Meizu M7 doesn't look familiar at all

Well, that didn't take long. Hot on the heels of the iPod touch starting to ship, spunky Chinese upstart Meizu has announce the M7, a curiously-familiar PMP featuring a 3-inch touchscreen. Meizu CEO Jack Wong announced the player on the company's forums, so details are a little sketchy, but it looks like the unit will feature a 16:9 480 x 288 screen and support H.264 playback. The picture is apparently a mockup, but we're hearing that the M7 will go on sale in late 2008 in 1GB, 2GB and 8GB versions for $100, $110, and $150. Of course, given how long it's taken the M8 to hit, that's all up in the air, but something tells us we'll be hearing a lot about this thing in the future.

[Via PMP Today]

[bruckwine @ Sep 19th 2007 8:52PM]

What, no 4 GB model?! This is doomed doomed! Would still buy it over a touch though lol!

[Paul @ Sep 19th 2007 9:29PM]

good to know...

http://www.sizeasy.com/page/size_comparison/5441-Apple-iPhone-vs-iPod-Touch-vs-Samsung-YP-P2-vs-Meizu-M7

[Alan Partridge @ Sep 19th 2007 9:30PM]

Im surprised this post hasn't been spammed (yet) with that "Chinese piracy costs us $600billion a year" rubbish or "Typical Chinese thieves" etc. Where have all the racists gone?

[LordFarkward @ Sep 19th 2007 9:48PM]

alan, that's a proven fact, not racism. heck, i'm a chinese myself and i still don't like what they're doing. want more proof? say check out "li ning" and "anta", they're both sports brand in china, li ning's logo is 'inspired' by nike, and have been doing quite well. anta comes into the picture, and decides they should copy li ning's logo... yes, this is how bad it is

It's so funny how meizu keep doing this. They see something coming out from apple (iphone, touch), rushes to their computers and do a mockup (m8, m7) photoshop and then 'claim' what their features and price points will be, and then say that they'll launch it like a decade later...

[kas @ Sep 19th 2007 11:03PM]

There are two facts intentionally ignored:
1. The original post from the CEO was posted on 2007-9-2 2:28:00, which was before ipod touch anounced;
2. J.Wong's post was to POLL the users community to see how many people are interested in such kind of design.

Please see the link as following:
http://www.meizu.com/bbs/dispbbs.asp?BoardID=22&ID=551017&replyID=2685233&skin=1

[Paul @ Sep 19th 2007 11:54PM]

Even more interesting is the translated version of the site...

http://www2.worldlingo.com/SG57TOc3OQEKDfaVckWDX00P4iv,6sqPb/translate

Notice the left side of the top blue bar "Demon Race English BBS"

WTF?!?

[Paul @ Sep 19th 2007 11:59PM]

Dangit, just tried that link and it didn't work.

Go here

http://www.worldlingo.com/en/websites/url_translator.html

copy and paste the url from above, and change the "from" to Chinese Simplified and the "to" to English

[kas @ Sep 19th 2007 11:59PM]

That was suppose to be "meizu's blog" in Chinese. That's translator's bad.

[Wwhat @ Sep 19th 2007 8:57PM]

"on sale in late 2008", late 2008? uhm..

[Paul @ Sep 19th 2007 9:32PM]

That's code for Q4.95

[aron @ Sep 19th 2007 11:53PM]

Well if you actually go and read the forum, it's slated to come out in March 08, not Q3 08. Secondly, the idea appears to have been floating around since Sept 2 07, as a replacement to the M6 apparently. Of course, I'll be viewed as a Communist, a pirate, and Meizu lover for saying this :)

[Wwhat @ Sep 20th 2007 8:41AM]

Well it's a bit early to speak of an mp3 player that is meant for late/second half of 2008, who knows what the competition is, and how many GB is standard then, or what we expect from a player.
Also, why the hell would it take more than a year to slap together a new mp3 player? are you sure it's not late 2007?
Did you know you can hurl the entire planet all around the sun in that time? and that's with breaks :)
The whole thing seems very curious.

[Señor Swanky @ Sep 19th 2007 8:59PM]

This clearly steals the Zune form. Shameless and not brown or pink.

[Zach @ Sep 19th 2007 9:01PM]

I was scrolling up from the comments and saw a Zune ad. The first thing that came to mind was "Hey! Meizu shamelessly copied the Zune ad!", then it hit me. They do look remarkably similar.

[joe23521 @ Sep 19th 2007 9:15PM]

Meizune?

[MMalecky @ Sep 19th 2007 9:06PM]

LATE TWO THOUSAND EIGHT?

Shit, there had better be a better iPod touch-beater out by then than this knockoff.

