The Sony Walkman is having quite a year. Not only have we seen a huge Wall of Walkmans exhibit in Tokyo, the iconic brand also turned 40 back in July. And now a brand new, Bluetooth-enabled, wi-fi Sony Walkman is rumoured to be in the pipeline.
Sony's Walkmans – like the recently reviewed five-star NW-A45 (pictured) – have long since done away with cassettes altogether in favour of colour touch-screens, hi-res music support and a microSD storage option.
And according to The Walkman Blog, a new Sony Walkman dubbed the NW-A100 has appeared on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) website. The FCC (an independent agency in the USA that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable) has only limited information on the new model, but wi-fi 2.4/5.0Ghz, NFC and Bluetooth 5.0 are all listed.
No visuals of the new model are currently available, but a Sony Walkman with wi-fi could mean that alongside DSD, WAV and FLAC file playback, you could soon be streaming hi-quality music from the likes of Tidal and Qobuz. This, of course, would bring it into direct competition with another five-star product, the Apple iPod Touch (2019).
So when can we expect to see the new model revealed to the tech-loving masses? If a Sony NW-A100 is on the way, our money would be on it debuting in September at Europe's biggest tech show, IFA.
Only time will tell, but we'll be sure to bring you any updates from Sony as and when we get them.
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