Sony A105 Review
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- čas přidán 20. 02. 2020
- Summary - This device is perfect for someone who:
wants physical transport controls
wants a quality audio-only device without notification distractions from email & social media
wants a small device to use during exercise/work/housework
wants a media device with a 3.5 mm headphone jack
wants a separate media device to use while traveling (~4 hours of battery)
wants a device more durable than typical smartphones
wants higher quality audio, smaller footprint than an iPod touch
Sony A105 - retails for $350 (February 2020)
Specs:
4 core Arm Cortex A53 (approximately the same as raspberry pi B+ which retails for $30) Clocked at 1.2-1.8 GHz
4 GB ram
16 GB of storage (8 taken by OS and 2 needed for update leaving just 6 GB for app installs and data)
720x1280 screen /3.61 in = 360-406 dpi
1285 mAh battery (1/3 of a typical smartphone battery). For comparison, the Sony NPBX1 camera battery has 1240 mAh battery and retails for around $40
No camera
No fingerprint sensor
Physical transport controls (Play/pause, fast forward, rewind, volume up, volume down)
USB C for charging
WiFi 5 ("2.4 GHz/5 GHz)
No speaker is built-in
A microphone is present for speech-to-text
The specs it should have had to make it a much better value:
SoC: Snapdragon 632 or 675
RAM: 4GB-6GB
Storage: 32 GB
Quick charge
Removable battery
The software is basically stock android, but, Google Files should have been installed by default because of the extremely limited storage.
thanks for the info, I almost pull the trigger on that one, I think you pointed out a few things that for me are more throw backs... again thank you, nice review!
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Very informative video, Can i ask if theres a big difference in sound quality on tracks downloaded on Spotify from your smartphone versus the downloaded spotify tracks on your A105 using Bluetooth headphones like sony 1000x m3 (not using wired).
I don't use Spotify but I haven't noticed any difference between wired and wireless headphones. Keep in mind I'm using Sony's premium Bluetooth headphones so your experience may vary if you use Bose or another brand. If you are wanting full size wired over the ear headphones you may want to look at another device or using a headphone amplifier because you may want more oomph that only more power can provide.
Cool
How does this compare to the Onkyo DP-X1a?
Supports audio output for amplifier such as fiio m6
It should support external amplifiers without any issue. The internal one is ok, but not spectacular
How is the sound quality if we compare it with smartphone like S9 plus?
Very good, tech-oriented review. I agree with pretty much everything but would add that the CPU is not only slow, but also overheats quite easily which drains battery even more. 1600 mah+ battery would be acceptable - the current one is just a joke. Still, under 250$ it seems auite good.
Cheers.
Can I download music using the just walkman from websites (chrome)and import directly to the music app? Or I just need transfer with a PC?
Yes you can download music with a web browser or torrent software.
does this model have speech recognition for commands or is it only manual?
Manual only. It's really not a great toaster.
What MP3 player is better then this and you would recommend ?
This is not a smart phone, is a MP3 Player. Play your music and listen to your iBook. Why you need a fast processor for? Does this play your music well?
No it doesn't play music files all that well because it is slow to search, slow to play and slow to pause. How can a device from 2019/2020 be slower to play music than an original iPod from more than 15 years ago?
and for the price, they should put a faster processor.
I Have The 105 I Use Only Blue Tooth No Streaming XM4 Head phones Sounds Great Battery Life 8 hours ,
Is it easy to transfer cds to this walkman? And do they show up as hi res audio?
Standard audio cds aren't really considered hi res. You can use any audio ripping software on a pc, mac or linux to convert the files to flac lossless audio. Once you have the files on your computer, you can just drag them onto the walkman like any other external hard drive or flash drive.
@@RichardGarrison Thanks for the reply......I have some Blu Ray audio titles aswell....be nice to have them on it as well......
@@RoyMurphy1 it is possible to rip Blu-Ray audio but it isn't legal in the USA because the digital millennium copyright act forbids breaking encryption. I'm not certain those ripped tracks would be high resolution either. You should probably just look for music files online that are already in FLAC or DSD format. Some streaming services like Amazon, Qobuz and Tidal offer Hi Res music subscriptions. IDIAGO offers lossless classical music, but at CD quality, not hi-res. Primephonic offers hi-res classical music subsciptions. There are also several online stores that sell hi res singles and albums. HDTracks is one example.
@@RichardGarrison Thanks il look it those 👍
I am so so so much confused between NW A55 and this one...pls suggest which should I go for....my main objective is to experience the best sound quality....
The NW A55 does not run full android so you can't install applications. I wouldn't bother with that model if you want to use other music applications on the device for audiobooks, podcasts, etc. Otherwise they are very similar.
