Sony's Walkman line recently celebrated its 30th anniversary, and the latest iteration of a brand that was born a portable cassette player is by far the most ambitious. The NWZ-X1051, aka the Walkman X Series, is available in 16GB ($299) and 32GB ($399)—the same capacities and prices as the iPod touch. Wi-Fi enabled, with a touch screen and the integration of popular Web services like Slacker Internet radio and YouTube, the Walkman has evolved into a robust music and video player. There's also built-in noise cancellation, and the player comes with a pair of earphones that sound great when combined with the user-adjustable EQ. My only major complaint: The Web experience isn't great—Sony's browser is no match for Apple's Safari. And you don't get access to an App Store with thousands of titles that comes with the iPod touch. Even so, the X Series Walkman is a well-designed device that's the best non-iTunes-centric player you can buy.
Measuring 3.8 by 2.1 by 0.4 inches (HWD), the all-black X Series boasts a super-crisp, 3-inch, 432-by-240-pixel organic light-emitting diode (OLED) touch screen and a unique sparkly (but not overly flashy) body that resembles a cross-cut slab of granite. Our Editors' Choice for portable media players, the iPod touch, has a 3.5-inch screen with a slightly higher resolution (480 by 320), but the touch is also bigger than the X Series. Because the touch's screen is larger, both devices offer similar levels of sharpness.
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