This miniplayer was advertised a few months ago, and the first time I saw the pictures and early reviews, I wanted one. Got mine direct from China (good ol' ebay..) and I was bowled over by the reality. It's just - perfect. Smaller than a credit card, though thicker, with a large, vivid bright screen and a touchpad, together with mirror back. The design is slick and modern, unfussy and clean. Currently available just in white, but black is just appearing on shelves in Asia. Most manufacturers should learn from this excellent design. It's simple to use; even though all of the instructions come in Chinese, you can download an english-language version very easily. Perhaps not the ideal player for an MP3 virgin, but persistence pays off with this one.
Getting music and video (and indeed photos) on is very easy - it's recognised in windows with a standard mini-usbconnecting cable, and is drag-and-drop. DRM will be covered in future firmware upgrades, as will WMP plays-for-sure.
For now, the music quality is outstanding, with full 10-band EQ and particularly strong bass performance. Bundled earbuds are, as ever, not that good.
Video performance too is very good, after re-encoding. Software is bundled, but again is Chinese-language. However, easy-to-useEnglish-language alternatives are readily available free to download. I watched a feature film with no discomfort at all - the screen is bigger than most phones, and larger than the iPod.
It has a good photo-viewing package, with plenty of slideshow features, and the ability to go on playing music while viewing photos.
Extras include two games (with more coming on future firmware) a calculator, calendar and stopwatch.
Battery life seems excellent - 20 hours plus for listening to music, and at least five for video watching. The battery is integrated, and recharges fairly quickly via USB (no wall-charger is provided, but these are readily and cheaply available to buy elsewhere). An external battery pack has just been released in China.
It's competitively priced for import direct from China, even after import duty, although when dealers bring it to the UK for retail it's likely to be much less-so. However, even if priced the same as an iPod, its extra features make it much better value.
Downsides? very few to date, beyond the usual new-to-market ones - nil after-sales support, no easy availability in the UK as yet, very few accessories beyond cases.
If you're an adventurous early adopter, go for it right now. Otherwise wait for UK distributors to appear, and get one then - you won't regret it.
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Ah a fellow i-pod slater hehe maybe we can meet up soeday and see how many pieces we can smash one into lol, a great review
patriciat 06.09.2006 17:56
I've got an Ipod but haven't a clue how to go about watching a film on it, so not much chance of me sussing out how to work this one. Pat.t x
etala 06.09.2006 15:54
Great review - I'm very caucious with any new technology so I'll probably wait until this is widely available in the UK, but good solid information none the less!
Cheers, Rich. Please visit my website, go on, no-one else does! http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/beerglasscollector/
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