@@RichardGarrison I don't have any fascination of using app oriented music streaming....so I should go with A55..?
@@abhinavabanerjee3526 If you can purchase the A55 for a lower price it is probably a good idea to go with that model. The only other thing that may annoy you is the proprietary USB cable with that unit. If you carry it with you, it will not be an issue. Otherwise, if you lose it you will be very annoyed because it will be difficult to obtain a replacement from anywhere except Sony.
The A105 is a rather strange when compared to previous models. The reasons are: no USB DAC support, no BT receiver functionality, Android interface instead of the beautiful dedicated UI, reduced battery life, usb-C instead of a WM-port with line output support.
The one real perk to the A105 is being able to use apps. Most people listen to streaming music. Audible and podcasts are particularly important to me. Having to connect to a computer to do updates is incredibly frustrating.
@@RichardGarrison Thank you for your reply, however you can also listen to streaming services on a A55 or ZX300 which on another level for similar price. The way is by streaming via LDAC from your phone, which you will likely still need to take with you when you go out. Also it seems that on A105 the audio from third party apps will be downconverted to 48kHz/16bit, so I don't see any real advantage when compared to LDAC transmission.
@@valentinla1305 Hello again. According to Sony's website, neither model you mentioned permits the user to install apps. Basically you would need to use those devices as an external DAC in combination with another device if you wanted to listen to music or audiobooks from streaming services. From my standpoint those models don't make a lot of sense because I could just purchase an external DAC without a screen that's more affordable (and would likely have a better battery life). Plus the reason I wanted this model of Walkman was so that I could use it without connecting to my smartphone or to a laptop so I don't have to worry about draining their batteries or having a complicated wired or wireless set up as well as needing to carry multiple devices. This device is much smaller and more durable than my smartphone which is really nice because I tend to break nice things.
As far as sound quality, this walkman is just okay. Because I'm using sony mdr-1000xm3 wireless headphones via Bluetooth, the sound is the same as when I connect to my cell phone. That's okay for me because I'm mostly listening to audiobooks and podcasts and the sound quality of the source material is generally very poor anyway.
My biggest complaint is the processor and RAM are very limited. If they were faster I would recommend this walkman highly. The interface lag is very annoying.
@@RichardGarrison Yeah, you can't install apps on ZX300 or A55, what I meant was using a phone as wireless source, but than this of course will only work with wired headphones. I believe Android based Walkmans may be appealing to many as you described it, just like the previous generations such as ZX1 and ZX2. However, there are still many people who would favor their proprietary UI, so hopefully Sony just keeps supporting both type of devices just like in the past. Enjoy your Walkman!
Bought this and the Sony Nw-A105 to compare,the sound on my mate 10 pro is superior with poweramp!!,put poweramp
on the 105 and it sounds almost as good!!i thought excellent,i can take it into work,then i tested the battery run time, without poweramp,it gets over 20 hours,with it i got less than 9 hours!!i'm only listening to mp3!!WTF!!that is with everything dumbed down on it,(no wi fi etc),i thought all the poor reviews about the battery life were exaggerated!!sadly they were not!! someone suggested taking a powerbrick as a companion to it!!crazy talk!the 55L possibly woulld have fitted the bill,if only i could put poweramp on it!!
So needless to say,they're both going back!!can't believe i deliberated so long about getting one!!i thought if my phone sounds this awesome,a DAP will blow my mind!!it was not to be!!poweramp is epic!!
(Wired IEMs btw)
It's what you're looking for is just good sound you can just get an external DAC to use on any modern smartphone. The best reasons to own a media-only device is to have physical transport controls (skip, play/pause) and to keep from draining the battery on your phone. This would be good for that but the battery life is terrible. I really like the size but honestly I wouldn't mind if it were twice as thick if it played much longer. Also it is slow as molasses.
@@RichardGarrison I love the sound from my phone☺☺physical controls would be great,but not at the expense of battery,the 105 used 10% per hour vs 3% per hour on my phone!!no contest!! you're so right about how slow it is!! thanks for the reply and happy listening to you!!
when do you think sony will upgrade this android based walkman in 2021? which one is better A55 or A105 overall?
Sri, I doubt they will upgrade the operating anytime soon, if at all. I had the NW-ZX2 from 2015 until this year and it had Android Marshmallow 4.2 from the time I bought it until the time it died from main circuit board failure. I have not heard the A105, but I have the A55, and reviewers have said they sound the same.
The A55 is waterproof, and since it uses Sony's proprietary version of LInux, the battery life is more than double that of the A105. And it seems to be much smoother in operation the Android version. I know I'm answering your questions a bit late, but hopefully this helps you or someone else looking to make a buying decision.
