Sod anti-iPod, I'm a full blown apple-o-phile and this thing looks the business. I always assumed (not sure why) from the pictures I had seen that it was around the size of a 5G ipod, with a bigger screen and less memory - but now I see a comparison shot I suddenly really want one...

Are there any good shots of the menu and whatnot around?

Gah, its only 4 GB, it can't take on the empire. However, if you really aren't in that whole "video viewing on a 2.5 inch screen" fad, you can go to amazon or pricegrabber and snag a 20 GB Zen Sleek Photo for under 200 dollars (which pwns nano two times over) or get a Zen Microphoto, which is thankfully 8 GB for 199.99.

i just wish they'd up the capacity to 8GB at least, i'd get one immediately.

I wanna know who's hand is waving at me from the iPod....

Tudor, there are a number of reviews floating around the net... and all pretty much say it kicks ass.

I'm gonna wait for the Zune to come out, check it out, probably decide I don't like it, and then get a black Meizu 4GB.

The biggest thing I like about the Meizu is it's a new player that lets you browse the directory tree and play files that way. Does anybody else know of any newer players that let you do this?

I hated the fact that my iPod could only browse files by ID3 tags.

I've read the review on the MiniPlayer here on the Giz and went and purchased one...Must say I love the damn thing, its light, great video AND audio and if you but it from miniplayer.com they'll through in a case and the latest firmware. Thanks Giz, I love the Miniplayer!

How is the battery life?

Whi buys music of itunes/playsforsure anyway?? I for one have never touched any DRMed music and only a fool would!
Hence no drawbacks to this player at all.

I'm anti-DRM, but pro-touchpad, so in that respect the Meizu pwn3rizes.
I want something with A2DP to stream songs to my phone's speakers, AVRCP to remote control the music from my phone and SD expansion, so screw you guys, I'm getting a StormBlue A9+ BT.

Anyone got any inkling as to if/when this thing will hit the shores of the British Isles?

Baaaaaaaaaaaaaa: It's not such a problem when you have the means to remove DRM. At that point, Audio quality is the issue, and for a tin ear like myself, I'm happy with it.

I don't see how the scroll panel could be as good, seeing as its not possible to move your finger in a continuous motion to scroll. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Am I missing an obvious photoshop or am I seeing things...is that an apple in the top left corner of the meizu?

> my_name_is_tudor, same here,it's probably something about the screen size that makes it seem larger than it is.

Its the stop square in the top left. And they ship them worldwide.

Ocdude:

Its a square 'stop' icon.

I want one just to break out and start using next to anyone with an iPod...
"How much did you pay for that nano again? Wow, too bad."

I seriously am digging the form factor and the style, but 4GB? Umm, exsqueese me, but a ripped movie is at least 300MB right?

I'm not sure I'll be able to watch bittorrented TV on this AND have enough music... Still, it's definitely intriguing.

No support for iTunes ? good i bloody hate that thing, a good old drag and drop system for me everytime instead of some 1GB package that takes over your computer, im getting sick of them, everything i buy/install has a mp3 player, burning SW, slideshow, gallery, DVD player... etc etc... ie NERO, I WANT BURNER APP NOT AN ENTIRE PACKAGE LEAVE ME ALONE.... nero6 ftw !!

Hmm...the link above doesn't work for me. http://en.meizu.com/product_m6.asp , however, does. Hope this helps!

I really dont like the scroll wheel on the apple, the only advantage it has is the fact that you can scroll for a long time, but half the time you're finger slightly brushes the side and it slows down again.

@infomofo : Why would you leave a movie at 300mb for this screen ? are you mad ? :P When i watch South Park on my mobile (for the train) i get each episode down to about 10mb as thats the only quality you need, therefore movies should go down to 100mb ? eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeasily

i recently bought the black one (in fact, the day miniplayer.info had the black one in stock for delivery in the states). it is awesome.

