The Sony Walkman returns after 40 years and will now cost you £349

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Four decades after the first version, Sony has unveiled its new Walkman (Photo: Sony)

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Four decades after revolutionizing the way we listen to music with the first Walkman, Sony has released a new version for 2023.

There have been a few changes since 1979, and the new Sony Walkman NW-A306 swaps the original cassette tapes for MP3s and broadcasts from the likes of Spotify and YouTube.

It has a 3.6-inch touch screen and physical buttons on the side to change the volume or skip tracks. Sony’s new music player runs on the Android operating system – which means you can put a few apps in there and surf the internet with Google Chrome.

However, it cannot function as a smartphone as it will not send or receive calls or messages.

Nope, this is exclusively for audiophiles. As such, it has a 3.5mm headphone jack (so you don’t lose any fidelity through a Bluetooth connection) as well as artificial intelligence to upscale compressed digital music to higher quality.

Sony’s new Walkman offers support for high-quality audio playback and a convenient headphone jack (Photo: Sony)

The new Walkman supports FLAC High-Resolution Audio files, a 36-hour battery life, and 32GB of storage for offline music.

Unfortunately for audiophiles, there is a somewhat steep price tag. The Sony Walkman NW-A306 isn’t available to buy in the UK yet, but when it does drop it will set you back £349 – more expensive than some smartphones. For example, the Motorola G9 Play can be had for £189.99 on Amazon and comes with twice the storage capacity.

Sony seems to be a bit far in the music player space, and Apple famously discontinued the iPod last year because, let’s face it, most people only use their phones.

But we’re still here for the old love and happy to see the Walkman back 44 years after it first carried music.

A blast from the past: a nostalgic technique

The Walkman isn’t the only piece of ancient technology making a comeback. There are many other vintage tools that you can still buy today.

Here are some of our favourites:

Tamagotchi

You can’t be on the school playground in the 90’s without seeing these little virtual pets. Feed him, play with him and generally try to keep him alive for longer than a day. Now you can try again, thirty years later.

Buy now for £16 a Casio Calculator Watch

As with everything from the good old days, now you can do it on your phone. But the pure retro elegance of strapping a calculator watch to your wrist cannot be underestimated. The curse of maths teachers everywhere hasn’t actually gone away, and it can still be found on Amazon for under £30.

BUY NOW for £28 Super Nintendo Classic Mini Console

Were the games better than the glory days of the 80s? Of course it has – modern games are masterpieces. But there’s still something deeply satisfying about revisiting Mario’s halycon-like days. The best bundle for a quick hit of old games is Nintendo’s revamped version of the SNES console. It plugs into any TV via HDMI and comes with two classic gamepads and a bunch of pre-installed classics like Legend of Zelda and Mario Kart.

Buy now for £289 the Polaroid Now Instant Camera

Why post pictures to Instagram when you can print them right after you take them and hand them to your subject? Or, alternatively, just stick it in the fridge. This updated version of the original keeps instant printing but adds a handful of modern features to get you up to speed. There’s an autofocus system, an improved flash, a self-timer, and a photo counter that tells you how many shots are left.

Buy now for £120

More: The Sony Walkman is back – but it can’t play tapes and costs £2,500

More: This app turns your phone into an old iPod

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