Last updated at 02/09/2026 03:25:00
Sony Walkman 16gb a Series Nw-a105 G Ash Green
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originally posted on sony.co.uk
I bought this to play my music collection without the need to pay for a subscription service online after Google Play shifted to YouTube Music and became much less user friendly as a way of driving people to pay for the 'premium' service.In that regard, this device does what it needs to. I'm not a serious audiophile so couldn't comment on the intricacies of the audio quality relative to other devices but I am happy with the sound quality and device overall.Where it falls down a bit is the UI of the music player app is a bit clunky and un-intuitive. It does not seem to have a 'cast' option but you can of course pair bluetooth devices with it external to the app. As many people have noted, the playlist function is weak but instead you have 'bookmarks', which ... MoreI bought this to play my music collection without the need to pay for a subscription service online after Google Play shifted to YouTube Music and became much less user friendly as a way of driving people to pay for the 'premium' service.In that regard, this device does what it needs to. I'm not a serious audiophile so couldn't comment on the intricacies of the audio quality relative to other devices but I am happy with the sound quality and device overall.Where it falls down a bit is the UI of the music player app is a bit clunky and un-intuitive. It does not seem to have a 'cast' option but you can of course pair bluetooth devices with it external to the app. As many people have noted, the playlist function is weak but instead you have 'bookmarks', which essentially serves the same purpose but is less intuitive and presumably doesn't transfer between computer and devices like a playlist might be expected to. A strange quirk is that some songs appear in the library twice despite the actual file only being on the drive once. I cannot work out if this is due to the app (it doesn't happen on any other system or app eg VLC) or the meta information on some of the music.I don't share the same battery concerns some users have had, though as the device runs on an Android OS it's easy to see why it wouldn't last as long as a device that simply ran purely as an MP3 player. Because this Walkman has Android, you can download a host of streaming apps and whatever else. Bear in mind though it doesn't have built-in speakers like a phone so any sound has to come through headphones or speakers.Overall I'm happy with the device and suspect it'll serve me well for a good many years to come. Hopefully the UI on the music player can be updated and it'll smooth out the current minor irritants. Speeding up the boot time would also make it feel more responsive as a device as it does feel like it takes longer to turn on than a similar Android device such as my phone.
originally posted on richersounds.com
I bought this player to get away from having to use an on line streaming service to play my FLAC files. Not being very familiar with the Android operating system, I struggled a bit to get to grips with the menu system, and still the process of uploading files using my MacBook seems to be a bit quirky. I can well imagine that a Windows based system will work more seamlessly in this respect. The unit itself is nice and compact, but to be honest, many of the features linked to apps and on line connectivity is surplus to requirements as I already have an iPhone for that and there are only so many devices you need to access emails and surf the web. One issue I am having is for some reason, there are a couple of FLAC files that will not display the album artwork. I tried ... MoreI bought this player to get away from having to use an on line streaming service to play my FLAC files. Not being very familiar with the Android operating system, I struggled a bit to get to grips with the menu system, and still the process of uploading files using my MacBook seems to be a bit quirky. I can well imagine that a Windows based system will work more seamlessly in this respect. The unit itself is nice and compact, but to be honest, many of the features linked to apps and on line connectivity is surplus to requirements as I already have an iPhone for that and there are only so many devices you need to access emails and surf the web. One issue I am having is for some reason, there are a couple of FLAC files that will not display the album artwork. I tried formatting the jpeg files in various ways in the hope that I could resolve the issue to no avail. I'll continue to see if I can find a fix on line for this annoying problem. Overall, I am quite happy with the unit. It has an equaliser with several presets, so plenty of room to tweak the sound. It doesn't work well with Bluetooth headphones do to the compression software used in the protocol, so only wired connections should be used, which is no problem for me, but could be a concern for others. For the price, it is a very nice bit of kit, so would have no problem recommending it to others.
