FiiO M27 looks every bit the flagship Hi-Res player to get, there's just one thing missing – its price

There's a new flagship portable audio player coming to town, with the FiiO M27 to be released later this autumn. And we have all the details bar one – the price. That'll be announced in September and we suspect it won't be cheap.

That's because, as FiiO says, this is a "bold evolution" of its portable line-up, designed to deliver next-level sonic performance, precision engineering and audiophile-standard features.

One of the most interesting bits here is the Qualcomm QCC5181 chipset. That delivers aptX Lossless over Bluetooth as well as Auracast and LE Audio, and FiiO's new device is one of the first portable audio players to use it.

FiiO M27 portable music player: key features

The M27 is also FiiO's first player to come in titanium alloy, which is used for the chassis and teamed up with a glass fibre rear.

Inside, there's the Qualcomm QCS6490 chipset (Snapdragon 770G architecture), which has 8 Kryo 670 CPU cores, an Adreno 642L GPU and support for both LPDDR5 RAM and UFS 3.1 storage for fast response and seamless multitasking.

The OS is Android 13 and there are dual microSD slots with up to 2TB of storage per slot.

There are dual ESS ES9039SPRO DACs and FiiO's Digital Audio Purification System, aka DAPS, which reduces jitter and ensures timing accuracy through the digital chain. And the M27 is capable of driving demanding headphones thanks to its 5,000 + 5,000 mW balanced output power in Ultra Gain mode. This rivals full-sized desktop amps.

In battery mode you can expect long play time thanks to the large 9,200mAh battery.

The M27 has 6.35mm, 4.4mm and 3.5mm headphone outs as well as line and digital connections, enabling you to use the player as part of a Hi-Fi setup as well as on its own.

The FiiO M27 will launch globally this autumn, with full pricing to be announced in the next few weeks.