Sony, in an obvious attempt to confuse the hell out of consumers, announced another hard-drive based MP3 Player. The HMP-A1 is also a personal video player, with that Sony finally offers something more advanced than the Apple iPod in the portable music device arena.

Just a couple of days ago though Sony announced the Sony Vaio Pocket VGF-AP1 20GB MP3 Player. This 20GB MP3 Player also competes with the iPod.
So which one to buy when they become available?

The HMP-A1 measures 129.6×75.6×22 mm and weighs 250g. The VGF-AP1 in contrast is smaller with 115.2x63.3×17.2mm. It is also 55g lighter. The HMP-A1 has a bigger screen with 3.5", where the VGF-AP1 only has a 2.2" color screen.
Biggest differences are that the HMP-A1 supports the MP3 music format and also can display video in MP4, MP2 and AVI format. The VGF-AP1 only plays Sony's ATRAC audio format.
The Sony HMP-A1 is scheduled for June 26th release in Japan for, based on The Register, ~$563.

More details in Sony Press-Release (japanese).

Sony last year announced the PCVA-HVP20 Personal Video Player.

The Sony HMP-A1 is now available through japanese Gadget Exporters Dynamism and AudioCubes for $699.




Watch Impress has more Hi-Res HMP-A1 photos.