Sony Nw-A105 16GB Walkman Hi-Res Portable Digital Music Player with Android 9.0, 3.6" Touch Screen, S-Master Hx, DSEE-Hx, Wi-Fi & Bluetooth and USB Type-C - Black

I have been using Sony walkmans since the A15 2014, the a35 and a45, and now the a105. So far been very impressed, I mainly stream music via Bluetooth, the sound quality when compared to the a45 is a step up , I can notice the difference, the sound seems more detailed and rich. The display and touch screen is very bright, colours seem richer then a45, touch sensitivity is good. I have loaded this with a 128gb sd card, the walkman app is sufficient and works well. The build quality is excellent very sleek design. This player comes with android 9, its fully fledged version allowing you to download apps from the play store. My conclusion is that this offers more then the a45, its adds a few extras, like vinyl procceessor, but more importantly its give you android OS, for me Evan tho I have 70 gb music stored, it's nice to have Spottily, YouTube music, dezzer, and the upcoming amazon HD streaming service available on this device. Overall very Happy, only gripes battery could have been better, to improve this I have switched off WiFi and Bluetooth and activated battery care. Forgot to mention this is charged with USB C making life lot easier compared to the A45 specific cable. Update 16/8/2020 Having had this since January 2020 ,the A105 has improved in certain areas , the most likely and important area is battery life, with recent firmware updates this has allowed extra hours of playback , a auto device switch off is now implemented, when unit is not used . I found by switching WiFi of this also extends battery life, i mainly use this as a Bluetooth streamer and battery life has improved. The problem is this device is not perfect but by god you will not get a Hi Res audio player with the quality like this, if you use LDAC then you cannot beat the audio quality the A105 produces ,its so crisp. I use this as my main daily music player ,from streaming to headphones i am more then happy . This is quality not quantity ,but not perfect its sits in between.

I have been looking for Digital Audio Player which can play my Apple Lossless music collection and also have an option for Spotify. I tried a FiiO M9 but it didn’t run Spotify very well at all, so sadly it was returned. This Sony is much better. It runs Spotify just as well as my iPhone and its built in Music Player (Walkman) is also excellent for playing my Apple Lossless files. It is also currently on offer here for £199 which makes it quite good value. The Sound Quality is excellent, it’s a very convenient size, and once you have installed Spotify (and and any other streaming app you might want) from the Google Play Store you can effectively remove every link with Google (including removing your account details) so you are left with a very pure, music only device. Perfect for those of us who don’t want to be tied to a smartphone and all the distractions they run with and just want to listen to music - either from files or streamed from The Internet in the best quality available. A few things prevents this model earning a full 5 stars: 1. Battery Life. It’s not great. Keeping WiFi off and upgrading to the latest firmware helps. Once you’ve downloaded all your music you should also find you don’t have the screen on much - that also helps. It’s not a show stopper but it would have been nice if the battery was longer lasting. 2. Volume controls when using Bluetooth: The volume buttons don’t seem to work if you are listening on a Bluetooth device (headphones or speakers). You can still adjust the volume from within Spotify or, of course, the headphones themselves if they have a volume control - so, once again, not a show stopper but would have been nice if the volume buttons worked for Bluetooth devices. 3. You will need a micro SD card: Forget about the 16GB of internal memory. It’s nearly all gone with operating system and any apps you install. Add a 128GB card (around £20) and you’re sorted. No big deal, but you need to factor this into the cost. Not much more to add - it’s all been said in other reviews. Of the points above, 1&2 could well be fixed in a future firmware upgrade - if so, this would be a sublime player - as it stands it is still excellent and is much, much nicer than using a smartphone for music in terms of sound quality, lack of distractions, size and ergonomics. Nice one Sony! - - - Update - - - I've been using my Sony NW-A105 for a bit now so I thought I would update my review here. The battery life really does vary a lot depending on what you are doing. - Playing downloaded tracks on Spotify (320kbps), so no Wifi through and using wired headphones (no bluetooth) seems to be the most efficient - After 2 hours the battery had dropped about 10%, so potentially 20 hours of playback here. (no use of screen, volume at about 80) - Lossless music files on the built in Walkman app works out with around 8-10 hours total. If you do the same using a third part app (e.g. Rocket) this drops to about 6 hours, so I'd stick with the built in app. (no use of screen, volume at about 80) - Switch on Wifi and Bluetooth and things do go downhill somewhat. 6 hours maybe at most no matter what app you are using. Just Bluetooth is not as bad - I think Wifi is the biggest drain but if you are listening to local files or downloads on Spotify or similar, keeping wifi off most of the time is not an issue. If you are technically minded, I'd also consider replacing the launcher using the Nova Launcher app. This way you can remove the annoying google search bar, the app drawer, the app dock and leave just your audio apps visible - I have also disabled all google apps and android apps, removed my google account (once I downloaded the few apps I wanted from the play store). You can see in the pic how my screen looks now - much neater, much more music orientated and no non-audio apps to distract and potentially drain the battery. I also added a few utilities held in a system folder on my modified main-screen for efficiency - one for quickly tuning on and off wifi, one for quickly turning on and off bluetooth for example. Finally, there is an app you can buy called Tasker. Again, if you are technically minded this can also help save battery life. Tasker automates things depending on the state of your device. So I have it turn automatically turn off bluetooth should I plug in wired headphones for example. It also enables wifi if the device is plugged into power (and off when unplugging).... A lot of work involved admittedly - but for me, worth the effort - I am left with a player which seems to be so much more useable than it was at first.

