Customer Ratings & Reviews

We have gone through at least 10 or more DAPS. Some self-destructed right out of the box and some took a while to crash and burn. Here is the kicker. My Sony DAPs purchased in the early 2000s are still operational and still deliver decent sound quality. One has a touch screen. The reliability and quality are there. While my Samsung phone provides decent sound quality using an Onkyo Hi-Res app it was not shaking my rafters. The search was on for a Hi-Res player that could download apps. Not many choices and the manufacturers were questionable. Then this player was reduced by 100 Washingtons, so I jumped in. Love the form and function of this little gem. Fits nicely in the hand and the buttons are intuitive. Since I am an Android user it was easy to get around the menus and set up the player. Loaded 7000 plus songs on the player using J River and a 200 GB microchip. Now for the sound test. Using a pair of Focal headphones they were easy to drive and the sound was very entertaining. Great separation and a very nice stage presentation regardless of Hi-Res or not. The Sony wireless headphone connected easily and the sound was very good but not as good as the wired. However, the convenience of having controls on the headset offsets the sound quality. My old B&W P5s sounded the best they ever had. That was a surprise... Streaming Amazon HD and Tidal sounded good and were able to cast to my devices. Still, the chip and wired headphones sounded the best. They would not drive my Planars. So headphone matching is key. As far as battery life, I had them on my head for over 5 hours with everything on, so I am satisfied. BTW The cassette tape rolling on the display as the music is playing with the artist and the song title is very cool. To summarize, this is what the doctor ordered. If the reliability is as good as my others this will be a home run!

I really liked this mp3 player, although I ultimately chose to return it. That doesn't mean that it's not the right fit for YOU. It's a very sexy device with great sound quality and user interface. But there were a few crucial things that the Ipod Touch did better which swayed my decision. And it was a TOUGH decision. Had I purchased this first, I probably would have kept it, and never considered an alternative. But you may love it. ---- Pros: -Great user interface! - The OS/firmware is Android 9, so you get a mountain of compatible apps. And the Walkman music player app itself is terrific! Great UI, definitely much better than iOS and Apple Music (and I legit couldn't find a single music player app in the Apple App Store that I liked). Sony's Walkman app has the Ipod Touch music players beat in almost every category, here (one advantage of the Ipod was that it had a list of queued up songs in shuffle mode). I wish more music player apps organized their genre hierarchy trees the same way that the Walkman app does (which is the same way that the Ipod Classic and Toshiba mp3 players did). Nonetheless, the Walkman (like the Ipod Touch) offers a convenient search feature. -Great physical design - Although I use Bluetooth earbuds (which have their own controls), and the Walkman has a touch screen, I LOVE the fact that this device has physical buttons on the side. They’re well-placed, and comfortable to use. The unit itself is nice and small, but stout size. Again, the Walkman wins hands-down here. -Great audio quality - I’m not so much the audiophile myself, as long as it doesn’t sound straight up mediocre. Really, you’d have to actually be using FLAC, AAC, or other such high quality/bit rate audio files to notice the difference. But no one would put an Ipod Touch over on this one in this department. -Expandable storage – While the Walkman itself only has 16GB storage, it has a memory card slot that can take microSDHC, microSD, and microSDXC, with a 2TB ceiling for microSDXC. Both the Walkman NW-A105 and a Samsung 256GB microSDXC combined were still $70 cheaper than a 256GB Ipod Touch out the door. -USB-C I/O - An advantage over both the Walkman A55 and Ipod Touch I/O ports (which use Sony's and Apple's proprietary ports respectively) ---- Cons: -Mediocre battery - After four hours of steady use/skipping/repeating, the battery was just under 60%. Compare that to the Ipod Touch, where the battery was just under 80% for comparable time and use conditions. As far as I understand, the Walkman NW-A55 even had better battery life. Tweaking some settings and installing the latest firmware helps, but the Ipod Touch had considerably better battery life. -Not compatible with some older car audio syncing systems - I simply could not get my Walkman to sync with my 2010 Ford’s Sync system. I can PLAY the device through the 3.5MM audio jack (just as I did my Ipod Classic), but all the controls (save for volume, which can be either) have to be through the Walkman, and no track info on the car radio’s LCD screen. It would sometimes say it was “indexing”, but nothing ever came of it. Compare that to the Ipod Touch, I am able to sync it to my car; the track information displays on the car’s LCD screen; and I can control the device via the steering wheel/dash controls. I tried looking up solutions to get the Walkman to do the same, but couldn’t find anything. It wouldn’t recognize the device in either charging or USB transfer mode, and I had to just use it with the 3.5MM T/R/S jack. I know this isn't Sony's fault, but it is a drag. -Mediocre Desktop app – The Sony Music Center for PC app leaves a lot to be desired. Maybe I’m just used to using Itunes for all of these years. But the Music Center in general is just much more clunky. To include the fact that I cannot edit track info directly from the Walkman itself. In fact, displaying file info from the Walkman storage itself is just unintuitive - it views it as STORAGE, and not as an interactive media player (as it should). I’ve looked up using the Walkman with Itunes, but even after following the instructions, it simply would not work. I don’t think it’s applicable anymore. A bit slower – The Walkman takes longer to fully boot up and be usable from a complete shutdown than the Ipod Touch does. There’s also a longer delay when skipping back/forward on tracks than compared to the Ipod as well. Maybe that’s because the music files are stored on the external storage card (as opposed to internal memory). But that still shouldn’t matter, as the songs get queued up (or SHOULD be queued up) in Now Playing mode, anyway. ---- All said and done, would I recommend this? Absolutely. If the cons listed here aren’t dealbreakers for you, then I would definitely recommend this device for anyone looking for an alternative to an Ipod. Dedicated music players are a very niche market these days, but they serve a purpose for some of us. It was a HARD decision for me to return this, and I may purchase a successor to it sometime in the future. Hopefully Sony can at least improve the battery life and Music Center app. Because the UI and hardware are absolutely on-point. In fact, fix those two items, and I would give this a perfect 5-star rating. I really did hate to return this thing. But I have no need whatsoever for two mp3 players, and the Walkman just BARELY was edged out.