@@bobdecker166 I have purchased A55
@@sriharshatumuluru6017 Good for you. Are you happy with it so far?
@@bobdecker166 Yes but I would have liked the screen to be a bit bigger
Surly the bloatware apps can be uninstalled on at least disabled to save storage.
There's not really any bloatware unless you count CZcams and Gmail. Stock Android requires a lot of space.
Watching this makes me feel travel sick. Decent review though.
Sorry about the shakiness. My house has been under construction for months so I don't have all my equipment on hand. Hopefully that remodel will be wrapped up soon.
Hi dear..
What kind of headphones do you suggest me to exploit all the power of this device?
Is it ok with Amazon Music??
Yes!
@@RichardGarrison cheers bud... just bought it for wifey
Its just math! root from (1280 * 720) : 3.5 inch = 419.6 dpi. Just calculate it yourself.
Zero info about the sound quality? Sound signature? Trimble? Timing? Soundstage? Dynamics? That should be the main part of an audio device review.
And if you have problem with the lag of start/pause a song, you could have shown it in your video for us to get an idea if it really is a problem, or you are just nitpicking.
Hello! It isn't the start/ pause of the song that's an issue. The device is a media player, not just an audio player. That means you can open up lots of different types of audio files using different android apps (e.g., podcasts or audiobooks). Launching those apps is where the player lags. A $50 cell phone doesn't have these problems. Sony used a low end processor and minimal ram.
The audio quality is completely subjective and that's why I didn't mention it very much. The companies that sell high end audio equipment know that science doesn't back up their claims. It would be incredibly easy to perform blind testing on multiple devices to objectively find the best quality of any media player, headphone or speaker,, but you'll notice no company is willing to do it and publish the results. Another issue is the vast majority of adults have hearing loss. The best people to test audio devices are 12 years old before hearing loss begins. The final reason is I primarily used Sony WH-1000mx3 and WH-1000mx4 Bluetooth headphones. When using Bluetooth, virtually all media players and cell phones sound identical. I did use wired headphones as well, but not for long because the Sony WH series headphones produce great sound without wires.
Thanks for the feedback!
Bro don't treat it like a smartphone, it's a dedicated audio player. It's called walkman for a reason.
BTW how's the battery life
A media player needs to open up audio files without delay. This walkman fails at that. That's really it's only job.
Battery life is not good. It is a great size and I'd be more forgiving about the very low battery life if it had fast charging, but it doesn't.
@@RichardGarrison if you'll sell it I'd buy it.
@@RichardGarrison thanks for replying kind sir I was intrigued with this particular model of walkman because I'm looking for one but the reviews says buying it at retail prices isn't reasonable. I get your points sir. Thanks!
Support m4a aac?
Yes, and plenty of other audio codecs.
Android is an inefficient OS to begin with.
Operating system inefficiency is usually not an accurate description. People complain frequently that Windows is very bloated and is inefficient when compared to Linux. Truthfully, Linux doesn't do very much with an initial install when compared to Windows. Windows has built-in voice recognition and face recognition, tons of built in drivers and language packs, utilities and lots of preinstalled basic software. if you don't want or need those things of course you would describe that as bloat.
Android is hard to describe with a similar comparison because most device manufacturers heavily customize each software installation for their hardware so it's difficult to come up with one broad generalization. However plain Android from Google doesn't have a lot of bloat and isn't something that most people would describe as extremely inefficient. The installation that Sony is using is minimal. There isn't much you could do to the software on this device to make it more efficient other than to take off the operating system and install something like a custom Linux. But if you were going to do that then you couldn't run any of the audio software that you want to run other than a basic music player and perhaps a basic podcast player. So really it would be pointless to strip away features because all the features that it comes with are the reason why someone would purchase it. The lagging issue is a hardware issue. Sony went cheap with both the ram and the processor. If those were upgraded this would be a great device, with the possibility that battery life might still be an issue.
Richard Garrison Inefficient in the way it executes program. I think it doesn’t run native code. It uses Java for program. That’s why it need more battery and CPU power compared to iOS. Honestly it’s a not very good OS for mobile. But users don’t have a lot of choices since there’s only iOS and Microsoft already quit the game.
I think android software developers have several options for programming languages. Java isn't as horrible as it used to be. But certainly all operating systems and corresponding software could be better optimized. A good example is when you download a new video game with retro style graphics and sound. The file sizes are enormous when compared to their inspiration like SNES and Sega Genesis. I would definitely describe this as lazy programming.
as of today I would say the only hope for a completely alternate mobile operating system in the near future is Linux. Purism and pinephone are the two options I have found. But they are so early in development and there's very little software mobile linux phones are just not worth considering in 2020 for a typical consumer. But maybe one day.