I bought these due to being unable to use my phone at work, but I need music to help me concentrate. I was very tempted to go for something cheaper and live with worse quality but I'm glad I did not. Overall the device has good sound quality, especially when paired with decent headphones. Of course it's not audiophile sound quality, rather this is more for convenience, so don't go looking for professional audio quality. A friend of mine has a much older version of the same device, and seeing the quality of life improvements sold me on it immediately. There's things I don't like very much though. Battery life is mediocre. This is due to a combination of a few things, it's very small, Android isn't particularly efficient with battery usage and it's very much dependant on what features you're using. Personally I use wires in ear monitors, no WiFi or Bluetooth and on one charge I can get 6-7.5 hours. However I have used wireless headphones, and with using Bluetooth it drops quite a bit. I got around this by using a power bank, making the device's battery redundant, with a 10000mah power I get 4 days of continuous use. In summary; small, well built and very convenient, with a minor let down from its battery life. Don't expect professional level sound, for that you need to spend a lot more money.

I was very much looking forward to this product; a Sony Walkman streaming device, eeek! I even had it marked in my calendar. I didn’t even wait for reviews because I was that confident Sony would deliver. Unfortunately, in this instance that was the wrong decision. I use the portable audio player for a few hours each day at least, paired via Bluetooth with the Sony WH-1000XM3’s. I also stream most of my music. Wanted a step-up from my phone. To summarise my experience: Sound – pretty darn wonderful, especially when paired with the XM3’s – takes me to another world. Massive step up from my phone! (Note: I’m no audiophile expert, just your average music fanatic.) Battery life – much worse than I was expecting. It really isn’t very good, certainly not for streaming music and using Bluetooth at the same time. I cannot be bothered with constantly charging. I would rather downgrade to a device with no streaming ability but has a significantly better battery life. Design – absolutely beautiful. It’s sleek, gorgeous, and looks so damn good. The screen display is also pretty dope, and the size of the device is perfect. Nice and slim, slots into the hand; not too chunky, and light-weight. Functionality – the buttons at the sides are great; the ability to alter setting to my taste works fine too – although would have liked to make the icons bigger. Can be a bit fumbly if you were to do lots of typing, but not something I needed as I only use this device for music. Did have some issues with the screen freezing – with the youtube and amazon music apps specifically. Tape UI – it’s super cool, but nothing to write home about, as it only works on the Walkman app as opposed to being a general screen saver, and as I mentioned, I stream music a lot and the battery isn’t great, this would only drain it further. I wanted so much to love this, and thus I am left disappointed. Hoping in the future Sony will figure out a way improve battery life. I know they’ll get there eventually. Good battery life is perhaps one of the main things I wanted, therefore, I returned this and got the NW-A45, with hope that Sony will develop a more solid music streaming app in the future.

SONY NW-A105 using Amazon Music HD is the most cost-effective way to replace an existing standard mp3 catalogue purchased or ripped from an existing CD collection! Very frustrated with the acoustic and Bluetooth limits on my £1300 iPhone X which doesn’t support the highest Hi-res settings – typical Apple, however my 5 year old SONY notebook does so I decided to give the SONY NW-A105 a try!!! To purchase Hi-Res album replacements would give flexibility to create playlists on a PC and then copy to the NW-A105, however, the cost would be prohibitive. Streaming is only a valid option when you have a WiFi connection and little use on plane flights, beach locations, on piste etc. where I tend to listen to music. With microSDXC cards so cheap downloading full Hi-Res files seems the best option. I tested a Samsung EVOPlus 512GB card but had a few issues with the card not always being recognised – it was also too big for my needs. I am now using a SANDISK Ultra 256GB card with read speeds up to 100 MB/s and only cost £27 – this will store around 200 albums and is working very smoothly! I have used Tidal which is good but very expensive compared to Amazon Music HD which is only £129 on an annual subscription and has a very large Hi-res catalogue with daily new releases. Tracks up to 24bit 192 KHz can be downloaded and played back using bluetooth to my BOSE QuietComfort 35 (Series II) or SONY WH-1000XM3 Noise Cancelling Headphones or my STR DN1080 Receiver in my HiFi system at amazing quality. Battery life is surprisingly limited, however, 5+ hours playing back Hi-res tracks via bluetooth with downloaded files and WiFi off is not an issue for me. An old SAMSUNG charger recharges the SONY in less than 1.5 Hours, Apple chargers take 4+ hours! I did test my SONY, BOSE and Sennheiser HD595 headphones using a wired connection and as other reviewers have noted you do need to have the volume close to maximum – not a problem for me as I don’t want to go deaf and I will always use the excellent LDAC SONY bluetooth connection where there are no volume issues and full Hi-res output is retained. Picture shows Hi-res 24bit / 192KHz Amazon Music downloaded track playing back via bluetooth - can't do this on my iPhone - well done SONY!

