"when missing the most basic functionality "
 
A DAP's most basic functionality is playing music.
 
" I have only just bought the X5ii and it was obsolete before I even received it,"
 
If it didn't have any outputs, that seems like something I would understand.
 
 
 
You seem to be very salty over this. In fact, all you have to do is make a playlist with the songs you would want to bookmark. From my seat it looks like you are greatly over-reacting over an issue that could be quite easily solved if you took a couple minutes of your time to help yourself.

"People" have been "pleading" with FiiO since 2014 on this? And yet you still bought the player on 8/16/16, despite no confirmation whatsoever that it was implemented?

If you'd have done any research whatsoever on FiiO and their products, you'd have seen that they're geared towards providing the best sound quality for music possible at the cheapest price. No fancy options for audiobooks, no fancy switching around with a bunch of options for playback, etc. It's meant to play your music files, usually in album format (or if you'd like a playlist of random songs, that's an option too). It's not some full-fledged device with Spotify and special audiobook, podcast, etc categories like an iPod. The FiiO players were made and meant to play music in good quality with basic functionality with a few extra options, and it does that exceptionally well. If this wasn't what you were looking for, then you made the error, not FiiO, of buying the wrong product.

In all honesty the only fault I can see here is yours. Surely if bookmarks are so important to you, you would make sure any player you buy supports them before spending any money.
 
It would be like if I bought a Ferrari and gave it 0.5/5 rating because it didn't have a built-in dishwasher.
 
Needless to say I won't be following any of your reviews from this point.

Nice rant.
 
I do found that Fiio DAPs (not only X5k) are capable of playing the track that has been played when last turned off. I regard that as a bookmark feature and is handy enough for me personally, and believe 90% users won't mind not having the auto-saving feature. As a reviewer, you should see that.
 
To me, it's more like the X5 just does not fit your pocket despite not being bad. I suggest you not to post this as an individual review because usually reviews are written to evaluate something in many aspects to help readers have an overall image on the product, and yours can be shortened to one single sentence without any information loss: X5 cannot auto-save to the point I last listened to.

This is a terrible review.. in fact, this is not even a review, it's just you whining.

You seem to suggest that valid criticism of a product is unwelcome and dismiss it as: ‘fix in a few minutes / user error’, (by creating a playlist). However, there are people who call a spade a spade and afford no product or company sacred cow status if dissatisfied with a product.
 
 
This sites most popular and highest rated items are built on free review samples being toured and sometimes shortcomings are glossed over in the belief they will be taken care of later. Your review structurally is TOTAL CRAP but.....you have as much right as anyone, assuming you did pay your money and do not work for a rival company.  The reviews are mostly viewed by members at first and then later mostly via search engine. The public will decide what value you add to he big picture. No opinion is worthless. Keep on keepin on.

Wait, per your review/rant you knew that X5ii was obsolete with the latest fw update made available in June of 2016. You make a purchase with your hard earned money in the middle of August being aware that the only feature you are interested in, a bookmark support for audio books, hasn't been implemented and won't be implemented. Then, instead of returning it, you are planning to destroy it to make a point? I'm sorry, but I'm not following your logic. If you don't care about sound quality and have bookmark feature as your top priority, why not buy "99% of other mp3 players" which support it at a fraction of the price? As you stated, fw won't be updated anymore and you already aware the most important feature you are interested in is not supported, so why waste your money on this purchase?

I get it, you are frustrated and want to get attention of Fiio by writing a low-star negative rant. But wouldn't it be more efficient to start a thread dedicated to this? Maybe you will get more people to chime in who share the same opinion and you can respond back to their posts. Otherwise, you really wasted your money buying something you already aware of doesn't meet your needs and you wasted your time writing a rant under the pretend of the review which is going to be buried under other reviews.

seems like a case of PEBCAK

This is not a review. This is a lot whining.

You just joined to spread this garbage review, you knew what this device was capable of and once you received still felt entitled to write this rant.Why not delete this, return your unit and buy a kindle. No one will take this rant seriuosly as most know that it FiiO makes a quality device.