AGPTEK A12

AGPtEK offered me one of their new A12 8gb portable DAPs in exchange for an honest review. I've been really pleased with the B03 I bought when my iPod Nano died, so I thought I'd give it a try. I don't write too many reviews, so if someone has comments or advice, let me know.
 
The A12 "Tempo" came packaged in a nice, simple, clean black box with an instruction sheet, a pair of earphones and a micro USB charging/transfer cable. Although not by any means flashy, I would consider the box nice enough for a gift purchase. The font size on the instruction sheet is very tiny, but I figured most things out without referencing it.
 
Physically, the A12 is virtually the same black tiny rectangle as the discontinued SanDisk Sansa Clip+ right down to the strong clip on the back and the blue OLED screen. I've got a Clip+ 4gb that I used for comparison purposes. The A12 is missing the Sansa's menu button on the face and the controls and ports along the sides are arranged differently. The A12 has volume controls and a microSD card slot (I've tested successfully with a generic 32GB card) on the left side and an on/off slider switch on the right. The charging cable and earphones plug into the top of the device. A strong spring clip runs the length of the back of the device. Headphone access on the A12 is on the "top" of the player which I prefer to the Sansa's side access. The main controls are arranged clockwork fashion with buttons at 12, 3, 6 and 9 o'clock. Unlike the Clip+, the A12 does not have a separate menu button, however that feature is accessed via a long press of the 6 o'clock button. The buttons do rattle when the player is shaken, moreso than my Clip+. The OLED screen is clear, but like similar displays, it isn't at its best in bright sunlight. Needless to say, this sort of screen displays text info only--no cover art or jpgs.
 
To initially test the device I fully charged it, installed a playlist, and experimented with the controls. I found everything to be surprisingly intuitive, particularly compared some of the inexpensive imported MP3 players I've tried. Unlike previous AGPtEK players (and others) I've tried, this time they get the buttons used for scrolling through a list right: the top and bottom buttons scroll you up and down lists and the center button does play/pause/select. The OS in the A12 is even more streamlined than in the Clip+. There really aren't any options to customize the display screen and the EQ settings offer a range of preset configurations, but no ability to create a custom setting. For my uses, this bare bones OS isn't a problem but if you need RockBox type of customization you can't install it and this isn't for you (I'm not a RockBox fan).
 
I used MediaMonkey software on a Windows 10 machine and moving files and playlists was effortless. I did manage to garble things up by shutting the player off during it's database build. This resulted in random garbled files and freezes in the OS. I formatted the memory and retransferred the music and all those issues disappeared.
In terms of sound, I compared the A12 directly with my Sansa Clip+ and the AGPtEK B03 8gb. I don't consider myself an audiophile and I listened with some standard lower-end stuff; Superlux 681, FiiO EX1, Bose AE2, and Monk+  I used the same playlists, same SD card on all three. I used MP3 files of various bitrates and FLAC. All three of the devices sound similar with a neutral presentation and good clarity at a range of volumes. If I had to draw distinctions, I'd say the B03 was a bit warmer than the other two with more oomph in the mids (this might just be my brain though). I didn't try to cross the 4,000 file threshold many of these players seem to have. All three also include a built in FM radio feature. Both of the AGPtEKs were superior to the Clip+ in terms of radio reception. I did not do a comparison of the recording features.
 
Battery life is the big distinction for me. My first goal was to use they player through an entire battery cycle. It took much longer than I had anticipated. While my clip+ is good for about 8+ hours of playing time, the A12 easily delivered about 3 times that off its first charge. With its larger form factor, the B03 delivers better battery life than either of the smaller players but that is hardly a fair comparison. I've had the B03 for about 5 months and the A12 for a few weeks but I'm not seeing any appreciable runtime loss on either.
 
In summary, I think I'm gifting my Clip+ to a relative. The A12 battery life in something this small is a killer feature; it's like it's not there when clipped to my backpack strap. I wish AGpTEK had gone with a slightly different shape, or at least color, because some are likely to dismiss this as a throwaway Sansa clone and it's really better than that. If there's one thing that I would've added it would've been a custom setting on the EQ. If there's one thing I would've removed, it would be the button rattle. I also would've preferred the instructions font to be larger. This is a really cool little DAP; next week it's going hiking in a national park and I'm not worried it'll run out of juice.