The music players are expected to deliver even better sound than their predecessors thanks to a range of improvements to the electronics and passive cooling system. Details on the performance of the improved S-Master HX digital amplifier are not yet available. In any case, Sony includes a Bluetooth chip that also supports Qualcomm aptX Adaptive and LC3, alongside a 3.5 mm and a balanced 4.4 mm headphone jack.
Although the new music players are larger, thicker and heavier than their direct predecessors, battery life drops from 40 to 35 hours when playing locally stored music, or to 31 hours when streaming music. The display grows from 5 to 5.5 inches, while the resolution increases from 720p to 1080p. Sony is expected to offer variants with 128 GB and 256 GB of storage, though this will likely be expandable via a microSD card as usual.