originally posted on richersounds.com
GoodThe sound quality is very good. Very much the same as my Cowon Plenue D.OKThe player itself is easy to navigate. I have put in a 513GB memory card (an Integral 512GB card at 180MB) which has I plenty of storage by my AIFF & WAV Hi-Res collections and the player has no problem keeping up with changing between albums / tracks. Easy to navigate by Folder. Bit laggy when changing between Albums on Tidal thought, but still OK.You do have to make lot of changes to make it usable though.It has a lot of blot ware, so you will need to disabled all the Apps you can’t get rid of eg MapsSome people have complained about the volume, but you just need to turn up the allowable volume to is maximum of 120db. Some albums are recorded quietly so engage the Clear Audio ... MoreGoodThe sound quality is very good. Very much the same as my Cowon Plenue D.OKThe player itself is easy to navigate. I have put in a 513GB memory card (an Integral 512GB card at 180MB) which has I plenty of storage by my AIFF & WAV Hi-Res collections and the player has no problem keeping up with changing between albums / tracks. Easy to navigate by Folder. Bit laggy when changing between Albums on Tidal thought, but still OK.You do have to make lot of changes to make it usable though.It has a lot of blot ware, so you will need to disabled all the Apps you can’t get rid of eg MapsSome people have complained about the volume, but you just need to turn up the allowable volume to is maximum of 120db. Some albums are recorded quietly so engage the Clear Audio function to bring them up to a decent sound level.I mostly use this with in-ear wired headphones but they can drive my full sized wired over ear Shure SRH1540 and Meze 99 Classics.BadThe battery is quite bad and seems to drain really quickly if you are constantly using the screen.However, by turning off almost all the apps, reducing the screen brightness to 0%, turning off wi-fi and Bluetooth. Turing on the Battery saver function. Turing on the Airplane mode and then just letting it play CD quality WAV files through my in ear headphone, without interruption, I got 40 hours out of it. However, that it not the way most people use a player.So using wifi to stream to a Bluetooth speaker and changing albums every so often, I got just over 5 hours out of it.So, for long session you will need an external battery to keep it going. So minus 1 star for the battery,But for £199 and an extra £20 power bank you get a decent portable player that can hold lots of albums with sound quality much better than a mobile phone.
Sony Walkman 16gb a Series Nw-a105 G Ash Green
Affiliate Disclosure: We may receive a small commission for purchases made through this link at no extra cost to you. This helps support our site. Thank you!
I bought this to play my music collection without the need to pay for a subscription service online after Google Play shifted to YouTube Music and became much less user friendly as a way of driving people to pay for the 'premium' service.In that regard, this device does what it needs to. I'm not a serious audiophile so couldn't comment on the intricacies of the audio quality relative to other devices but I am happy with the sound quality and device overall.Where it falls down a bit is the UI of the music player app is a bit clunky and un-intuitive. It does not seem to have a 'cast' option but you can of course pair bluetooth devices with it external to the app. As many people have noted, the playlist function is weak but instead you have 'bookmarks', which ... MoreI bought this to play my music collection without the need to pay for a subscription service online after Google Play shifted to YouTube Music and became much less user friendly as a way of driving people to pay for the 'premium' service.In that regard, this device does what it needs to. I'm not a serious audiophile so couldn't comment on the intricacies of the audio quality relative to other devices but I am happy with the sound quality and device overall.Where it falls down a bit is the UI of the music player app is a bit clunky and un-intuitive. It does not seem to have a 'cast' option but you can of course pair bluetooth devices with it external to the app. As many people have noted, the playlist function is weak but instead you have 'bookmarks', which essentially serves the same purpose but is less intuitive and presumably doesn't transfer between computer and devices like a playlist might be expected to. A strange quirk is that some songs appear in the library twice despite the actual file only being on the drive once. I cannot work out if this is due to the app (it doesn't happen on any other system or app eg VLC) or the meta information on some of the music.I don't share the same battery concerns some users have had, though as the device runs on an Android OS it's easy to see why it wouldn't last as long as a device that simply ran purely as an MP3 player. Because this Walkman has Android, you can download a host of streaming apps and whatever else. Bear in mind though it doesn't have built-in speakers like a phone so any sound has to come through headphones or speakers.Overall I'm happy with the device and suspect it'll serve me well for a good many years to come. Hopefully the UI on the music player can be updated and it'll smooth out the current minor irritants. Speeding up the boot time would also make it feel more responsive as a device as it does feel like it takes longer to turn on than a similar Android device such as my phone.
