Sony CES 2021 Preview (update)

 

CES is next week, and like all previous years, I will not be attending, so that is no different, but neither will any tech journalists. Sony's press conference will be held on Monday January 11th, 2021, at 5:00 PM local time. Here are the times for other time-zones:

• 20:00 New York, January 11th
• 02:00 Paris, January 12th
• 10:000 Tokyo, January 12th
• 12:00 Melbourne, January 12th

Update: I think I had the wrong time, but I grabbed the time off the CES press site. Anyways, the digital press event took place at 2pm PST, not 5pm PST as last year. The video can be found here or the YouTube version here. I am not sure if there will be another event at 5 PM, but I doubt it. Not the most exciting of shows for Walkman or audio fans for any major new products. Hopefully some new upcoming products show up on certification sites soon. 

 

One thing that caught my eye were these headphones. These do not have any branding, but they are made by Sony, perhaps only for professional use or prototypes whose technology might end up in consumer devices. Thoughts?

 Sony does have an announcement tomorrow on January 7th as well as seen from the photo below posted on twitter, but I feel any other product will be announced on Monday.

This January 7th event appears to be some new Bravias which is not surprising at CES. Here are some of the possible models debuting tomorrow, but I could be wrong. All are certified with WiFi 2.4 and 5.0 Ghz, a/b/g/n/ac. I have no idea if these have Bluetooth, but I assume they will, maybe these will include some new tech or updates over last year's models?

KD-50X75A
KD-50X75
KD-50X74
KD-43X75A
KD-43X75
KD-43X74
KD-43X73
KD-32W830
KD-32W820
KD-32W810
KD-32W804

Apart from new Bravias, these are the following things we could see:

• a car stereo or 2
• the Sony SRS-XB13 wireless speaker
• some unknown device/tablet from Sony, model AK8-PM1300BV
• a new wireless home theatre system, the HT-S40R, which includes the Active Subwoofer (SA-WS40R) Wireless Amplifier( A-S40RWR) Speaker System (SS-S40R x2). This looks to be an update of the HT-RT40.

There are no other devices on any other certification sites, no wireless headphones, no Walkmans, but there is always hope for some high end wired headphones at CES, but I do not have that information at this moment.

WF-1000XM4

I know people are waiting for this, so here is what I know. Before the pandemic, from what I was told, the new model was supposed to be out for the holiday season 2020. That same source also said the WH-1000XM4 would be available in the summer of 2020, they were correct, so I believe them when they said WF-1000XM4 was to be out by the holidays. It appears the pandemic may have changed Sony's plans. Either the delay is due to slowdown in the design/manufacturing process, or Sony has postponed the new model to improve/change the design. Regardless of the reason, so far no new model (as of me writing this) has been certified on the FCC or other certification website. That being said, this does not mean Sony has not submitted any documents to any certification bodies.

Could Sony announce the WF-1000XM4 at CES 2021 and then have the device appear on the FCC,etc later? While it is possible, it does not match Sony's pattern of first submitting the devices to be certified then announcing them. I do not expect this but it would be a welcome surprise. Other companies have done this, Bose comes to mind. I feel we might looking a late winter or early spring release for the WF-1000XM4 this year.

New Walkmans

Nothing has been certified, so either last year's models are delayed or there was nothing planned for 2020. Hopefully new devices will be coming later this year.

Wireless headphones

Most of Sony's current wireless lineup is updated. The only headsets which could be updated could be the lower end WI models, like WI-C200, WI-C310 and WI-XB400, but these are not a priority. Perhaps some new headphone will appear on certification sites early spring, but for now nothing in the near term.

Wired headphones

Since these do not appear in any wireless certification sites, there is always a chance to see something at CES 2021. Would be great to see a new MDR-Z1R, or updated MDR-1AM3, but I do not have any information that would support this.

I was thinking of doing a comparison between the WF-1000XM3 and Bose QuietComfort Earbuds teardowns, if people would want something like that, please let me know in the comments.

Anyways, delays are to be expected due to the pandemic, but hopefully Sony and other manufacturers will sort things out to get out new products soon. Until then, Happy New Year's and stay safe. As always, leave any comments, questions or rumours in the comments.