NW-E55

The NW-E55 is a Europe-only 128MB model within the third-generation E Series flash Walkman family. It offers built-in storage for ATRAC and MP3 playback shown on an LCD display and ran for up to 70 hours on a single AAA battery. It served as a budget-oriented branch of the third-generation E Series lineup.

A Europe-focused variant created during the period when the flash Walkman was stabilizing into a recognizable consumer product instead of a fragile transitional gadget. The hardware itself was not radical, but it belonged to a family that had become much more coherent than the earliest flash players. Sony had largely settled the basic idea of built-in flash, compact playback, broader format support, and long battery life. At this point it was stretching the line across markets and price tiers instead of reinventing it every time.