I bought this player to get away from having to use an on line streaming service to play my FLAC files. Not being very familiar with the Android operating system, I struggled a bit to get to grips with the menu system, and still the process of uploading files using my MacBook seems to be a bit quirky. I can well imagine that a Windows based system will work more seamlessly in this respect. The unit itself is nice and compact, but to be honest, many of the features linked to apps and on line connectivity is surplus to requirements as I already have an iPhone for that and there are only so many devices you need to access emails and surf the web. One issue I am having is for some reason, there are a couple of FLAC files that will not display the album artwork. I tried ... MoreI bought this player to get away from having to use an on line streaming service to play my FLAC files. Not being very familiar with the Android operating system, I struggled a bit to get to grips with the menu system, and still the process of uploading files using my MacBook seems to be a bit quirky. I can well imagine that a Windows based system will work more seamlessly in this respect. The unit itself is nice and compact, but to be honest, many of the features linked to apps and on line connectivity is surplus to requirements as I already have an iPhone for that and there are only so many devices you need to access emails and surf the web. One issue I am having is for some reason, there are a couple of FLAC files that will not display the album artwork. I tried formatting the jpeg files in various ways in the hope that I could resolve the issue to no avail. I'll continue to see if I can find a fix on line for this annoying problem. Overall, I am quite happy with the unit. It has an equaliser with several presets, so plenty of room to tweak the sound. It doesn't work well with Bluetooth headphones do to the compression software used in the protocol, so only wired connections should be used, which is no problem for me, but could be a concern for others. For the price, it is a very nice bit of kit, so would have no problem recommending it to others.
GoodThe sound quality is very good. Very much the same as my Cowon Plenue D.OKThe player itself is easy to navigate. I have put in a 513GB memory card (an Integral 512GB card at 180MB) which has I plenty of storage by my AIFF & WAV Hi-Res collections and the player has no problem keeping up with changing between albums / tracks. Easy to navigate by Folder. Bit laggy when changing between Albums on Tidal thought, but still OK.You do have to make lot of changes to make it usable though.It has a lot of blot ware, so you will need to disabled all the Apps you can’t get rid of eg MapsSome people have complained about the volume, but you just need to turn up the allowable volume to is maximum of 120db. Some albums are recorded quietly so engage the Clear Audio ... MoreGoodThe sound quality is very good. Very much the same as my Cowon Plenue D.OKThe player itself is easy to navigate. I have put in a 513GB memory card (an Integral 512GB card at 180MB) which has I plenty of storage by my AIFF & WAV Hi-Res collections and the player has no problem keeping up with changing between albums / tracks. Easy to navigate by Folder. Bit laggy when changing between Albums on Tidal thought, but still OK.You do have to make lot of changes to make it usable though.It has a lot of blot ware, so you will need to disabled all the Apps you can’t get rid of eg MapsSome people have complained about the volume, but you just need to turn up the allowable volume to is maximum of 120db. Some albums are recorded quietly so engage the Clear Audio function to bring them up to a decent sound level.I mostly use this with in-ear wired headphones but they can drive my full sized wired over ear Shure SRH1540 and Meze 99 Classics.BadThe battery is quite bad and seems to drain really quickly if you are constantly using the screen.However, by turning off almost all the apps, reducing the screen brightness to 0%, turning off wi-fi and Bluetooth. Turing on the Battery saver function. Turing on the Airplane mode and then just letting it play CD quality WAV files through my in ear headphone, without interruption, I got 40 hours out of it. However, that it not the way most people use a player.So using wifi to stream to a Bluetooth speaker and changing albums every so often, I got just over 5 hours out of it.So, for long session you will need an external battery to keep it going. So minus 1 star for the battery,But for £199 and an extra £20 power bank you get a decent portable player that can hold lots of albums with sound quality much better than a mobile phone.
