SONY Z-Series Announced in Japan! - Official Android Walkman up to 64GB!

[miykael]

I purchased mine today and I will get it in 5-7 days. I had to replace my Cowon D3 which sadly has only 3 hours of battery life after a full charge and I may have to sell it as is. I was hoping to replace the battery myself, anyways.... that's on another forum.

I said all of that to get to this. I was wondering when an admin was going to add the Z series to the forum?

Thank you and great forum!

[untel123]

I really think we should have a section for Sony Z series ...

On February 24th, I got my 1060 (living in canada). I'm quite new with Android so it took me some time and trials to understand how this unit was working. I had fun with playlist ... Some may laugh at me, but this could be usefull to other newbies like me !

To make a long story short, here's what to do ...

- Music goes in music folder as we can expect.
- M3u playlist can also be placed in the music folder.
- I synched the unit with MediaMonkey 4. It didn't work like a charm the first time. In fact I had to force the unit using the USB driver to be successfull with resynchronize. To do so, you first connect your Z into the PC. Open MS Explorer and you will see a drive letter with "Walkman" as name. Change the name right there if you want to do so and remember the drive letter.

Now open MediaMonkey. In the menu, click on "tools", "options". In the new window, at the bottom of the left items, click on "portable/audio devices", on the right, click on the d_USBMass1.dll then click on the "configure" button (upper right of this window). A new window will open, click on the "Options" tab. On the left click on "device configuration" (the last item). Enter the name of the unit (Walkman or the new name you gave), select the appropriate drive letter from the drop down menu, enter a drive name if you want (not required). I then clicked on find device (it may not be required but for me it was). I was given 2 usb ids ... I tried the first one and it didn't work in MM. With the second one, my Z unit appeared and I could access it from the MM.

Dont' forget to select what you want to synchronize : Tools, Options, select you device name, Configure and then Auto Synch list (not sure for this name as my MM is in french) and you are good to go.

I first synched with few music folders just to be sure everything was working. Then I added a few more, just to ensure a real synchronize will occur, and everything was perfect !

By the way, I Installed the Media Go (just to find where the playlists were going) ... it's total crap ... don't waste time to try that. MediaMonkey free is a lot better than that and MediaMonkey full is just unbeatable.

By the way, the Sony Z is a real nice unit.



Edit : just to mention that I searched the Playlists in the Z to finally find that they can be accessed from Music Reader, Library and then at the top you see a line with Titles, Albums, Artists, Genre icons. The playlist icon is to the right but don't try to move the line in selecting the Genre icon ... we can select it but not move the line. Select Artists and then you will be able to move the line and see "Playlists" ...

Many people think that the canadian and US Z series has noise cancelling. It doesn't ... I imagine Sony wanted to compete with ipod and keep their price close to ipod (which doenst' have Noise cancelling). In Canada, for an additional 20 $ you get the Sony with a much better sound. If Sony had added the Noise Cancelling, then it would be much higher priced as we can see in Japan units where Noise Cancelling is included (ipod is not very popular there ... ).

[Artmuzz]

The Sony NWZ-Z1060 android DAP has been on sale at my local Sony Centre in the UK since last week. I looked at it in the store but it actually looks bigger than I thought it was. I would love to buy this but I already bought the Samsung Galaxy WiFi 4.0 a couple of weeks ago but it's still tempting.

[M34n1ng]

i bought the 32gb and have had it for about a month and it is awesome!

[M34n1ng]

i bought the 32gb version on their site and its awesome!!! google sony campus and youll get sony's store esigned for college kids with a 10% off all items!!! i save 33 bucks wheni bought my walkman Z

[3602]

Too bad the 32GB version is in Black only here in Canada. Wanted a Red one so went for the 16GB.
The red paint is really nicely applied. It shows great "depth" and luster under the sun. The whole thing is wine red. There are also very fine textures underneath the surface coat. Almost looks like ceramic particles suspended in gel.

[M34n1ng]

i bought a 32gb version from their site, its awesome!

[3602]

Originally Posted by M34n1ng

i bought a 32gb version from their site, its awesome!

No doubt it is.
Hey, did yours come with some sort of Chinese input method? My Canadian version did.

[3602]

Any Z users experiencing slow pop-up of the W.-Control function? The gesture control is really nice but sometimes it takes 3 presses of the W. button for the thing to pop up...

[miykael]

I haven't had a problem with the W button except on occasion the OS runs slow and I have to kill some applications.

[3602]

Sony of America has ought to release some FW update these days.
Because even gaming can brick your Z (not mine). Install some major game, does not run, uninstall, screen freezes, Pinhole Reset, all black screen.

[3602]

Any of you Canadian/US/European Z users gotten a firmware update?

It seems that the 1.10 and 1.11 are (for now) for Japanese Zs only.

[3602]

Just received the CKM-NWZ1000.

Screen protection sheet is really thin and really glass-like. It does resist fingerprints and smudges to some degree. Better than the bare glass, of course.

The case itself is quite smooth, rather unlike most other "sticky" silicone cases out there. This will attract less dust but won't provide as much grip compared to those sticky cases.

[miykael]

Where did you purchase it and for how much? I've only seen it available for Japan and with shipping it cost a little under fifty dollars.

[3602]

Originally Posted by miykael

Where did you purchase it and for how much? I've only seen it available for Japan and with shipping it cost a little under fifty dollars.

Exactly where you saw it. You know what I'm talking about.

I've seen actual pics of the leather case and it does not look very appealing. The look is very "fake handbag". It also adds considerable thickness so... No.

There are actually quite a few case solutions for the Z. You have the Sony's own leather case, the aforementioned silicone case, the transparent backplate, the non-Sony "iJacket", the all-metal Elecom backplate (the metal is badly trimmed with bumps everywhere), the glow-in-the-dark silicone case (wanted one, couldn't find one) and of course, the limited edition Yoshida Porter bad.

[3602]

Just decided to tear off the screen protector. Smudges or not, I find general maneuvering to be better on the bare glass. Also no colored bands of refracted light.

[3602]

Is anyone getting the v1.2 firmware update for their Z's? Apparently some owners of the American Z are reporting this update. My Canadian Z is not reporting this update even while manually checking.
Either it's because my Z is Canadian or it's because I'm rooted. Anyone?

[blcistheking]

How is the web browser on this guy?
and how is the battery life?

[3602]

Originally Posted by blcistheking

How is the web browser on this guy?
and how is the battery life?

Browser? Depends on what you want. Good enough for me, "enough" to not want a replacement. Pinch-zooming is very smooth. I mostly view full webpages instead of those Mobile versions. There are indeed replacements if you shall be in need.

In terms of battery life, again I find it to be "good enough". Do turn on Airplane Mode and turn off Wi-Fi when you put the Z in your pocket. You can also use some sort of task manager to play around with the apps and such. By default, the "2G/3G comms channel" is OPEN on the Z, which is really interesting since this is not a phone.

I merely shut the screen when I put it away. If you shut it down completely then the battery life would be much better.

[blcistheking]

Ok, thanks for the info. Hopefully I'll be getting one tomorrow.