Walkman A Series
The Walkman A Series is a flagship line of mid-range digital audio players by Sony as part of its Walkman range. The A Series has been marketed since 2005, initially as the top spec Walkman players and since 2014 as a mid-range following the introduction of the ZX Series. The "A" originally stood for "All in one, Advanced, and Attractive".
History
2005–2008
A3000 and A1000
The A Series digital music player was introduced on September 8, 2005. It was available initially in 6 gigabyte and a larger sized 20 gigabyte versions, while an 8 gigabyte version was also released. They were the replacement of the NW-HD5 in the Network Walkman line and remained a hard disk player. The A Series was Sony's "rebirth" of the Walkman, and in its press release Sony said the series is "Simply called 'WALKMAN'" thereby dropping the Network name from all its future digital audio player products. Its release date in Japan was November 19, 2005 with a retail price of 28,800 JPY while in the UK it retailed for about £190.The NW-A3000 and NW-A1000 series feature an electroluminescent screen. The player is pebble-shaped and has a highly reflective front, build with a metallic back, and a generally minimalist style. It was available in black, silver, purple, pink and blue, Koichiro Tsujino, a Sony executive, said that the goal of the A Series was to revive the Walkman brand which had been struggling both domestically and internationally.
Battery life can reach 20 and 35 hours respectively. The player supports ATRAC3, MP3, WMA and from firmware version 3.00 it also supports AAC. There are a number of features to select music according to a variety of criteria, which Sony advertized as adapting to the listener's "individual tastes". The "Artist link" function prompts the Walkman to search, find and display similar artists in that genre. There are two new shuffle modes. By selecting "My Favourite Shuffle", the device automatically selects the 100 most listened to songs and plays them at random. The "Time Machine Shuffle" function randomly selects a year and plays all of the songs from that particular year currently held on the device. On the left side is an "Artist Link" button. A recent firmware update added the "Artist Link Shuffle" function to the list of Intelligent Shuffle modes, along with a clock and calendar. The means of putting music on this device is to use Sony's SonicStage software, though originally at release it was a new piece of software called Connect Player which tied in with the Sony Connect online music store, or with mora in Japan.
Billed as Sony's much-anticipated answer to the iPod, the NW-A3000 and NW-A1000 series became a quick sales success in Japan and Europe and a big seller during the Christmas 2005 period. However, a significant number of customers had a negative experienced with the bundled Connect Player software, making them unable to transfer music, and reports of the software crashing their computers. In January 2006, Sony acknowledged "serious problems" with the software and advised customers to use SonicStage instead. The NW-A3000 and NW-A1000 series were the final HDD Walkman devices when it was discontinued in 2007; after this all Walkman digital audio players would be solely flash memory.
A600
In Japan and some territories, the NW-A600 series were released alongside the NW-A3000/A1000. It is a small thumb drive design and successor to the global E Series NW-E500/E400. Future players in this style would be released under E Series and S Series.A800
The Sony NW-A800 series was the first video-enabled Network Walkman. Announced on March 1, 2007, this series has a metallic build. A chrome-like strip surrounds the edge of the device, and accenting of the same style surrounds the buttons and makes up the logos on the front. It features a QVGA display with ID3 tag and album art support.It is available in 2 GB, 4 GB, and 8 GB capacities. The interface is similar to that of a mobile phone. The screen is a QVGA colour LCD and can be used either horizontally or vertically. The Lithium-ion rechargeable battery can last up to 30 hours for music and 8 hours for video. This player is an ATRAC Audio Device which relies on SonicStage to manage music. For photo and video management it uses Sony's Image Converter. It also introduced the new 22-pin WM-PORT dock connector, replacing the 42-pin connector found on the predecessing A Series.
The NW-A800 has been released in the European Union, Asia, New Zealand, and North America. As of 19 May 2007, Sony Canada has released the 8 GB and 4 GB models. The 2 GB model was released on 13 June 2007.
