Sony launches Walkman Bean

Sony is trying to complete with Apple’s iPod Shuffle market with two new MP3 player, which are in a similar price range but with increased battery life and a screen.

Walkman Bean is the new flash memory based MP3 player from Sony, combining an innovative ergonomic design with ultimate ease of use. ‘Bean’, so-named because of its unique shape, features a direct ‘pop-up’ USB jack, which can be inserted into a PC to transfer music with complete convenience.

Walkman Beans feature a bright 1-line OLED display making navigation through track listings simple, up to 50-hour playback from a Lithium-ion Rechargeable Battery and a super high-speed charge facility, which provides the user with 3 hours play from just a 3-minute charge.

Walkman Bean is available in the following great colour schemes: Tropical Ice (Blue), Cotton Candy (Pink), Licorice (Black) and Coconut (White). All colours take their inspiration from various flavours of jellybean, owing to the shape of the device.

Walkman Bean will be available in both 512MB and 1 GB capacity (NW-E205 and NW-E207). The models will be priced at £99 and £79 respectively. There will also be a 512 MB model with a built in FM tuner (NW-E305)

The WALKMAN Bean comes with an inbuilt pop-up USB plug which means that when you hook it up to your PC, you don’t even have to hunt around for a wire as it connects directly.

What’s more, it’s simple and superfast to charge up. Faster than all the other players on the market, you only have to charge it for 3 minutes to get 3 hours’ playback from it, though if you charge it to capacity you’ll then be able to use it for 50 hours non-stop.

These battery life figures are really good, addon the screen and the direct connection via USB coupled with Sonys usual great designs they could be on to another winner here, shame they didn’t release this a little earlier to compete more directly with the shuffle!

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