The metallic sheen on this Newman MP3 player reminds me of the mythical mithril from the Lord of the Rings universe. Also called, real silver, mithril is an impregnable and flexible material use by the best of Eleves to protect themselves. The reality of the Newsmy XO is less glorious. This is a cheap DAP that is prone to scratches and probably won’t save Frodo’s life. It still manages to be fancy, though, and I think the design has a lot to do with it. There’s a 1.5-inch OLED screen that blends with the rest of the hardware, including the touch-sensitive buttons that glow a pale red. It’s also one of those throwback “thin” players. No pricing and availability yet. We haven’t hear from Newman, maker of the Newsmy line of PMPs in a while, even though our gadget for 2007 happens to be their VX1000. It’s a company that prefers its own original designeven at the risk of looking ridiculous. The XO is far from ridiculous.

[newsmy via dapreview]