iPod touch vs Sony Walkman X Series vs Samsung P3
Intro
Apple’s iPod touch has some serious rivals in the form of the Sony Walkman X Series and Samsung P3 PMPs.
Which one stacks up as the best for music, video, and all round appeal? Read on as the Tech Digest guide pits these mighty touchscreen handsets against one another.
Battle of the Specs: Feature Comparison
Let’s leave aside fanboy love for Apple and Sony (does Samsung have fanboys too? I’m not sure) and take a look at how the main features stack up.
This is top-of-the-line stuff. If you want detailed specifications you’d better skip to the end of the page.
Display
For pure real estate, the iPod touch trumps both the Walkman X Series and the P3, with a 3.5-inch display compared to just 3-inch for the others.
However, when it comes to aspect ratio, the Samsung’s screen is 16:9 — perfectly suited for widescreen video — whereas the Sony has a rather bizarre 9:5 aspect ratio and the touch 3:2.
That means, in raw resolution terms, the touch (480 x 320) trumps the P3 (480 x 272) which trumps the X Series (432 x 240).
Having said all that, Sony’s screen is based on OLED technology for a much brighter, crisper display than the other two handsets.
Touch
All three handsets feature touchscreen technology, though it’s implemented in different ways.
The iPod touch is the only one to feature multitouch, letting you make various two-fingered gestures (so to speak) to perform tasks such as zooming in and out of photos.
The Samsung P3 offers a haptic-enabled touchscreen. In other words, you’ll get physical vibration feedback when you perform certain tasks.
Sony’s a little quiet on exactly what its touchscreen handles, so I’m afraid I’m going to presume it’s single-finger pecking and swiping for controlling the user interface.
Audio and Video
So what can these babies play?
Audio-wise, the iPod touch will play AAC-LC, MP3, Apple Lossless, AIFF and WAV files.
The Walkman X Series will also play PCM and non-DRM WMA files, while the Samsung beats both by also playing OGG and FLAC.
When it comes to video, the touch is effectively stuck with Quicktime files, whereas the P3 will also play back Shockwave and Windows Media file, and the Walkman X Windows Media 9 files.
Other multimedia
- Both the Sony and Samsung players feature an FM radio.
- The Samsung P3 can be used as a voice recorder.
- Both the Walkman and iPod touch feature Wi-Fi for access to the Internet
Capacity
- The iPod touch comes in 8GB, 16GB and 32GB capacities.
- The Sony Walkman X Series comes in 16GB and 32GB capacities.
- The Samsung P3 comes in 8GB, 16GB and 32GB capacities.
Other Applications
The iPod touch is a bit like the Swiss Army Knife of portable devices compared to the Walkman X and P3 players.
It features access to the iTunes application store and can be used for gaming and a whole host of other apps. It can even be used to make VoIP calls over a Wi-Fi connection by adding free software.
Battery Life
The iPod touch offers up to 36 hours of music playback and up to 6 hours of video playback.
The Sony X Walkman Series offers up to 33 hours of music and 9 hours of video playback.
The Samsung P3 offers up to 30 hours of music and 5 hours of video playback.
Price
You can pick up the 8GB iPod touch for around £165, with the 16GB model coming in at £214 and the 32GB model at £283.
Sony’s 32GB NWZ-X1060 comes in at £279 while the 16GB NWZ-X1050 model is £209. Much the same as the touch in fact.
The Samsung YP-P3 range has an RRP of £110 for the 8GB model, £170 for the 16GB model and £200 for the 32GB model. Quite a bit cheaper especially on the higher capacity models.
Which is Best?
It hardly seems fair to compare the vast feature set of the touch with the efforts of Sony and Samsung, so I’ll focus on the multimedia aspects because that’s a core function of all three units.
- All three units will happily store all of the music you own on CDs, though the method for adding it will vary from player to player.
- The touch relies heavily on iTunes, whereas the Sony and Samsung players use Windows Media Player.
- There’s less of an issue today with iTunes’ proprietary format, since Apple removed the DRM from most, if not all, of its online music. That means you can move purchased tracks around without worrying about copy protection.
- I’m not entirely clear what levels of DRM are in place on the other devices, but it will depend partly on where / if you purchase music online.
