Meizu's 8GB M6 Mini Player SL: just 7.3-mm thin and $146
Meizu's second generation M6 is now official. The M6 Mini Player SL (as in SLim) is just 7.3-mm thin yet still manages to increase the viewing angle of the the original's 2.4-inch display. The new M6 is also said to produce better audio quality thanks to a new DSP while adding support for lossless Monkey's Audio (APE) file format. Sure, that slim profile forced Meizu into a smaller battery but the player still manages to pump 26-hours of audio and 4.5-hours of video off a single charge. Hits China on September 25th in 2/4/8GB capacities in prices up to Y1,099 or about $146 of the green stuff -- unreal. Funny how Meizu doesn't make a peep until Apple makes an announcement.


















Looks nice at the moment but I have a feeling things are guna be a whole lot different in a few hours. First Zune now Meizu, ow dear. I had a feeling yesterday that disapointment was in the air but now it couldn't be further from the truth. My guts tell me iPod is going to get a lot more useful than just a screen and headphones. I am officaly weting my pants, no, realy, must go.
They'll announce the iPod dildo edition, with a special shuffle feature: so you don't have to dirty your finger by pressing a button, just clench your ass to skip to a random track. Mighty Mouse style... Look at this thing... even an obscure chinese manufacturer can bring better stuff for a fraction of the cash...
uSheep...
Isn't this in competition more with the Nano than the regular iPod? I think this is way beter than the iPod Nano Phat, lets hope those pictures were fake. That new Creative Zen looks the best out of all the new flash based players
No, the Meizu is far less a competitor to the Nano, but more to iriver's clix, since they both share much of the same hardware
But it's still in the same market of small, flash based mp3 players
Common manufactuers, make me a killer iPod deal ( pricewise)
Funny how it looks like shit...They get scared of Apple or something?
Or wait, they'll announce the "final revision" after the iPod announcement tomorrow.
Not a single creative bone in their body.
Funny how it looks almost exactly like the upcoming Creative Zen. Sorry I've never heard of Meizu before. Is it SUPPOSED TO be a knockoff of the Zen? If so they're doing a smashing job of being unoriginal. Looks to me like a Chinese clone company.
I wouldn't go that far but I did notice they went with the landscape layout as well
lol at all the comments here. The M6 has been out over a year (known about for a year and a half), and this version of the M6 has been known about for months. And if they can beat the SQ from their old DSP which is fekking good to start with, then phwoar.
Get your facts straight, it was Creative who copied from Meizu.
haha, oh god these comments are already falling in line...
let me break the trend first by saying I've been waiting for this to come out forever, and the audio quality of the first M6 FAR surpassed any of the iPods, which to me is the most important aspect! Audio quality!
On top of that, this thing will play just about any format you throw at it, and it doesn't require iTunes.
you guys can keep praising/crying about the aesthetics of all these new devices, I'll keep not caring, and paying more attention to the ergonomics and function of said products.
I'm surprised ipods are still in the game, I thought we now expected more than merely a white case to impress us, and isn't ipod now so overdone that its floating on 'image' doesn't work anymore?
It certainly aren't features that makes ipods sell.
Incidentally meizu is the MP3 player range name of dana-electric and has made a solid name for itself for some time now little-timmy-who-knows-only-ipods.
Weird fishing theme for the backdrop I must say, I guess it's a change huh.
@producerism
I agree!!! The audio quality of my 1st generation M6 is awesome. i bought an 8GB with lots of extras a month ago in Shanghai for about $130CDN (or $120US) and i couldn't be happier. No iTunes garbage is such a plus. Meizu is not a clone company, it's a legitimate electronics company. They incorporate their own ideas into their devices too. Is Nokia or Google being bashed as an Apple wannabe company? no, just Meizu. Try their devices first before bashing them like you know what the hell you're talking about.
How good is the playlist support? Can I make smart playlists, for instance something like "Tracks released between 1990 and 1999, Rock, 4 or 5 stars, that I haven't listened in the last month". They are extremely easy to make on iTunes, so unless they are just as easy to use on the Meizu, I don't see "not having to use iTunes" as an advantage. Drag and drop is fine for a 1 or 2GB device, but with 8GB I don't want to make my playlists by hand, picking each song.
So, does it have any kind of smart playlists support?
Sorry, the company who should really be emberassed by this is Microsoft.
Apple has a successful product. From their perspective, who cares if this Meizu offering is better? They're selling iPods as quickly as they can make them, and will be even moreso after today.
Microsoft, on the other hand, is one of the world's largest corporations, and is getting beaten by a no-name Chinese company on not only price (which you would expect), but also on FEATURES and DESIGN. That is inexcusable. Is there any doubt that if this were a Zune, Microsoft would be doing better than they are now?
Awesome theory, the only problem is that the Meizu M6 was released a year before the new Creative ZEN as the first pocket sized DAP to operate horizontally with navigation right to the screen.
But hey, the ZEN can't be a clone because Creative aren't Chinese, right?
I just got the 4GB M6 a couple of weeks ago for $75 shipped. I am very pleased with it; music, pictures, movies and FM radio in a small format with a big (relative) screen.
Sound quality is indeed excellent and working as a standard USB drive means I can use music manager software of my chooseing or just drag'n'drop on any pc I connect to.
I have played with shuffles, nanos and the latest generation Video iPods but I coudl never convince myself to get one - I'm not a hater but the price:performance ratio (compared ot other offerings) and being tied to itunes (or hacks) put me off.
Creative invented the iPod inferface, which Apple stole causing Creative to lose money as they get no recogintion.
Creative has just released new ZEN flash player that's similar to Meizu M6, but has 16.7 million color LCD screen and supports SDHC cards. It comes in 4, 8 & 16GB. It's the first Zen to support unprotected AAC files.
Had anyone heard that there are gonna be new iPods announced today? The beat goes on isn't about music. It's about beating non-Apple personal media players and associated companies into total oblivion.
Supposedly during the event, Steve is gonna press a button and all non-Apple personal media players will self-destruct immediately driving US iPod market share to 99%. Unfortunately the self-destruct signal won't reach American travelers overseas so those 1% are safe for now.
Rumored SuperiPod has 6" foldable touch widescreen, 250 GB drive and SDHC slot, WiMax 2.0, Diehard micro battery w/solar charging, voice input and free lifetime digital radio subscription service all for $250. Fits into shirt pocket. Free wireless headphones for first 5 million buyers or two days (whichever comes last).
It's game over for Zen, Creative, Sony, LG, Meizu and any other PMP producing company. They'll make watches instead, but not very good ones.
the day is mine!
I have bought virtually every iteration of the ipod, but when I put my 1st gen nano through the wash, I decided to pick up an M6.
Cons first: the interface is a bit rubbish, and a scroll wheel is definitely the easiest way to maneuver through long lists. Also, the id3 tag support is a bit all over the place, as some of my albums won't go to the next track; they'll just repeat the last second of the track like a broken record.
Pros: as others have mentioned, the sound quality is most definitely significantly better than the ipod. Even using the supplied headphones that came with it (until they broke), it was very noticeable. This was regardless of the music -- opera, drum 'n bass, guitar rock, it was all better.
And I have to admit, I never used to listen to the radio, but I do a lot with the M6. I love mine (but am still waiting to see what's announced today).
Funny thing is, I was in China for three weeks and I looked for the Meizu everywhere. I never saw it for sale once, but I DID see plenty of clones.
FLAC?
yeah it does flac
You can buy it at Newegg, but not the SL yet. All of them are almost perfect 5 star ratings. This tells you how good they are.
I just asked some relatives in China to get me one!