In The Zone | Sony Walkman NWZ-W202: A New Way To Wear Your Music

Sony Walkman NWZ-W202: A New Way To Wear Your Music

littlelion | 17 March, 2009 04:55

It has been a couple of weeks since Sony’s local summer launch was held, but the vision of some products that we saw during the event still lingers in our head. One of them is the Walkman NWZ-W202 which was introduced by the consumer electronics giant as their new concept music player. Sony, as we know them, has a reputation of creating cool stuff, and in our view, the NWZ-W202 is definitely one of those.

Tipped as Sony’s response to Apple’s iPod Shuffle, the Walkman NWZ-W202 is a crossbreed of a 2GB music player and a pair of ear-canal phones. The key proposition here is “wirelessness”. The earphones hook into the ears while the band goes across the back of the neck – minus any annoying wires. Before we proceed further, let us tell you that the NWZ-W202 is also available in purple, white, yellow, and black, so the color pink should not be a big deal here.

Brushed metal plates enhance the Walkman NWZ-W202’s sporty look, making it a perfect must-have for those who love the outdoors and the gym.

Considering that the earphones are integrated into the music player, there’s no place for third party headphones here. Its ear-canal phones have a frequency response of 20 – 20,000Hz, which is just the same as what most superior in-ear headphones promise, assuring you of greater isolation and fuller audio quality.

This wheel plays a lot of roles for the Walkman NWZ-W202, allowing you to turn on/turn off and play/pause the music player. Later, you would also realize that it’s also your sole key to activating Sony’s ZAPPIN feature.

Just a few millimeters away from the wheel, you will find the shuffle switch...

the volume control…

and the mini-USB port.

Magnetic heads keep the Walkman NWZ-W202 snappy when it’s not in use.

A unique feature in the Walkman NWZ-W202 is Sony’s ZAPPIN technology which allows you to easily scan through the songs and select the one that you’d want to play. While playing a tune, just press and hold the wheel until you hear the “ZAPPIN In” cue. From there, as you scroll the wheel to search for a song, you would notice that the W202 starts playing, not at the beginning, but at the chorus or at the most familiar part of each song. The ZAPPIN feature has two modes, both of which can be activated by just pressing the wheel until you hear their respective cues: “ZAPPIN Long”, where the chorus is prolonged; and “ZAPPIN Short”, in which the chorus is shortened. Once you have decided on a song, press the wheel quickly. You should hear the “ZAPPIN Out” cue and the W202 would go on playing the selected song. Checking the Web for additional details, we found out that ZAPPIN technology was first introduced in Sony’s Xplod in-dash stereo units.

At the end of the day, we realized that it wasn’t a 100% wireless affair after all. The supplied stand is intended to serve as a dock for the Walkman NWZ-W202, so users can power charge and transfer songs to it via USB.

The Sony Walkman W202 on the stand.

We’ve just visited the Sony Philippines website as well as SonyStyle Singapore to check its price, and discovered that the Walkman NWZ-W202 is still not yet available. Nevertheless, SonyStyle U.S.A. quotes $69.99. On the other hand, according to Apple’s website, the latest 4GB iPod Shuffle is priced at $79.00. We can sense here the close competition between these two wearable music players with their respective set of value propositions. This is going to be an exciting stand-up fight.

Which one will emerge victorious? We'll just wait and see.

Sony Walkman NWZ-W202's Specifications
Memory Size	2GB
Frequency Response	20 - 20,000Hz
Audio Formats Supported	MP3, AAC, WMA (DRM), WMT
Battery Life	12 Hours
Weight	37g

comments

Price?

geekinthepink | 18/03/2009, 22:03

So does it mean that this cutie would cost only not more than 3.5? Then, I'll surely buy this :)

Price?

cutiepie | 18/03/2009, 22:04

I mean 3.5k.

Cool

coogie | 22/03/2009, 12:09

This is really cool. I would buy one once this stuff hits stores.

no iTunes :)

bitten apple | 24/03/2009, 01:27

I think this is a lot better than the Shuffle. The design is unique. Also, if you'll transfer songs to this MP3 player, all you have to do is to copy and paste the files to your player's memory directly. You never have to use a third party software such as iTunes.

Still not available

sunichi | 28/03/2009, 23:13

What? Sony Philippines still doesn't show this on their website?

Sure buyer

sultry n' sexy | 31/03/2009, 20:27

Once this becomes available, I'll buy one.

Cool

funkydude | 04/04/2009, 23:50

This is so cool!

How?

jjampong | 05/04/2009, 22:43

I think, the blogger should have shown us how to wear this thing.

how?

kimchi | 10/04/2009, 12:06

Hey jjampong, he had shown us how:

http://www.hardwarezone.com/ourvoice/blog/in_the_zone/events/2009/03/04/Sony-Summer-Must-Haves-Cyber-shot-Walkman-Handycam-And-S-Frame

impatient

trieste | 11/04/2009, 22:15

I love this. I really can't wait too long to buy one.

Gonna make U sweat

Simone | 28/05/2009, 04:39

You might want to check reviews about using this device in the gym...

Click the Review tab.
http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921665791112

Price

precious | 28/05/2009, 10:42

In the Philippines, this costs PhP 4,999.

Price

precious | 28/05/2009, 10:43

In the Philippines, this costs PhP 4,999.

device

wizkid | 17/08/2009, 10:48

i've got one and it is awesome

Sony Walkman NWZ-W202: A New Way To Wear Your Music

comments

Price?

Price?

Cool

no iTunes :)

Still not available

Sure buyer

Cool

How?

how?

impatient

Gonna make U sweat

Price

Price

device

Menu

search

recently...

Categories

archives