iPod alternative (Meizu Mini Player SL M6 SL 4 GB)

Member Name: sifair

Product:	Meizu Mini Player SL M6 SL 4 GB
Date:	18/06/07 (382 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very cheap on ebay

Disadvantages: can be difficult to get used to, unoriginal design

Meizu Mini Player

The Meizu Mini Player is the latest addition to the flash based mp3 player market. It's competing against offerings from Apple, Creative and Sony but how does the Meizu fair against the competition. Well pretty good infact. The player comes in 4 different sizes, 1GB, 2GB, 4GB, 8GB and you can get the player in two different colours, black or white. The design of the play is heavily influenced by the iPod but because of this the player looks very stylish.

The player has a very large QVGA TFT LCD screen which is excellent and looks smashing. You can view videos, play music, view photos and also read text documents on the player. The screen is 2.4 inches and takes up most of the players size but this is good because it allows for a large viewing area although if you tilt the player to the side slightly the colours start to look faded and washed out as the player doesn't have a great viewing angle.

With the player you get lots of accessories, these include a carrying pouch, a strap, a cleaning cloth, a standard USB cable, player manual and software to convert videos to the right file type and size to use on the player. The only thing really missing from the player is a protective case to carry the player in but these can be bought on ebay and a few other places. I'm not to bothered about having a power cable because the player is charged up on the computer.

This brings me nicely onto battery life, the battery life is stated as being a maximum of 20 hours which is very good for mp3 players as they generally offer about 10-12 in most other players. I found that the Meizu gives you about 16 hours of battery life with general use. The battery life when using video is estimated to be about 6 hours and I found that I got about 5.5 hours out of it so that is pretty good. I think that the battery life is good on the player.

The players interface is fairly easy to use and it only has 4 real buttons and a scroll pad. The scroll pad and buttons are all contained on one touch sensitive pad. The controls are nice and easy to use and are similar to other players. The player is also quite tough and has a scratch resistant layer on the screen to make the player keep up it's good looks.

On the player you get two games, one called box man and another called Hua Rong Doa. They are both puzzle games, they will keep you occupied for a short time but they are not that entertaining. On the player there is also an FM radio, you can listen to any station you can pick up, the reception is okay and you can name stations to make it easier to find the right ones. You can record FM radio at 3 different bitrates allowing you to choose the quality of your recording. The player has a microphone and this also has 3 different bitrates you can record in again allowing to record in higher or lower quality. The recording feature is fairly clear and allows you to record conversations of your choice.

The sound quality on the player is very high, it is especially good if you get some good headphones as the ones supplied with the player are fairly average. The video quality is also excellent and looks great on the large screen you get with the player. It is also very easy to view text files on the player and they look very clear. Having the ability to have text files is great as you can save your favourite ebooks on the player or just something you might want to read. The photos on the player look great and you can put them on the player if they are 1024x1024 or less and they also have to be either JPG, BMP or GIF which is great as you can have high quality photos on the player. As well as being able to view photos you can set them as a background or have them as a slideshow in the background to the music.

The player isn't that easily available at the moment and this version costs around £60 which is not to bad. If you want the player now get it off ebay or advancedmp3players on the net as it is not available in UK high street shops yet but probably will be later this summer. The player has very good support and Meizu has a great site with lots of new firmware to download for the player. There is also a forum on the site so you can report problems with the player. Meizu try and fix these small issues and are constantly sending out new firmware to try and make the players perfect. This is a great little player that has a lovely screen and supports many features, there is good web support and it's a really good alternative to the iPod.

The site is http://en.meizu.com/

Thank you for reading.

Summary: Good little mp4 player

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