- Ripping CDs from your personal collection, or obtaining audio from (ahem) other sources won’t likely cause you a problem on any of the players.
- The Samsung and Sony devices run rings around the touch when it comes to audio and video playback formats. Whether that matters depends on what types of files you’re going to want to listen to and watch on the move. The iPod won’t touch Flash/Shockwave or Windows Media files, whereas the others will, but that won’t stop you watching YouTube videos.
- There’s no denying that Sony’s OLED screen is very nice, and a more advanced than either Samsung or Apple currently offer.
- Sony’s audio credentials may also trump the other two, with boasts of noise cancellation and audio boosting technology that the others don’t offer.
If I was buying a unit purely to play music and video, I think I’d plump for the… Sony. I like the Walkman brand and think the device looks pretty slick, has some decent cutting-edge technology built in, is obviously made for music, and offers Internet access.
Then again, the price is almost identical to that of the iPod touch which can do so much more.
The Samsung units are definitely nice and can be picked up quite a bit cheaper, too.
Roundup
Yep, I sat on the fence for a while. I’m an Apple fanboy at heart, and I have an iPhone, so I’d be quite happy to recommend the iPod touch. I know it’s not for everyone, though.
The fact is that these three devices are both very capable multimedia players. It really comes down to how much you want your portable player to do, which company you’ve pledged allegiance to, and how much cash you have to spend.
Bear in mind that Apple could well revamp the iPod touch later this year.
Detailed Specifications
Here’s the full specification rundown as published by each manufacturer.
Samsung YP-P3
| Product Type | MP3 Player |
| Storage Type | Flash Memory |
| Memory Capacity | 8GB / 16GB / 32GB |
| Display Type | TFT LCD |
| Display Resolution | WQVGA (480 x 272) |
| Embedded Speaker | Yes |
| Embedded Mic. | Yes |
| Output power(@16 Ohm Earphones) | 20mW/Ch |
| Output power(Speaker) | 0.8W |
| SD MMC Expansion Slot | No |
| Available Colour | Black / Silver |
| Touch Screen | Yes |
| Battery type | Li-Polymer |
| Display Screen | 3.0″ |
| FM Radio | Yes |
| View Picture | Yes |
| View Text | Yes |
| Line-In Recording | No |
| Voice Recording | Yes |
| View Video | Yes |
| Game | Yes |
| Special Functions (Bluetooth) | Bluetooth 2.1+EDR |
| Datacasting | Yes |
| Tuner (DMB) | No |
| Wireless Internet | No |
| Etc. | Haptic (Vibration) feedback, Widget |
| Battery Playback Time (Audio) | 30 |
| Battery Playback Time (Video) | 5 |
| Music Storage Capacity(@128kbps MP3) | 1000 songs (4GB) / 2000 songs (8GB) / 4000 songs (16GB) / 8000 songs (32GB) |
| Battery Voice Recording Time | 5 |
| Memory Voice Recording Time | 76hrs (4GB) / 152hrs (8GB) / 304hrs (16GB) / 608hrs (32GB) at 128kbps |
| Charging Time (PC) | 4.5 |
| Charging Time (Adapter) | 3 |
| Video Storage Capacity | 67hrs (4GB) / 137 hrs (8GB) / 279hrs (16GB) / 560hrs (32GB) |
| Dimensions for Unit W x H x D | 102 x 52,7 x 9,9 mm |
| Weight for Unit | 96 |
| File Format Supported | MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV, AAC, FLAC, JPEG, Bitmap, PNG, SWF, WMV, H.264, MPEG |
| VOR (Voice Operated Recording) | No |
| VER (Voice Enhanced Recording) | No |
| Voice Enhanced Playback | No |
| FM Recording | Yes |
| Voice Recording(bit rate) | Yes |
| Video-In Recording (TV Recording) | No |
| Moblie TV Recording | No |
| Adjustable Play Speed | Yes |
| Alarm | Yes |
| Album Art | Yes |
| Lyric Display | Yes |
| Wallpaper | Yes |
| Clock | Yes |
| TTS (Text to Speech) | Yes |
| STT (Speech to Text) | No |
| OS Compatibility | P: Windows XP or higher (Vista) UMS: Windows 2000, Windows XP or higher (Vista) |
| USB Connection(MTP/UMS) | MTP (Europe / North America / Australia) UMS (Other Countries) |
| USB Host | No |
| Connectivity (USB Version) | USB2.0 |
| Mobile Playlist(Favorite) | Yes |
| Library( Artist, Album,Genre,Title DB sorting) | Yes |
| File Navigation | Yes |
| PC Application | EmoDio |
| PC Playlist (SPL) | Yes |
| PC Playlist (WPL) | Yes |
| User EQ | Yes |
| Preset EQ | Yes |