[Arjy @ Sep 19th 2007 9:06PM]

Wow. Just wow. First the M8 now the M7. Christ.

[Jason @ Sep 19th 2007 9:07PM]

This makes me sick... I mean, yes they have the right to make an MP3 player that may look like an iPod Touch, but seriously if you showed me only a screenshot of this Meizu M7 I would've thought it wasn an iPod Touch. Can they make it ANY more alike? I feel ashamed... :(

[Xavier Gill @ Sep 19th 2007 9:27PM]

Dont like competition? Then go move to a communist country...

[Killian @ Sep 19th 2007 9:31PM]

guess where this product came from Gill...

[James @ Sep 20th 2007 5:26AM]

Shame it was announced before the iPod Touch.

iFanboys try to change the space-time continuum yet again......

[Jeebus @ Sep 20th 2007 1:08PM]

"Dont like competition? Then go move to a communist country."

Like China?

[trancer @ Sep 19th 2007 9:11PM]

will this ever make it to the US?

[joe23521 @ Sep 19th 2007 9:17PM]

It does look a lot like the touch, but I think it actually looks a little better.

[jman315 @ Sep 19th 2007 9:38PM]

pricing? really? $10 between 1gb and 2gb? and $40 between 2gb and 8gb? come on.

and stftw late 2008??

Thats a negative ghost rider, the pattern is full.

[kingofwale @ Sep 19th 2007 9:26PM]

150 for a 8GB or pay Apple twice as much..

wow, I just resist the urge to throw my money away.

the fact remains, Apple is way overcharging their loyal customers.

[LordFarkward @ Sep 19th 2007 9:38PM]

sure, hold on to your money and wait for this product that's announced a year early to its launch date... so when is your m8 arriving?

[frogger @ Sep 19th 2007 9:29PM]

i actually agree that it looks better, but come on, 2008??
the ipod touch will probably already have a second gen or at least a refresh out by then...
love the white, but if it were out by x-mas, or at least spring 08, people might consider it, but not late 08.

[Jean-Michel Decombe @ Sep 19th 2007 9:30PM]

Meizu is on a mindfuck crusade. Soon people will be berating Apple for copying Meizu. LOL.

[apple fanboy @ Sep 19th 2007 9:42PM]

ʎoquɐɟ ǝlddɐ

[Jean-Michel Decombe @ Sep 19th 2007 9:59PM]

¡⅂O⅂

[Killian @ Sep 19th 2007 10:09PM]

im impressd

[Jean-Michel Decombe @ Sep 19th 2007 10:31PM]

⠚⠥⠎⠞ ⠥⠝⠊⠉⠕⠙⠑

[LordFarkward @ Sep 19th 2007 10:50PM]

meh
i'll be more impressed when you guys start typing in squircles

[Jean-Michel Decombe @ Sep 19th 2007 10:56PM]

As the Braille says, there's really no reason to be impressed. It's just friggin' Unicode.

[gtsaigt @ Sep 19th 2007 9:55PM]

is any of this company's product on market?

after hearding so news of this company
i wonder if they exist
heard of this before iphone came out
and it still have no release on market
or... it just in China?

[joe23521 @ Sep 19th 2007 11:09PM]

The M6 is currently available in the US.
Reviews have been quite good.

[seoultrain @ Sep 19th 2007 11:11PM]

The Meizu M6 has been on the market for a while.

It's a great product. You should read up on it. Available to order from reputable resellers, too.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Description=meizu&x=0&y=0

[ilh @ Sep 20th 2007 4:25AM]

SQ on the M6 is better than anything i've heard in a DAP, and it's supposed to be even better with the SL out in a few days. M6 just generally kicks the crap out of the Nano.

[rawr @ Sep 19th 2007 9:57PM]

well how else can they make a player that is mostly screen and square shaped?

its gotta have way better codec support as well.. the m6 already supports a ton of codecs.

[Paul Hung @ Sep 19th 2007 11:23PM]

by late '08 the iPhone will probably have 64GB. Boo...

[i.c. weiner @ Sep 19th 2007 11:32PM]

well, i just came out from under my rock. What's new?

[akatsuki @ Sep 20th 2007 7:49AM]

Apple left the perfect opportunity by not making the nano just a smaller touch. Now companies should step in with something similar.

[Lex @ Sep 20th 2007 7:54AM]

You people do realize that if it does come out in 2008 it will have the same features of anything else that will be out then... No one is stupid enough to make a product and then ship it out when its been outdated.

[sola6loria @ Sep 20th 2007 11:50AM]

The menu layout certainly looks familiar.

Oh yeah.