Fiio X5 III (3rd Gen)
£375.99 FROM Fiio, fiio.net FEATURES AIFF, FLAC, Wav and WMA lossless support, 32GB storage (26GB usable), up to 512GB expansion
When it comes to playing music at high bit rates, you need to go for a highresolution audio player. On the left-side of the X5 III you’ll find playback controls and a volume slider; the right side plays host to the power button and dual SD card slots. The X5 comes with 32GB of internal storage and supports up to 512GB expansion using SD cards.
On the bottom you’ll find a 3.5mm auxiliary jack, a balanced 2.5mm jack, coaxial output for two digital-toanalogue converters, and a Micro-usb port. On the front you’ll find a 101mm, 800x480-pixel touchscreen; the low resolution means that streaming video is a disappointing experience.
The Fiio X5’s hardware is paired with Lollipop – one of the older, less stable versions of Android. Fiio has also installed a number of limited apps, many of which aren’t in English.
Purely as a music player, though, the X5 III is great. It supports the main lossless file formats; you’ll hear the separation between mids, lows and highs, and there’s a crispness to the ranges.
Fiio says to expect about 10 hours of playback on a full charge; we squeezed out about six hours when cycling between web browsing, music listening and standby.
The 800x480 resolution and preloaded bloatware are disappointing, but the player does deliver great highresolution audio.
High on resolution, low on software