So I decided after my Sony mini disc MZ-RH1 gave up the ghost many moons ago to forgo using my mobile for listening and go back to a dedicated player.First impressions, underwhelming: the player is tiny but weighty with a handsome chunky design. My advice if you are going to download MP3 or AAC compressed music files then I would stick to listening to music on your mobile. This player with it's Micro SD card slot is really about listening to your music in the highest possible fidelity. I download CDs using the Sony Music Center for PC then transfer to player in PCM, i.e. in the same bitrate as CD you are transferring from. If you are after music artwork you might be disappointed because none of the CDs I transferred had any accompanying art work. I transferred a ... MoreSo I decided after my Sony mini disc MZ-RH1 gave up the ghost many moons ago to forgo using my mobile for listening and go back to a dedicated player.First impressions, underwhelming: the player is tiny but weighty with a handsome chunky design. My advice if you are going to download MP3 or AAC compressed music files then I would stick to listening to music on your mobile. This player with it's Micro SD card slot is really about listening to your music in the highest possible fidelity. I download CDs using the Sony Music Center for PC then transfer to player in PCM, i.e. in the same bitrate as CD you are transferring from. If you are after music artwork you might be disappointed because none of the CDs I transferred had any accompanying art work. I transferred a CD in compressed format by mistake and lo and behold the art work was transferred too!Of course this not true High Resolution as touted by the industry but then you are looking at an expensive route of acquiring High Resolution tracks or albums from various on line retailers. I purchased for £1.39 Paranoid Android in Hi- Res. I wasn't blown away by the difference. Granted I was using non Hi -Res. cans but the quality was subtle not dramatic.Lastly this player's battery life is atrocious and it takes an age to fully recharge. I have disabled almost all the apps this android 9 system comes with. Stick to music or music streaming sites and the battery will last longer but not considerably so.
I've had this 2 years now and I love the music quality. It's easy to use, has a great interface and is really well made.There 2 issues...1 The battery life is about 8 hours at best. I keep the WiFi switched off to prevent drain.2 The memory for apps is quite small and when I first had the device it warned me that there was not enough memory left for upgrades. So I deleted a few.I still like the device but I feel a bit let down by the limitations.
Hi as a dinosaur that has until recently previously "burned" my own cd comps for the car and my Ghetto blaster, thought it was time I delved into the world of Bluetooth and DAPs.. Did some review read ups, watched some reviews on YouTube on all sorts and all prices, so after a process of elimination decided to go for a Sony NW-A100 Walkman (I have recently bought a JBL Boombox 3 - which is "Bluetooth" only..) So this review in mainly concerned with using the Sony via Bluetooth.. I have 2 HP (Windows) Laptops, one older than the other, the older but better laptop - the Sony didn't recognize it but did with the newer one,(Something to do with the "Ports" on the laptop), that is the only moan I have.. wasted an afternoon trying to come to that conclusion..Once that ... MoreHi as a dinosaur that has until recently previously "burned" my own cd comps for the car and my Ghetto blaster, thought it was time I delved into the world of Bluetooth and DAPs.. Did some review read ups, watched some reviews on YouTube on all sorts and all prices, so after a process of elimination decided to go for a Sony NW-A100 Walkman (I have recently bought a JBL Boombox 3 - which is "Bluetooth" only..) So this review in mainly concerned with using the Sony via Bluetooth.. I have 2 HP (Windows) Laptops, one older than the other, the older but better laptop - the Sony didn't recognize it but did with the newer one,(Something to do with the "Ports" on the laptop), that is the only moan I have.. wasted an afternoon trying to come to that conclusion..Once that was solved was easy to transfer music via my laptop to the Sony, you will need to get a extra storage card (Currys sell them easy to fit and go from around £15 up..) The Walkman feels "quality", there is a Sound enhancements (different settings for 10 I think of the top of my head) and a custom option for adjusting the graphic to your own tastes. It is MP3s and WMAs I have been playing so far, it will play Flac but not really investigated them yet.Conclusion: I haven't investigated every facet of this Walkman, Flacs are a future project, it didn't like one of my laptops but liked the newer one and worked straightway in nextdoors (Gamer) computer.. You can connect to your Wi Fi and listen to eg: Youtube, or use without wi fi and use Bluetooth only..So would I recommend this Sony Walkman?.. - I would, take a bit of time to listen to your fav song with the various sound options, (there are a few more sound options than mention here) I am impressed with this wee device, if it died or got lost or stolen - I would get another.