I was looking forward to the release on the Sony NW A105 with anticipation. The spec sheet suggested it was just the player I was looking for. Unfortunately it fails on three counts: Volume Control, Android Experience and Battery Life. On player volume it's actually difficult to tell whether the fault lies with the EU mandated software limiter, the Sony hardware or a combination of both. It simply can't drive a decent pair of wired headphones. Maybe the non-EU version fares better. Android 9.0 with access to the Play Store should represent a step forward for a dedicated audio device like this. Now you can stream from Qobuz, Tidal in HD AND Spotify, Deezer etc for casual listening; all via aptX HD and Bluetooth 5.0 to wireless earphones. Unfortunately, by running a recent Android implementation this manages to hurt battery life badly. In addition, using Android on this size of device is not a comfortable experience. It's been forked to work well with the Walkman app and associated hardware controls - but it has not been properly optimised for a device this small. Typing on the keyboard for setup and music search is near impossible to do accurately which is incredibly frustrating. Furthermore, Sony's selection of Android settings to remove and retain defies logical explanation. Volume issues aside, the battery is woeful. If it lives up to anything like the performance claimed by Sony that would be something. However, when charged to 100% and turned off for 48 hours, by the time I came to power it up again the battery level was at 1%. Initially I thought I must have left it on standby by mistake. But this happened repeatedly. It's one thing draining battery through constant use, but not having any juice when you believe it should be ready to play is just unforgivable. Maybe mine was just a defective unit; but taken together with the volume issues and the overall Android experience, it's now been returned. A good idea, badly implemented - very disappointed.

I have been searching for a replacement for my ipod 180GB for a long time ... I started with an Astell&Kern AK70 MK II in April 2018 . It was fine but I lost all my playlists and track count ... I couldnt use last.fm either because it wasnt a proper Android OS. Sadly after 15months it stopped working and I wasnt able to get it replaced ... Amazon were fantastic and gave me a refund. Next Hiby R6 Pro ... with the Ak I had enjoyed Hi Res music and transfered my SD car to the Hiby. I have had two fairly good years with the Hiby - I enjoyed it. There were some niggles but it was easy to transfer music and I still had Itunes music match for my playlists. But after two years the battery kept running out and shutting down. it was finished. A shame for such an expensive item. I tried the Sony knowing that it had Android 9 .... I have synced all my itunes music (390GB and playlists ) via monkeymedia. My Sony walkman syncs with my pc libray - keeps a track of plays, play lists etc. Its brought back the magic of those early ipods... There's a lot of hype around Hi Res - but for me an MP3 player that takes a 512gb micro sd card is what I need ... This is brilliant! The sound quality superb The build quality excellent my best music machine since my first ipod in 2005!

I originally loved this device, being a music fan who looks for quality sound and to be honest the retro styling looked and is brilliant, the cassette tape image is cool. The sound quality is or was streets ahead of my phone, the full, clear audio production was brilliant. I had purchased some quality wireless headphones and a quality Bluetooth speaker and I also have a quality sound in my car system. (Yes I am a little bit obsessed and also bored due to yet more lockdowns!) The issues I found was that I believe to get the best sound out of any device you need good material to listen to. I don’t have many stored HD music files so I was subscribed to Amazon music HD. And this is where I started getting frustrated and eventually returned the device. The screen size is fine with your downloads but when you are trying to scroll through Amazon app on the tiny (but quality) screen was both fiddly and I am sorry to say much too slow. The sound was great but the device isn’t up to WiFi apps, it takes 5 seconds to open each track to playlist that would open immediately in my other devices, old or new. I therefore decided to renew my phone and opted for the Sony Xperia 1ii which proves the Walkman hadn’t took me away from my belief that Sony offers some quality sound and fine devices. Now the fun starts. Buying the 1 ii I sat in the summerhouse in the dark, quiet, neutral atmosphere and compared the phone to the Walkman. Comparing Amazon music UHD tracks on both devices simultaneously. It was clear that there was one winner. The Walkman. But only just! I mean the quality was almost identical and a slight tweak of the equaliser on the phone filled in some of the missing base. The deciding factor was however that somehow the phone also makes my mp3 files sound as good as the HD files! Also the phone drives wired headphones easier, the screen is obviously bigger and far easier to use. Plus again for some unknown reason the phone sounds 100% better in the car’s system than both the Walkman and previous Samsung phone. Couple this to the battery life which for modern electronic devices is somewhat appalling I had an easy choice to make and to return the Walkman. I appreciate Amazons customer service in accepting the return. If I hadn’t have bought the phone (again from Amazon) I probably wouldn’t have returned the Walkman but I believe I made the right choice. Although I must say the phone isn’t perfect. I will be reviewing that I a week or 2.

