Sony has released a new ‘Walkman’ to mark the 40th anniversary of its iconic portable cassette player.

If you had mobile music before you had a smartphone, it was probably a Walkman. The sound quality was fantastic but you needed to carry around a bag of tapes. So what are Sony up to?

The new model sounds terrific with a good range and solid, enjoyable bass. It has a special soft case and because it is a cassette player it has a little plastic window so you can see the tape and cogs rotating slowly inside. When you open the case your thoughts are confirmed, it is a real cassette player … but, just tap the tape and the trick is revealed.

In fact it is a touchscreen with a perfect video representation of tape. As you tap it, the cassette is replaced by a modern interface, with album art, track details and play / pause functionality. How clever are Sony!

The storage isn’t huge at 16GB and it costs a whopping £400, comes with a 3.6-inch HD display, USB-C charging and a 26 hour battery life. but hey, it sure is a cool idea.