Good Points: Bought to replace my iPad Nano, which was out of storage -- so I wanted something portable but with decent storage, and a way to keep my music separate from my phone. It ticks all these boxes! It's not as light or small as the now defunct Nano, but it's as light/small as MP3s get nowadays if you want a touchscreen & enough space. Most out there are larger and heavier, and indistinguishable from a phone!With a cheap SD card it holds huge amounts (note that the Android system takes up a lot of the 16GB, so you will need a card). Very cute "screensaver" of the cassette tape playing & I like how the lock screen takes on whatever podcast or album you're playing. Excellent value for money in terms of sound quality & range of features, easy to navigate as ... MoreGood Points: Bought to replace my iPad Nano, which was out of storage -- so I wanted something portable but with decent storage, and a way to keep my music separate from my phone. It ticks all these boxes! It's not as light or small as the now defunct Nano, but it's as light/small as MP3s get nowadays if you want a touchscreen & enough space. Most out there are larger and heavier, and indistinguishable from a phone!With a cheap SD card it holds huge amounts (note that the Android system takes up a lot of the 16GB, so you will need a card). Very cute "screensaver" of the cassette tape playing & I like how the lock screen takes on whatever podcast or album you're playing. Excellent value for money in terms of sound quality & range of features, easy to navigate as it's basically a non-phone smartphone. Good search function in the music player & installing apps was v painless.Setup was v easy. Was wary of the file transfer system after reading some others' comments, but I didn't have to install an app, and it couldn't have been simpler. As the setup manual indicated, it really is literally just a popup as soon as you connect to the computer, to which you can drag & drop music files (even if on Mac and not using the Windows Media Player thing) -- respectfully, I wonder if the demographic still preferring an MP3 player to streaming on a smartphone might just find tech more difficult than the average person? Similarly, I've had none of the Bluetooth issues some reviewers had flagged, I have known that pain with other Bluetooth devices but this one paired v easily with my different headphones & speakers and has been coping fine with disconnection/reconnection, even those audio devices have been paired elsewhere in between uses. Again I wonder if it may be those less used to Bluetooth audio who had trouble.Improvement Points: It's true the battery life isn't great because it's a small device essentially running as an android phone, but it's quick to charge once it's plugged in. If you're using it to play music all day while working, you will need to charge it every night. But we do that with phones, so to me this really isn't a big deal. I wouldn't be put off by other reviewers' complaints, I saw all of them before I ordered and I've found no issue.Yes, there's a fair amount of random stuff installed (useless Google apps etc), but it's not hard to shove these in a folder out of sight and/or disable the apps, and with an SD card you won't run out of space. I honestly have no real complaints and am v happy with my purchase!
