Sony Adds A50 Player to Walkman Line-up

One could argue that Sony is almost solely responsible the high quality portable audio solutions even exist. If it weren’t for the Walkman tape and CD players of yesteryear, would companies like FiiO, Shanling, iBasso, Cowon, or Astell&Kern be where they are today? Would they even exist at all? Well, it seems that Sony’s Walkman line of products might not have the massive market-share it once enjoyed, but nevertheless the company is still developing and releasing new products under that name, with the A50 being their newest addition to the portable music player market.

Meet the A50

At first glance the A50 looks awfully similar to the A40-series – damn near identical. And that’s because the exterior is pretty much identical. The exterior has undergone a bit of a nip and tuck, and thus Sony has shaved off 2mm in the width, 2mm in the length, and 1mm in the thickness as compared to the A40-series. This means that the A50 is also about 1g lighter, and thus roughly 2% more compact. Near enough to make no difference, really.
Under the hood it’s difficult to say how much Sony has upgraded the new model (if at all) as the listed specifications for each model is a little inconsistent. However, what we can see is that the available storage options has remained the same and this trend continues when we look at the devices compatibility with various file formats and Bluetooth formats. Sony even specifies the same available power output of 35mW per channel into 16-ohm.

Heck, even the rated playback-time of 45 hours has remained the same, and it seems so have even the colour options. 
So, at this point, your guess is as good as ours with regards to whether or not Sony has made any real improvements with the A50 over the A40-series.