The good:
  - comes with pre-installed anti-scratch films
  - decent earbuds (though i use my existing ones that are better)
  - impressive sound quality/range
    (much better than iPod IMHO when used with decent headphones)
  - games (not important to me, but they are there)
  - decent video quality as compared to 5G iPod

The bad:
  - video can be a little choppy in extreme high-motion speeds due to 15fps cap
    (not too terrible)
  - in mic record mode, i can't get out of record mode once i enter (at least on my player). requires forcing shutdown and restart (though it still records). should be fixed with future firmware

thats all i can think off from the top of my head. id still say that it is a top notch player, and will probably get even better with future firmwares.

o, and to imsoclever:
you can sustain continuous scrolling by keeping your finger at the ends (the tips of the 4 cardinal directions) of the touch strip for the appropriate scroll direction (or you could tap any of those without clicking to move one spot at a time). the ipod wheel definitely has its ups as you can control the speed a little better, but i have grown to like the linear strip, especially for controlling the player while it is in my pocket (good for the subway with all this talk about thefts).

hope my mini review helps :)

That isn't a 5G iPod. That is a 4G one, me thinks.

o, one more thing:
when using the included video conversion software (a modified virtualdub install) it auto converts the video to the right res, etc., and when all is said and done, it uses about 140MB/hr of video, so you could easily pack in a decent amount of stuff without too much trouble.

it even comes with a rip of the first episode of 24 in the proper format in the application cd (when purchased from miniplayer.info at least).

OT: Why do you have the artwork for "Stereotype A" for the "Johnny Bravo Theme"? Clean up your act, man!

oooh. very tempting, indeed. I'm waiting for the iPhone, tho... we'll see if it ever happens.

Yeah, this thing looks pretty nice.. to be honest I would still pay the extra and get a Cowon player. I've never had a problem with Cowon, and their products are always top end - I'd be looking more at the Cowon iAudio 6.. even though it has a smaller screen, I don't watch a lot of video anyway and audio quality is my number one priority - can't go past Cowon!

Damn this laptop monitor! Yes, I see it now. It is a stop square.

@Keebler re: Does anybody else know of any newer players that let you do this?

The Cowon A2 does this. This is not the same size (more of a full-blown PMP) but FYI one of the bigger selling points of the system IMO. Being able to navigate through the filesytem means you can organize music *whichever* way you like and change it up on a whim.

It strikes me as somewhat curious that the background image on the miniplayer is the default background from OS X 10.3...

Umm, so is it compatible with Apples themselves? No iTunes store, fine, but can I plug and play with my Apple computer? The Meizu website is very unclear about OS requirements and the like.

I think the reason we continue to see mention of the Meizu Miniplayer here is because it's so darn hard to get your hands on one of these outsides of Asia.

I picked up a 4GB model from China and hadn't look back since. btw, it can handle smooth 18fps video but you'd need to tweak VirtualDub following the insturctions in their forum.

The scarcity could be an indication of how popular this player is. Either that or, a little reported fact the Meizu didn't pay for licensing MP3 technology on their sets and are probably having their imports restricted!

Anyway, Meizu has just released an external battery cum USB Host OTG accessory for the Miniplayer. Good luck getting your hands on one.

Check out my review as well
http://tgsreviews.wordpress.com/2006/10/18/meizu-mini-play...
At the the end of the review I have some comparison shots of the Nano and Miniplayer together.

Direct link here Nano/Miniplayer pics
http://www.flickr.com/photos/83275793@N00/sets/72157594284...

I've read on several sites that the US release of the player does not come with mp3 support. Others have responded that this can be remedied with firmware updates. Can anyone shed light on this?

Lars- according to the reviews I've read, this device will mount as an external hard drive on Windows/Mac/Linux.

You can use a program like Synk, Unison, or SyncTunes to sync music between an iTunes playlist and your external device.

Finally a decent competitor. How's the UI on it though? (Archos seems to have gone down the drain with the need for so many buttons to navigate... I much preferred the 4 direction, ok/cancel and 3 softkeys on my AV400, and the new ones have so many buttons it's hard to tell which to push at what time.).

THe device supports both UMS and MTP.
UMS allows you move your content into the device like a regular external drive. MTP allows Media Player 10 to recognise the device and hence, allows you to sync your music and all that stuff. Neither require drivers to be installed.

There's really nothing to moving music or videos into the player. No proprietary Music Match or Sony Sonic Soundstage nonsense.