A/V

Sony are bringing back the “Walkman” brand quite aggressively with various new models at different price points and capabilities. Today we take a look at one of the entry level models, the Walkman B series.

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Sony Ericsson launched their new Windows Mobile powered X2 smart phone at the London Design Museum this evening. It runs on Windows Mobile 6.5, has a 3.5” resistive touch screen and is available exclusively on Vodafone from the end of November.

SE have a range of home screens available preloaded on the phone as well as more that are downloadable. Take a look at the pictures above to see two of the panels and the panel picker. Panels range from the typical Windows Mobile look through to something that looks very much like Sim City complete with animated trains and boats. You can add widgets to these panels to further customise the phone to suit your personality.

The X2 has a side slide full QWERTY keyboard to compliment its touch screen and this will probably be the text input method of choice for most people as it feels very stable in use. Having said that if the handwriting recognition is up to the job that might be an even better option. A stylus is neatly stored in the body of the phone to help if you choose the handwriting route.

The screen is clear and bright with video looking quite impressive and I’m glad to see that a 3.5mm standard headphone socket is provided. The X2 has an optical mouse pad allowing you to move around the screen and select functions with ease. Sony Ericsson have made this even better by using icons in place of menu options where possible.

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The LG 22” LU7000 released back in September has just arrived for review. We’ll take a good look at it and report back fully in a few weeks but in the meantime here are our first impressions of the TV.

The LG is quite a looker with a DVD player built into its sloping stand and a nifty pair of sliding doors for the DVD.  This makes a nice change from the more conventional slot loading mechanism and gives the LG a very sleek and stylish look.  Unfortunately it doesn’t share the gorgeous Borderless design of it’s larger siblings.

The LU7000 has a full set of inputs including a USB 2.0 port that can be used to display your digital camera pictures as well as play your MP3s.

Expect to pay around £300 for the 22” and a little less for the 19” version.

LU 7000:

• Built-in DVD player
• Invisible speakers, 10W
• 1386×768
• HD ready
• 2 x HDMI
• 2 x Scart (1 x Full)
• 1 x RF
• 1 x Composite
• 1 x component
• 1 x PC input Plug and Play
• Digital Audio Out
• SRS TruSurround XT
• Freeview
• USB 2.0 (JPEG/MP3 Playback)
• Energy Saving Recommended

Back in March I enthusiastically extolled the virtues of my original Sennheiser CX300 in ear headphones. This outburst was brought on by the release of Sennheiser’s CX300 II Precision in ear headphones.

At the time I hadn’t tried a pair but after seeing them on sale for £13.99 from both www.7dayshop.com and www.play.com I took the plunge. These are in fact the Eco version which simply means that they are packaged in recycled cardboard rather than the traditional, impossible to get into, plastic.

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It might be time to upgrade my trusty Squeezebox. A recently announced addition to Logitech’s range of networked music players is the new Squeezebox Touch.

It has the same core capabilities of the squeezebox line (great sound quality and a very hackable server component) but adds a 4.3” touchscreen. This displays album art and details about the currently playing music, as well as allowing direct control with the touch interface.

Listed on the Logitech website at £259 it directly replaces the old Squeezebox model.

Last week we reported on the new 37” and 42” Borderless SL 9000 TVs from LG and now we have information on two more.

The SL 8000 (left) is a full HD TV with 200Hz TruMotion starting at 32” and going up to 47”.  It’s another very slim Borderless LCD TV with LED backlighting and shares the green credentials of the
SL 9000 series.  The TVs are also able to playback DIVX, DIVX HD and MKV files from USB drives of up to 1TB. 

The 19” and 22” LU 7000 TVs, (right) are aimed at the smaller rooms in your house. Having a built in DVD player they are ideally suited to the bedroom, kitchen or even a student pad. The DVD player is built neatly into the TV stand which slides open impressively when ejecting the DVD.  The LU 7000 also features LGs Invisible Speaker Technology just like the SL 8000 and SL 9000 so sound quality should be impressive for a small TV. 

As yet there is still no word on pricing for either TV series but, as with the SL 9000, it is said to be “competitive” so we’ll have to wait and see.  Both TVs should be in shops sometime in October. Read the rest of this entry »

LG launched their new Chocolate BL40 widescreen phone last night at a swanky party in the London Design Museum. I was lucky enough to get some time with the BL40 and as you’d expect it excels at displaying video on its 4” 21:9 aspect ratio screen.

The Chocolate uses an updated version of the “S Class” interface used on many of the recent LG phones. The rotating cube has been stretched and now mimics the applications and shortcuts setup on the phone. The interface is noticeably quicker than earlier LG phones such as the Arena I reviewed earlier in the year. This is no mean feat as the Arena is no slouch.

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Berlin played host last week to the IFA show. IFA is the “other” big event on the Consumer Entertainment calendar after CES and provides an opportunity for manufacturers to launch products to a European audience.

Sony were amongst the first companies to announce a raft of new products and here are the highlights:

W5810 and Z5800 Freesat TV’s (pictured). Both these sets offer 1920×1080 HD screens and built in Freesat tuners. You also get the latest version of the BRAVIA processing engine (Bravia Engine 3) and 100,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio. The Z5800 also includes MotionFlow 200Hz processing for smoother pictures.

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LG announced today the launch of their SL 9000 television range.  The SL 9000s are incredibly thin (29.3mm), 100Hz, full HD, LCD TVs with 248 LEDs around the edge of the screen providing the backlighting.   42 and 47” Screen sizes will be available and should be in shops sometime in October.

The killer feature on these new TVs though is their ability to playback DIVX and DIVX HD files from USB drives of up to 1TB – including files in the common .MKV format.

They are described by LG as borderless as there’s no protruding bezel around the screen.  Layers of film give the televisions a smooth flat anti glare and anti scratch front panel that goes right to the edges of the TV.

Picture quality is suitably impressive when watching HD content whether through the HDMI connector or via the USB port.  Having not seen any SD content I can’t comment on its quality.

An “eco” function uses up to 40% less power compared to a similar sized LCD TV by varying the brightness level.  This can be carried out manually or automatically based on ambient light levels.

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As promised, here is the second part of our Q&A Session with Sony. Thanks once again to Tim and Nicola for taking part, it was instructive!

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