HIFI WALKER H2 MP3 Player – High Res Audio DAP with Bluetooth5.2, Lossless Music Player, DSD DAC Support, Portable FLAC Player with Line Out, 64GB Memory Card, Expandable to 256GB

I'm trying to cut down on my daily phone usage and as part of that I realised having to cart it around to listen to music through Spotify all day was just encouraging me to then start doomscrolling, so I decided to see if MP3 players were still hanging around and was delighted to stumble across this one. Just to be clear from the off, I'm not an audiophile and I don't really care about music quality so long as the vocals are understandable and the bass is thumping so I'd recommend looking at other reviews if you need that info!I was hesitant about the software as reviews are mixed, and I'm not sure if it's because I had MP3 players growing up (mainly Sony before switching to Apple), but I don't find it that hard to navigate at 36 years old? Category breaks down your music by artist/genre/album etc. whilst the Explorer shows your tracks by how they're physically sorted in the device. Settings relates strictly to music playback (like the equaliser) and includes all options for the music screen (like album art etc.), whilst System Settings is for the device itself (backlight, music scan, etc.). The device is very responsive with no delay when waking it up from sleep or scrolling through screens of songs. If you do experience any issues with Category not picking up the music on your device, go to Settings, hover over Music Scan and press and hold the M button. The device will then scan itself and find everything on the micro SD card :)I understand from reviews that the Bluetooth is an older protocol but I had no issue connecting it to my Sony WF-C500 earbuds, nor a pair of cheap no-brand over-ear headphones I got earlier this year. The connection will start to distort if I go about eight feet or so away from the device but I always have it on me so that's not an issue. If your wireless earbuds are quiet it's likely you need to turn the volume up on the earbuds themselves - I had to do this with mine and now they're super loud. I've also used the aux and, well, it's an aux! You just sort of plug the headphones in and off you go.Battery life seems to be really good, too. I've had the player for three days now, listening around four hours per day, and haven't had to charge it from it's out-of-the-box state yet.The build quality is really nice, solid without being too heavy - I have it on a lanyard around my neck and whilst I definitely feel that it's there, it's not so noticeable that it's distracting or discomforting. The back panel is glass and therefore a fingerprint magnet but it looks so slick I can't be mad about that lol. The buttons all have a really good clicky feel and whilst the scroll wheel takes some getting used to once you do it's fun to use (and a bit nostalgic for the iPod era I grew up in, although it's not capacitive). It's a weird device to look at in photos, but it's laid out in a way that makes everything easy to reach whilst using it. The screen is also much sharper than I was expecting and at 50% backlight is easy to view in both ambient and direct sunshine. It's a tiny bit smaller than I thought it would be, but its size is just about right I think.All in all, if you want an MP3 player that feels like it's going to last you a long time I don't think you'll find one better than this at the ~£100 mark. I'm really pleased with my purchase and I'm sure I'm going to get a lot of mileage out of it!

This is my first ever DAP, I usually go for a cheap MP3 player.I have to say I`m impressed with the sound. Its a lot better than the MP3s I`ve had over the years, my mobile phone, and even my computer. I`m a happy customer!

I'm not going to repeat all of the positive comments from others about sound quality and build quality; they are excellent as far as I can tell.I want to focus instead on a feature that is a major boon for classical music and opera lovers. As we know, the standard way that music software and players like this tend to address the task of listing and identifying music is based on popular music (Genre/Band/Album/Song etc.) This can be a pain for classical and opera as you may want to organise by composer, conductor, orchestra or even era.The first benefit of this player for those of us who listen to classical and opera is that, in addition to the normal interface that identifies the usual metadata related to popular music, there is another one that literally reproduces your existing directory structure. It is the 'Navigate SD card' menu. This means that you could have a directory with the name of a composer, then sub-directories of conductor or year of recording, and then the symphony or opera itself. There is no limit to how you choose to organise this. You simply build the directories on your computer and then copy them to the device which doesn't try and second guess or 'organise' your collection based on popular music tags.I like to have a directory with the name of a work followed by the conductor ('Bruckner 4') for example, and then sub-directories with conductors ('Celibidache', 'Karajan', 'Solti' etc.) For operas I might have ('Nabucco') and then sub directories with the names of vocal line-ups such as ('Gobbi - Suliotis - Cava - Prevedi'). The point is that the player will not try and re-organise my structure - it just displays as I want it to!The second - and slightly more advanced - benefit is that the device can read .cue files. This means that I can rip an entire cd box set like a Ring or Mahler cycle with each CD as a single audio file (FLAC or WAV for example). The .cue text file then acts as bookmarks. When you add the single audio files and cue files to the device you can see all the individual names of the acts and scenes with the first sung line. If you are an IT phobe or beginner this approach is probably not for you, but if you are comfortable editing basic text files this turns the process of getting your opera and CD box set collection on to the device into a joy rather than a nightmare.

Build quality looks good but, the player looked much older after 18 months, and the control wheel was malfunctioning. It is a shame because it worked really well when new. Also, the 20,000 track limitation was insufficient for our needs. I appreciate that this is a budget model but, would rather pay more for a better built device, with a longer lifespan that can load more tracks - I think 50,000 to 100,000 would be better.