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Filed under: Cellphones

All indications have certainly been pointing towards the Meizu M8 finally, actually being released this year, and it looks like things just got a tad more official, with Taiwan-based retailer Geek IT Stores announcing that it’s signed up as a distribution partner. While it didn’t announce a date in its press release, a bit of prodding by Tech Ticker apparently convinced the company’s sales head to reveal that the phone would be released in December, with China first on the list to be followed shortly by a roll-out in India, where it’ll run you between Rs. 18,000 and Rs. 22,000 (or roughly $384 to $469) for the 8GB model — which, incidentally, is apparently the only model that’ll be available at launch.

Update:some new UI pics here.

[Via Electronista, Tech Ticker]

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Source: Donald Melanson

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Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/gadgets/Meizu_s_CeBIT_booth_shut_down_over_MP3_licensing_issues’; Well, it looks like that Meizu CeBIT shutdown wasn’t for what you’d expect — in a Meizu forum post, Jack Wong says that an Italian company called Sisvel complained about another Meizu PMP’s unlicensed use of the MP3 codec, and that’s what prompted the 5-0 to arrive. Interestingly, Jack also says that it’s all a big misunderstanding, because Meizu products, including the M8, don’t actually play MP3s, just WMA, and that local distributors have to cough up the licensing fees for MP3 playback. Apparently the booth is now open again, with the offending PMP removed — the M8 remains on display, probably because it doesn’t actually work yet.

Read - Jack Wong post at Meizu forums
Read - Heise article about the shutdown

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Source: Nilay Patel

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Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio, Portable Video

Besides that very early prototype handset, Meizu also brought along a rough (and we mean rough) engineering board and display to show off the M8 mini One’s UI and feature set. It was lacking Bluetooth, camera, or WiFi so we weren’t able to see those features of the Opera browser which the mini One will one day happily tout. Still, we had high hopes of seeing just how talented Meizu’s software engineers are at recreating the iPhone’s lauded user experience. Well, from the demo we saw, they’ve come pretty close but they’ve got some serious house cleaning to do before the August launch. Rubber banding scroll bars, finger flick gestures, big inviting icons… it’s all there. Unfortunately, the wheels fell off when set to motion. Meizu claims the issues seen during the demo are due to the display — a stock, touchscreen and sensor with plastic screen (the final product will be glass) which was quickly cobbled together for the purposes of the CeBIT demonstration. Regardless, finger taps were more often than not greeted with cold, stilted silence. Be sure to check out the video to hear how Meizu’s device is different than the iPhone. It’s a bit long and sometimes painful, but if you hang in there long enough you’ll see (and hear) Engadget get the first public phone call from a Meizu M8 mini One… prototype, thingy.Continue reading Video: Meizu M8 mini One OS looks very, very familiar

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Source: Thomas Ricker

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Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio, Portable Video

It’s just three screens on a very early prototype, but for those of you who doubt Meizu’s ability to bring the M8 to market, we give you — the video. Sure, Meizu’s just rendering three image files as opposed to any real processing. Nevertheless, there’s plenty of catchy dialog to hold you over until these pups go live in China sometime around August. Who knew English as a second language could be so fun.Continue reading Video: Meizu M8 mini One

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Source: Thomas Ricker

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Filed under: Cellphones, Features, Portable Audio, Portable Video

var digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/apple/Meizu_M8_mini_One_vs_iPhone_fight’; So we finally had the chance to lay palms to Meizu’s M8 prototype. Better yet, we set it up side by side with it’s muse, the Apple iPhone. Let’s be clear, the prototype is not functional by any stretch of the imagination. It simply turns on and then slaps up one of three images representing the home screen, dialer, or media player depending upon which of the three physical buttons you press along the bottom of the main display. The capacitive touch panel does not work at all. While the physical components may or may not be in place, this is clearly a very early engineering sample. Having said that, Meizu claims that the hardware is complete and final — they are only working on their Meizu OS tweaks to the Windows CE 6.0 base. However, the GUI and icon designs are pretty much locked in at this point with only minor changes expected before this hits China this August for a to be determined price. Unfortunately, Meizu is still working on their international deployment strategy (duh, they’re looking to sign up distributors at CeBIT) so they are not willing to commit to any dates or prices. Gotta say, for all our justifiable M8 bashing, the mini One felt good in the hand and the additional hard buttons, 720 x 480 pixel display, 3 megapixel camera and likely el cheapo price tag have once again perked our interests. Still, it’s a long way from it’s original 3G HSDPA and kitchen-sink roots and a bit too late (GSM/EDGE in 6 months, Puh-leeze) at this point to be anything more than a novelty outside of China. Nevertheless, the development lifecycle has been fun to watch. Click through for the main features and specifications expected at launch. Video in a jiffy.

Continue reading Meizu M8 mini One vs. iPhone… fight!

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Source: Thomas Ricker

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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Given the sheer bulk of press Meizu’s M8 has received over the course of its young, controversial life, it’d seem likely that even the slightest trickle of units onto Chinese store shelves would lead to unboxing shots, videos, and reviews within hours, wouldn’t it? Reports are starting to flow across the ‘nets that M8s are now being made available through several of Meizu’s suppliers, but without a single in-the-wild picture of a fully functional, final spec unit — from Meizu, much less a paying customer — we’re not buying it. For one thing, there aren’t any “zomg I just picked up my m8!” posts on MeizuMe; secondly, MeizuMe’s Err0r says that his site will be the “first place” we read about a release (and frankly, we believe him); and third, after the trials and tribulations the handset has gone through on its long journey to retail, you’d think that we’d at least see it at a trade show before it hit the streets. So, anyone want to prove us wrong by posting shots of their M8?

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Source: Chris Ziegler

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Filed under: Cellphones

These pictures of what appears to be a Meizu M8 MiniOne have been popping up all over, but according to postings by CEO Jack Wong, this is just a final design mockup to judge the “feel” of the device, and isn’t real — in fact, it’s not even made of the planned production materials. That’s pretty random — and probably way more effort than necessary, since we’d think you could judge the feel by, you know, purchasing and holding an iPhone.

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Source: Nilay Patel

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Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

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.

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Source: Thomas Ricker

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