The NW-A306 Walkman is the latest addition to Sony’s A300 Walkman series. This Walkman has been designed for users who value a premium appearance and high-quality audio. It has a milled aluminium frame for superior rigidity, which results in low impedance, clear, stable sound, and solid bass.
This comes after the launch of NW-WM1ZM2 and NW-WM1AM2 premium Walkman models last year, and the Sony NW-A105. Sony NW-A105 was launched in India back in 2020.
The Sony NW-A306 has a 3.6-inch HD TFT touch screen display, Wi-Fi support and 32GB of internal storage that can be expanded via microSD. It supports Hi-Res Audio, LDAC, DSD, and FLAC audio formats, as well as an S-Master HX digital amplifier with low distortion and noise. It also has convenient media playback controls on the side.
The new NW-A306 improves on its predecessor models by including DSEE Ultimate for upscaling music, whether it is Wi-Fi streamed or downloaded. The Edge-AI and DSEE Ultimate accurately upscale compressed digital music files to higher quality, which can then be listened to with wireless headphones.
It also has 360 Reality Audio support. With 360 Reality Audio, Sony’s 360 Spatial Sound technology allows you to experience a variety of sounds in a 360-degree spherical sound field.
With the NW-A306 Walkman, Sony promises up to 36 hours of 44.1 kHz FLAC playback, 32 hours of 96 kHz FLAC High-Resolution Audio playback, and 26 hours when using a music service app.
Sony NW-A306 Walkman Specifications
- 3.6-inch HD (1280 x 720 Pixels) TFT colour display with white LED-backlight
- Android 12
- Ports – USB Type-C (USB3.2 Gen1), Stereo mini-jack, MicroSD card support
- Wi-Fi 802.11 ac (2.4GHz + 5GHz), Bluetooth 5.0
- Supported Bluetooth Codec: SBC, LDAC, aptX, aptX HD, AAC
- 32GB internal memory
- Audio Playback: MP3: 32 – 320kbps (supports VBR) / 32, 44.1, 48kHz, WMA: 32-320kbps (supports variable bitrate(VBR) / 44.1kHz (STEREO) ,32-48kbps / 44.1kHz (MONO) , FLAC: 16, 24bit / 8-384kHz, WAV: 16, 24, 32bit (Float / Integer) / 8-384kHz, AAC: 16-320kbps / 8-48kHz, HE-AAC: 32-144kbps / 8-48kHz, Apple Lossless: 16, 24bit / 8-384kHz, AIFF: 16, 24, 32bit / 8-384kHz, DSD: 1bit / 2.8224, 5.6448, 11.2896 MHz, APE: 8, 16, 24bit / 8-192kHz (Fast, Normal, High)
- Music Play Modes: Shuffle Playback, Repeat Off, Repeat 1 Song, Repeat All, All Range, Selected Range
- Dimensions: 56.5 mm x 98.4 mm x 11.8 mm, Weight: 113g
- Battery Life: up to 36 hours via normal playback and up to 22 hours via Bluetooth playback
Pricing and availability
The Sony NW-A306 Walkman comes in black and blue colours and is priced at £350 (US$ 428 / Rs. 34,840 approx.) in the UK and €400 (US$ 433 / Rs. 35,305 approx.) in Europe. It will be available to purchase across Europe starting this month.