So got the a105 last week, firstly thanks to
@Kal El and especially
@nanaholic for helping with some queries regarding it on pm.
And honestly , so far I am in love. I dont understand the concerns and the complaints all around here at all.
Firstly its a small device , its very difficult to pack a bigger battery in there really. You can look at latest palms or anything of similar size launched with android and they all have worse battery and drain worse. Android is a battery drain especially the more latest one u get more it drains battery its just how it is .
So then you have to make a choice , android or well old school dap with custom firmware and luckily sony has offered us both with a-45 / a-55 and a-105 and if you value bigger battery life go with former and if you want streaming go with later. but you cant want streaming and android and a compact form and still demand same battery as custom firmware models. That would be ludicrous.
Again , another approach some companies take is making a custom android like m6 and ct10 which i looked into but hunting down for whitelisted apps and working apks is even more pain it makes life hell, and thats an even worse compromise imo than having a bad battery life and then some niche apps I might want just wont even work on them probably. Also I can install tasker and stuff and automate syncing of libraries , fetch metadata via some android apps etc etc all the bells and whistle sof full fledged android. Also all the radios work perfect on a-105 unlike ibasso devices.
Its not a perfect device , but there is no better device at this size with bigger battery running android 9, there had to be compromises made but this is the best possible outcome imo. Also native walkman player manages battery amazingly well compared to any other player on play store.
Fwiw, my use case was slightly different I carry a nokia 2720 4g as my distraction free device and this perfect in tandom to use uber etc also if in case i do need and map , and be a dap that can stream. and honestly pairing it with something like
this make sit perfect for streaming too.
Now , for some suggestions / complaints and what I would like :
- not really a complaint but if it had removable battery like old xperia mini or something it would have been the de facto perfect player.
- Also if sony could somehow dual booth custom firmware and android on it it would make it best of both worlds ( not sure this can be pushed via ota ) . Or give us some kind of super ultra power saver mode which shuts off everything in background except the walkman app or something like that when you want to listen to just flacs and dont want to use it as an android device ? not sure whats the best approach but this should be possible theoretically I feel !
- I hope they push more updates to the native walkman app , its bloody brilliant for most part but I hate that it lacks playlist option and add to current queue / manage queue option . Winamp had these things in 2000 , its not excusable imo and should take like 5 minutes for the developement staff.
- I think alsco couple of basic features that should be there on the app are like managing song play count ( I think it doesst have currently ? ) and options like most played etc . Comparitively musicolet is free and is feature rich with a sleep timer too amongts all other things and considering the walkman app isnt available outside and you only get it if you spend 300$ minimum on a105 or a higher model these things should be basic
Long story short I love the walkman apps design and interface but it lacks some important functionality needed and since other players on play store cant manage battery as well as the native app its important these are built in imo.
Also shame an inbuilt metadata fetcher would have been awesome too shame sony stopped supporting old track ID which could have been paired with it but I dont wanna ask for too much just need basics like proper playlists ( not bookmarks ) , queues management and a sleep timer !
- Another small complaint would be mine heats up a lot while charging and transferring and transfers are super slow, in fact actually transfers are much faster via my old sansa clip than this ( thats what i resorted to at end put the sd back in clip to file transfers and shift to walkman ). its a minor complaint though as I will setup some kind of wireless sync soon.
so far I havent used the device extensively though so maybe there some some more cons, but honestly its a very decent device for what it does imo as long a syou know what you are getting with it. But I will use it more and report back.
Also I do like the sound signature but I feel like I still prefer the my old clip s sound ( maybe i was used to it for long ?) but thats just a preference thing. It does drive my grados fine though which was my concern before getting them so I am satisfied with that part !
Anyway , with all that said. What protective case are people using with their walkman ? I am finding it hard to find in in my country ( India ) so ill probably DIY one myself , not sure or maybe check on ali.