| Sound Feedback | Yes |
| Etc. | Yes |
| Multi-language | DNSe 3.0 |
| Resume | Yes |
| Bookmark | Yes |
| Etc. | Yes |
| Included accessories | Earphone, SW CD, USB Cable |
Sony NWZ-X1050 / NWZ-X1060 X Series Walkman
| High speed data transfer | YES |
| USB connection | YES |
| WM-PORT | YES |
| Memory size (GB) | 16 / 32 |
| Dynamic normaliser | YES |
| Clear Bass | YES |
| Equaliser | YES (5 Band) |
| Clear Stereo | YES |
| Shuffle | YES |
| Music Searching Methods | All Songs / Album / Artist / Genre / Release Year / Playlists / Folder |
| Music Play Mode | Normal / Repeat / Shuffle / Shuffle&Repeat / Repeat 1 Song Playback Range Selection (All Range / Selected Range) Intelligent Shuffle (Time machine Shuffle / Shuffle All) |
| Video Play Mode | Normal (Continuous playback is not supported) |
| Photo Play Mode | Normal (Flick Operation is supported, slide show is not supported) |
| Podcast Play Mode | Normal (Continuous playback is not supported) |
| CD Cover Art Display | Searching / Now Playing / Album Scroll |
| Drag and Drop | YES |
| Display resolution | WQVGA (432×240) |
| Display type | OLED (colour) |
| Screen size (inch) | 3 |
| Horizontal / Vertical display | YES |
| mp3 | YES |
| WMA (Non-DRM) | YES |
| AAC-LC (Non-DRM) | YES |
| Linear PCM | YES |
| JPEG | YES |
| mp4 | YES |
| AVC (H.264/AVC) | YES |
| MPEG-4 | YES |
| WMV 9 | YES |
| Repeat | YES |
| Shuffle | YES |
| Digital sound preset | NO |
| Hold | YES |
| DSEE | YES |
| VPT | YES (Studio / Live / Club / Arena / Matrix / Karaoke) |
| Noise Cancelling | YES (Digital) |
| Theme Settings | YES |
| Wallpaper Settings | YES (User Setting) |
| SensMe™ channels | NO |
| FM tuner | YES (30 presets) |
| Weight (g) | 98 |
| Battery life – continuous playback music (h) | 33 |
| Battery life – continuous playback video (h) | 9 |
| Charging time (full charge) (h) | 3 |
| Capacity (audio files) | 4000 (at 128kbps) |
| Capacity (video) (h) | 62 (at 384kbps) |
| Headphones | YES (13.5mm EX earbud / SML) |
| Headphone extension cable | NO |
| Extra ear buds for headphones (small/medium/large) | YES |
| Windows Media® Player 11 (CD) | YES |
| mp3 Conversion Tool | NO |
| Media Manager for WALKMAN® | YES |
| Content Transfer (CD) | YES |
| Operation Guide (CD) | YES |
| Quick Start Guide | YES |
| WM-PORT | YES |
| USB cable | YES |
| Rechargeable battery | YES |
| AC mains power adaptor | NO |
| Width (mm) | 52.5 |
| Height (mm) | 97.4 |
| Depth (mm) | 10.5 |
Apple iPod touch
Height: 4.3 inches (110 mm)
Width: 2.4 inches (61.8 mm)
Depth: 0.33 inch (8.5 mm)
Weight: 4.05 ounces (115 grams)
Capacity:
* 8GB, 16GB, or 32GB flash drive
* Holds up to 1,750, 3,500, or 7,000 songs in 128-Kbps AAC format
* Holds up to 10,000, 20,000, or 25,000 iPod-viewable photos
* Holds up to 10 hours, 20 hours, or 40 hours of video
Display:
* 3.5-inch (diagonal) widescreen Multi-Touch display
* 480-by-320-pixel resolution at 163 pixels per inch
Audio:
* Frequency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz
* Audio formats supported: AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Store), MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV
Wireless:
* Wi-Fi (802.11b/g)
* Nike + iPod support built in
* Maps location-based service
Headphones:
* Earphones
* Frequency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz
* Impedance: 32 ohms
TV and video:
* Support for 480p and 576p component TV out
* H.264 video, up to 1.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Low-Complexity version of the H.264 Baseline Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; H.264 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Baseline Profile up to Level 3.0 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats
Battery and power:
* Built-in rechargeable lithium ion battery
* Playback time
– Music playback time: Up to 36 hours when fully charged
– Video playback time: Up to 6 hours when fully charged
34 comments
Samsung are poor at marketing though they provide best quality and wide variety of products unlik apple or sony. All are blinded in the illusion that only apple & sony provide great sound quality. Most of them here havent experienced samsung yp’s music clarity, yet they decide the winner themselves.
