New Android 12-powered Sony Walkmans: cool looks and high prices

What simply occurred? In case you bear in mind recording songs from the radio onto cassette so you could possibly hearken to them later utilizing a chunky moveable tape participant, here is some nostalgia-fuelled excellent news: Sony has launched two new variations of its iconic Walkman. However there isn’t any want to hold a pencil to repair any unspooled cassettes; these are the newest Android-powered gadgets from a sequence that Sony has been making for the final decade.

Like different digital music gamers, the NW-A300 and NW-ZX700 can play streamed and downloaded music. They’re powered by Android 12, enabling assist for apps resembling Spotify, and, in response to Sony, supply “evolutionary sound.”

The less expensive of the 2 Walkmans, the NW-A300, prices 46,000 yen (about $360) in Japan and 399 euros (about $430) in Europe. It has a small 56.6 × 98.5 × 12 mm footprint that Ars Technica notes is in regards to the dimension of a pack of playing cards, a 3.6-inch 1280 × 720 (60 Hz) touchscreen LCD, Wi-Fi 802.11AC, and Bluetooth 5. Port-wise, there’s USB-C 3.2 Gen1, a MicroSD slot, and a headphone jack.

The NW-A300 is powered by an unnamed quad-core Qualcomm SoC with 4GB of RAM. Sony guarantees 36 hours of 44.1 kHz FLAC playback and as much as 32 hours of 96 kHz FLAC Excessive-Decision Audio playback, although that is presumably with the display turned off.

The high-end NW-ZX700 mannequin is geared toward audiophiles, one thing mirrored in its 104,500 yen ($818) value. Sony tries to justify that quantity by including a correct audio amplifier and enormous capacitors that energy the analog audio output. It sports activities an 11nm Qualcomm QCS4290 with eight Kryo 260 CPUs and an Adreno 610 GPU, a 5-inch 1280 × 720 display, 64GB of storage, and 23 hours of audio playback. There’s additionally a 4.4 mm “balanced” audio jack sitting alongside the usual 3.5mm port.

Unsurprisingly, the NW-ZX700 is far bigger at 72.6 × 132 x 17mm. Just like the cheaper mannequin, it has an S-Grasp HX digital amplifier chip. Each Walkmans use Sony’s Synthetic Intelligence-powered Edge-AI and DSEE Final (Digital Sound Enhancement Engine) to upscale compressed digital music information to the next high quality, and embody a characteristic that provides vinyl sounds to a monitor. There’s additionally a particular cassette tape person interface and screensaver.

Each Walkmans are set to launch in Japan this February.