News: Sony Brings Karaoke to Walkmen

Just when you thought the kids were forgetting about Sing Star for good, Sony comes along with this candy-coloured concoction aimed at the “young music lover”:  An entry level walkman with, amongst other things, a karaoke function.

The Karaoke mode automatically reduces the volume of the original version’s vocal level, whilst supporting the .lrc file format, producing scrolling lyrics (just in case you haven’t got them all memorised).  It also conveniently alters the key of the song if necessary, making Mariah Carey’s dolphinesque range more achievable for the everyman.

As Walkmans go, the specs are pretty good: MP3 / WMA / AAC / MP4 / WMV playback, up to 50 hours of music battery juice, 2-inch QVGA LCD, voice recorder, FM radio, 4GB to 16GB of memory.

Obviously appealing to the younger market, the NWZ-E450 features an easy new interface with optional wallpapers and a QVGA screen, easy PC transfer with auto video format conversion in Windows 7, and SensMe technology, which automatically categorises music libraries to create a series of themed channels. Of course, it comes in a rainbow of colours, so as to match your schoolbag/uniform/black lipstick.

Although it comes with an optional portable stereo speaker dock, it’ll be interesting to see how karaoke with headphones pans out – especially in public.