I love this DAP! That should be enough, but we can go even further. I have a few iPods, and even another walkman in my collection, and this is the one I use almost daily. Great sound, works with pretty much any format and resolution, and it has expandable memory, so, take that iPod Touch. The design feels great in the hand, and although gimmicky, I just love the cassette screensaver. It's the one thing that always catches people's eyes and I get asked "what is that?!" The screen is so clear that the cassette almost looks real when you first see it, so it may fool some people into thinking it is a real cassette player. It's the iconic walkman, what more do we want?! I've heard reviews stating that battery is terrible, and while not great (the battery on the NW-A55 is much much better), it's not terrible once you turn off google's features, and just use it as a music player and not an android phone sans the phone.

I bought this DAP due to it having Android and USB-C. It worked very well as a media player. The interface was very quick. Android customization allowed me to make this thing my own. It feels great in the hand, working well even in my rather large hands (and this device is very small). My unit had 4 dead pixels. The battery life was not expected to be very good, but it was worse than I imagined. It lost 10% in the first hour, and it wasn't being used. It's obviously an android optimization issue, coupled with a very tiny battery. By the time I was done with the day it was at 38%, but had only 20 minutes of screen on time. I returned this device due to these issue and don't plan on buying another. Perhaps the next iteration will remedy the problems.

It is the first in its class a high resolution Sony - Walkman portable player based on Android operating system and having USB-C connector for charging and data interface. The slot for micro SD cards significantly expands player's initial 16 Gb storage. Very good resolution of the display which is not typical for many other portable players. Great sound quality, especially when playing high-res FLAC files, makes it a great product. Definitely it is an upgrade from the predecessor Sony Walkman NW-A55.

Personally love to have my music not on my phone so having an MP3 is a must. Love this model, the only issue I have with it is it's physical size. Little smaller than I would prefer it to be. With the SD capability you can put as much music as you can imagine on this device. So far, so good.

I wanted something other than an iPod ( yes I still use one) and this fit my needs perfectly. This version is like having a tiny Android tablet. The only shortcomings are battery life and the Sony Music Center software. I turn it off after use and leave it on battery saver. This kelps with usable time. Instead of the recommended software I used the older Sony software instead andi it works wonderfully. One can also use Media MOnkey or other music software to sync to your collection. 16GB does not provide enough storage space so I used a 256GB SD card to provide additional storage. Overall a good value, but just a little overpriced.

Overall it is an awesome little player with robust amounts of features! Looks great & sounds great! Ease of functions and playback. The only downside is the battery, I can get about 8 to 12 hours non stop of playback until needing another charge...

Wow! A real charmer & surprisingly good mp3 player for the price its worth it i like the touch screen on it, its just like my samsung very simple just playing music on my aux is all i need with this thank you! However the battery it does die down at times depending how often you use it but im able to use it for up 2 & half days i still like that it also has type c like my samsung is also.

Sound quality is great, battery not so much so I suggest A portable battery charger, only 16gb and about half used for system thats before any app downloads, definitely need sd card, I was happy to still be able to use my Apple Music, in fact it sounds better using the Sony hifi with it. I have an iPhone but to when i listen to music I prefer this unit all day

The Sony MW-A105 is to replace the iPod 64gb that I have. The iPod is getting very old and I cannot increase the storage and it is not doing any more updates on the unit. I got the Sony NW-A105 and it took a little while how to learn to use it, but now that I have it working it is easy to use and sounds great. I got a 512gb Micro SD card so I do not have to worry about running out of space for a while, and it uses the Andriod Operating System so it it a little more compatible with everything I have.

It's a great device, the quality is fantastic! And the playback is outstanding! The only drawback is the battery life. Sony released a update to the firmware that helped a lot but I'm hoping there will be more updates that will better improve that down the line. I really recommend you get wired headphones to allow the device to really shine.

I am so happy I bought this it has been used almost daily for nearly 2 years. I was looking for a way to listen to audiobooks purchased through audible.com, I do not think I have listened to any music. I am able to use the audible app that allows me to bookmark, save clips and automatically remembers the last location. It has a timer to stop play after certain amount of time and at the end chapters. The only downside as most have mentioned is the battery life, I do charge this daily, it might last 1.5-2 days on one charge if I'm lucky. I hope this last me 2+ more years and then when I have to buy again there is a new model with larger and better battery, that is all this needs to be perfect for my needs.

Purchase this item as gift for Christmas! Sound quality is as expected. Battery drains faster than expected. If you use this item in the car as MP3 player with power plug-in, you should be good.

Ordered this because I wanted a standalone music player after Apple discontinued the iPod Touch the very year I wanted to replace mine. Overall, very good player. The SD Card expandable memory works wonders, and I don't have to worry about what format the music is in! Only real downside is that almost the entire 16GB of internal memory is taken by the pre-installed apps.

The only problem that I have is that you can’t control the volume on smart speakers. But the device dose sound very good works well.Aaa well battery does not last to long need to charge every time

I definitely an android iconic Sony Walkman for my library of music. It frees up my phone and gives excellent sound. The casting ability with the premium bluetooth version makes a big difference.

Perfect for listening to music as described.but battery life is pretty short so i have to charge it every day or every other day. Other than that it's perfect

I use this everyday in my car. It sounds great. Wish I could update the android version in it.

Works great and battery life is a little low but lasts long enough if charged at night.