New Sony Walkman music players feature stunning good looks, Android 12
- Thread starter JournalBot
- Start date
One thing Sony could always pull off was making sexy electronics. Maybe not the best business choices (MemorySticks or other proprietary formats of similar tech), but they look damn nice.
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I would be a lot more interested if it didn't have a web browser. I would love to be able to give my kids something like a click-wheel iPod that supports Spotify or Apple Music.
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I applaud the retro conceit of this. As an Alton Brown fan, I am trying to remove unitaskers from my life as best I can.
Tidbit: At one point he said the only unitaskers he allowed in his kitchen were a fire extinguisher and a waffle maker. He subsequently rolled out pie dough with the fire extinguisher, and then made panini in the waffle maker, and pronounced himself happy.
Tidbit: At one point he said the only unitaskers he allowed in his kitchen were a fire extinguisher and a waffle maker. He subsequently rolled out pie dough with the fire extinguisher, and then made panini in the waffle maker, and pronounced himself happy.
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If this made phone calls, I'd want it as my daily mobile.
Headphone jack, microSD slot, great looks, great sound, small size...
Okay, I guess I could do with basic cameras as well, so it's not really happening. But I hope if it takes off, they do a stripped-down phone variant for people who don't need a mini-tablet.
Headphone jack, microSD slot, great looks, great sound, small size...
Okay, I guess I could do with basic cameras as well, so it's not really happening. But I hope if it takes off, they do a stripped-down phone variant for people who don't need a mini-tablet.
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Yeah, have to agree, that's a nice design.
They really should just put a modem in it and make it a basic phone! Headphone jack, check! SD card slot, check! Nice small device size. check!
Keep the price low enough, and the android vanilla enough and they could sell a bunch of them.
edit: Ninja'd by alexrdavies with similar sentiment...
They really should just put a modem in it and make it a basic phone! Headphone jack, check! SD card slot, check! Nice small device size. check!
Keep the price low enough, and the android vanilla enough and they could sell a bunch of them.
edit: Ninja'd by alexrdavies with similar sentiment...
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That just seems like a failure to understand the audience, since anyone who really wants the "authentic vinyl experience" is more likely to buy a turntable and speakers rather than a $500 mp3 player.
Still, I don't dislike this thing. More physical buttons is a good thing.
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Yeah, they can really design with the best, especially for some reason in small niche markets. To this day I miss my red Sony e-reader. I shuffled over to Kindle when it finally died, but it was a great little machine perfectly designed for its use.
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I think this is brilliant and as I find myself puzzled and disappointed in streaming music (sure I'm old, I'm gen X) I'm reconsidering a move to purchase music regularly again. It's good for the artists, it's good for consumers and then I can just listen to an album like a normal human being. Too much autoplay shuffle in my life from video and music streamers.
But would I pay for this device specifically? I'd have to have something smaller to put next to my phone or take running. I miss my ipod shuffle, and while that seems to belong on a watch now, I'm not convinced. I want easy tactile buttons and battery life.
But would I pay for this device specifically? I'd have to have something smaller to put next to my phone or take running. I miss my ipod shuffle, and while that seems to belong on a watch now, I'm not convinced. I want easy tactile buttons and battery life.
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I know a guy named Walkman. He's about that age when it first came out.
To solomonrex: GenX here too. One of the best things about Spotify is playing a whole album start to finish, just by saying "play the album X by Y."
To solomonrex: GenX here too. One of the best things about Spotify is playing a whole album start to finish, just by saying "play the album X by Y."
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If this had been bright yellow, there's a 50/50 chance I would have impulse bought one (something I absolutely do not need) on the spot.
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You can pick up a Sony Xperia 5 smartphone. It has all of those features except it is larger than this, but on the small side for android smartphones these days.
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I still have my old Sony discman as a museum piece because the design was such a masterpiece of elegant functionality, but is there really a subset of people somewhere who don't use their phone as their music player big enough to justify the expense of designing and manufacturing such a bespoke device?
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You know, I've been saying for a while that I would love to have a phone with physical gaming controls built in, and everybody always tells me that's too niche for anybody to attempt (and somehow, it stays too niche even with stuff like GeForce Now, Playstation Now, and Steam Link becoming more and more part of the landscape).
And then Sony makes something like this... how is that idea more niche than this?
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This is pretty nitchi even in Japan.
