Sony’s 40th anniversary edition NW-A100TPS Walkman is peak nostalgia
Make personal audio great again
In last month’s Stuff magazine we marked the 40th anniversary of the Walkman with a look back at the undeniable tech icon that is the TPS-L2 – Sony’s first portable cassette player – in our Random Access Memories hall of fame slot. We can only assume our substantial influence has caused one of the world’s biggest consumer electronics companies to create this; a 40th anniversary edition NW-A100TPS personal music player with a specially designed soft case and package paying homage to the original. Be still our beating hearts. You’ll also find a printed 40th anniversary logo on the back and it comes in a fancy box that’ll make you go all Comic Book Guy, handling it in white gloves to keep it preserved. Obviously it swaps old school cassette tapes for up to 16GB of stored digital music. But wait, there’s a twist, when you select a track the song title appears on the 3.6in HD display as a mixtape, which is quite frankly absolutely mint. The Cassette Tape UI visual varies depending on the codec of the music you’re listening to and Sony being Sony the player supports Hi-Res audio. We also like the sound of the Vinyl Processor that aims to give a bit of analogue warmth to digital tracks. Based on an Android 9 OS, the NW-A100TPS supports Bluetooth with aptX HD, NFC, Wi-Fi for direct downloads and streaming, USB-C charging, and a microSD card slot. Battery life clocks in at up to 26 hours. It’s available from November priced at around £400.
James Day
