Sony NWZX-507 Walkman Digital Music Player (Silver)

Its everything that I was hoping for and more! Great sound - easy to use and love being able to stream from high quality sites. The only reason I gave it 4 stars is the battery life. I have done everything they suggest to save battery time and it still uses it a lot faster listening to downloads. I would still highly recommend it just for the sound quality!

Sony Walkman NW-ZX507:
The Walkman look cute and it feels good in hand. Size is convenient to slide in pocket. US versions are Silver only and it is attractive. Still, I would have preferred Black if available.

Sound Quality:
I like the sound quality very much. The sound is clear and bass is deep and enjoyable. I am upgrading from Sony WM-ZX2 and there is big difference. The volume 85 is loud enough and my volume during use varies between 65 to 95 at different times. For 3.5mm, I am having Sony WH-1000XM3. For 4.4mm balanced, I am having Sony XBA-4 mod to balanced 4.4mm jack for now, untill I go for a balanced headphone. ZX507 US version are enabled with High gain output settings for both 3.5mm &4.4mm to turn On or Off to use if anyone has headphone that demands. There is recommendation from sony to burn for 200hrs on each output for the hardware to operate with best sound processing.

Tried all different sounds settings. The Direct Mode ON sounds the Same as Direct mode OFF with all the sound settings OFF (EQ, DSEE, DC, Dynamic norm, Vinyl Process).
EQ gain is responsive for each frequency range. To give a touch of bass in music, I increase the 33Hz gain and combining it with DC phase Linearizer to Type A Low for WH-1000XM3 with Noise cancelling OFF and Ambient Sound OFF and enjoy deep bass. I use DSEE HX for while playback mp3's

System:
The Android OS is great for streaming apps.. Apps and UI responds fast. I feel, the inbuilt memory (~49GB available for user) is less. I have extended with 128GB microsd for now.
The Walkman keys are handy. The button controls are applicable automatically for the currently playing music app and good response to clicks. It would have been great if there is a dedicated hardware key for toggling sound settings and also a key to add currently playing music to favorite in whatever app it is running.

Battery:
The Walkman charges from 0% to 100% in approx 1hr 40 minutes. I am not sure why the specific says 6.5hours to full charge. The Walkman auto power ON when connecting charger and unavoidable.

I did some Android battery saving tricks like enable battery saver, disable location, disable auto sync, Airplane mode, force stop and Disable apps that I felt not required and safe to do disable etc
I used 3.5mm connection to WH-1000XM3 active mode and played 320kbps mp3 files, volume set at 70% and Direct sound ON. I started playback at 100% and after 9.5 hours I find it left with 55% of battery that would give around 20 hours of continuous playback. Also using balanced 4.4mm it drained 32% for 6.5 hours that would again give around 20 hours of playback
I tried multiple playback trials using mp3(320kbps), FLAC (16bit 44kHz), HiRes(24bit 96kHz) with 3.5mm & 4.4mm and the play back time varies between 16hours to 20 hours for my usage depending on sound settings. Direct Sound On gives the best battery time.

Using Spotify with wifi On, consumes 13 to 16% per hour. Using Tidal with Hifi or Master audio streaming with wifi On, consumes 12 to 14% battery per hour.
Playback of downloaded music offline from Tidal App consumes around 10% of battery per hour, so we can get a max of 9 hours

Just walkman standby drains approx 20% per 24hours. So be sure to set the auto power off setting or power off the walkman while you know you are not going to use it in next 3 hours.

Booting the walkman to Android Safemode, saves additional battery while using walkman app and it will be useful sometimes while outdoors

I think battery constraints could be over come with Powerbank or If any manufacturer can design a protective case with inbuilt power bank for the walkman it would be a little handy and will make sense for 'portable' music player.

What I liked:
-Sound quality is Awesome
-Power of Android and wifi connectivity to stream.
-Download music online in streaming apps and playback when offline
-Walkman looks and feels good in hand
-Walkman Boot time is real fast
-I find the battery life as advertised in specs for walkman app playback with some Android battery optimization
-USB-C for charge and Data Transfer
-Charging time is much faster than advertised
-Auto power off setting is helpful

What could be better:
-Battery could be better. After paying that much for a walkman users needs to worry about battery drain especially when streaming or offline playback with music streaming apps
-No Leather protective case. It would have been better if included for that price
-The microsd card slot is flimsy and look like will get damaged if used frequently to swap sdcard
-Could be better if there is hardware key or software key mapping for toggling sound settings. Atleast for direct sound ON / OFF
-Location of charging USB-C port on side

Despite shortcomings, the Walkman sound quality steps up and sound great that's more important and I certainly recommend the Sony Walkman NW-ZX507 for Music Lovers