close together due to the other buttons they have tried fitting down the same side of this small A series it would not be as intuitive or as quick to blindly feel which button to press as the X series buttons.
 
Also the new A series felt solid considering it's composite material build of plastic but after living with the quality of the X series build felt like the new A series was a little bit on the cheap side like a budget player build would be on their more basic models bearing in mind this new A series will be still premium buck not much cheaper than the X series when it was released.  Guessing all the premium materials have been saved for the Z1000 construction as that will be the one at the top of the tree as their jewel in the crown.
 
If Sony can iron out some of their more basic inconsistency issues then having what is essentially a better SQ than the Ipod Touch puts it on a level playing field with Android been on board to keep those who like apps on the Touch happy, but it is a tough task as they are up against what is a machine (Touch) that has a lot of it's success which is down to it been solely a iconic bit of genius design form factor and very slick UI at work and how many percentage of Touch owners globally are dedicated head fiers that really have purchased it for the best SQ available in a dap or listen to high bit rates on them or even bother to invest in even a pair of £30+ iem's to improve the poor egg shell like quality pairs that Apple supply. If it was down to solely SQ alone then maybe it would be Sony still having global dominance of the market they once had but if Sony can get the other bit's right that Apple do so well then slowly the tide might change a little over time and the new Android Wallkman is a promising start even though it being  a long over due one. 
 
I personally think if Apple could just take sorting out the SQ side of it seriously one and for all on their Touch models then I would love to have one again as well as the Sony Walkman but if this new S Master MX amp is even better than the S Master amp on the X which is been reported then I will be more than happy with the new attempt of this Z1000 Android player despite it's obvious same old Sony oversights to just perfect it all round that l not even this new model will escape. 
 
Time is standing still waiting for this Z1000 now knowing Japan is December (in time for X-mas!) Europe has until 1st Q in 2012 sometime for release, even then the 64gb will not be same time as 16 & 32gb models as usual delaying it further no doubt.

 

[BattleBrat]

YES!! YES!! OH GOD IN HEAVEN YES!!! I MUST HAVE ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm a Sony fan boy, this is very good news...

 

[Duncan]

Why why why did they have to call this the 'Z1000'...
 
...having the NWZ-X1000, the MDR-EX1000, and the MDR-Z1000 all in my possession, how can I possibly resist the model number of this new DAP?!?
 
...Looks like the NWZ-A865 that should be being delivered today won't be in my hands for too long! lol

 

[novacav]

I thought I read somewhere that Ice Cream Sandwich will support usb dacs and other similar  devices.... is that true at all or did I make that up? Even if it's just for tablets, there's no reason that said functionality won't be enabled on phones with custom roms. If that's the case then all Android phones will start being awesome daps, I'd totally buy a compact android phone for cheap on ebay, load it up with a custom ICS rom and a huge sd card, and strap it to something like the Leckerton UHA-4 for example... now that would be an awesome setup.

 

[4DThinker]

Hmmm.  Now of only the Z1000 would show up in the U.S..  IMO it looks like what Sony should have released instead of the X1000 a year ago.  Speaking of model names, did I miss the Y1000?

 

[FortisFlyer75]

Quote:

Hmmm.  Now of only the Z1000 would show up in the U.S..  IMO it looks like what Sony should have released instead of the X1000 a year ago.  Speaking of model names, did I miss the Y1000?

No, you did not miss the "Y1000" model, danger if it had been a dud of it been a type of acronym for "Y" as in Why? (did they bother)! 
 
The X1000 was two years ago which would of meant android phones themselves had not long been born and to be fair overlooking the wi-fi section of the X1000 it was a great quality player, but this is now long overdue - a Sony Walkman that can really be equal or better all round to other daps out there and here in the UK am getting impatient for it to hit my shores  knowing Japan can get their grubby little mitts on them in December : ( 

 

[Vladimir_F1]

Quote:

I just prey & hope one of these future models released by Sony will eventually have all those things we keep asking for in one package one day perhaps. 

It will never happen. Because if users will get the perfect gadget, there will be no point to buy a new one.
Big companies will loose money if you will stop to change your gadgets every year or half of year
 
Quote:

NW-Z1000 has dimensions of 134.4 × 70.9 × 11.1 mm and weighs 156 grams.

Wow, this thing is huge... Too wide for me to comfortably hold in one hand.
I guess i' stick with my Arc S. Same big screen size, sq a little worse. But it makes calls, fits my hand and weights only 117g...

 

[ProcessJunkie]

The U.I and that cover-flow kinda thing looks a little cluttered IMO.

 

[nonsupremous]

When is this thing getting released?

 

[FenderP]

It comes out this weekend (12/10) in Japan. I was playing with it in the Sony showroom in Ginza today (I'm in Tokyo on vacation). It's definitely big - think Xperia Arc sized. It feels good in the hand, though. Next to it, the new A series looks positively diminuative. I didn't listen to sound quality, but did try to get a feel of it. First and foremost, unlike every other Japanese-only Sony Walkman of the past few years this one can actually be set to run in English! That is a very pleasant surprise. Like the X and A, it supports drag and drop even for ATRAC (yes, it supports that, too - unlike the Sony Ericsson phones) so you don't need the x-App unless you're encoding ATRAC.
 
I found it fairly intuitive to use. It looks like Sony took some cues from the (former) Sony/Ericsson side of the house and in one menu, it even has reference to a ringtone. Interesting. You can turn of WiFi and bluetooth and put it in "airplane mode".
 
The screen/display looked great in person. It's definitely Android under the covers - web functionality, et al. So it could function as a small tablet if you really wanted. What's interesting is that the players are just apps.
 
I'll definitely be getting it before I depart (and after it's officially released).
 
I also played with the new A. It's quite different than my NW-A847 I got two years ago here. It's definitely snappier and has a full touch screen (whereas my A847 has all buttons), and if you want something smaller but with the same capacity and basic specs, it seems like a good deal.

 

[cn11]

Quote:

It comes out this weekend (12/10) in Japan. I was playing with it in the Sony showroom in Ginza today (I'm in Tokyo on vacation). It's definitely big - think Xperia Arc sized. It feels good in the hand, though. Next to it, the new A series looks positively diminuative. I didn't listen to sound quality, but did try to get a feel of it. First and foremost, unlike every other Japanese-only Sony Walkman of the past few years this one can actually be set to run in English! That is a very pleasant surprise. Like the X and A, it supports drag and drop even for ATRAC (yes, it supports that, too - unlike the Sony Ericsson phones) so you don't need the x-App unless you're encoding ATRAC.
 
I found it fairly intuitive to use. It looks like Sony took some cues from the (former) Sony/Ericsson side of the house and in one menu, it even has reference to a ringtone. Interesting. You can turn of WiFi and bluetooth and put it in "airplane mode".
 
The screen/display looked great in person. It's definitely Android under the covers - web functionality, et al. So it could function as a small tablet if you really wanted. What's interesting is that the players are just apps.
 
I'll definitely be getting it before I depart (and after it's officially released).
 
I also played with the new A. It's quite different than my NW-A847 I got two years ago here. It's definitely snappier and has a full touch screen (whereas my A847 has all buttons), and if you want something smaller but with the same capacity and basic specs, it seems like a good deal.

Wow!! That is indeed great news! Gives me hope for something to update my X. I hope you get to listen soon, would love to know how its sound compares to the X.
 
Now I suppose it's either this, or the upcoming iBasso DX100.