Going travelling? This little player wants to come along

The world of work beckons and there's nothing for it but to pack your bags and be off. But here's a little music player that wants to come along for the ride...

The FiiO X1 2nd Gen is a throwback to the days of the original iPod and some of the nano versions that followed. It's no bigger than your palm and feels very good to grip. It does have a bit of weight to it, but that should only reassure you that this isn't a flimsy, cheap gadget.

The FiiO X1 is a bit of an oddity. It has no storage space onboard. That's a strange choice, but what you're to do instead is use a memory card of up to 256GB to slip into it, with all of your music. Where you get that is your business. Once it's there, you can see the tracks and the individual songs on the screen — which is a bright enough one, visible even outdoors. The obvious question is, why wouldn't you just use your phone for music? First, it doesn't sound as good as it does on a dedicated music player. The FiiO player supports lossless file formats: APE/FLAC/WAV/WMA/ALAC at up to 192 kHz/32bit and it sounds surprisingly good, with enough attention to highs as well as a prominent, though not heavy, bass.

Other than all that high-res sound you get from it, using a player means leaving your phone's resources and battery to do other things, especially if you're travelling. The player is small enough to be nice and portable and comes in colours that match current smartphone favourite colours. The only thing is it really comes into its own when you use a good pair of headphones. Unless you're using in-ear ones, you do have to lug around the headphones. It will work with any headphones or earplugs but will sound better on ones that support high-quality music.

Navigating around the player is done with the click wheel in the centre and some buttons around it. It takes a little getting used to, so the owner must spend a little time getting to know the lay of the land. Once past that bump, it's easy to use.

One of the nicer features of this player is its Bluetooth 4 support and the way it plays with car music systems, switching itself on and off. It is supposed to give you 12 hours of battery life, though it didn't. Apart from a few bugs and glitches and the lack of onboard memory, the FiiO X1 2nd Gen is good value for money at just Rs 7,499.

(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of YourStory.)