The days of most people buying and owning physical copies of music on CD, vinyl or cassette are well and truly behind us. Streaming has taken over as the more affordable way to listen to any music you like on demand, but a certain subset of music fans still want to invest and support artists by buying digital music, and for that you need a decent physical music player.
Apple discontinued its iPod range in 2022 but that hasn’t stopped other, smaller companies from flying the digital music flag with MP3 players of their own. In fact, unlike iPods, many modern digital audio players (DAPs) can play many different file types for Hi-Res music playback.
The latest DAP on the scene is the FiiO M21, a gadget that promises “flagship spec hardware elements, rugged design and intuitive retro aesthetics,” according to FiiO, all for £279.
That might sound like a lot considering you can pick up an Android smartphone for less, but these devices are all about concentrating on a single use case, rather than the do-it-all approach of our phones.
The M21 actually runs Android too, so it can not only play your downloaded music files when transferred via USB-C, but can also download apps such as Spotify, Apple Music, Qobuz, and indeed any other music app – or any other app at all – from the Google Play Store.
This music player has a 4.7-inch HD IPS screen and looks like a suped-up iPod Touch. But in 2025, FiiO, a Chinese brand, is not competing with Apple, but with rivals such as Sony, which still produces music players under the Walkman name.
64GB internal storage isn’t much, unfortunately, but the M21 can be expanded using micro-SD cards with support for up to 2TB, which is enough to store thousands upon thousands of tracks, even in large Hi-Res formats.
You get the Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 chipset and Android 13, which is a slightly ageing version (we’re on 16 now), so there is a question mark above if and for how long FiiO will provide security updates for the M21.
But the main specs here are the audio ones, with DAC chips that drive the music to minimise crosstalk and noise from music files, according to FiiO, and the device can be used in ‘desktop mode’ to drive high quality music to specialist headphones. As a portable standalone player, it can output up to 15 hours of music via the 3.5mm headphone jack, though it also has a balanced 4.4mm jack if you have headphones with that connector.
Bluetooth 5.0 is on board too, and even supports the Hi-Res LDAC, LHDC and aptX HD codecs, though output will be better quality from a wired connection.
It might be a little more niche than the once-mighty iPod, but for fans of Hi-Res music or those who would prefer a dedicated music playing device, the FiiO M21 could well be worth a look. Its £279 price is actually quite reasonable compared to some other specialist DAPs.