The Sony NW-A105 comes with a full Android operating software baked in, it works just like app-heavy Android smartphone. Which is exactly what I wanted to get away from when looking for an iPhone alternative with a dedicated music player. The hardware is very good. The quality of the sound is better than iPhone 14. We can add SD card to the player: we can substantially extend the storage. No need to buy expensive version with more internal storage. The supplied Music Centre software intended to manage the player content is not efficient. It was not possible to create playlist in a normal way: usually we select the tracks. drop it in the list folder. It is not working this way. A way to solve this issue: In iTunes artists are arranged as folders: using Windows Explorer I dropped the files made by iTunes in the SD card Music folder. Or in the internal storage Music folder. When playing ,select a folder you want (artist) from the playing menu, start the first track - it will play all tracks in artist folder , in the sequence made by iTunes. So, no need to create Playlist- arrange a folder, drop inside what you want. Seems Sony limited the charging current to be safer for the device, but it is taking long time to charge. Probably was possible to make the device with larger screen, larger battery, longer playing time. My fingers are normal, but still I need to be very careful how I hit the buttons. The larger screen should be better. As a music player it is really good. I tried with several different high end Hi-Res Audio headphones: works fine. Can adjust the volume and the sound is really good.

Possesseur d'un portable Sony XZ3, je me demandais si ça valait le coup de mettre un tel prix dans un Walkman qui a des modes et ampli de son identique à se modèle hormis de pouvoir lire des fichiers DSD, et bien... Quel surprise, la qualité de son est vraiment encore 10 x mieux, quel précision, quel puissance, musicalité, j'étais scotché pourtant la qualité de son de mon XZ3 est déjà vraiment surprenantes sur un casque, mais la c'est un autre monde, en plus ont peu y mettre tout ce qui existe comme type de fichiers de son, les DSD donc en haute résolution c'est juste bluffant, je suis en train de tout numériser mes CD en fichier FLAC, du coup il ne s'abîmeront plus, j'ai prit une carte de 256 go pas cher sur Amazon qui fait le taf et bien sûr la coque transparente qui va bien sur ce même site et adapter à mon modèle le nwa105, indispensable pour le protéger, c'est un vrai bijou, tout en métal, je l'est prit en rouge pour changer, magnifique ! Je l'utilise avec un Sony WH-1000XM3, et un bowers and wilkins P7 une tuerie, contrairement à un autre commentaire, le son avec le WH-1000XM3 est juste merveilleux, il se plaignait de pas pouvoir accéder au réglages du casque sur le Walkman, mais il suffit de mettre l'application du casque sur le nwa105.... qui a le WiFi et l'accès évidement au play store, et ont peu y mettre toutes les appli que vous voudrez, l'alliance de ce Walkman et du casque de Sony donne un résultat absolument fou, si vous le pouvez, foncer !

The build quality and the ergonomic are fantastic. To the point you'd just wonder why to pay more when this one does the trick. Of course, there are major known cons such a the battery life (4 to 5 hours at best if you leave the bluetooth or wifi on), or the Android OS which hasn't been customized for Audio. I guess (YMMV) it is possible to cope with them with workarounds and habit. Unfortunately I have found another major flaw when you listen to streaming services. This device won't be able to sound that great unless you use something like UAPP. This is something you only realize if you have good iem by the way. UAPP is great but do have all the bells and whistles of the service app (Tidal, Qobuz,...). For instance you can't view the lyrics or listen to downloaded content. If you only use local files from your SD card then I believe this walkman is a great value at the current discount price if you don't mind the poor battery life and the average UI Android experience.

Diseño elegante , buena calidad de sonido y tamaño comodo .

Sony Walk man performs as expected. Sony has always delivered for me.