> I looked pretty hard - I specifically don’t want an android OS called an mp3 player. I want a dedicated media player that has physical button controls (not touch screen), is very snappy, has a good UI, and has a purpose-built OS

There are a lot of DAPs in this style. They're just not popular because the Android-based units are perfectly fine and don't feel like Android phones with an MP3 player app installed. Most buyers don't have arbitrary OS requirements, they just want a device that works well.

I'd start by looking at the Rockbox compatible devices list: https://www.rockbox.org/

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Retric 5 hours ago | parent [-]

They likely want to use the device without looking at it, thus the requirement is physical buttons not a specific OS.

It’s the same issue with touch screens in cars. Anything that’s a touchscreen simply fails a core MP3 player requirement for many people.

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saulpw 5 hours ago | parent [-]

Yup. I want to be able to use it to listen to music, start/stop/pause/skip/volume while I'm at the dentist.

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Tallain 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I think Fiio and Hiby are the closest that exist today. They have dedicated hardware and physical buttons for the things listed in your comment. However, they do still ship with a custom Android OS and you need the touch screen to navigate your library and such. On the upside, this lets you choose your media library app. On the downside, it still isn't as good as the touch wheel on old iPods. I, too, am waiting for something like this to return. The Hiby is good enough until then for me.

	▲	blep-arsh 18 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Shanling uses a custom OS although it feels very primitive compared to iPods (e.g. the iPod Nano had VoiceOver for touch navigation). So I'm not really a fan of these dedicated single-function players; modern media player apps can be fast and convenient (more so than a clickwheel, honestly), and Android devices can still have dedicated control buttons. If only these devices weren't so bulky...

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davidzweig 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I've got the first boards on my desk for a media player based around the Sifli 58 chip. 1.8" amoled display and 16 buttons.

https://imgur.com/a/45GuaEA

https://forums.rockbox.org/index.php/topic,55419.0.html

Anyone want to help with porting Rockbox?