Amazed by Meizu
by Shang Zuo
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When you think of digital music players, which brand comes to your mind first? The iPod, isn't it? The iPod is the most popular
player. I had an iPod nano, and I loved its elegant design and its unique click wheel. But my experience wasn't very satisfying.
First, the iPod is tied to iTunes, Apple's online music store, which doesn't allow users to freely copy songs on and off their
iPods using other software.
Unfortunately, iTunes is useless to me because it doesn't offer Chinese music. So I used the iPod to listen to music ripped
from my CDs. But I faced yet another problem: it didn't properly display some artist and album names in the Chinese language.
That was very frustrating. I decided to buy a new player.
There were plenty of brands on the market, though what I needed wasn't just "anything but iPod." I wanted a better one.
"Anything but iPod" is actually the name of a website dedicated to music players. The site features tons of reviews and
discussions about Zune, Zen, iRiver, SanDisk, Samsung, and many other brands. What I finally bought was a Meizu Miniplayer,
and I was completely amazed by its features and quality.
More specifically, the Meizu I purchased is a Meizu M6 miniplayer 4GB white SP version. It is slightly smaller than a credit card
but is thicker than an iPod nano. It is embedded in a metal back cover and a glass front cover, which creates a very smooth and
solid feel. The Meizu catches your eyes with its "huge" screen. Maybe not really that huge. It's 2.4," but that's more than twice as
big as iPod's.
The miniplayer can do much more than play music. You can view pictures, read notes, listen to the radio, and record radio
programs or your own voice. More than that, you can even watch movies on it! These are highly unexpected on a little machine.
Whether video playback is an appealing feature depends on how many video files you own and daily watch. I tried some movie
trailers on the player. Its quality is surprisingly good. Its resolution is 320 by 240, and the screen itself is very bright. But I was
mainly sold not by its video playback ability, but by a very basic feature that the iPod doesn't have: FM tuner. I am a radio lover.
Even with its radio and video capability, and much bigger screen, the Meizu costs only half the price of an iPod nano. This is
the best player I could find.
However, is the Meizu an ideal choice for everyone? I hesitate to say so. The iPod is very easy to use -- even grandma could
use it -- while Meizu's weakness is exactly in its usability. Its touch pad isn't as convenient and intuitive as iPod's click wheel.
Meizu company has improved the touch pad in the newest firmware, but upgrading firmware is a painful process if you are not
familiar with software installation. To play with the Meizu requires some computer knowledge. It is for gadget enthusiasts and
the generations that grow up with video games, computers, and cell phones.
The Meizu Company is based in Zhu'hai, one of China's four earliest Special Economic Zones. It is a young company with four
years of short history, but is also very ambitious. Meizu has been very successful in the domestic market and has reached
overseas. Unlike many competitors that sell as many different models as they can, Meizu focuses on research and design and
doesn't release new products frequently. In 2005, when their E3 came out, it was the first Chinese MP3 player that supported
cutting-edge Phillips decoder chip PNX0102, and impressed people by its sound quality.
Meizu's website hosts a very active fan forum, on which the company president himself often talks to users directly about their
experience and announces the company's next step. This company has a very friendly culture.
Meizu's next product is an iPhone-like device called M8. Its details have not been revealed yet. Most wouldn't expect M8 to be an
iPhone killer, but it would be interesting to see how fast the young company can climb up the technology ladder.