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You will definitely need a microSD for the new A-Series Walkman

Sony NW-A100 Walkman

The move to Android for the operating system apart from impacting the battery life, has cut the actual storage in both the new A-Series and ZX-Series. In the product videos for both the A-Series and ZX-Series, some fine print can be seen at the bottom when the storage capacity is mentioned.

In that fine print the actual storage capacity is provided for both models. The A-Series drops from 16GB to approximately 6.26GB and the ZX500 from 64GB to around 48.64GB. The drop in capacity for the A-Series is quite significant, and you will NEED a microSD in order to have any sort of decent capacity for your music.

I will agree that microSD cards are quite cheap these days, 128GB is around less than $20, and people probably have spare microSD cards at home, but this is not the point. Sony knows Android takes up space, so bumping up the base A-Series to 32GB, and the ZX-Series back up to 128GB, would have been a nice upgrade.

Sony ZX500 Walkman

The funny thing is, Sony claims the new A-Series has a large memory on their product page:


Store even more music with the microSD card slot

Expand the already large memory of your NW-A100 with a microSD card – pop one in the slot to enjoy endless playlists and even the biggest music collections on the go.

Sorry Sony, this is not large, especially if people will start loading up large sized FLAC or other high quality music files onto their devices. Then there will be the streaming apps, some of these take up a bit of space, and adding a few might eat into that 6.26GB quite quickly.

So prepare to buy a microSD card with your new A100 and perhaps even ZX-Series. Maybe I am over reacting here and spending 5-10 bucks more for a microSD car is nothing, but at 349 Euros/320 GBP, Sony could at least throw in a 16GB card for free.

Perhaps a cool idea for the Anniversary model would be including a microSD car in the box where a small cassette tape is silk-screened onto the card. Just an idea. 

So when you guys pre-order, remember to add a microSD to your shopping cart.

Thoughts?

       

                

       

12 comments:

  1. wow this sucks. Wish Sony sold the higher capacity version in Europe.

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  2. 16 GB is ridiculous especially when promoting a Hi-Res Audio player. That wasn't enough in 2005. 128 GB should be the minimum, memory is so cheap now, it's silly to have to mess about adding memory, nice though it is to have the option.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yup it is quite pathetic on Sony's part, 16GB is not enough and the base model the same price should be at least 32GB if not even 64GB.

      I am sure Sony knew Android was going to use up space and same for apps, so 16 GB was never going to enough.

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  3. Do you know whats the highest capacity Sd card that the New Sony NW-ZX507B can have? Also whats the Max reading speed This device support? Is it worth to get a high speed one? Thanks!

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    Replies
    1. There are no final specs out yet, but the older models supported

      microSD
      microSDHC
      microSDXC

      And with both players moving to android, I would imagine the size and speed are depending on android and the SoC.

      The SoC has support for: 100 MB/sec and SDXC support.

      Specifically "SD/SDIO 3.0 compliance with 200 MHz SDR signaling to support up to 100MB/sec" is what it says for the SoC. No point in getting a high speed card I feel, or any of those fancy cards Sony is selling.

      Hope this helps
      Best to wait for the final online manual to be released before buying any cards.

      Delete
  4. Do you know whats the maximum capacity sd card that the 507 can handle? Speed matters?

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    Replies
    1. According to 2 unboxings I have seen, its 512gb capable with no problems! Good

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  5. maximum capacity for NW-ZX507 is 2T:

    For the following Walkman series, the maximum capacity micro SD cards is 2TB:

    NW-A100 series
    NW-A50 series
    NW-A3x series (e.g. NW-A35, NW-A36, etc.)
    NW-A4x series
    NW-A20 series
    NWZ-A10 series
    NW-ZX300
    NW-ZX507

    All Sony micro-SD cards currently available on the market are confirmed to be compatible.
    Sony cannot guarantee full compatibility with cards from other brands.

    source: https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/support/digital-music-players-nw-nwz-zx-series/nw-zx507/articles/00171492

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  6. As other stated, 16GB is definitely ridiculous for a €350 device considered 2gb are usually necessary to work well. Battery life is clearly inferior compared to a45/55 for the energy draining OS.

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  7. Well, yes it is a bit daft, but getting the SD card I bought to actually work is a much bigger issue. It is driving me around the bend.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What problems or errors are you receiving? is the card just not recognized?

      Delete

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