Ainol's palatable V3000 PMP priced at $100

For obvious reasons, we don't get too excited about PMPs developed and produced entirely in China, but similar to Gemei's lot, Ainol looks to have a winner on its hands with the V3000. We've seen this display-dominated unit prancing around for awhile now, but we've just now learned how much the company plans on charging for it: 699 Chinese yuan, or around $102 before haggling. For that, you'll get 4GB of internal space, a 4.3-inch 800 x 480 resolution display, FM tuner, TV output and a rechargeable battery. Now, where to find one is the real challenge.

[Via PMPToday]

[rumblejazz @ Oct 5th 2008 1:01PM]

What an unfortunate brand name for a pretty ok product!

[slarity @ Oct 5th 2008 1:05PM]

LOL I didnt think anything of it until I read your comment... thats horrible!

[Rob @ Oct 5th 2008 1:08PM]

Hahah, just noticed :D

[Patrick R @ Oct 5th 2008 1:37PM]

you sir get high ranked.
very well said

[nevarre @ Oct 5th 2008 2:05PM]

The name is bad enough, before you notice the asterisk there like a winking brown eye...

[Samboini @ Oct 5th 2008 3:06PM]

One up the bum, no harm done.

Apparently.

[konshuss @ Oct 5th 2008 4:38PM]

can't wait for their new model the Ainol Loob

[Muhammad-Oli @ Oct 5th 2008 5:48PM]

This is one of the funniest comment sections I've ever come across on engadget. Who would've thought Ainol would be such fun!

[Rogue_Genius @ Oct 5th 2008 6:18PM]

Ah rumble, the jokes just write themselves don't they? LOL

[k4p741n krunch @ Oct 5th 2008 6:42PM]

I wonder if them and RIM will ever team up and make a sweet media phone!

[rumblejazz @ Oct 5th 2008 7:13PM]

@Rogue Genius


Hahahaha yeah!!!!

On a more serious note:

Please do not use or capatalize 'lol' in future replies.

[Stellar Developer @ Oct 5th 2008 9:44PM]

@rumblejazz

OMFG, get a life : )

[quote]
On a more serious note:

Please do not use or capatalize 'lol' in future replies.
[/quote]

[nd @ Oct 5th 2008 9:51PM]

$102? I'd pay $102 for Ainol...

[konshuss @ Oct 6th 2008 8:39AM]

if they did outsource to RIM, would it be an Ainol RIM job?

[Samboini @ Oct 5th 2008 1:01PM]

Well spec'd for the price but ultimately I have no use for one! I do everything via my phone nowadays apart from watch films which is via my laptop.

[Rob @ Oct 5th 2008 1:08PM]

The problem with all these Chinese PMPs- even though they play tons of formats, have high resolution screens, etc- THEY DON'T HAVE ENOUGH MEMORY. 4GBs for a 800x480 display? That's ridiculous....barely fits two movies at that resolution.

[Ionut @ Oct 5th 2008 2:28PM]

No, that is not the problem.
Usually all of them have an extansion port. So go get another 8/16GB microsd and you're done.

The chineese PMP suffer from 2 problems:
1. low clocked chipsets
2. buggy firmware

This one does have a better firmware but a low clocked chipset for that resolution.

[MMalecky @ Oct 6th 2008 10:39AM]

Definitely has a mini SD slot, as per this product photo.

http://www.fotothing.com/photos/7da/7da252c5344e7d867cea2057078522d0.jpg

Man, if I could tweak the clocking on this sucker, it'd make a damn nice pmp.

[SHOTT3R @ Oct 5th 2008 1:32PM]

Yea you definitely won't get Ainol everywhere, that's for sure.

[Montusama @ Oct 5th 2008 1:34PM]

If I had a real need for one.....I'd get it but trying to get that on a cell phone instead.....

[liv @ Oct 5th 2008 1:54PM]

did you just say you had a real need for Ainol?!

[SFO Kevin @ Oct 5th 2008 4:31PM]

Don't knock it til you try it ;-)

[jaredwork @ Oct 5th 2008 1:37PM]

Well, that certainly looks like a whole lot of Ainol fun!

[Earthian @ Oct 5th 2008 1:37PM]

there is the 8MB model on eBay for ~$130

just search on eBay for "ainol V3000"

[DRT @ Oct 5th 2008 1:44PM]

Boy, I'd sure love to fit two mp3s on that model.

[Earthian @ Oct 5th 2008 2:15PM]

hey , 640KB should be enough lol

(though actually the "quote" from Bill Gates has been debunked

http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/1997/01/1484)

[Wwhat @ Oct 6th 2008 4:04AM]

Gates denies it (the EXACT quote they asked him that is) equals 'debunked' now? Not in my book it doesn't.
Sounds like a european inquiry where they go to the accused politicians and ask them if they are guilty and if they say no they consider the case closed...