In real stuff:
Consumer electronic products are still 45% of Sony's bottom line.
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I wish they would make one with an FM receiver. About once a year or so, I like to go to the driven theater.
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Because most of the phones designed around gaming have tended to be pretty bad at just about everything else. The Xperia Play way back in the day had some very good physical gaming controls, but its performance as an actual phone/communication device left a lot to be desired, plus it was fairly expensive. Not only that, but ever since the Vita folded Sony's been pretty reserved about trying to push into the mobile gaming space, since most of their phones over the last several years have been about a "refined, upscale" image rather than gaming. This particular device fits well with that image, since they're targeting the kind of people who want high-fidelity audio above all else.
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For people thinking about buying one, make sure the software you actually use can be installed before pulling the trigger. I have a WM1Z mk2 which runs the same build of Android, and using it as a central music library has been a bit hit or miss. The popular streaming apps work just fine, but you'll have to shop around for an app if you want to manage your own music across devices. The default Sony music players uses a proprietary format for playlists, and whether 3rd party players support all of the physical media keys is a bit hit or miss.
I can use it as a sound bar remote with the B&O app, but other EQ apps (Audeze, Focal) are also buggy to downright refusing to install because the device doesn't pass one of more of Android's checks. Ron is being dismissive about DSEE, but it does actually help with older songs with compression artifacts.
I can use it as a sound bar remote with the B&O app, but other EQ apps (Audeze, Focal) are also buggy to downright refusing to install because the device doesn't pass one of more of Android's checks. Ron is being dismissive about DSEE, but it does actually help with older songs with compression artifacts.
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No Memory Stick? Now I know for sure this is an alternate universe.
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But a stunningly good looking rectangle the NW-A300 is.
That said not good looking enough for me to a) carry one b) buy Sony.
And considering I just bought a replacement DVD drive so I can continue ripping my CDs... I think I'm the target demographic.
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This isn't all that niche. Astell & Kern sells well over a million DAPs a year, at an average revenue that's probably closer to $1,000 each. The entire Pixel product line sold less than 30 million units across six generations of phones, and nowhere near the same unit revenue.
Americans just don't care about portable audio as much as the Asian market.
FWIW, Xiaomi does make a phone with magnetically loaded triggers. There are a couple other with haptic triggers, although I'm not sure if I'd call those "physical".
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No, you're right, it works on Spotify, then I switched to Apple Music and it just takes off after the album ends with no warning. But there's still the feeling that I want to listen to this album, and this one and this one, and isn't that less than the cost of an annual subscription? The discovery is good, but the sense of subscribing forever gives me pause.
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Just look at those ports! It has a headphone jack! AND USB-C! AND a full suite of hardware buttons you can identify with your eyes shut!
Like others, I have no use for a dedicated piece of hardware for portable music, but with this thing I sure WANT to....
Like others, I have no use for a dedicated piece of hardware for portable music, but with this thing I sure WANT to....
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PsychoStreak
Ars Tribunus Angusticlavius
Definitely filing this under "I don't need this, but want one anyway." That NW-A300 is beautiful.
Well placed physical buttons, headphone jack, and full speed USB-C port? And a form factor that actually looks comfortable to hold? Yes, please!
Well placed physical buttons, headphone jack, and full speed USB-C port? And a form factor that actually looks comfortable to hold? Yes, please!
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I've got an older Sony NW-A26 here.It's a PITA getting songs on the player but the battery life was insane at 50 hours. Mainly use my Fiio X5-3 though.
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"The audience" for this already owns a turntable. Probably more than one. But turntables are notoriously difficult to listen to on the bus or at a starbucks, so a (comparatively) high end portable music player does serve a purpose for this niche market.
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I hadn't thought about this before, but a smartphone with all those media buttons would be amazing!
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I'd love to have a dedicated music player again. Hell the only mandatory things of a smartphone for me besides the obvious call/text is a music player, GPS for maps, and email. Price is a bit steep though, guess I'm not wealthy enough for this niche, or maybe they just need to go the extra mile and bump up the price a bit to make it into a smartphone.
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The thing is the DAP market isn't just niche, it's a pretty thriving market with a ton of different manufacturers. These look nice but not sure I would pick them over players from say iBasso, Fiio, HiBy or any number of other manufacturers.
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There absolutely is, just head over to head-fi.org and take a look.
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