CES 2015: Sony Brings Back the Walkman with High Quality Audio

Sony had revolutionized the way we listened to music when it launched the Walkman in the 1980’s. Since then the music players have gotten consistently tinier ultimately reaching the size of a biscuit before being absorbed into the smartphone. But the grandfather of portable music players, Sony, is not giving up on its baby just yet. At CES 2015, they have revived the Walkman as a high definition player which it says is a better entertainment device than any smartphone.

Sony’s NW-ZX2 Walkman boasts of 128 GB of storage space with up to 60 hours of battery life. The company also claims that this device gives a better sound output than the conventional smartphones. It supports high-quality audio codecs like DSD, WAV, AIFF, FLAC, Apple Lossless, and more. Sony also added that the device is capable of increasing the quality of your existing songs.

The ZX2 is a peculiar looking device which has a bit of a retro appeal. It looks like a communication device from the older sci-fi movies. It looks like a big smartphone with a bulge at the bottom for the 3.5 mm headphone jack. The back panel has an uncanny resemblance to the Nokia 3230.

There is a disappointment though on the software side of things. The device runs on Android Jellybean 4.2 which is presently outdated. It does give you the option to download and use apps from the Play store, so that’s a plus. The Walkman also provides you with a Micro SD slot which lets you extend the storage beyond 128 GB. It also supports Bluetooth and NFC output making this a complete entertainment device.

But the question does remain; why would someone go for an independent device if they already own a smartphone that does it all and that too at a price of $1200? Well, it can be a device for music professionals to listen to with highest quality tracks. This would probably come handy to music enthusiasts too who want a player that gives them the best output on the move, but they’d definitely need quality earphones to get the best out of it. The device does have limited utility in a time when we have all-in-one devices called smartphones, and not a lot of folks will be enthused by the hefty price tag.