NW-E002

The NW-E002 belonged to the seventh-generation E Series Network Walkman family. These compact players adopted a crystal-inspired body shaped like a USB memory stick. It comes with 512 MB of flash storage and supports MP3, ATRAC, ATRAC3, ATRAC3plus, WMA, and AAC files. An OLED display showed track information, the lithium-ion battery lasted up to 28 hours, and files transferred directly via USB.

This is part of the clearest USB-stick Walkman and shows Sony shifting the E Series into a more direct, almost gadget-like form of portability. Unlike the softer Beans-era players before it, the E002 leaned into compactness and everyday carry simplicity that felt much closer to the USB memory devices people were already carrying. The broad codec support made the player noticeably less rigid and more compatible than earlier generations.