It’s a real pity to see Sony still clinging to this proprietary data port as it means connecting the A55 to other devices such as an external DAC device requires a very specific cable. This is rather useful if you use the device during activities and want to avoid any unintended button presses from interrupting your music.Īlong the bottom is an area to attach some form of a lanyard or wrist strap, the proprietary 22-pin WM-port and a 3.5mm single-ended headphone jack. This hold function is something we don’t really see very often, and what it allows you to do is to all forms of input apart from the power-button. Over on the right side are all the buttons which include a power button, a volume rocker, a play/pause and skip buttons, and finally a hold switch. There is a small rubber gasket here, which should offer a reasonable amount of protection against dust, but this in no way shape or form means that the device has any sort of protection against water. The left side houses the micro-SD card slot which is protected by a colour-matched flap. But really, this isn’t something that bothers me. If we look really closely we can see some slight pixilation, but from normal viewing angles and distances the text remains very sharp and legible.The only area where I’d say that the limitation of the display become far more obvious is when scrolling through the library and it shows the small album art images. The front is dominated by the 3.1-inch TFT display which has a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels, which in turn gives us a nice crisp pixel density of 300ppi. It’s by no means a bad design, and maybe Sony is sticking to a “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” approach, but I’d be lying if I said I don’t wish there was a bit more of a modern flair in the design.

Perhaps the first thing that will strike you about the A55 is just how familiar it looks, and that because Sony have been using what seems to be an almost identical design for the A40-series, as well as the A30-series which came before that.

Display: 3.1-inch TFT, 800 x 480 resolution.

Sony walkman nw a55 cover