Sony’s next premium Walkman could be closer than expected as a fresh leak suggests the long-awaited NW-ZX900 is on track to launch in late 2026 or early 2027.
The latest details come from The Walkman Blog, which reports that the upcoming music player has already appeared on Sony’s internal servers.
While the listing doesn’t reveal new hardware, it lines up with an earlier benchmark leak. That benchmark hinted at a substantial performance jump over the current NW-ZX707.
According to the benchmark, Sony will replace the ageing Qualcomm Dragonwing QCS4290 platform, based on the Snapdragon 660, with a much newer chipset derived from Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 7s Gen 3. The move would bring a far more modern CPU architecture. It would feature four Cortex-A720 performance cores alongside four Cortex-A520 efficiency cores.
On paper, that means more than double the performance of the NW-ZX707 – around a 122% increase based on benchmark estimates. Sony is also tipped to pair the chip with 8GB of RAM. As a result, the Walkman will be far better equipped to handle streaming apps, large music libraries and Android multitasking than its predecessor.
The newer 4nm manufacturing process should also improve efficiency. That could mean longer battery life despite the extra power, although Sony has yet to reveal any official battery figures.
Connectivity also looks set for an upgrade. The leaked specifications point to Wi-Fi 6E support. This allows faster downloads for high-resolution music and streaming apps compared to the older Wi-Fi standard used by the current model. Users would of course need a compatible router.
There are no details yet on changes to the display, DAC hardware, storage options or audio tuning. All these areas matter just as much to dedicated Walkman buyers.
Sony’s NW-A306 and NW-ZX707 both launched back in January 2023. The players have since disappeared from sale in several regions. If the leaks are accurate, the NW-ZX900 could finally be the long-awaited successor. It could bring a much-needed hardware refresh to Sony’s premium portable music player lineup.
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