31 January,2016 09:40 AM IST | | Kunal Gangar
The FiiO M3 plays high-resolution audio with ease and is a good buy
FiiO M3
Smartphones today have consolidated a lot of devices we used to carry, a music player being just one of them. That consolidation, however, comes at the expense of audio quality and battery life.
FiiO's M3 music player solves both these issues.
The M3 is a compact audio player. Weighing about 40g, the M3 has a unibody construction and dual colour for a minimalistic design. The matte coating applied on the player also ensures a good grip on the player despite the small size. As far as placement goes, power and hold buttons are placed on the side, 3.5mm headphone jack, microUSB and microSD card slot on the bottom. There's also a 2-inch non-touch display on the front.
The interesting thing about the design, though, is the six hard buttons for navigation instead of the touch-sensitive ones we're used to these days.
The user interface on M3 needs an overhaul, simply for the fact that it's not user-friendly. While we appreciate the physical buttons, the navigation is rather poor and needs to be improved.
There's a small learning curve as to which button executes which command, making it essential to glimpse through the quick guide the first time around. In terms of UI customisation, you can style it with different themes. The sales package includes a microUSB cable for charging, earphones and the player. The earphones are a standard affair but it's a non-issue since high-res audio is best enjoyed with a pair of earphones or headphones that can fully exploit the source file's potential.
The M3 comes with 8GB of internal storage with room for expansion through the microSD card supporting up to 64GB. When we talk about quality, M3 offers top-notch audio quality with support for formats like APE, FLAC and WAV at up to 96kHz/24bit. The five-band equalizer offers seven different modes, including a custom mode to enhance the audio quality.
FiiO rates M3's battery life at 24 hours and we got close to 22 hours during our time with the player, which is quite impressive.
The biggest gripe we have with the M3 is its user interface, which is actually disappointing. However, anyone looking for a cheap high-res audio player won't be disappointed with this offering.
