Could pick up a secondhand Zune on eBay. I've still got mine and it works as well as the day I bought it nearly 20 years ago

Edit: even better than listening to my dumb ass, this website gives a rundown of the common recommendations at the moment: https://www.hifioasis.com/advice/the-best-digital-audio-players-daps/

There are options. I’m trying to work out now what to get my partner who wants to stop using her phone for audio streaming.

Budget options, these are cheap and don’t use Android as far as I’m aware:

Snowsky Echo Mini (made by Fiio)

Hiby R1

Shanling m0s

Tempotec v1

Next tier up would be (and this is where android seems to become the default, but I think Hiby use a heavily customised version of it):

Hiby M300

Fiio JM21

Hiby R3

Then you get into midrange I guess you’d call it:

Hiby R4

Sony nw-a306

More expensive:

Something from iBasso like the DX180

After that you start looking at tech outside what I think is worth paying. You can easily find reviews from audiophile websites about all of these I’ve mentioned.

something from the "stable ports" list at https://www.rockbox.org/

If you enjoy the iPod classic format, there's tons of second hand ones that you can flash software onto for a more modern experience. Lots of aftermarket parts for customization and upgrades like battery and shell. I don't recall the exact model year but you can search for iPod classic upgrades and there will be tutorials out there for it.

Yes, I rarely listen to songs online anymore because it is extremely inconvenient for me, besides, there is a clever way to transfer any track offline even if there is no download option, although I am not sure that this method works everywhere, in some places there is protection against this, but still, the method, although inconvenient, works, and you don't have to pay anyone a cent.

For snowboarding and skateboarding I've always used the Clip by Sansa, works in any weather, pretty damned tough, and if I lose or break it, at $32 I just dont care.

The budget option is probably an entry level and used android phone without a sim.

I know one particular MP3 player I heard about is the Innioasis Y1, which is around $50 USD on Amazon when I checked it.

I use my watch more than anything. I already have it strapped to me, so I don’t need to worry about bringing my phone. And it supports Bluetooth, so I just use my earbuds. It automatically downloads a few of my Daily Mix and Blend playlists from Spotify when I’m connected to WiFi. So I always have a fresh rotation of music, even when offline.

It’s also great for audiobooks, which is primarily what I listen to when doing menial tasks like washing dishes or working out. I use the Plappa app to connect to my Audiobookshelf instance, and can download books for offline listening. Or if you prefer Plex, Prologue is an app that extends audiobook support to Plex. Plex doesn’t natively support audiobook metadata, and serves audiobook files as if they’re just a single massive 20+ hour music file. But Prologue only uses Plex’s remote access to reach your server. Then it does its own local metadata scanning once it has access to the files, to find things like chapter data. Both Plappa and Prologue have native apps for my watch, so the UI is largely the same as if I was using my phone.

If you’re an audio nerd but don’t care to much about a “premium” look/feel, the Fiio Retro Mini hit the bill for me perfectly. Only $70 and has balanced audio out.

The screen is tiny and controls are a bit awkward, but couldn’t beat it for the price. My only complaint is no gapless playback. There’s about a 1/4 second gap.

i use a feature phone / dumbphone that has an sd card slot. load up the sd card with music, and the player is super simple and works great for me. bluetooth earbuds work too, but the rechargable battery of mine died after owning them just a few months longer than the warranty lasted, so i'm back to using wired earbuds (with a usb-c to 3.5mm adapter, do NOT buy the cheap shit from temu, get one that actually sounds decent).

the phone was like $50, and a prepaid sim card inside it makes it so i can use it as cheap backup texting/calling device too when i want to disconnect from all the bullshit the smartphone comes with for a while (still trying to get fully rid of smartphones but it's very hard these days)

Just using an old phone without a modem plan is the easiest and cheapest option. You can put a custom rom on it.

Innioasis Y1 might be a nice option. Looks like a classic iPod, but supports drag-and-drop syncing, USB-C, FM Radio, Bluetooth, even FLAC files. 128 GB out of the box, replaceable with a larger SD card, albeit you have to crack it open. Only downside I can think of is not being able to fast scroll through the alphabet if you have a larger collection.

I don't have one myself but I know someone with a HiBy R1 and he recommends it. It has a microSD slot and bluetooth, as well as a small touchscreen, so I'm pretty sure it fits what you're looking for.

iPod classic is awesome but iTunes is annoying. I do not like the rockblox mod. Windows vm works