The Walkman ZX Series is a line of premium high-end digital audio players designed and developed by Sony since 2013. It sits above the A Series and below the luxury WM1 Series in the Walkman range.
The Walkman ZX Series is a line of premium high-end digital audio players designed and developed by Sony since 2013. It sits above the A Series and below the luxury WM1 Series in the Walkman range.
The first model, NW-ZX1, featured a 4-inch display and a high quality digital amplifier that sold for about $900. It runs on Android. [1] It was introduced on September 25, 2013, alongside the NW-F880 series and first released in Japan on December 7, followed by overseas markets in 2014. [2] [3]
A second generation player, the NW-ZX2, was released in 2015. [4]
Later in the same year, the NW-ZX100 was introduced. This player is cheaper than the ZX2, has a more compact and slimmer body, and runs on custom Sony software. [5]
In 2017 the NW-ZX300 replaced the NW-ZX100. It is slimmer than the ZX100 and borrows design cues from the A Series of the same time. [6] It also includes a 4.4 mm Pentaconn connector. [7]
The NW-ZX500 series was introduced at IFA 2019, retailing for €830/£750, with native DSD and MQA playback. [8] It also had a USB-C port replacing the proprietary WM-PORT for data and power connection. [9]
The NW-ZX700 series was introduced in January 2023. [10] It has been released in select Asia-Pacific countries in January such as India, [11] and will be released in Japan on February 23 for ¥104,500. [12]
What Hi-Fi? reviewed the NW-ZX1, praising the sound, design and buttons, while criticising its price and non-expandable memory. [13] PC World Australia gave the player 3.5 stars out of 5, giving merit to sound quality and battery life, but noting that the buying price is steep. [14]
In What Hi-Fi?'s early review of the NW-ZX507, its "detailed and dynamic sound" was praised, with no negatives given. [15]
| Series | Image | Model | Capacity | Release Date | Display | Rated battery life | Audio formats | OS | Wireless connectivity | Terminals | Physical size | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NWZ-ZX1 | NWZ-ZX1 | 128 GB | December 2013 | 4" (10.2 cm) 854 x 480 (FWVGA) | 16 hours (Hi-Res Audio), 32 hours (MP3) | MP3, WMA, ATRAC (Japanese market), ATRAC Advanced Lossless (Japanese market), WAV, AAC, HE-AAC, FLAC, Apple Lossless, AIFF, DSD [16] [17] [18] | Android 4.1 | IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0 | 3.5 mm stereo jack, WM-PORT | 122 mm 60 mm 13 mm | 139 g (4.9 oz) | |
| NW-ZX2 | NW-ZX2 | February 2015 | 33 hours (Hi-Res Audio), 60 hours (MP3) | Android 4.2 | 3.5 mm stereo jack, WM-PORT, Micro SD | 131 mm 65 mm 18 mm | 235 g (8.29 oz) | |||||
| NW-ZX100 | NW-ZX100 | October 2015 | 3" (7.6 cm) 400x240 (WQVGA) | 45 hours (Hi-Res Audio), 70 hours (MP3) | Original | Bluetooth 3.0 | 3.5 mm stereo jack, WM-PORT, Micro SD | 120 mm 54 mm 15 mm | 145 g (5.11 oz) | |||
| NW-ZX100HN | ||||||||||||
| NW-ZX300 |  | NW-ZX300A | 16 GB | October 2017 | 3.1" (7.8 cm) 800 x 480 (WVGA) | 26 hours (Hi-Res Audio), 30 hours (MP3) | MP3, WMA, ATRAC (Japanese market), ATRAC Advanced Lossless (Japanese market), WAV, AAC, HE-AAC, FLAC, Apple Lossless, AIFF, DSD, APE, MQA [19] [20] | Bluetooth 4.2 | 3.5 mm stereo jack, 4.4 mm balanced jack, WM-PORT, Micro SD | 120.4 mm 57.7 mm 14.9 mm | 157 g (5.54 oz) | |
| NW-ZX300 | 64 GB | |||||||||||
| NW-ZX300G | 128 GB | |||||||||||
| NW-ZX500 |  | NW-ZX505 | 16 GB | November 2019 | 3.6" (9.1 cm) 1280 x 720 (HD) | 16 hours (Hi-Res Audio), 20 hours (MP3) | MP3, WMA, WAV, AAC, HE-AAC, FLAC, Apple Lossless, AIFF, DSD, APE, MQA [19] [20] | Android 9 | IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 5.0 | 3.5 mm stereo jack, 4.4 mm balanced jack, USB-C, Micro SD | 122.6 mm 57.9 mm 14.8 mm | 164 g (5.78 oz) |
| NW-ZX507 | 64 GB | |||||||||||
| NW-ZX700 | NW-ZX706 | 32 GB | January 2023 [21] | 5" 1280 x 720 (HD) | 21-25 hours | Android 12 | 3.5 mm stereo jack, 4.4 mm balanced jack | |||||
| NW-ZX707 | 64 GB |
Walkman, stylised as WALKMAN (ウォークマン), is a brand of portable audio players manufactured and marketed by Japanese technology company Sony since 1979. The original Walkman was a portable cassette player and its popularity made "walkman" an unofficial term for personal stereos of any producer or brand. By 2010, when production stopped, Sony had built about 200 million cassette-based Walkmans.
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