Because Phat’s the New Slim, Here Come the Phatty Clones

Ever since Apple released their G3 “Phatty” iPod Nanos, we were wondering when Chinese copycats would release a version for the underprivileged. The wait is no more, because the new Phatty Clones are here! To be honest, and even if it’s only on the outside, this time the clones actually look quite good.

Shenzhen’s YJL announces U2-C, a MP3 player equipped with a 1.8 inch color TFT screen that also does video, voice recording and FM radio. Press the buttons hard enough and it will also display eBooks (READ: .txt files), pictures and allow you to modify the screen brightness.

No worries on availability, it’s only a matter of time before Chinese eBay sellers will stock 1GB versions of this player and sell them as 8GB. Happy bidding!

[Via Alibaba]

Meizu Mini One GUI Released!

Meizu CEO Jack Wong today posted pictures, supposedly finalized, of the Meizu M8 Mini One GUI. Somehow it looks awfully familiar.

[Via Meizu Me]

Beware Fatty Nanos, M6 Slim’s Coming Atcha!

The tale of a mini-PMP that wanted to lose weight…

French memory giant Dane-Elec, Meizu’s official european vendor, will pretty soon stop distributing the Meizu M6 in order to concentrate on the M6 SL. The now renowned M6’s younger brother should be arriving real soon, as in just a matter of weeks.
For all of you latecomers, here’s what we’re talking about : the Meizu M6 SL will bare a 2.41” QVGA LCD screen, and will be as huge as 78 x 46.5 x 7.3 mm. Real big. Almost Nano-like fat.

Soon after the M6 SL being launched, Meizu will stop producing the regular M6 to let his skinny successor take over the world.

Cost should be around $85, $105 and $145 for 2, 4 and 8GB versions. Stay tuned for more details.

Original version at Meizu Blog France

ONDA VX878 – iPhone Nano Earlier Than Expected

What do you get if you take the already cheaper ONDA VX858LE and reduce the price further by 100 CNY?

Easy. You get the newly announced ONDA Honey VX878. For only 399 CNY (that’s under $55 USD), you get a dwarfed down version of the VX858, featuring all the same features and specifications with three main differences; the screen, battery and GUI. The screen is now 2.4″ with 260k colors, down from 2.8″ with 1.6 million colors and although the new battery is 650mAh, down from 100mAh, it can still manage a solid 15 hours of audio playback. Finally, the GUI has been improved, and we have to say, it now looks really good.

To recap, ONDA VX878 will be a small iPhone lookalike MP3 player with a 2.4″ 260k color touchscreen supporting media formats AVI, MP3, WAV, WMA, FLAC, APE, TXT, LRC, JPG, BMP a FM tuner, voice recording and games. It has a built in speaker and will support microSD/Transflash memory cards of up to 4GB.

ONDA VX878 is set to hit Chinese streets early next month.

[Via ZOL Product Page]

Update: Earlier than we expected, DAPSTA has the ONDA VX878 available for $75 USD.

ONDA Honey VX858LE: Cheaper, Better..?

Several months earlier Chinese ONDA released the VX858 to their Honey line of music players, a player well received by the Chinese market. Later it was also brought to Italy by Pasen as the iTouch.

The “iPhone clone” recently saw a price drop of 100 CNY (approx. 13USD). Now labeled VX858LE (limited edition or just poor naming?), the player had its stylus, charger removed and DSP changed from a Wolfson WM8750 to a Rockchips RK2808A. Apart from the internal speakers now being a little quieter, the casual user won’t find much difference. Internal tests by The Gadget Site however also show that the touchscreen has been improved; with new and better looking finish plus more responsive controls.

ONDA VX858LE is a solid-feeling player with obvious design cues “borrowed” from Apple’s iPhone. It’s got a nice 2.8″ touchscreen featuring 1.6 million colors and supports MPEG-4 (and soon Flash Video) video at 24fps, MP3, WAV, WMA, FLAC, APE, TXT, a FM tuner, voice recording and… Tetris.

The 2GB VX858LE is currently available on the Chinese market for 499 CNY, or roughly $66 USD.