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Printed On: | July 25, 2008, 8:37 pm |
| Category: | Peripherals | |
| Type: | Reviews | |
| Posted By: | floppy | |
| Date Posted: | May 23, 2007, 12:21 pm |
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The PMP Market - the battle between Davids and Goliaths
The PMP (Portable Media Player) market has always been lucrative especially with the plummeting prices of NAND flash memory. There is a lot of companies around who have tried very hard to differentiate themselves from the rest of their competitors, with the most aggressive ones being the two giants of this industries, namely, Creative Technologies and Apple Inc. Their Zen and Ipod series have made waves around the world, enticing other technology giants like Sandisk & Microsoft to enter the market for a pie of the profit.
The Music Card M3 on display at Cebit
The Meizu M8 Mini-One Mobile Phone cum PMP
Recently, the VR-Zone had the chance to visit Meizu at Cebit after making waves with releases of news on the Meizu Mini-One, an all-in-one WM6 based phone cum PMP with 2-8GB of internal memory. The Mini-One is slated to be launched in Q1 2008. Currently, Meizu is already commanding a good hold of the PMP market with their Music Card and Mini Player.
The Meizu M6 Mini Player
Today, we will be taking a look at the 2GB variants of the Music Card and Mini Player, courtesy of Meizu themselves. The M6 has already been in the market for more than a year, wheras the M3 was recently launched at Cebit Germany.
The Mini Player is positioned to be a full fledged PMP with Video, MP3 and lossless codecs (OGG & FLAC) playback. with a High-Resolution 2.4" QVGA TFT LCD.
The Music Card is slightly scaled down with less miscellaneous functions like games, stopwatch and such. The screen is also too small for videos to be viewed, thus a video playback option is not available on the player itself but you are still able to play back these files via it's browser option. More on this later. How does these two players compare against the others, especially those from giants Creative and Apple? We'll explore in details in the next few pages.
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Pictures and Specifications
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Dimensions
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81mmx39mmx6.9mm | |
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Weight
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42 grams | |
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Screen
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TFT LCD 1.5” 176*132, RGB, 100HZ | |
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Data Transfer
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USB2.0 Hi-Speed Transfer, approx. 6MB/s | |
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Capacity
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Flash 2,4 & 8 GB | |
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Battery
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Bulit-in, Lithium Ion.7V,460mAh, up to 25 hours playback | |
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Audio Format
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MP3 VBR
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8Kbps-320Kbps |
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WMA
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5Kbps-192Kbps | |
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OGG
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Quality 0-Quality 10 | |
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WAV
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PCM,MS-ADPCM,IMA-ADPCM | |
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FLAC & WMALossless
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VBR | |
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Frequency Response
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20Hz-20kHz | |
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Sound to Noise Ratio
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>85db | |
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Distortion
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<0.06% | |
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Maximum Output Voltage
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300mV@32Ω | |
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Picture Display
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BMP, JPG, GIF | 1024x1024 |
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Video Playback
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Xvid
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Video:25 fps, 384/512kbps,176*128 |
| Audio:MP3 128-256kbps,stereo | ||
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FM Radio
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Frequency
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76Mhz-108Mhz |
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Channels
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50 | |
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SNR
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>50dB | |
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Recording
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MP3
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BitRate: 32Kbps-128Kbps |
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Source
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Mic & FM Radio | |
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Other Functions
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Album Art, Lyrics Display, EBook (txt), Clock, Calendar etc. | |
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Dimensions
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79*48.2*10mm | |
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Weight
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55grams | |
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Screen
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TFT LCD 2.4" QVGA 320*240,RGB, 262,000 colors, 100hz | |
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Data Transfer
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USB2.0 Hi-Speed Transfer, approx. 6MB/s | |
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Capacity
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Flash 512MB¡¢1GB¡¢2GB¡¢4GB | |
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Battery
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Bulit-in, Lithium Ion.7V,3.7V 700mAH, up to 20 hours playback | |
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Audio Format
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FLAC
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WMAlossless
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WMA(VBR)
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8-355kbps | |
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OGG
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Quality 0-Quality 10 | |
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WAV
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PCM,MS-ADPCM,IMA-ADPCM | |
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MP3(VBR)
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8-320Kbps | |
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Maximum Output Voltage
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18mW per Channel | |
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Distortion
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<0.05% | |
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SNR
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>90dB | |
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Equalizer
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Spatializer, Custom EQ Settings | |
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Picture Display
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BMP,JPG,GIF
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1024x1024 |
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Video Playback
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Xvid
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Video:18FPS,≤512kbps |
| Audio: MP3 56-256Kbps,stereo | ||
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Video Sound Effects
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Spatialiazer
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FM Radio
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Frequency
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76MHz - 108MHz |
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Channels
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50 | |
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ÐÅÔë±È
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>50dB | |
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Recording
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MP3
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BitRate:32Kbps-128Kbps |
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Source
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Mic/ Fm radio | |
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Other Functions
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Lyrics Display, EBook (txt), Clock, Calendar, Games etc. | |
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M3 - Music Card Packaging and Pictures
The box, simplistic yet elegant
The Meizu comes with a touch sensitive slider like the Creative Zen Vision offerings. Operation is simple with only 3 buttons, to fast forward press the bottom button. to rewind, press and hold the same button.
