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On October 17, 2019, Sony held a new product launch in Shanghai related to the 40th anniversary of WALKMAN.

At the conference, Sony introduced two new players, including the NW-ZX500 series player with “Getting Started Flagship” positioning, which is aimed at the entry-level user NW-A100 series player.

Return to the full Android NW-ZX series

For Sony Audio, “two years and one more” is a stable law. Every two years, Sony will release new products on the corresponding product line to maintain the rhythm of the playback device.

When the time came. Two years after the release of the NW-ZX300 series, Sony officially launched the NW-ZX500 series of smart players with a full Android system.

The NW-ZX500 is not only the symbol of WALKMAN’s 40th anniversary, but also the player that launched the full Android system on the NW-ZX series five years after the NW-ZX1 was released.

As you can see from the information on the press conference,The NW-ZX500 is not the sign that Sony wants to regain the smart NW-ZX series. It appears more to give Sony a little more chance in this streaming age.

In terms of appearance, the Sony WALKMAN NW-ZX500 follows a design similar to the NW-ZX300 series.

The proportion of the whole body does not change much. If the NW-ZX300A is put together, the NW-ZX500 will only grow a little longer, and the feel and weight of the hands will not change significantly. The biggest change in the feel is the bottom touch. The NW-ZX500 changes the bottom to a rounded corner, and the grip feels better when it is held than the NW-ZX300 series.

The top of the fuselage still has a 4.4mm balanced interface and a 3.5mm headphone jack, and the interface is also equipped with a copper ring reinforcement structure. If you look down from directly above the fuselage, then the NW-ZX500 and NW-ZX300 really don’t make much difference.

In contrast, the bottom of the NW-ZX500 is rounder than the NW-ZX300. The WM-Port interface originally placed on the bottom of the fuselage was cancelled. Sony added a USB-C interface on the right side of the fuselage for power supply and data transmission.

Transferring the USB-C to the side of the fuselage means that the NW-ZX500 series basically has no connection with the base.

However, Sony has not launched a fixed base with remote control for WALKMAN playback. Even if it is a “two bricks” for high-end users, Sony has not introduced a dedicated base adapter for them.

So, now the NW-ZX500 has now moved the USB-C interface to the side of the fuselage. In fact, it will not affect the use. It is only a little troublesome when the pocket is charged. It is not directly used to insert the ass.

▲ NW-ZX505 (left) and NW-ZX300A (right)

The NW-ZX500 maintains the original button design. In addition to the button will be slightly larger than the NW-ZX300, the other is not much different, there is blind operation recognition processing on the NW-ZX300.

screenOn the other hand, the NW-ZX500 series uses a 3.6-inch screen this time, and the resolution is also increased to 1280×720. The inactive area will be less than the NW-ZX300 series.

Although the screen ratio is improved a bit, the screen does not completely cover the entire front of the fuselage. Although the player does not have the hard demand for high-screen ratio, in the face of the domestic smart player group that started to dominate the high-screen ratio, Sony still has a little “home-by-step” feeling.

The screen size change is not large, but the NW-ZX500 series has been replaced with glossy glass, which is better than the NW-ZX300 series with frosted glass.

Configuration, the NW-ZX500 series still has a large number of high-end players from NW-WM1Z, NW-WM1A and DMP-Z1, such as “Suo Liu Wan” DMP-Z1 balanced power supply and gold-containing solder This time it also appeared on the NW-ZX500 series. At the same time, the NW-ZX500 series also enhances the unbalanced output power supply and boosts the “POSCAP” capacitor to N.More than twice the W-ZX300 series.

For streaming users, the biggest focus of the NW-ZX500 series is the system.

The NW-ZX500 series uses a complete Android system based on Android 9.0 customization. Sony said that the NW-ZX500 series is compatible with most streaming media applications on the market. In addition to Sony Hi-Res, the NW-ZX500 series can also be used. Streaming media services such as QQ Music and Netease Cloud Music meet users who want to use streaming media services to get music.

In terms of compatible streaming media, player manufacturers want to pass the Android system. Here, Sony chose the simplest and straightforward method.

Compared with deep-customized smart players such as Astell&Kern and Pride M9, Sony, which offers a full Android system, gives users more freedom. This way, it is not necessary to wait until the official push of new firmware, and does not need to wait for the official update whitelist update to install the application, the user can obtain more freedom, Sony can also absorb users of multiple streaming media platforms. These are the advantages that Sony brings to the full Android system.

