Eighteen months after the release of Apple’s iPod video, Sony strikes back with its first digital video product: the NW-A800 series Walkman will hit Europe in April. Releases to other markets are expected, but timing is currently unknown. For Europe, there are three models: the NW-A805 (2GB), A806 (4GB), and A808 (8GB). The screen is a 2-inch LCD panel with QVGA resolution (240 pixels by 320 pixels). It has a portrait orientation, although videos can be viewed with the device either held vertically or horizontally. The NW-A805 is listed on Sony’s online store for €180 ($237), the NW-A806 for €230 and the NW-A808 for €300.

Audio playback in a number of flavors of Sony’s ATRAC compression is possible, and Sony supplies software for converting Windows Media Audio, MP3 and WAV files to ATRAC. It’s also possible to directly load MP3 files onto the Walkman, but battery life will be shorter. For video the Walkman plays back MPEG4 H.264/AVC encoded files. According to Sony’s figures, playback time on a fully-charged battery for audio is roughly 30 hours for ATRAC files encoded at 132Kbps while for video its seven hours for MPEG4 files encoded at 768Kbps. The 53-gram Walkman measures 44 millimeters wide by 88mm high and is 9mm thick.

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