Sony's new Walkman is having an identity crisis

Sony's new Walkman is having an identity crisis
Like a petulant teenager, the WH Series can't decide what it is

Headphone wires are quite annoying so we can see why Sony has decided that sticking an MP3 player into a pair of headphones that can also double (triple) as a speaker is a good idea.

There are two models of WH Series headphone/speaker/MP3 player available:

The NWZ-WH505 comes with 16GB of on-board memory (that's around 4,000 tracks), 20 hours of battery life and a 40mm dome type headphone driver unit that Sony says will deliver "rich, powerful bass".

The lower-spec NWZ-WH303, meanwhile, comes with 4GB of storage - a paltry 1,000 songs - and a slightly lower-spec 30mm driver unit.

Headphoning it in

Both sets claim 20 hours of battery life, various sound modes for music playback and you can use a wire to play other audio from computers, phones, tablets and so on.

In the age of Bluetooth headphones and Spotify subscriptions, we're not sold on the jack-of-all-trades approach and not convinced that the speakers will be up to much.

Still, if your pulse has quickened and you're involuntarily salivating at the prospect of your headphones, speakers and MP3 player becoming one, we're sorry to say that there's no word on availability or pricing just yet.

News Editor (UK)

Former UK News Editor for TechRadar, it was a perpetual challenge among the TechRadar staff to send Kate (Twitter, Google+) a link to something interesting on the internet that she hasn't already seen. As TechRadar's News Editor (UK), she was constantly on the hunt for top news and intriguing stories to feed your gadget lust. Kate now enjoys life as a renowned music critic – her words can be found in the i Paper, Guardian, GQ, Metro, Evening Standard and Time Out, and she's also the author of 'Amy Winehouse', a biography of the soul star.