Sony NWZ-X1050 16 GB

Sony was a long way off the pace, still without a real PMP in its catalogue since the launch of mp3 generation Walkmans. The company has made up some ground with the X series, part of the Walkman range and with plenty arguments in its favour.

Very nicely designed, as often with Sony

Delivered in a black case, the X has nothing to envy the P3 in terms of looks, even coming in with a nice touch of its own: the plastic has a granite finish that is good to look at and to touch. No surprises when it comes to the screen, big but also shiny.

The headphones socket is on the upper side of the player, next to the play/pause, forward and back buttons. Sometimes awkward as the jack socket gets bent around the headphones, this is nevertheless a very good thing. It isn’t because a player has a touch screen that all physical buttons have to be eliminated. Especially if you want to operate it without taking it out of your pocket.

The software interface is a direct descendent of the previous Walkman generation. Great for those who already know it and newbies won’t be long in picking it up either. The interface is pretty dry aesthetically, especially when you compare it to what is on offer from Samsung. Whether you like it or not however, it does work well.

Audio: Sony usually does better than this.

Lets not exagerate, the X is very good… but you can hear the hiss. Competition for the P2 but the thing is, Samsung are now onto the P3. Apart from that, audio quality is excellent, right up there with the best. A real shame then that the hiss comes through on sensitive in-ear headphones. Apart from that, we noted no weakness or fault in terms of audio.

The effects included work well withough necessarily being all that useful. One nice feature (noise-cancelling) has been included and will encourage users to keep the headphones the player is supplied with, especially as they aren’t bad in any case. This feature, launched by Sony with the S series, is back and is just as useful as before. The headphones that are supplied have the usual faults of low-end in-ear phones, namely too much bass, not balanced and with something to be desired in terms of definition. Nevertheless, they aren’t any worse than the EP-630s and other semi in-ear headphones. Except that once the NC is activated it is difficult to go back to other headphones.

There’s also an FM radio with this player, and one of the best we’ve heard at that. It’s a shame that you can’t record it however.

The OLED is here

As you know, OLED screens are usually excellent for colours and brightness. We can confirm, the colours really are nice here and the screen very legible. So much so that you forget that it’s shiny.

However, you can’t watch videos without re-encoding them first. The process uses a lot of battery but is very practical. And frustrating for the user, considering the quality of the screen.

The great innovation for Sony is the navigator coupled with a Wi-Fi B/G chip. It is entertaining but not really useful or practical to use. It’s fine for watching the odd YouTube but not much more.

Is the X series going to put Sony back centre stage? Yes and no. It’s good, sure, but it will find it hard to live alongside the iPod Touch, the S9 and the P3. The Noise Cancelling feature is a real positive however, especially when you consider how much good headphones with this feature cost.