Here are some quick impressions of my initial use of the AP80. I loaded a 128GB Samsung U3-rated microSD card (exFAT formatted from the factory) with my music via the card reader on my computer, and then inserted it. No automatic database update by default, but you can enable it.
Database Mode
Seems to work much as previous non-touch Hiby OS versions. The Genre menu remains a useless wasteland, since it has no hierarchy beyond Genre, then ALL songs in that genre. Artist still seems to be the Song Artist field, and not the Album Artist field. This makes compilation albums impossible to play without delving into the folder view. The database updates about as fast as the AP60II, maybe slightly faster. I'll have to do a side-by-side test of the same file load to be sure, but the AP60II takes about 5 minutes to parse my usual set of tunes (about 7000 mixed FLAC and MP3), and the AP80 takes not much less time. Definitely faster than a Clip Zip, but you'll definitely want to update the database only when you don't need the player any time soon. On the plus side, unlike the AP60II, you can turn off automatic database updates (AP60II claims to do this, but it updates anyway when you unplug it).
Playlists
Just as with every other Hiby-based player, external playlists are not easily integrated into the database mode. Since this is how all MP3 players worked until the bottom dropped out of the market in recent years, this is annoying. The Hiby R3 introduced the ability to "load playlist" from the /playlist_data directory, although you first had to create one playlist on the player before the OS would recognize the directory (can't create it yourself). I don't have an R3, but based on the discussions in its thread, it seems that I should be able to put standard M3U playlists in that directory, hit "load playlist" and have them actually work in the database mode. I loaded my 150+ playlists using this method. It took over 2.5 minutes. Since M3U files work just fine in Folder view, why would you use the database? Two reasons: the list of playlists in the database shows how many songs are in each list; and, if you use the folder view, you get the full file path shown in the "now playing" view, while the database just shows the song title - much easier to read since you don't have to wait for a:\music\Prince\Purple Rain\01 - Let's Go Crazy.mp3 to scroll, you just see Let's Go Crazy.
Replaygain
Replay gain is finally a setting in Hiby OS. It's hiding in the playback settings menu, which is found inside the Player function, and not in the root menu as in older non-touch Hiby versions. I haven't tried any songs that I know have wildly varying replaygain values, so I'm not sure how well it works, but it has three settings: off, album, and song. This matches the standard ReplayGain settings from the Sansa line of last decade. Yay, finally getting features that were standard in 2005!
Podcast/Audiobook Support
Still nothing. No bookmarking, automatic or manual. No speed/pitch control. No recognition that Podcast or Audiobook is anything other than a genre of music.
Resume Breakpoint
In the player, there is an option (off by default) to resume the place you were listening, or restart the song you were listening to, or not resume anything. This feature doesn't work like any previous DAP I've used, including the Hidizs AP60II. The AP80 does not jump back into the player when it starts - it starts at the menu. So, if you want to resume the track, you turn on the device, wait for it to boot, open the player option, then click the PLAY button to resume. This seems like a strange thing to do, and I'd really like to skip those extra steps. The same behavior is seen if you use the FM radio. Turning off the AP80 while the radio is playing does not mean the radio will be active when you turn it on. You'll start back at the menu, silently.
General interface issues
The touch targets in the interface are not well-calibrated or are too small. Typing anything on the T9-style keyboard is a massive frustration. The system will time out and move to the next character before you can get the right one, and then the backspace button doesn't respond reliably, etc. This is a problem throughout the interface - anything smaller than the main icons on the menu is likely to be hard to hit reliably.
The lists don't wrap around. If you are looking for ZZ Top, be prepared to scroll a while. Fortunately, the scroll is pretty decently fast, and responds well to the "fast flick" that has become common in this age of touch interfaces.
Conclusion
Tweaking the touch targets, getting podcast support, and making resume actually resume would turn this into a decent player into a really great one, for my purposes. Your mileage may vary. Someone should really look at the old Rio Karma and just copy it wholesale.
