TL;DR
  • Sony has refreshed its Walkman audio player lineup with three new devices.
  • The flagship WM1ZM3 is priced at $5,900 and comes with a gold-plated chassis.
  • The devices also feature Android 16, Sony’s DSD Remastering Engine, and up to 40 hours of battery life.

The Sony Walkman name is legendary, and Sony hasn’t failed to capitalize on its popularity by releasing Android-powered music players under the Walkman name. Though these are usually expensive and aimed at audiophiles with money to burn, Sony’s latest Walkman devices take things to a whole new level.

Sony today announced three new digital music players under its Walkman brand: the NW-WM1ZM3, NW-WM1AM3, and NW-ZX900. While they offer improvements across the board, they are surprisingly using Android 16. That is an upgrade over their predecessors, which were running Android 11 and Android 12. But it’s still surprising that Sony thinks it’s fine for you to pay nearly $6,000 and not even get the latest version of Android.