More details have emerged about Sony’s next VAIO Pocket player, and I can say in no uncertain terms that this is the one to wait for. Check out the specs for the 20GB HMP-A1: Native MP3 support with bundled Musicmatch Jukebox (none of that convert-to-ATRAC fruitiness), MPEG2 and MPEG4 playback native, with on-PC conversion of MPEG1/AVI/WMV/DVR-MS before transfer to the player, WHATEVER-to-JPEG conversion (which could be annoying if you wanted to keep a lossless shot on there), and four-to-six hours of battery life, depending on how much cipherin’ it needs to do to decode the media. It’s bigger than the first VAIO Pocket, and while size is something I held against the first one I think its more justified since this is an actual video player. Oh, its got a southpaw mode, too, although the controls will be silkscreen upside down after you flip it.
Expected to go on sale on June 26th in Japan for around $560, Sony is aiming this player at the PC/DVR crowd less than the ‘mobile media’ market, but don’t be surprised if sales of the HMP-A1 eclipse the sales of the no-video VAIO Pocket. For the record, I think we’ll start calling this one the Sony VAIO Video Pocket until they come up with a name less confusing. (Thanks, Chris!)
Read [TheRegister]
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Sony VAIO Pocket Review [Gizmodo]
More Sony VAIO Pocket Details [Gizmodo]
https://gizmodo.com/sony-vaio-pocket-review-9660
