Meizu discusses miniOne at CeBIT: US and Europe launches expected

No, they didn't have the miniOne on display here at CeBIT, not even a plastic mockup. Apparently, there is only one and it's back in the office with CEO, Jack Wong. Still, that didn't stop us from hounding the folks at Meizu for details about their flagship (i)phone offering. After some initial reluctance to discuss the product, we learned that Meizu is planning a miniOne release for the European and North American markets. But wait, there's a catch: it won't be a phone. According to Mrs. Wong and designer Mr. Young Su, Cho, the miniOne will break from China as an audio/video player, only -- no date was given, we asked... repeatedly. This miniOne "entrance" model (which will likely be called something else once the English is cleaned up) will lack a camera and cost $195 for the 4GB model and $305 for the 8GB version. So the $285 and $400 price tags we heard about will come affixed to the 4GB and 8GB miniOne "standard" media playin' phone. It also sports an integrated 2 megapixel camera and TD-SCDMA coupled with tri-band GSM/GPRS (no EDGE). Media on both devices will likely be protected by Windows Media DRM10 and feature the same codec support as their other devices. Meizu also confirmed that the miniOne will absolutely, positively play video at 30fps at the device's full 720 x 480 screen resolution. That's the plan, but anything can happen between now and the "end of 2007" launch in China, eh Jackson?

[kingofwale @ Mar 17th 2007 11:03AM]

I want one...

and somebody please explains to me how this wasn't 'arrested' at the show!

[k0a10 @ Mar 17th 2007 11:18AM]

They didn't have any at the show. Enforcement was probably based on complaints.

A company could claim a patent for just about anything. For a startup company, being at a trade show is probably the make or break moment, so a competitor can just claim you are infringing on a patent and blammo.. one less competitor. This is something that would be easy for a large company to do, near impossible for a smaller.

[Blake @ Mar 17th 2007 11:18AM]

I cant help but think of this as an iphone ripoff, I mean, the UI is almost identical, sans Apple icons.

[pcbuilderchris @ Mar 17th 2007 11:45AM]

no its not an iphone rip off what makes it look like the iphone i know your not talking about the mini bar at the bottom thats more like palm if anything but you people must know apple probably stole the iphones look from somewhere dont for any second think thier angels

[Covert @ Mar 17th 2007 11:58AM]

"no its not an iphone rip off what makes it look like the iphone i know your not talking about the mini bar at the bottom thats more like palm if anything but you people must know apple probably stole the iphones look from somewhere dont for any second think thier angels"

Comments like this are what further my appreciation of punctuation.

[pcbuilderchris @ Mar 17th 2007 11:48AM]

i know i cant shut up this morning

but just to straighten things out can someone pull up when the development on each device started at each company well see who thought of it first or atleast find the earliest article

apple justs hypes thier products more every popup ive seen lately says here iphone win an iphone look i have my new iphone hey Iphone Iphone especially on myspace.com

[Rick Lyon @ Mar 17th 2007 12:11PM]

Hey, they changed the iPhone....oh wait, that's not...an....iPhone.....

[dave @ Mar 17th 2007 12:39PM]

"No, they didn't have the miniOne on display here at CeBIT, not even a plastic mockup. Apparently, there is only one and it's back in the office with CEO, Jack Wong."

Is there, really? All I (and anyone else) have ever seen is photographs- which can very easily be photoshopped.

Does this really exist, or is it just hype and vaporware?

[Josh Warner @ Mar 17th 2007 1:08PM]

www.miniplayer.info - this is a legit company and their products are real and pretty slick. The miniplayer M6 has destroyed the nano in almost every head to head review I have seen.

I can't wait for the 8GB version; finally a player that can actually play video on a decent screen for (presumably) a decent amount of time, thanks to the low power consumption flash memory. I 8GB I can fit an entire TV season converted down to DivX/XviD, and if it supports h.264 you can fit even more.

Also, Meizu has a history of supporting the free/open codecs, like .ogg and .flac. In my mind, their only real competitor is Cowon given the feature set they endorse.

[giloftheoc @ Mar 18th 2007 8:41AM]

Yes, they've really killed the nano, everyone I know has a Meizu player... Innovate vs Imitate? I don't know, but they really should aat least give Apple a few bucks for doing a little R&D legwork for them...

[Al @ Mar 17th 2007 1:11PM]

They want to release it in the US. I'm kind of getting sick of all of these new phones not supporting quadband, and only Tri-Band frequencies. Look at the new W880i, and even this Mini-One. It seems the US always gets the shaft with these phones. Is anyone else frustrated with this, or is it just me?

[kevin @ Mar 17th 2007 2:38PM]

would this work on verizon?

[kevin @ Mar 17th 2007 2:45PM]

sorry im an idiot and dont know how to read

[SteveMB @ Mar 17th 2007 3:09PM]

So if it's not a phone, but it runs Windows Mobile and there is a microphone, couldn't you just install Skype onto it?

[IOTA @ Mar 17th 2007 3:31PM]

Well, it would have to be connected to the USB port without something like wifi, which is not mentioned. Many would have been happy to have had the apple announcement turn out to be a widescreen ipod, with 40GB+ and possible wifi. This is a conervative strategy to cut the legs out of the iphone launch sincemost people have phones.

At least there's no 2-year contract.

[Argot @ Mar 17th 2007 3:43PM]

Guess it's not only Apple that steals LG's design.

[interrelate @ Mar 17th 2007 5:15PM]

Whooo...they're using the Vista wallpaper!

[kadajawi @ Mar 17th 2007 9:20PM]

Why on earth no phone functions in the US and Europe? For that price it would have been a brilliant phone/mp3 player thing. But without phone features... interesting, but I think I'd rather get a M6. Smaller, cheaper.

Btw. have you seen that new Samsung thing with keyboard? Now THAT is an iPhone rip off. They added a keyboard, the Samsung logo and added pinstripes (something that Apple had once). That's all. 1:1 copy. This isn't.

[Frankenstein Black @ Mar 18th 2007 5:09PM]

People, it aint coming here as a phone, period! Music player YES. Verizon/Sprint NO (not CDMA)! Cingy/AT&T NO (they have iPhone). Whose left, T-Mobile? NO. They along with T-Mobile AG want dibs on iPhone 2.0 for US and EU. So why would they piss Apple off? Oh, and Grey? MEH (no data without that mobile operator firmware which wont exist). Great for China, pipe dream for US. No zip your pants up you tech geeks ;^)...

[Frankenstein Black @ Mar 18th 2007 5:11PM]

now zip

[joe bogs @ Apr 20th 2007 7:35PM]

I was reading this article and I have to say I was pretty interested in this player. Then someone said "Windows Mobile" and I immediately closed the page.








...before reopening to post this message

[Alasdair Owers-Bradley @ Jun 26th 2007 1:16PM]

If the Chinese version has Tri-band, does that mean it will work in the UK? If so, i will get the Chinese version from Ebay or somewhere.