Samsung are poor at marketing though they provide best quality and wide variety of products unlik apple or sony. All are blinded in the illusion that only apple & sony provide great sound quality. Most of them here havent experienced samsung yp's music clarity, yet they decide the winner themselves.
HANDS DOWN ipod touch is 10 times better that sony.Im geting a new Ipod touch for my birthday, the Ipod touch has great sound,great picture,and great touch screen, it takes awsome pictures and videos so I say Ipod Touch wins
HANDS DOWN ipod touch is 10 times better that sony.Im geting a new Ipod touch for my birthday, the Ipod touch has great sound,great picture,and great touch screen, it takes awsome pictures and videos so I say Ipod Touch wins
You have some interesting points.
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The ipod touch is definitely better. I use it all the time and just love. It is way better no doubt. orlando accident lawyer
Winner: Sony Walkman X-Series. Battery flattery This one’s simple maths. The iPod Touch’s battery lasts 36 hours for audio and six hours for video.
x series the bessssssssssst ..ass kikking sound quality
I am looking to buy new iPad.Which one is more reliable.
Suggest me Please.
I’ve used your tutorial to get paypal ipn integration successfully working, thank you for sharing this information.
However, when the user is returned after the transaction they are logged out of my site. This is not happening every time though.
Do you know why this might be happening? I appreciate this is probably a paypal issue, but I just wondered if you might have come across it before or be able to point me in the right direction.
I think that Sony Walkman X Series is best out of these three gadgets.
Which Samsung, they even copied the data cable from Apple. That they can come up with yourself?
http://www.mobileme.com.ua/blog/rival/133.html
ipod touch sooo overrated, walkman is prettier 😛 so getting one =)
ipod touch rules!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m getting it for Christmas and a Sony Walkman 32GB X Series and the Samsung P3 next month.
Reviews about ipod agree that the audio quality isn’t really that great. Finnish ‘mikrobitti’ magazine made measurements about how much juice ipod touch can produce and it was almost a joke but for most users they are fine with sucky sound quality if there is useless gimmicks to cover it.
ipod touch screen breaks if you drop it from 0,5 meters which is not so great either with the bad audio quality.
Sony is the BEST, the KING of walkman, and will always live!!
Is Seems that android will be slowly catching up with the iphone..
I am now angry that I wasted 5 years in i-Pod audio. What a waste of years of music. I’m now going back to all those albums I should have enjoyed first time around! You have been warned! I won’t be missing my apps either! Time for MUSIC
I agree with everyone about he quality of the Sony but i have a problem. I have an Audi with an iPod connector for the music system. It does not appear to have a cable for my Walkman. Does anyone know of a converter cable or do I have to buy an iPod? I really don’t want to!
I’ve have the same issue with the Audi and Sony Walkman – I’ve tried using the USB lead into Audi’s music system, and whilst it recognises the fact that a device is connected, it can’t access the content – something like ‘initialising device’ before timing out with a ‘can’t connect’. I guess Audi drivers are doomed not be be able to connect their Sony X series Walkmans to their car music systems… I too don’t want to have to buy an iPOD. Anybody else have a solution?
