Sony Walkman returns: New Walkman NW-ZX900 audio player rears its head with major upgrades revealed
The Sony Walkman NW-A306 and NW-ZX707 (curr. $648 on Amazon) are fast approaching their third birthdays after landing in January 2023. In the past, Sony has waited four years before replacing its Android-based Walkmans. Early evidence has emerged online pointing to an imminent replacement of at least the NW-ZX707, though.
For the time being, we only have a dozen or so Geekbench listings to draw upon. Nonetheless, we can already glean a few details. For instance, it seems that Sony will replace the NW-ZX707 with the NW-ZX900 series, skipping the ZX800 just like the ZX600 before it. Moreover, major hardware and software upgrades also appear to be in store for the Walkman ZX series, too.
On the one hand, all Geekbench listings report Android 16 being installed; the NW-A306 and NW-ZX707 only received up to Android 14. On the other hand, the same listings suggest a switch from 4 GB to 8 GB of RAM. Additionally, they report an octa-core chipset codenamed 'volcano' with the identifier ARM implementer 65 architecture 8 variant 0 part 3457 revision 1.
Equipped with an Adreno 810 GPU, it would seem that Sony has chosen the Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 or the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 to underpin the NW-ZX900 series. However, the reported clock speeds are not a match for either chipset. Therefore, we suspect Sony has turned to Qualcomm's Dragonwing division again, just as it did with the NW-A306 and NW-ZX707 by using the QCS4290. Qualcomm does not list any corresponding chipsets on its website yet, though.
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