Sony E430-series DAP Gains iTunes, Dumps Bluetooth

The latest incarnation of Sony's DAP would seem like a stripped-down version of the NWZ-A820 series announced earlier in February. The E430 range is very light and sleek, measuring at only 8.5mm thin and weighing as little as 50g. The screen inherently becomes smaller too with only a 2" TFT LCD while maintaining the same resolution and color depth as its bigger brother. The rounded controls appear to be an improvement over the A820, but they don't look like you can use it as touch-senitive scroll wheel like the iPod. Volume controls are likely to be located on the right handed side of the player.

You'll also find a built-in FM tuner - something Sony doesn't usually bundle in a DAP. All three models (2GB, 4GB and 8GB) will not include Bluetooth, which is a battery killer anyway. Battery life is rated 11 hours playing 320kbps music; 14 hours for 256kbps; and just shy of 30 hrs. for 128kbps. In addition to MP3, WMA and AAC as well as WAV are supported. Video will need to be encoded in H.264 and limited to 320x240 at 30fps. If NWZ-820 is any indication, the E430 won't be able to scale higher res and bit-rate video. Despite bearing a Vista Certified logo, the E430 will reportedly sync with iTunes - likely with the help of an add-on.