Music

Sony Just Unveiled A Brand New Walkman! It Costs A Cool $1200.

Because we were all sick of this stuff getting cheaper, right?

by Junkee  6 January 2015

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The International Consumer Electronics Show kicked off in Las Vegas today: a four-day event featuring over 3500 exhibitors, a huge conference program, and — according to their site — 160,000 attendees from over 140 countries. An annual event that’s been going for over four decades, it’s a launch pad for new tech announcements and releases.

One such release? A brand new Sony Walkman, which was unveiled a few hours ago and looks like this.

The second Walkman release in three months, the new product was preceded by a marketing campaign and not a small amount of hype. But while tech sites are happy enough with the way it looks, most of the internet is freaking out. Sony’s most recent portable music player, the A17, was priced at around three hundred bucks — but this one’s going for US$1200.

Yep. That’s almost AUS$1500. 

Named the “NW-ZX2“, it comes with 128GB, a microSD slot, and a touchscreen display, and runs on years-old Android software. But what you’re really paying for, according to Sony, is “hi-resolution audio“: a concept which some have dismantled as a made-up marketing term used to sell more products, and a technology which many more believe won’t effect what your ears are actually able to hear.

Sure, it’s portable and able to play high quality music files and codecs; and sure, with the right gear, it miiiight be able to make your crap MP3s sound better too. But for that money you’d want it to take you home and make you breakfast in the morning.

For comparison’s sake, $1500 on Gumtree will buy you this turbo diesel Pajero.


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This Mason and Hamlin pump organ (circa 1890):


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And this “very strong powerful mare“. Her name is Skye.


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Your call.