My review of the M6 Miniplayer

No tech p0rn (No pics). But this is my honest review. Lenghty.

It is strange how I came into the owning a M6. Back when MP3 players were in their infancy, I refused to carry one. The initial interfaces were clunky at best, and the players didn’t hold a lot of music. I figured back then I’d stick with CD players and home made CD’s for variety. Then the iPod came along. I remembered back then that I though it was a good idea, but it failed on the implementation: a full fledged hard drive in a delicate electronic enclosure? A recipe for disaster. I must confess that although I’m a high tech fan, I’m also a klutz when it comes to kit. (2003 was a signature year for me, I destroyed 5 cell phones in 365 days).

By the time the Nano was new, I figured that I needed to get into the bandwagon. However, by the time the Nano hit the market the iPod ‘revolution’ was in full swing. I refused then to bow to the pressure: I knew full well about Apple’s proprietary hardware and software formats as they related to the iPod. The whole ecosystem was a bit stinky for me so I chose another route: I purchased one of Sony’s new (back then) Hi-Md’s Minidisc players. Here I had a player with very little moving parts, a long battery life and relatively OK MP3 compatibility. The player of course had its flaws: you could only use it with Sony’s proprietary sync software (an evil I learned to deal with), the transfer speeds were dismally slow and Sony’s ATRAC format was very ambivalent; you could fit a lot of songs on a single disc through compression, but it was proprietary. Some podcasts in MP3 format didn’t work.

I got tired of the MD and put it on eBay. Then I sinned: I got a used iPod Shuffle. My primary use of for the Shuffle (and for the other MP3 players for that matter) has always been to listen to my favorite podcasts in my determined order. I could do this with the Shuffle and iTunes. But it had its quirks. First, and foremost, NO SCREEN. I hated falling asleep on my flights only to find out when we landed that I had missed my Podcasts. No big deal, right? But then when I synced with iTunes the podcast would be marked as played, thus iTunes would automagically erase the podcast. That and the fact that if I downloaded a track from an artist I wanted to sample I wouldn’t know how to find it. Also, there was the ‘me too’ factor of the Shuffle.

It was then that I started looking for alternatives. I searched high and low for a worthy alternative: brand names were out of the question (Sansa, Creative, &c.). I wanted a company that could remain independent of the *AA’s as much as possible. That left me with largely with Chinese tech. Now, I don’t say ‘Chinese Tech’ as a pejorative term, far from it. I instinctively knew that some enterprising company was building something that I could use. Not cheap iPod knockoffs, nor simpleton MP3 players. Enter the Meizu.

I stumbled upon the Meizu M6 by chance, while visiting a forum or two which led me to the Anything but Ipod site. At first I was very skeptical: Does this device actually exist? The only difference between the Meizu and the Sansa e200 series was that the Sansa has expandable memory, and I don’t really need that. Besides, the Meizu looks way better than the Sansa. I researched far and wide in the ‘net, looking for information. Everywhere I went all I read were positive reviews. So up the Shuffle went into eBay, and I purchased one at auction for approximately $120. I purchased it directly from a Hong Kong merchant, so shipping was a bit steep. However, the device arrived directly from HK to the US east coast in exactly 7 days. Kudos to the guy (or guys) of course. I can send the information privately through a PM to anyone that’s interested.

The device itself comes in a very elegant box, tiny but attractive. I won’t bore you with the details as to what the box contains; suffice to say that everything in it is top quality. Something you’d expect from any of the big name tech vendors out there. I plugged it in to my PC and it got recognized instantly.

The device itself is a charm to use. Easy, intuitive and simple. I substract one point because the touchstrip sometimes is not very accurate, but then again I expected this behavior. My hands are way to big and this happens to me with iPod clickwheels. Still, it would be nice to be able to adjust the strip’s sensitivity. Syncing music is a breeze with WMP (more of that at the end). Album art? Pfeh, who needs album art when you can customize the player’s wallpaper to your liking? Pictures look great and sharp. I haven’t used this feature much; only to load those pictures that I want as wallpapers. I haven’t used the Video function at all, since I don’t download that much video content anyway. I will try it though, when there’s something worthy to see.

Everything else works as expected. The recording capability is a nice feature; I recorded a four hour meeting and the player never complained. I haven’t tested the battery limits yet, but it doesn’t consume less than a quarter of the battery indicator on a two hour flight, plus an hour drive.

Finally, this is what I use to get music into the player. I burn all of my CD’s (I download very little music) to WMP 11 as formatted MP3’s. I use that to transfer music into the device. I use iTunes to download my Podcasts and I send those into the device. Then I use Playlist Creator 3 to build my Podcast playlists and copy it into the SYSTEM folder of the device. I see no other way of ‘sticking it’ to the man (Micro$oft, Apple). I’ll use their tools, but I won’t buy their DRM’d music or devices.

And here’s the (true) beauty of the Meizu; if for some reason M$, Apple and others close the access of their programs to ‘unathorized’ devices, the Meizu will remain open. Not only that, but I can use any OS I so choose to get my music into the thing. Besides, the Meizu is way more elegant than the Nano.

well, good for you. it's always nice to see how satisfied people are with their miniplayers.

hmm... maybe there should be a thread or section of the forums dedicated to testimonials (NOT reviews) for the m6. :D

Well I consider it a review. A very informal and unprofessional one at that.

Bottom line: you can have my MiniPlayer; when you pry it from my cold, dead hands. :D

And it works like a charm. Definetly this player rocks. Video quality is superb, and I get envious looks from people at the gym. :D

Originally Posted by citizenklaw

Well I consider it a review. A very informal and unprofessional one at that.

you have a point. it's just for me, it seems more of a testimonial in that you have also described how the miniplayer has affected your life. reviews usually just describe how the player works and not it's impact on the user.

well, that's just my definition so it's open to interpretation.

Well, I can't say more good things about the device. It works like a charm!

Hi Baby I Love You So Much
!

Originally Posted by JIMLEE

Hi Baby I Love You So Much
!

Wait... what?

Great Review!

Originally Posted by JIMLEE

Hi Baby I Love You So Much
!

What kind of first post is this? Is he your Husband or something?

^ O_O seriously wtf lulz.

LOL. I wonder who JIM LEE really is...