Astell&Kern’s new not-an-iPod wants to soundtrack your gym sessions
The Activo P1 has enough juice to keep playing long after you've hit the showers
Has the iPod’s retirement left a hole in your pocket that a smartphone just can’t fill? Astell&Kern has taken a break from pricey, audiophile-grade media players to try something a little more mainstream. The Activo P1 (£399 via Amazon) also has healthy living in mind, with a battery life bountiful enough and a case compact enough to take with you on runs and workouts.
This palm-sized player is nowhere near as chunky as high-end rivals such as the FiiO M23, and its mix of silver aluminium and white polycarbonate gives me serious Apple vibes. There’s a 4.1in touchscreen up front, choice of 3.5mm and balanced 4.4mm headphone ports on top, and playback buttons at the sides. The distinctive shapes make it easier to pick out play or skip tracks while the P1 is in your pocket.
Astell&Kern’s Android-based interface has full access to the Google Play Store, so you can load up the P1 with your favourite streaming services as well as locally stored music. There’s 64GB of storage on-board, and the microSD slot can swallow as much as 1.5TB extra if you’ve got a big enough card.
Inside the Activo P1, an octa-core CPU should provide plenty of power, and the battery can manage up to 20 hours of playback depending on how hi-res your files are.
Naturally Astell&Kern hasn’t skimped on the audio components, with an ESS ES9219Q DAC able to handle 32bit/384kHz decoding and native DSD256 playback. MQA decoding and Roon Ready are both on the way, too. You don’t need to use wired earphones, either, as Bluetooth 5.3 brings LDAC and aptX HD codec support.
The Activo P1 is on sale right now via Amazon for £399, in Whisper White colours.
The Activo name isn’t new. Astell&Kern last used it in 2018, when it put out a music player for Japan-based music streaming service Groovers. This is effectively a relaunch, and could mean the P1 is just the first of many models aimed at a younger crowd looking to move their music off their smartphones – but don’t necessarily see themselves as audiophiles.
Tom Morgan-Freelander
Deputy Editor 
