The R1 has a couple of tried and tested features that you’ve seen in their previous DAPs, but a couple of new ones added and a few removed due to the cost. I’ll only mention new ones and the ones removed. I’ll also include some features that many people have been asking about but I won’t include all in this post for time. I’ll include it in my full review, however.
Firstly, you get a new look at HiByOS. I’m not entirely sure if they call this something, but it’s very different from every other HiBy DAP I’ve tried. The layout is largely the same. Unfortunately, this new UI does not feature dark mode yet and it might not have one for quite a while. However, you can change the theme of the icons and accents in the theme setting.
Next, you get a new drop-down menu where they finally place the brightness bar instead of the volume bar. You can’t customize it from here anymore, but you can still customize it in the system settings.
You also get this new soundfield filter that allows you to “increase” the sound stage through audio. Think of this as a somewhat nerfed version of Dolby Atmos.
Unlike the R2 II and R3 II, you cannot use this AS a dongle DAC or Bluetooth transmitter. While this seemed like a downgrade on first look, I realized that literally no one does this but me and it makes it cheaper by disabling this feature.
Thankfully, you can still use this WITH a dongle DAC. If you’re wondering why I put emphasis on that is because I want to ensure clarity that you can use this WITH a dongle DAC but not AS a dongle DAC.
My current unit does not have HiBy Link, but the marketing material states that this should include HiBy Link so I can only assume that it will be included in future firmware.
The last thing I want to point out is the fact that this is a non-Android device running on HiByOS based on Linux. This means that this cannot download any kind of application unto the device. This something that I think I need to continue to clarify as the R1 is not only the cheapest DAP that HiBy has ever produced, but also the least feature-rich due to its limitation.
Anyways, that’s all of the features that I could fit into this post. Let me know if you have any other questions you’d like to ask in the comments!
