Smartphones might have eaten up the functions of many portable gadgets and gizmos. However, dedicated devices such as cameras or GPS trackers still have their advantages, and the same is true for portable media players (PMP) as well. One of these advantages is that you can conserve your smartphone’s battery life during a use case that is energy-intensive. Many PMPs are also much more capable of providing high definition audio. They are focused on the reproduction of digital audio to analogue signals which gives a higher, rich and natural audio output. Nowadays, these devices are available in a compact form factor that helps with the portability; and touchscreen displays which are interesting and facilitate control too. Thus, a portable media player is an excellent investment. It allows you to experience the full potential of high-quality headphones and music. So let’s just jump into this list of portable media players equipped with touchscreens for your next purchase.
The latest offering from Fiio provides the richness in the audio output of a high-quality Digital to Audio Converter (DAC) with the ease of use of a touchscreen. The touchscreen is a 3.46-inch IPS panel, which is quite comfortable for one-hand use and helps in keeping the form factor of the device compact. Use a wired headphone to experience the audio quality in all its glory. The 3.5mm audio jack provided on this device has you covered. The inbuilt mic on this device also supports lossless audio recording. The device supports MicroSD cards up to 2TB, enabling you to carry your high-quality audio files. You can also use the M3 Pro as a standalone DAC via the Type-C USB. Apart from the audio front, it also has useful features, like a 10-digit display calculator, a photo gallery app to view photos and a full-screen E-book reader with the built in-app. The device can be charged via a Type-C USB cable, and the company claims a battery backup of 15 hours (in use) on a single charge.
The Apple iPods need no introduction; they have been around for a while now. The latest model of the iPod from Apple sports a 4” Retina Display. It runs the latest iOS, so there’s a whole lot of apps and games available from the Apple App Store. It’s good to find the 3.5mm jack here. The iPod Touch also gets an 8MP camera on the back, and a 1.2MP camera at the front. You have the latest Wi-fi and Bluetooth support. The storage is not expandable, and it is recommended that you get a higher storage variant as high-quality audio/video files can occupy storage pretty quickly. Charging is done via the Apple’s Lightning Connector port, and the company claims a music playback of around 40 hours on a full battery charge.
The Sony NW A105 Walkman can be used while travelling without having to worry about it. It has a sturdy metal build, with a 3.6” touchscreen. It has physical buttons for the most frequently used operations on a media player, which lets you have control over the playback without even looking at the device. It has a 16GB internal storage, and also the option to expand the storage with a MicroSD card. Audio output can be done by both the 3.5mm audio jack and also via Bluetooth. The device runs Android, so all streaming platforms are supported. Sony has also added some extra codecs and features to improve and amplify the audio output. Charging is done via a Type-C port at the bottom, and the company claims a 26 hour playback time on a full charge.
The AP80 is a very portable, highly compact audio player from the brand ‘Hidizs’. The display is a 2.4-inch panel with a square aspect ratio. You also get three buttons and a wheel to facilitate playback and navigation controls. There’s no internal storage, and it supports MicroSD cards up to 1TB. It is capable of providing a DAC signal through the USB for use with smartphones and computers. It has Bluetooth capability, and also a step counter which along with the small size, makes it useful during workouts. The device can be charged via Type-C USB and the company claims upto 9 hours of playback on a full battery charge.