The back of the player comes with a reflective mirror finish. good looking and comes in handy if you need a mirror for any purpose. Of course, just like the Ipod, the back scratches easily.
The connectors, the mini USB & headphone jack. Holder is available for you to attach a lanyard as well.
The hold switch.
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M6 - Mini Player Packaging and Pictures
The Mini Player box, similar to the Music Card.
The Mini Player front. Meizu sent me a white player, and I'm sure that this will be a hit with the ladies for it's size, functionality, and most importantly, the looks. There is a touch sensitive scroller as well just like the M3.
The back's in a mirror too!
The connectors, similar to the M3 as well. The M6 is pictured with a lanyard attached.
The Hold button.
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More Pictures and Accessories
Next, We'll be doing some physical comparison against the Ipod Nano in the next page..
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Comparison with Ipod Nano
The M3 is definitely shorter than the nano in comparison.
The M6 is about 50% thicker than both the M3 and Nano.
The m3 is about 0.5mm thicker than the nano.
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Screen Comparison and Functions
The M6 comes with a much sharper and bigger QVGA Screen as compared to the M3.
When compared to the Ipod Nano screen, the M3's LCD seems to be slightly dimmer.
Picture viewing isn't optimal on the M3 screen, but can pass.
The M6 screen is pretty sharp for picture viewing, but you will not be able to view anything more tha n1280x1024 on it due to a software limitation.
The browser on the Meizu M6. Text is sharp and you can browse for your E-Book or lyrics here in txt format.
Browser on the M3. Text is sharp on this as well and there is no problems if you intend to read any .txt files here.
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Taking an in depth look of the functions
The two player is capable of playing FLAC, OGG and WMA Lossless.
As well as various lossy formats like WMA and MP3
Various Audio Settings, Spatializer, Virtual Bass Enhacements and Phase Corrected Equalizer.
Various EQ settings
More EQ Settings
FM Radio with 50 Channels memory
Calendar
Stop Watch
Box Man Game
Recording Menu
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Music Quality, Thoughts & Conclusion
**All opinions below are personal, it may differ from people to people.**
Common Equipment
- Inputs: Creative EP-630 in-ear ear phones, Aurvana DJ Headphones
- Comparison: Meizu M6, M3, Creative Zen Vision M, Ipod Nano 1st Gen
- Settings: All Bass, Treble set to lowest, Spatalizer, Bass & Treble boost etc all switched off.
Tracks tested:
- Album: Olivia Ong - A Girl meets Bossa Nova 2
- Format: FLAC & MP3
Bass is towards the heavy side for the M3, The M6 seems to be just right, although slightly heavy. Vocals are clear and sharp for FLAC, with the MP3 track being slightly muffled. Highs and Mids are clear and distinct. The overall experience for the M6 is quite pleasant, wheras the M3's bass tends to be slightly towards the overbearing side. Sound is definitely better than the Ipod nano 1st Gen and is just as good if not better than the Creative Zen Vision M.
- Album: Cafe Del Maar - Sunlight Dreams
- Format: FLAC
Similar Comments as above, but on this track, it may seem that the heavier bass of the M3 might not be such a bad thing after all. Bass is generally projected as well as the mids and highs. The M6's sound is more subtle, but not by much unless you pay a lot of attention to it.
Advantages
- Good
- The music Card is much smaller than the Ipod Nano!
- two options for USB data connectivity, as a mass storage device or a MTP player. Impressive versatility.
- Myriad of sound enhancing options, great for the everyday user but am personally a purist when it comes to sound, so all of these are switched off.
- Videos looks good on the Mini Player, High Resolution for such a small screen.
- It plays FLAC! Something that you won't find in your apple and creative players. Lossless FTW!
- Impressive form factor for it's function
Disadvantages
- Video Format Limited, only XVID and under 512KBPS, need to convert using third party software if you want to put video into the player
- Limited graphics display format and resolution
Overall, one of the best PMP in the market. Definitely Recommended!
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