Touchscreen Walkman with Wi-Fi and an OLED screen
 At their booth at CES 2009 in Las Vegas, Sony had the new Sony Walkman NWZ-X1000 on display, though unfortunately all of the available units were sealed under plastic domes. Sony says this is because the device is still few in number, and they want to keep a close eye on them, so we should still expect that the version we saw today was close to the release version. In any case, even behind the plastic bubble, it was easy to see how bright and clear the OLED screen was. This technology is making an appearance on a few spotlight products here at CES, including the new OQO Model II+ UMPC, and we've been impressed with the display tech every time we've laid eyes on it. It provides a nice contrast ratio, and also draws less power than other display types. We're curious to see if this makes a difference on a Wi-Fi device.
Don't you dare call it a netbook
 Sony has entered the small notebook category in a big way with the Sony Vaio P compact computer. The company doesn't want the device to bear the netbook badge, and with a suggested retail price of $900 or more, we'd have to agree. Besides, most netbooks don't come with WWAN capabilities for wireless 3G networking, and certainly none of the netbooks we've seen sport a screen as packed with pixels as the Sony Vaio P-series 1600 by 768 pixel display. It's a tight fit, but even Windows Vista looks shiny and slick on the ultra-wide, high-res display. With GPS, Wi-Fi and 2GB of RAM, this little beast is a real powerhouse device. We got our hands on one at CES 2009, and we were definitely impressed by the compact size. The display font seemed a bit tiny for us on the Sony Vaio P's tightly packed screen, but that's adjustable, of course. Finally, we definitely miss the trackpad, and wouldn't mind seeing a slightly deeper version of the Sony Vaio P with a new input option.
A Cyber-shot camera with a Web browser
 The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-G3 is a striking camera with a huge, 3.5-inch touchscreen dominating the entire back of the device. Sony does a nice job putting all that screen real estate to use, too. The camera features an impressive stable of shooting features, including smile shutter with anti-blink detection (getting a bit silly, now), an impressive array of in-camera editing features and more. But the icing on the cake is the Wi-Fi connectivity and the onboard Web browser. The Sony reps we talked to made it clear this is a stripped down, bare bones Web browser. It's meant for uploading photos, not browsing the Web on your commute home. In our hands-on test, we couldn't get the browser to find the CES Wi-Fi network, but we did get a chance to check out the tiny onscreen keyboard and the touch sensitive interface. We'd give a thumbs up to the interface, but the keyboard needs some work. Otherwise, the camera sports 4GB of internal storage, which should be plenty for most shooters to avoid the exorbitant cost of a Sony Memory Stick. The 10-megapixel, 4X zoom shooter is available now for $500.
Walkman you wear on your head
 Like the Walkman X1000, the Sony Walkman NWZ-W202 was also bolted down, so we couldn't try on the wrap-around headphones that contain the entirety of this small music player. The design is clever, but a bit chunky in person, and the headphones will certainly be conspicuous, as much as they are convenient. We like the idea, though, and it certainly makes sense, especially as simple music players shrink smaller and smaller. We would have liked to try the Zappin music preview feature, which plays snippets of your library for fast browsing without a screen. It's about time someone came up with a solution to that problem. The player will be out in the spring, with a 2GB capacity and a price tag around $70.
HD camcorder on a diet
 HD from a little slab of orange plastic? It's hunting season and Sony's got its sights set on the Flip Mino. Aside from being obscenely compact, the new Sony MHS-PM1 features a swivel lens that rotates up to 180 degrees for those dangerously hard-to-reach shooting locations. The Sony MHS-PM1 has a 5-megapixel 1/2.5" CMOS sensor and records exclusively to Memory Stick PRO Duo cards.
Perhaps the most enticing factor here is the Sony MHS-PM1's colorful appearance and built-in Picture Motion Browser software for enhanced YouTube uploading. We've used PMB in the past and had no monumental issues. Uploading was solid and the software was intuitive for the most part. Sony managed to cram a 5x optical zoom in the mighty little Sony MHS-PM1 and the camcorder offers a handful of Scene modes. Price: $170. Release: March 2009.
Bringing up the middle
 Sony's mid-range Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W220 camera is pretty much the essence of what we're seeing this year at CES. It's a camera that would have probably cost 50% more last year, but this year it gets a price cut. While there have been some high-end devices, the Sony Cyber-shot W220 shows that manufacturers are shoring up the mid-range, providing a nice mix of features for a better price, instead of offering new, flashy features and effects. The W220 gets a 12-megapixel sensor, a 4X zoom and a 2.7-inch screen. All of these are slightly above the low end, though the screen is approaching the fancy part of the neighborhood. Sony keeps the price under $200, and while you could find a similarly spec'ed camera for closer to $100, this is a Sony, after all.
Philip Berne and Mike Perlman contributed to this CES 2009 story.
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