Having bought this to replace my 10 year old AW-A35. I was so looking forward to all the new features as its is now android run and Wifi as well. I have charged it up and started the installation procedure for Android, a bit like you do with a new phone. Now you have to remember this is a 16gb model. The installation was complete and it wanted me to do the latest update which I did. Now you have to realise I have not put any music on it at this stage. I will do later but only on a SD card. Imagine my surprise when after the update restart it tells me there is less than 2GB of memory left and this wont be enough for future updates. What!! Not even put music on it or used it for the first time and it says not enough memory. What apiece of absolute rubbish. They should ... MoreHaving bought this to replace my 10 year old AW-A35. I was so looking forward to all the new features as its is now android run and Wifi as well. I have charged it up and started the installation procedure for Android, a bit like you do with a new phone. Now you have to remember this is a 16gb model. The installation was complete and it wanted me to do the latest update which I did. Now you have to realise I have not put any music on it at this stage. I will do later but only on a SD card. Imagine my surprise when after the update restart it tells me there is less than 2GB of memory left and this wont be enough for future updates. What!! Not even put music on it or used it for the first time and it says not enough memory. What apiece of absolute rubbish. They should have concentrated on the music and stuck with old system as everybody knows how heavy android is on memory. Sony you have got this so wrong you should have realised about android updates and made this 32GB and not 16GB. This is the most expensive piece of rubbish I have ever bought. To be able to use it I have had to disable nearly every app on it and turn off Wifi. Which then makes you ask what is the point of this player. So utterly utterly disappointed. Sort it out Sony
I bought this player to replace the same model that I used for approximately four years straight. The sound quality is Insanely Superb. I own four other Sony players, slightly different. Three of them are Sony nw-a25, all of which sound great, but cannot match the sound quality essence of this player. This new player has a new quite nice contingency. If it is not playing a file and is just being unused for a period of time, it defaults and shuts down, which is good because the only downside to this player is it doesn't have a great battery life. I would recommend this player to Anyone seeking Quality Sound at a Very Modest price. I hope this helps.
When I received the NW-A105 I was immedietly impressed with its style and build quality. It feels solid in the hand and heavy enough to know it is still in your pocket. You could say it is a music player first and a mini-android tablet second as it has Android 9 (Pie) loaded as an operating system. However the display is small and using the NW-A105 as a small tablet (using the built in Wi-Fi) is tiring on the eyes. Given that the NW-A105 is sold as a Walkman its design and functions fit its purpose perfectly. The system is intuitive to use with infrequent reference to the online or printed manuals. WiFi and Bluetooth work very well with no problems connecting to WiFi or various Bluetooth devices (Sony and non-Sony Products).The output quality from the NW-A105 is ... MoreWhen I received the NW-A105 I was immedietly impressed with its style and build quality. It feels solid in the hand and heavy enough to know it is still in your pocket. You could say it is a music player first and a mini-android tablet second as it has Android 9 (Pie) loaded as an operating system. However the display is small and using the NW-A105 as a small tablet (using the built in Wi-Fi) is tiring on the eyes. Given that the NW-A105 is sold as a Walkman its design and functions fit its purpose perfectly. The system is intuitive to use with infrequent reference to the online or printed manuals. WiFi and Bluetooth work very well with no problems connecting to WiFi or various Bluetooth devices (Sony and non-Sony Products).The output quality from the NW-A105 is excellent with lots options for adjustment of sound settings, volume levels are easily set and adjusted to suit my needs.Adding music files to the player is a drag and drop process using file explorer although Sony software is available to rip, access and load files on the player. Anyone with a large music collection may need to expand the memory which is easy with a micro-sd card. A minor issue for perfectionists is the need to name album artwork with the same name as the music folder name to enable the artwork to be shown on the player.Playing the music is a simple process using the Walkman software pre-loaded on the player, however as the NW-A105 can access the Google Play Store alternatives are available to download.Charging the player is simple with the provided cable either through a PC or a USB charger. Battery life seems reasonable although you are advised to disable WiFi and Bluetooth when not in use and also to power off the player when not in use.I can recommend this product to anyone who loves music and does not need the phone connectivity.
NW-A105 Specifications
NW-A105 Specifications
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The lowest price for Sony NW-A105 16GB High-Resolution Digital Music Player Walkman (Ash Green) right now is $239.07 at eBay.com.au.
The all-time low was $231.35 on 24 Feb 2026 — today's price is 3% above the lowest ever. This is at or near its all-time low — a good time to buy.
Prices last updated 2 Sept 2026.
Sony NW-A105 16GB High-Resolution Digital Music Player Walkman (Ash Green)
NW-A105 Specifications
NW-A105 Specifications
