Sony has a good track of making great fitness devices for every of its product family, in fact they are probably the only electronics company that really offers fitness devices from smartphones to music players. In particular, the Walkman brand has gotten pretty aggressive in highlighting Hi-Res audio playback recently except for this time, Sony has introduced a pretty complete sports music player, so complete that you won’t believe that this is actually a product from Sony.
Active and Sporty Design
The Walkman WS-615 isn’t too different from its older W273 music player, this new sports music player from Sony has a more refined and solid design on its ear piece and looks less plasticky this time. The device has the same wear over design, which you’ll be able to wear it over your head or leave it hanging on your neck when not using it, which makes it a really attractive gadget to carry on if you are the active type of person.
As we’ve mentioned initially, this is Sony’s most fully featured sports music player ever, it features 16GB of internal memory that’s 4 times more than the previous model, Bluetooth with aptX and NFC connectivity, yet maintaining the same 8 hour battery life and IPX8-certified waterproof design. Sony has also included the remote commander, a bulky, nice and welcoming hardware that lets you wear it on your finger like a ring that lets you control the music player without reaching your hands up to your head when you’re busy working out.
In short, Sony hasn’t made a big fuss on changing the design of its new sports Walkman player, however it definitely looks more handsome and packed with full of features this time.
Features and Usability
Forget about storing FLAC and DSD on the music player, despite Sony’s recent strong efforts of promoting Hi-Res audio, you don’t need to listen to Hi-Fi audio during your workouts as you definitely won’t be able to hear those audiophile grade sound quality. Therefore, 16GB of internal memory is definitely sufficient for storing all of your high quality MP3 and WMA files.
The Walkman will be able to charge and sync via its provided proprietary USB cradle, which also serves as a pretty good storage option if you’re not using it. Transferring files can be done easily via Drag and Drop on a PC or via iTunes on a Mac, no fussy business here.
Functions are clearly marked on each of its buttons which one can simply experiment on to get familiar with it, the button placements are reasonably well placed, one side turns on the player and controls music playback while the other activates Bluetooth and adjusts the volume, switching between Walkman and Bluetooth modes are effortless by simply pressing the “Mode” button, thanks to Voice Commands you’ll be able to know the player’s response with every buttons pressed.
The Walkman’s Bluetooth connectivity not only just streams wireless music from your Bluetooth devices, once connected to your smartphone, hit up Google Play or App Store to download the Songpal app and you’ll be able to control your Walkman’s current playlist and even adjust the player’s sound effects, this is definitely a win and not many sports music player can do.
Sound Quality
Without applying any sound effects on the WS615, audio quality is balanced across all high and low frequencies which is great for work outs. Sony does provide three pairs of normal and waterproof earbuds respectively for fitting different ear sizes.
Despite having Bluetooth aptX support, the Walkman doesn’t sound great even when connected to an aptX enabled device and we actually face intermittent connectivity issues if we merely leave the playback device a short distance away, for instance our pockets, which can be pretty annoying at times.
On the other hand, I tried switching the waterproof earbuds and experience a softer but reasonable volume, swimming with the Walkman player on is rather a pleasure and better than what I expected to be frank, just make sure you have the proper earbudsfit in snuggly into your ear as you don’t want it to slip off your ears.
Of course, if you want to achieve deeper bass or more detailed vocals in your music, the Songpal app on your smartphone is the way to go.
Verdict
Sony has just made a better sports Walkman music player, the NWZ-WS615 has one of the most complete set of features that we’ve ever seen on a Bluetooth earphones, it definitely had us surprised the most on the SongPal app which we are able to do so much more with the device. As a Sony product, its retail price isn’t the most affordable out there at RM699, however considering that you are not just buying a pair of sports Bluetooth earphones but also a dedicated music player, the price tag is definitely worth paying over a pair of expensive wired earphones.
The Good:
+ Decent and adjustable sound quality
+ Ample amount of storage
+ IPX5/8 waterproof certified
+ Active and refined hardware design
+ Accurate battery life
The Not so Good:
– Poor Bluetooth connection coverage
– Sound quality isn’t great over Bluetooth aptX
– Not the most affordable music player
The Sony Walkman NWZ-WS615 gets a score of 8.6/10