I’ve finally dumpled my i-Pod Touch for the Sony. I just cannot get my head around the sound quality the Sony produces! Quality and not quantity comes to mind with all these three devices! About that Kill switch some idiot wrote about, hahaha I’ve had sony digital products for years now! My DAT Walkman / Minidiscs are over 10 years old and sounding pure as ever! I’ve gone through 4 I-pods in 5 years, do the maths. To all of you, I’ve re discovered music again. I am now angry that I wasted 5 years in i-Pod audio. What a waste of years of music. I’m now going back to all those albums I should have enjoyed first time around! You have been warned! I won’t be missing my apps either! Time for MUSIC
i guess this review is not based on the sound quality of the devices. Well, it doesnt take a lot of research to find out that the Sony Walkman is designed mainly for mp3 playing. It boasts Digital Clear audio technologies which really makes your music files to be clear and transparent if there is such a thing. I think Walkman is desgined with audiophiles in mind. ipod not. ipod is good at that it does which is play music with mediocre sound quality but i guess thats ok due to the market it is designed to. People who chooses that one rave for each and every little single stupid useless application. Where Sony Walkman is more Pro. Samsung i have no idea on how it is or how it performs for playing music, so i wont go there. Anyways. if you are an audiophile who cares for sound quality. just check these features: Digital S-Master Amplifier; DSEE-Digital Sound Enhancement Engine; Clear Bass; Clear Stereo; Digital Noise Canceling4 (Modes: Bus/Train, Airplane, and Offfice).
It also comes with MDR-NC020 Noise Canceling EX Series earphones.
oh i forgot to mention. You DONT NEED ITUNES. You need to drag and drop. and thats it!!!
Me as an audiophile will go for the Walkman X Series 32Gb.
Between the Sony & Touch the Sony is the best one for sound quality. I’ve not tried the Samsung yet.
A big disappointment with the Sony is that it doesn’t implement gapless playback, so any tunes on a CD that merge into each other (eg NoRoots by faithless) have an annoying 2 sec silence at track end.
Even my 5 year old ZenSleek will do track boundaries correctly.
i just got sony x1050.its very very good quality sound much more than ipod
Don’t talk crap about kill switches. I have two Sony Walkman models that are over 5 years old and working perfectly. It’s amazing the rubbish people are prepared to believe without anything at all to back it up.
Apple get their sound codecs and speakers made from Samsung and SONY products have a kill swithch, which means it breaks when warranty expires so I recommend a Creative Zen Xfi – its got wifi and lots of features.
Hi. Most important aspect in any multimedia player is the audio quality, interface not fancy gimmicks. Reviews about ipod agree that the audio quality isn’t really that great. Finnish ‘mikrobitti’ magazine made measurements about how much juice ipod touch can produce and it was almost a joke but for most users they are fine with sucky sound quality if there is useless gimmicks to cover it.
ipod touch screen breaks if you drop it from 0,5 meters which is not so great either with the bad audio quality.
walkman x is too expensive
samsung interface is .. Don’t even want to talk about it.
This article unfortunately does not cover what is most importantly the quality of the sound of each device. The iTouch just as the iPods only has the preset EQ’s in which some songs can distort in. The Sony AND… Samsung have sound enhancing processors as the NSEE for Sony and DNSe 3.0 for the Samsung. I’ve tried the three of these units. The iTouch cannot give the natural and powerful sound the other two can produce. The Sony has a more natural sound when it enhances the Bass frequencies and is very impressive! The Samsung however has a much clearer and energetic stage sound. If you’re going for value I would definitely recommend Samsung. It also is Napster compatible as the sony but not the iphone.
these are the mobile phones with different companies and each mobile having their own functions.but all the phones are very good and have more functions. they are windows based phone with high quality picture and sound.
they are not phones but mp4 players
Samsung does have fan boys, we’re all hiding on ABI ^^
And bear in mind that the p3 has good deals on top of the cheaper prices; play has the 32gb for £150 which then puts it in competition with the zen and sony A series as well.
And you can bet your left testicle that the zune HD will better all of them 😀
(and might even make it to england!)
I’m guessing you mean “Anything But iPod” forums and not the Association of British Insurers? 🙂
There’s always deals to be had, moreso on non-Apple stuff it seems. Interesting about the Zune HD. It definitely has potential but will it flop?
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