How do you like the M8 design?

Well, CeBIT started, and Engadget has already visited Meizu's booth, and posted lots of pictures of it (video to come later this day).

What do you think about the new design?
I think the white parts look a little weird, but at second glance it's really not thad bad

Live shots of Meizu miniOne M8 CeBIT Prototype

its ok.......i liked the old design .........the white one like this, it gave it a more sophisticated look..now i think it looks more like the iphone....the extra buttons just dont look as clean.....im still gonna buy it tho, i want to see this thing in action !

The white parts doesn't look that nice in my opinion, it should rather be grey, or something darker.

^^^^ yeah,this one is my favorite....i just think the buttons on the front look crowded and the chrome finish on this thing is beautiful.......woundering why they got rid of it

I really like this new, current design.

i like it! the design is really good (in my opinion) just i don't like the back just the black "plastic"(i guess i will get used to this) not silicone because it a good idea for falls do you think it's the final design?? or they will do a little evolution.

Remeber that in J Wong's last post, he said the plastics on the protoype were not the final production materials, so very likely the look of the phone is going to change a bit. A reasonable guess the part that's changing is that white stuff...looks like a quick molding to fit the model.

adamL, J Wong said something about the prototype material not being "final" because they didn't have the time to finish it. So it's just a cheap plastic thing. It will have a metal body, if I remember correctly.

Sorry chengdude, I didn't see your post

i wonder if the protoype is working anyhow. those on engadget say that it did only include some pictures and didnt have any functionality.

Originally Posted by nice2know_u

adamL, J Wong said something about the prototype material not being "final" because they didn't have the time to finish it. So it's just a cheap plastic thing. It will have a metal body, if I remember correctly.

Sorry chengdude, I didn't see your post

yes in fact i remenber that i was looking for a confirmation.thanks.

I think I'm in love :-)

Compared to the M8, the iPhone looks like a brick.

Yeah, it looks great even with that white part on the back which IMHO looks like it's quite durable.

The design: well the semi transparent plastic looks sh****. But even if it will not be replaced later, I will come over it. I also would have preferred six small holes instead of three big ones (dust!).

I am a little bit disappointed:
- no G3 (UMTS) is announced! ... and this on a German fair.
- What's about the small front camera? Has it gone (OK - no use without the front camera)?
- WM 6.0 and not WM 6.1
- no working prototype - hence, no release before August?
- Why do they not even show some demo of the GUI on the prototype boards?

But: It was a good decision to show the up to now status. Although it is not on a stage anyone is happy with, they demonstrate: it is worth waiting and they indeed put effort in it. If the hardware is already final!

AND: they use WM6 - so I do not see the point, why the are not showing it. The OS is functioning, if meizu write the correct drivers (which should be already given by the chip manufactures). So what's wrong?

Remaining:
- I thought the processor they gonna use is not available yet - that would explain why they could not show it running. But why not put it then on the prototype boards (a preview of the processor is available, but bigger (unreliable source)).

- if they have problems with the GUI, why do they not make it semi open source? Even if there will not be any meizu support in the future, the phone might have (big?) chance on the open phone market. I would definitely support it. Win CE applications are easily written.

just my ideas, feel free to correct and comment on me.

The semi transparant plactic is like it comes directly out of the mould, no color injected yet. But it looks allready well made and all the seems match well.

Originally Posted by midsommer

if they have problems with the GUI, why do they not make it semi open source? Even if there will not be any meizu support in the future, the phone might have (big?) chance on the open phone market

That's what I wrote on another thread. They better slap friggin' Android on it. It would probably take less time to make it stable than finishing the whole Win CE thingy. Android look better, it's open, it's linux and would be a perfect companion to my Ubuntu box .

A second guess would be: why do they not donate PointUI? It runs on WM6 but lacks high resolution support.

If meizu donate some of their phones, the guys behind PointUI will certainly support them. Maybe Meizu should get in contact with them.

It would be an easy and cheap ad for both: meizu and PointUI.

Originally Posted by midsommer

A second guess would be: why do they not donate PointUI? It runs on WM6 but lacks high resolution support.

If meizu donate some of their phones, the guys behind PointUI will certainly support them. Maybe Meizu should get in contact with them.

It would be an easy and cheap ad for both: meizu and PointUI.

I agree with that completely! a meizu/pointui M8 minione would be awesome!!

though pointui isnt a perfect GUI unfortunately :-( but its getting there far quicker than meizu is!!

Originally Posted by cubbox

I agree with that completely! a meizu/pointui M8 minione would be awesome!!

though pointui isnt a perfect GUI unfortunately :-( but its getting there far quicker than meizu is!!

I would love an open M8, one on which you would be able to install new UI, or even new OS.
It seems that Meizu is more of a (quite good) hardware manufacturer, but on the software point of view they do not have a lot of resources nor added value. It is nice to provide a WinCE 6 device, for now it seems better than an OSX device that lack applications (although it can change, and it remains to be seen how WinCE6 support WinCE5 applications...and how buggy the m8 customization may be).

But why not break the 1device == 1OS/UI that is so prevalent in the phone market right now? I would far prefer a situation where hardware and software are not as tightly coupled, similar to what we have in the PC world. Not happy with MeizuWinCE6? Install PointUI, or android, or LIMO, or a new contender (free or proprietary).

I guess this would drive prices down and promote interoperability, and also get rid of software locks that are plaging phones. (This is something I can not stand: knowing the hardware is there, but is deliberately locked out by software...like the bluetooth on sooo many phones).

It would let hardware manufacturers compete on specs, design and prices, and software designers on UI, stability, features, and price (difficult to compete against a 0 price heh apple& microsoft ;-) )
A far healthy playing ground imho, one that should drive price down, make the phones not as short lived and one that would be far more easy to compete in for meizu or other asian manufacturers.

The current situation for phones is reminiscent of the pre-PC computing era, or the Mac computing world, for that matter...No surprise Apple like it, and seems quite reluctant to open the iphone...

Yup. I'd say if the hardware is finished, bring it out. Put Windows Mobile 6 (6.1) on it, done. Meizu can then work on their own UI, and when it's done, make it available for the device. I just want the device and don't care if the software is done or not... I'm used to that anyway, my Motorola uses UIQ, which is by far not ready (and never was, I guess. Though 3.0 may be better).

I must say I like the new M8 design overall, and that it looks quite better than the iPhone.. but there are 3 things still itching me:

(1) I'm not very fond of this "3 round buttons" layout. The photoshoped mockup made by fans looked much better IMHO,
(2) I would prefer a completely black (or completely white :P) phone. That would also make more sense considering the M6 and M3 product lines,
(3) The UI, although pretty, is still too iPhone-ish. They should have used a more original design/colour scheme. I prefered this UI design much more.

Anyway, since this was the design they were patenting, there is not much chance that anything changes besides the weird non-final white plastic.. still, I'm happy with the M8 so far.

Now they need to make a final working device, so we can see if it works as it should.