[Earthian @ Oct 6th 2008 8:08AM]

considering the involvement of Gates in computers in general ... I think that he either did not say the supposed "quote" ... or ... that he said it in a "car salesman" context , not meaning "eternally" but rather like "hey , buy this car , that's the only car you will ever need" , in which case it would be an expression and not an "absolute statement"

you say he "falsely" denied it ... but do you have a verifiable source that he actually did say it ?



it sounds more like an urban legend like the one that the Head of the US Patent Office once said that everything that was to be invented has already been invented , which is false too

(the urbanlegends.com site seems not to be working , but I found an old page through archive.org

http://web.archive.org/web/20020807235424/http://www.urbanlegends.com/misc/patent_office_ul.html)



lastly ... the european politicians comment is just unfounded and unsubstantiated

[Wwhat @ Oct 6th 2008 5:43PM]

Excuse me? The EU statement is perfectly verifiable, I've actually SEEN a head of an inquiring committee say that they checked an accusation by simply asking the accused party and them accepting his answer as authoritative.
Also I think there is plenty of evidence that asking a person if an embarrassing statement he made was made by him is NOT the way to 'debunk' something, seems obvious to me and I think most people above the age of 5.

[Earthian @ Oct 6th 2008 6:57PM]

without knowing the specifics of the case , I can't comment on the european politician case you are talking about , do you have a link that describes/verifies what you said ?

in some cases , if a person is of a certain status by testifying something (especially under oath) is taken very seriously , since that person would be risking his position/fame if what he said is proved otherwise later on

but , again, without knowing the exact case/person I don't know what exactly went on



"most people above the age of 5" would easily understand that someone who has been so heavily involved in computers would be able to understand how computers were evolving and logically would not set an "absolute limit" to their expansion

most people would easily see that it just a rumour/urban-legend ... or ... that in-context it was actually said for something else , eg. that 640KB is enough space to allocate for user programs from the 1024KB of the original IBM PC (the other 384KB were reserved for system use) instead of a different configuration like 512KB/512KB or 256KB/768KB

[Trent @ Oct 5th 2008 2:00PM]

bwahahaha

[Freakin Ijit @ Oct 5th 2008 2:13PM]

A hundred bucks for a screen of that resolution?

I think I could think of a use or two...

[Game_playa @ Oct 5th 2008 2:57PM]

A use for Ainol??

[backdoorman @ Oct 5th 2008 2:34PM]

i love it!!

[Jash Sayani @ Oct 5th 2008 2:57PM]

Resolution looks cool ! But its better to avoid the China stuff.....

[Steve @ Oct 5th 2008 3:07PM]

Anne Hathaway thinks every girl just try this pmp!

[lanejasper69 @ Oct 7th 2008 9:18PM]

Yeah, like everything we buy in the states isn't from China anyway..LOL

[PlopperZ @ Oct 5th 2008 3:06PM]

I'll just leave an Ainol pun here.
Highest Ranked please.

[noyp @ Oct 5th 2008 10:16PM]

You've gotta love irony!

Guys, stop the puns. It's only funny the first time.

[htd @ Oct 5th 2008 3:08PM]

the chipset is better than v2000se I am using. the v2000se has an overclock version of firmware which helps a lot on playback, I have no problem for >90% files now. the built quality could be improved, I saw some posts complaining about v3000 battery, maybe just for early model.

I am going to china next month, still wondering if I need to buy one, or keep using my laptop at home for that. 4.3" is a little bulky, 699RMB for 4G is MSRP, not sure about street price yet. also I have a 8g microSD from kingston, which sure is nice and large to hold media files.

[joe @ Oct 5th 2008 3:08PM]

'Enjoy life Enjoy ainol' probably doesn't say exactly what they had intended when picking an english slogan.

http://www.ainol.com/images/logo.gif

[j.pickens @ Oct 5th 2008 11:33PM]

I'm getting the T-shirt.

[Wwhat @ Oct 6th 2008 3:49AM]

Hehe, the t-shirt market profits keeps the PMP prices low I guess. :)

[Metamorphic @ Oct 5th 2008 3:28PM]

Don't like Apples nor Micro things but I sure do like it Ainol.

Also, this time they have no models taking Ainol pictures.

[Jon Nelson @ Oct 5th 2008 3:47PM]

...I just want to know what exactly they're playing on the screen in that photo.

[William Briere @ Oct 5th 2008 4:09PM]

I agree, I want to know what's playing too.

[Phoenix @ Oct 5th 2008 4:40PM]

http://www.abc.net.au/abckids/shows/prog394.htm

It's on UK TV as well

[CJ @ Oct 6th 2008 4:43AM]

Yeah, it's a kids show. Bernard I believe it's called.

It's actually quite funny, in an only-five-year-olds-will-find-it-funny kind of way.

[ska @ Oct 5th 2008 3:50PM]

Hope the Ainol doesn't have a wall 'wart' for a power supply.

[Pedja @ Oct 5th 2008 4:51PM]

khm: eBay #330276612922