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Sony officially details Android Walkman

Sony has unveiled the official details of the first touch-screen Android Walkman, with a Japanese release date of December 10 in 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB capacities.

The Walkman Z series comes with a 1GHz dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, 512MB of RAM, and Android 2.3, all displayed through an enormous 4.3-inch LCD screen (480x800), according to a Sony Japan Web site (Google Translate.) Black, red, and a special Sony Store limited violet edition will float around various territories.

CNET's Stephen Shankland already provided much of this information during an exclusive reveal of the Android Walkman last month at IFA 2011.

Sony has certainly come a long way from the cassette Walkman of yesteryear.

Hardware features are impressive for a nonphone (such as mini-HDMI, DLNA, WM-Port/Mini-USB), but it is important to note the device only has Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1 wireless capabilities. GPS and a gyroscope is also built-in to make the device relevant with the wide variety of games and location-aware Android apps out there. The Z series can access the full Android market. Continuous battery life is average at 20 hours for music playback and 5 hours video.

As for sound enhancements (and reasons for actually buying this over an iPod), digital noise canceling and a built-in S-Master MX digital amplifier are included. Music codec support is vast, including MP3, WMA, ATRAC, ATRAC Advanced Lossless, Linear PCM, AAC, and HE-AAC. We assume ATRAC compatibility will not happen outside of Japan, as it has been for several years now. FM radio is on board for those commercial filled broadcasts that we can't seem to live without. … Read more