A810 and A910
Announced August 2007, the NW-810 hardware wise is the same as NW-A800 but introduces some substantial changes in its media manager software for the international market. The player was the first flagship to eliminate the need of Sony's proprietary SonicStage program, introducing a drag and drop feature to transfer media instead as well as native Windows Media Player support. It also no longer supports Sony's ATRAC format. Sony called the A810 as being built on an "open platform" and promoted it. It was also the first video-enabled Walkman in the U.S. market.The NW-A919 is a 16GB video Walkman with a digital 1seg TV tuner and recorder allowing the recording of 16 hours of live broadcasts. The player has a touch screen, measures 47.2mm×86.0mm×12.3mm and was available in black or silver. It was released in Japan in November 2007. Tech press in the west nicknamed it TV Walkman.
A820 and A720
In March 2008, Sony debuted A820 and A720 series. The A820 was the first Walkman equipped with a Bluetooth module which can be used to connect wireless headphones - the A720 lacks Bluetooth. The upgraded A820 and A720 had a 2.4" LCD display and a selection of memory from 4 gigabytes to 16 gigabyte. This also includes the popular 8 GB version. In some regions the package will contain a pair of Sony In-Ear Earbuds with sound-reduction technology. The EX85 series earbuds are included in the US retail package. It did not include an FM radio, additional memory storage, or a voice recorder.2009–2011
A840
Introduced September 2009, the A840 Series was very thin, only 7.2 mm thick. It has a 2.8 inch OLED display; it was not filled with extras such as touchscreen or internet capabilities, which was reserved for the Walkman X Series. This was the first A Series to adopt the now familiar "Mickey Mouse" button layout that was first introduced in the E and S series the year before.The A840 came in capacities of 8 gigabyte up to 64 gigabyte. It also introduced several new features, including a Language Learning function, a playlist bookmark function, and Virtual Phones Technology. It has rated 50 hours music playback time or 10 hours video playback time.
A850
The A850 Series was released in November 2010 exclusively in Japan for 24,000 yen, 30,000 yen and 40,000 yen.A860
The A860 Series was introduced in 2011. It has a 2.8 inch LCD touchscreen and is styled like a contemporary smartphone. It introduced for the first time in the A Series the SensMe channels and Karaoke Mode functionality. After this model, the A Series was replaced by the F Series.2014–2019
The A Series returned with the NWZ-A10 hi-res Walkman introduced in September 2014, with the ability to play 24-bit FLAC files as well as ALAC and DSD. It features Bluetooth and NFC. The player is small sized relative to smartphones of the time and has a 2.2 inch non-touch display, demonstrating the focus on a "classic" music player. The base NWZ-A15 16 GB model retailed for US$299.Released in 2015 the A20 Series also has noise canceling.
Introduced in October 2016, the A30 Series can also playback Direct Stream Digital. It now has a 3.1 inch touchscreen display. It was followed by NW-A40 and NW-A50 series.
2019–present
A100 and A300
At the 40th anniversary of the original Walkman, Sony introduced the NW-A100 series in September 2019. The A100 series has a similar design as the A50 but with a larger display and borrowing physical key designs from the NW-ZX300 - it includes a 3.6 inch display, 26 hours of audio playback, and both a 3.5 mm headphone and USB-C port, the latter replacing Sony's proprietary WM-PORT. Paying tribute to the original cassette player, the NW-A100 series players include a cassette tape splash screen that changes depending on what is played. There is, however, no FM radio present.The limited edition anniversary model, NW-A100TPS, has a "40th Anniversary" logo on its back, as well as the very first Walkman logo. This edition comes with a soft cover, styled like the first Walkman.
The Japanese domestic model, for the first time, no longer has ATRAC audio support.
In January 2023, the A300 was announced featuring a new sleek design, 36 hours of battery life, Android 12, USB DAC support and DSEE Ultimate. NFC and Noise Cancelling were removed from the A300. It came in Black, Grey and Blue. The NW-A306 retails for US$349.99.