This year’s Consumer Electronics Show was a good one with a lot of new toys to look forward to. One of these is the Sony NW-ZX2 Walkman. If you’re old enough to remember the original Walkman, you will acknowledge that this was more than a device. It’s what ultimately fuelled the iPod generation.

The Sony NW-ZX2 Walkman is a high-resolution music player which can support DSD files out of the box as well as WAV, AIFF, Apple Lossless, MP3 and AAC. The device itself is slightly larger and heavier than a smartphone. It uses a solid feeling aluminium casing that has buttons down one edge and a small touchscreen on one face. The reverse has a textured leather-like covering. The four-inch screen is for controlling menus and playing video. Storage is via internal memory of 128Gb with room for more with MicroSD. Battery life is said to be 33 hours while playing hi-res music.

The Sony NW-ZX2 Walkman runs Android 4.2 behind a Sony front-end. While not the latest version, this is a high-end audio player and not a smartphone. Users will still have access to the Google Play Store and music streaming services that are compatible with Android.

Sony has also included its own LDAC and DSEE-HX software which is designed to improve the fidelity of compressed music. While difficult to test at this time, Sony does have a track record of being able to deliver exceptional audio experiences so there is no reason not to think that the NW-ZX2 Walkman will be a success.

Jesmond Darmanin is a technology enthusiast who has his own blog at www.itnewsblog.com.

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