Probably one of the coolest features of the smartphone that offers versatility is precisely the ability to consume multimedia content directly. In fact, this versatility to consume content has been ahead range of media players that not long ago were essential in our lives.
However, some companies like Sony are reluctant to give these devices a Walkman NWZ-ZX1 luxury that goes up to the musical experience, and who now is Pioneer brings to market a media player of great quality, this Pioneer XDP-100R that is allowed to be the first in the world to come with Android and the seal of the MQA Quality Authenticated- Meridian -Master technology.
The new multimedia gadget Pioneer already taught in Berlin during the IFA 2015, but its launch has been delayed until now, when we will finally on the shelves starting with the British market, where it will be sold imminently in silver and black.
Technical specifications
The XDP-100R Pioneer has chosen for a heart hardware platform Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 APQ8074, with quad-core 2.2 GHz Krait and 400 Adreno 330 GPU, accompanied for the occasion by 2 GB of RAM.
Its screen is multi-touch, 4.7 inch HD resolution (1280 x 720 pixels), which will overcome the psychological barrier of the name “retina” with 312 pixels per inch density.
All this to encourage Lollipop Android 5.1.1 with full access to Google Play Store as standard, allowing us to enjoy the main streaming music services like Spotify, Music or Tidal Apple and even Google’s own. In the device is fitted as standard Onkyo Music.
We do not forget the memory, these devices importantly, where Pioneer has spared with32GB of storage expandable to 432 GB using two microSD ports. Nor need WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity and a USB port.
Battery not has specific data, but the manufacturer promises up to 16 hours of battery life. Probably talking about a very generous capacity, as its casing measures 128.9 x 75.9 x 13.0 mm with a weight of 198 grams.
High-class sound and full compatibility
Within the XDP-100R Pioneer we find section dedicated to sound so that nothing is left to chance, with ESS Sabre ES9018K2M digital / analog converter and amplifier ESS9601K exemplary fashion to manage the headphone sound chips.
The system supports virtually all file types, with full compatibility to play sound at high resolution. Supported audio formats include DSD, FLAC, ALAC, WAV, AIFF, Ogg Vorbis, MP3, AAC and MQA among others, while video in question can play H.263, H.264, H.265 and MPEG- 4 also among others, as well as images in JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP and WebP format.
The first ‘MQA-ready’ which operates under Android
Special mention should support the MQA Meridian technology, support will come with a firmware update soon, and they become the first media player with Android in the world have this support.
For those who do not know, MQA – Master Authenticated Quality is a technology that transmits audio in high resolution without growing too the weight of the files, using inaudible to the human ear. So, instead of disabling this spectrum space, Meridian has managed to include data normally lost in compressing files.
In addition to allowing the creation of high-resolution files using a lower bandwidth, MQA compatibility is guaranteed even with any file type without loss, as an unsupported device simply play the files without decoding the inaudible frequencies, so its quality is reduced to a “CD”. If you use a compatible device if decode all this information to achieve a similar study quality.
Definitely a good range of possibilities for an interesting device, but today it will be difficult away from specific users, professionals and foodies who seek higher audio quality.