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However, after opening Android, the NW-ZX500 series will face greater hardware pressure.

After all, the configuration of the NW-ZX500 series may not be able to meet the performance needs of full Android. If you run into some power-hungry apps, the NW-ZX500’s tight performance issues may also surface. Although this can only be felt after the actual experience, but for Sony with full Android, there are still many users expressed concern.

For the new NW-ZX500 series, Sony also introduced a new version of the playback app.

This application inherits most of the playback features of the previous generation of non-smart players, with independent volume control, and the playback interface of the analog tape is also displayed in the idle state. Even if you didn’t buy the 40th Anniversary EditionWALKMAN can also experience this retro interaction from the NW-ZX500 series.

In terms of pricing, the NW-ZX500 series is available in NW-ZX505 (16GB) and NW-ZX507 (64GB) versions, priced at 4,199 yuan and 5,199 yuan respectively. Sony officially will start in the early morning of October 17. Pre-sale.

The NW-ZX500 series is a lot more expensive than the previous NW-ZX300 series. Although both machines support the microSD expansion, the NW-ZX505 with full Android system has only 16GB of storage space, which is a bit stressful for use and price.

A new generation with a 40th anniversary aura

In addition to the NW-ZX500 series, Sony also released the NW-A100 series for beginners.

The NW-A100 series has not changed much in terms of body design compared to the NW-A50 series introduced last year. Regardless of the body size or button layout, the NW-A105 is almost the same as the NW-A55. The biggest difference between the two is still on the screen and data interface.

The NW-A100 series has been replaced with a more versatile USB-C interface from the classic WM-Port interface, and the interface remains at the bottom of the unit. If the user wants to tie the player to the amp, the NW-A100 with the interface at the bottom will be more convenient than the NW-ZX500. At the very least, the user does not need to worry about finding a custom interface to the data cable of the USB-C L-type jack.

Screen, the NW-A100 series also uses a 3.6-inch 1280×720 touch screen, the screen is 16% larger than the NW-A50 series, in order to adapt to the replacement of the complete Android operating system, the amount of information displayed Variety.

Similarly, the NW-A100 series is also equipped with a complete Android system based on Android 9 customization. It uses Sony’s newly developed playback application and is also compatible with Sony’s selected Hi-Res streaming music, QQ music, and Netease. Streaming media playback applications such as cloud music and cool dog music. The machine comes with a 3.5mm headphone jack, and it can also achieve wireless lossless playback through mainstream Bluetooth transmission encoding such as LDAC.

So, the NW-A100 series is also an entry-level WALKMAN player that has both Hi-Res Audio and Hi-Res Audio Wireless certifications.

Of course, for everyone, the focus of the NW-A100 series is actually on the “40th Anniversary Edition”.

For the 40th Anniversary of WALKMAN, Sony launched a NW-A100TPS Memorial Set. The kit comes with a black NW-A105 with the WALKMAN 40th Anniversary logo on it, along with a NW-A100 series case that mimics the WALKMAN classic tape drive TPS-L2.

When the NW-A100 series machine enters the idle play mode, the machine will display an interface that mimics the tape playback. If you have also installed this TPS-L2 case, you can simulate the effect of the tape player playing the tape. For the old fans of WALKMAN, this design also has a lot of appeal.

In terms of price, the NW-A100 series is available in NW-A105 (16GB) and NW-A107 (32GB) versions. The NW-A105 also has a NW-A105HN set with headphones and a NW-A100TPS 40th Anniversary Set. Therefore, the entire NW-A100 has a total of 4 sales combinations in China:

• NW-A105 (16GB), priced at 2099 yuan, available in black, orange, gray-green, blue, red, five colors
• NW-A106 (32GB), priced at 2899 yuan, currently only black optional
• NW-A105HN (16GB) headset set, priced at 2499 yuan, available in black, orange, gray green, blue, red, five colors
• NW-A100TPS (16GB) 40th Anniversary Set, priced at 2699 yuan

The price range of the NW-A50 series to the NW-A100 series is actually not much different from the NW-ZX series. However, the span of the NW-A series is only from the range of 1000-2000 yuan to the range of 2000-3000 yuan. For ordinary users,In fact, it is acceptable.

And at this price point, streaming users will have a larger base. If there are people in this group who want to use the player to get a better listening experience from streaming media, then he is the target of the NW-A100 series.