The Sony X-Series Walkman got us all flustered at CES with its sparkly OLED screen, but how does it match up to Apple’s all-powerful iPod Touch? We’ve put the two PMP’s vital stats head to head. Find out who comes out on top, after the jump!
Capacity
It looks like a tie on the solid state storage front here: both the X-Series and iPod touch come in 16 and 32GB flavours, with no removable memory card option. Strangely, we’re awarding a win to the iPod here, but not for having the highest capacity. You can pick an 8GB version of the Touch, if you’re slightly cash strapped, giving it more capacity options over the X-Series Walkman.
Winner: Apple iPod Touch
Size
If you’re measuring this on screen size alone, the iPod touch wins hands down. At 3.5inches, its screen is half an inch bigger than the X-Series’. That said, the X-Series has walked a fine line between size and portability – It’s still a neat package, and there’s something to be said for its small form factor compared to the much wider iPod touch.
Winner: Apple iPod Touch
Display
On paper, the iPod Touch’s screen size should win this, but you need to see Sony’s OLED display in action first. The X-Series Walkman’s offering is small, sure, but it’s also ultra-bright and beautiful – if you’re planning to gorge yourself on album artwork, or squint at mobile movies its quality just squeaks past the iPod.
Winner: Sony X-Series
Sound
Walkmans have always had a better rep for sound quality than iPods and the X-Series is no different. But Sony has gone beyond the call of duty and built in noise cancellation too. There’s also processing to actually improve sound quality. A clever technique adds details to compressed music formats like MP3 – think audio upscaling and you’re not far wrong.
Winner: Sony X-Series
Battery
Walkmans are known for their long battery life compared to other PMPs, so we were surprised when Sony flagged up the X-Series’ 30 hours of audio (no, not video) as a bonus. The iPod touch, keeps kicking for 36 hours, so narrowly wins this bout.
Winner: Apple iPod Touch
Web abilities
The X-Series packs a mini web browser and can also download podcasts on the move, or gawp at YouTube using Wi-Fi. However, the iPod touch can do all that too, as well as run extra apps, and buy songs through iTunes.
Winner: iPod touch
Extras
This one’s by points. The second gen iPod touch includes Genius playlists and integrated Nike+ iPod. Not to mention the App Store. But, and it’s a big but, the X-Series Walkman is the first PMP to offer built in digital noise cancellation, so you can ditch the battery boosted headphones. If you’re an audiophile rather than a fitness fan, you’ll give the verdict to the latter, but if you like what’s online at the App Store, you”ll probably have seen the iPod land the killer blow.
Winner: Tie
