SmartQ TAO, Nice M7 Alternative

SmartQ Have been at it again with a new player called the TAO. Looks really nice. No gaming or gimics just straight Audio, Video, Photo, eBook & Voice recorder.

500Mhz ADI Blackfin Processor
3.3 Inch 480x320 Resolution 262,000 Colour Screen
Audio: MP3, FLAC, OGG, APE, WMA
Video: Divx, Xvid, MPEG4, RMVB, FLV
Image: BMP, JPEG, GIF, PNG
Album Art Support
Cover flow style Photo Browsing called 'PicFlow3D'
SD card slot ( I presume SDHC will be supported like the T5 II)

It is not a touch screen and there is no word on battery life yet. According to a test of a pre-release unit on imp3.net, Xvid and Divx play smoothly upto DVD resolution (not convinced my self but we will have to see), RMVB support was even higher. Prices for the 4GB model are 699RMB ($100 approx)





More images and info here >>>>

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That's... cheap... I'll bet the screen is PSed though.

If you follow the link you can see the player in action and the interface on the screen itself, that is definitely what the interface looks like. The Firmware is very similar to that of the SmartQ T5 which I own. They have also used the wolfson audio chip in the past as used in the Meizu m6. People need to start recognising SmartQ as they are IMO the only other company comeing out of China making DAPs/PMPs that can rival Meizu in terms of FW.

I have used many players from ramos, hacha, Meizu, onda and other manufactuers and IMO my SmartQ T5 has the best FW and most powerful CPU out of them all (apart from maybe the m6 FW). However their FW is actually better than the M6's in many ways and their video playback capabilities and ebook function obliterates the M6.

haha that joke! how random!

If it had a capacitive touchscreen, I'd check it out, but such a large screen is wasted like this. Think of the Nokia N95.

I have to disagree. 99% of chinese players have poorly implemented resistive touch screens which suck ass. Calibrating a touch panel well, particularly for finger use is not easy to do. Windows mobile is a prime example of software that does not properly support finger based touch input. I would much prefer a non touch screen to any of the poorly implemented touch screens available on chinese players. Also touch screens have draw backs too and in many ways do not actually make navigation easier. Blind operation is impossible, you get smudges and marks all over the screen, they also require 2 handed operation at all times. Bare in mind that capacative touchscreens are also expensive and would hike the pice up and any player with a resistive touch screen is a waste of time IMO. Don't get me wrong I do like touch screens but I don't think it necessarily detracts from a player not having one, it just has means the player has slightly less 'wow' factor.

I've had my eyes on SmartQ ever since I read about the T5-II, and now the TAO looks even better! I think that they're still a relatively small company, but with devices like this they'll grow in the market in no time

I also disagree about the touchscreen remark. IMO that's an over-hyped feature. It does look cool, but adds up to the price and doesn't really improve usability (and it can actually reduce it, sometimes).

What I would really like to know is: will the TAO also have TV-out? The T5-II did, right?

@sere

Yeah, I've seen some of the crappy resistive touch screens, I've used one before. Prime example are the iClones/iFail@Cloning.

Originally Posted by Traps

I've had my eyes on SmartQ ever since I read about the T5-II, and now the TAO looks even better! I think that they're still a relatively small company, but with devices like this they'll grow in the market in no time

I also disagree about the touchscreen remark. IMO that's an over-hyped feature. It does look cool, but adds up to the price and doesn't really improve usability (and it can actually reduce it, sometimes).

What I would really like to know is: will the TAO also have TV-out? The T5-II did, right?

here is the official spec list:



I don't think this player will include Tv-Out as the spec does not mention it. However in the past SmartQ have released updated versions of their players with TV-OUT (eg. T5 updated to T5 II)

I think the main issue with TV-Out is that if the CPU is not powerful enough to support high res video, the picture quality will not be good. Most CPU's in chinese players are not powerful enough to properly perform this function, so the quality of the picture on Tv-out is pretty poor.

We must remember that even regular CRT tv's have a resolution of 640x480, so if you are feeding a video signal encoded lower than this it will not look great. Even Cowon's new S9 player will only support video upto 480x272, I can't imagine that Tv-Out will look great at that resolution.

Tests will have to be done to see what the maximimum resolution supported in all video formats will be on the TAO. Imp3.net have run some tests on a pre-release unit and indicate that Xvid and Divx is supported upto DVD resolution and RMVB is higher. However this is no guarantee that playback is smooth as many companies and sites make these kinds of claims. Here is the review >>>

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If this is the case though and SmartQ do release a TV-Out version it could prove to actually be a very useful function.

UPDATE: just to clarify, I have just found out that like all previous SmartQ players, the TAO will have NO INTERNAL MEMORY. It will run completely off SD/SDHC cards. This is bad as it will max out at 16gb but good as external/internal memory integration won't be a problem any more.