SONY WALKS THE LINE 06/04/2005

Sony has been pumping out Walkmans at a fierce rate and it’s about to pay off with the NW-HD5, a serious contender in the hard drive music arena. The 20GB audio player has an ultralight aluminium body, with a credit-card sized footprint measuring 56 x 89 x 15mm. It comes in the classic shades of black, silver and red and stores up to 13,000 tracks or 900 CDs of music in MP3 or ATRAC3 plus format. The replaceable battery has an estimated 40 hour lifespan.

Sony managed to fit the player with a 1.5-inch display with adjustable screen colour. ‘Follow Turn’ functionality flips the screen vertically or horizontally to match your hand position, while G-Sensor shock protection safeguards your hard drive if the unit is dropped. With a price tag of £199 and a weight of 125g, the Sony NW-HD5 a shade lighter and cheaper than its 20GB iPod rival. It debuts in the UK in May.

Contact: www.sony.co.uk