- It’s an iPod Classic, except it isn’t
- USB-C, 3.5mm jack, Bluetooth, wide format support
- Under $60 / £50
What’s got two thumbs and misses the days of iPods? The answer is me – so I’m delighted to see what some people might describe as an iPod Classic homage, and others as a lawsuit waiting to happen. The Innioasis Y1 is an MP3 player that doesn’t so much take inspiration from the iPod Classic as copy it completely.
The Y1 is available in five colors: graphite grey, yellow, orange, silver and teal/turquoise, and as you can see it looks very like Apple’s original. In the UK it’s listed at Amazon for between £44.49 and £49.49 depending on the color you choose. In the US, it’s $54.49 at Amazon for all five versions. In Australia, it’s $109.48 at Amazon.
Innoasis Y1 mp3 player: key features
I’m not familiar with this particular brand, but looking at its other listings, the product line-up is a mix of digital audio devices and screen protectors.
The included battery delivers a promised 25-30 hours of playback with wired headphones at 50% volume, and there’s an unspecified version of Bluetooth for the best wireless headphones or connective to the best Bluetooth speakers.
Audio support is good, with all the key formats and quite a few uncommon ones supported, and you can also play video in MP4, MKV, MOV and other formats including 3GP/3G2. Resolution is up to 720p and battery life is a reported four hours of video at 50% brightness.
One of the biggest things to note here is the promise that the wheel on front really does work like the iPod’s clickwheel – click parts to choose options, and spin around to scroll.
The major downside seems to be that it has 128GB of storage and no option to expand, though maybe that won’t be a problem for everyone. For this reason, and others, we’re not expecting this to challenge the best hi-res music players.
Let’s be frank: we’re not expecting that you’ll get an audiophile device for under £50/$60, and the reviews on Amazon suggest the build quality isn’t exactly up to Apple standards either: multiple reviewers describe faults, software issues and difficulties connecting to Macs.
We also couldn’t help but notice that the album art at the top is not the cover for any of Taylor Swift’s album, and also that the song You Belong With Me is not from an album called ‘Love Story’. So that raises some questions beyond why they chose a dog as the listening model.
But as a cheap music player, the Y1 has an undeniable charm. However, if you want a new iPod-reminiscent music player from a company with a good review history, take a look at Fiio’s new iPod-nano-like budget music player.
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