Sony NWZ-X1050 (16GB)

By Kelvin Low, CNET Asia
Jun 8, 2009

Sony’s X-Series Walkman looks impressive on paper. An OLED screen, active noise canceling, Wi-Fi and integrated Web browser are just some of the main features. This is also the first standalone MP3 player in Sony's Walkman range to feature touchscreen navigation capability.

The X-Series comes in 16GB (X1050) and 32GB versions (X1060), with memory capacity the only difference between these two players.

Design

Unlike the posh look of the iPod touch, Sony has opted for a more unconventional look in a sparkling black granite hue on both the front and back surfaces. The sides of the unit have a rough "stone-ish" texture, presumably for your hands to get a firm grip on it.

At 97 x 52 x 10mm, it fits comfortably in the hand. Sony has decided to include physical buttons for Reverse, Forward, and Play/Pause. These buttons reside at the top of the set. On the right side of the Walkman are a volume control rocker switch and a slider switch to activate or deactivate the noise-canceling feature.

The Hold button is located on the rear, and can be set to disable all user inputs on the controls, or to deactivate the touchscreen. The front of the set is home to a 3-inch OLED screen and the Home button which also doubles as a power switch.

Features

The WQVGA screen offers a 432 x 240-pixel resolution. We were very impressed by the color reproduction of the photos and videos. The screen was even readable in direct sunlight. Text appeared sharp and videos lacked any ghosting effects. We wished Sony had given it a larger screen, which would have upped the enjoyment level by another notch.

The touchscreen is of the capacitive variant. It works on the principle of the human body being an electrical conductor. Touching the surface of the screen changes the electric field within the player. However, this means that it will not respond to touches from covered fingers or a pen stylus. The screen is generally responsive and scrolling through album art proved very smooth.

The interface has several elements borrowed from the Sony Ericsson range of phones, which is good if you're familiar with that interface, but it was generally easy to adapt to. Browsing the music library was a breeze, especially through album view where we spent most of the time flicking through the album art. After loading the player with songs, we found that going through a long song list was remarkably easy since you can browse through albums, songs and artists in alphabetical order.

The device only allows MTP USB connections with Windows-based PCs (However, if you have Windows Media Player 11 installed, it allows for easier drag-and-drop file transfer. If you prefer, Sony also bundles the Media Manager for Walkman software, which was a pretty decent performer. The unit also offers a tree directory navigation, which is nice. Hook it up to a Mac, or a PC running a non-Windows OS and it goes into UMS mode. The X1050's battery is unfortunately built-in. It took about 3 hours to fully charge via USB. We managed 31 hours of audio playback time and about 6 hours with video, not far from Sony's claim of 33 hours for audio and 7.5 hours with video. It will play MP3, AAC-LC, WAV and WMA formats and also supports MPEG-4, AVC and WMV video.

Tags: Screen, Sony Walkman, Sony Corp., touch screen, Microsoft Windows

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