Sony S Series

Introduced in August 2008, the S-Series is a new series of high-end Walkman media players from Sony. With capacities of 4 and 8GB the S-Series includes many standard features such as video support and an FM radio as well as others not found on units from other brands, such as a noise canceling circuit that can transform any headphones used into noise canceling ones and an intelligent shuffle feature that creates playlists based on your personal listening behavior. Priced at 150 and 180 dollars it is difficult to believe anyone would opt for the model with only 4GB of capacity. It is also curious why these units were released so late in the game with such large price tags, when other big market players such as Microsoft and Apple are expected to release similarly priced devices with larger capacities in the short-term. On the other hard, these Sony units set a new battery life standard at 40 hours of audio playback.