Sony officially unveils the sporty NW-S200 Walkman

Previewed a short while back here at Tech Digest, the Sony NW-S200 Walkman has been officially released today, aimed at the more sporty amongst us who require a lightweight, durable and water-resistant player.

Looking like a test tube in an armband, the NW-S200 features a lightweight aluminium casing and is claimed to be the first ever digital music player to be completely water resistant – sweat or rain. Even the armband is absorbent – lets hope it’s washable. The band does have a more practical use, cutting down on the amount of headphone cable needed and offering easier viewing of the OLED screen whilst on the move.

It does have plenty of other interesting features too, including the Sony G-sensor, which can monitor step count, distance travelled and calorie usage, the Music Pacer, which automatically detects the user’s pace of step, changing the music accordingly and Shuffle Shake, a rather strange control system that allows you to alternate between shuffle and normal playback modes by shaking the Walkman three times.

You can play MP3, ATRAC3, ATRAC3plus and unprotected WMA and AAC files, plus there’s an FM radio. There’s also a choice of 512MB, 1GB and 2GB capacities and a colour choice of silver, black and pink. Available from next month, we’re still awaiting price confirmation.

Sony website

More portable players:
Commodore Mpet II MP3 player
Maxfield’s Max-Sin MP3 player