The Sony Walkman Z is all about the music and is for the android loving audiophiles. Audio is definitely the focus in the Walkman Z. A dedicated Walkman button launches and hides the music app, so your tunes are always a mere moment away.
It features Sony’s S-Master MX Digital Amplifier and 5 Clear Audio technologies built-in to ensure that sound quality is crystal clear. And it comes with a decent pair of earphones, which are often left out with many MP3 players. If you’re listening to your music on the white Apple earphones that came with your iPod or iPhone, you might as well be spitting in your favorite singer’s face.
The Z is built by Sony, but everything you see on the screen and the way you control it is run by Google’s Android software for mobile phones. Android is great because it’s based around home screens you fill with shortcuts to your favorite stuff, and it’s endlessly customizable to give you the experience you want.
The Z runs Android version 2.3, known as Gingerbread. It’s not the latest but it’s far from being out-of-date. Sony knows how to make beautiful technology, and the Walkman Z has clearly received plenty of Sony polish and refinement. This isn’t the flimsy, plastic-clad afterthought we saw with the Samsung Galaxy Player 4 and 5. The Walkman Z feels solid in your hand, and the matte finish and sculpted look all bear the marks of a designer’s touch.
The Walkman Z’s 4.3-inch screen is a mixed bag. To Sony’s credit, the screen is considerably more spacious than the 3.5-inch display found on the iPod Touch. It’s also using the same no-gap screen technology used on the Sony Tablet S and many Sony Bravia televisions, which helps to minimize internal screen glare and provides deeper, more-consistent blacks. With the right media, the Walkman Z’s screen can be stunning.
Inside there’s a powerful 1GHz Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core processor to keep things moving fast and make sure web browsing, gaming and watching videos is smooth. You can choose from 8GB, 16GB or 32GB of storage built-in for your music, movies and photos, but there’s no option for a microSD memory card. Again, that’s something most phones offer. Battery life is also disappointing.
The Sony Walkman Z offers impressive sound quality for the devoted music lover. But you have to be one serious audiophile to carry around this bulky device alongside your phone, which does all the same things and more, for less money.
