I'm never buying these again.
 

I really should have gotten some info before i bought one of these things. they only thing running on my mind was that it's cheap and it looks like an ipod. Little that i know that it JUST looks like an ipod, there's no file browsing, no wheeling and a seriously crap battery life.

I made a HUGE mistake on buying these. I thought that since it looks like an iPod it must function as an ipod too. so dissapointed in myself. I fell into a trap cuz i really wanted an mp3 player and after the first day i knew i made a mistake.

does anyone feel this way, or is it just me?

Haha, feel same thing ... but I dont buy an ipod lookalike nor did I look for one myself .
I bought a different version , different style , to tell the truth, I hate the look of ipod lolz but that's just me :) . Havent receive my player yet but I dont think I wanna buy one more O_O ... maybe a different Brandname not the unknown one .

Re: I'm never buying these again.
 

This entire forum is devoted to the no-name fake mp4 players that don't play mp4's. What do you think? You're right about one thing; you should have gotten more info. As a general rule, for your edification and future consideration, when you are paying a fraction of what the original item costs; you should expect to give up something in the way of functionality and quality.

Wear your chIpod as a badge of honour. It makes you cool. Personally, I'd be embarassed to ever admit that I own an iPod, let alone walk around in public with one. You might as well join a cult and paint a nazi symbol over your forehead. Remember; doing what everyone else is doing and buying what you see everyone else buying is not cool. You wanna be cool, then you wanna be different. If everyone at your school is "wearing" iPods, you walk in with a CHIpod. Now that's cool. If someone tells you its "cheap", correct them by saying "No. Its "shabby chic". And if the chiPods get too popular in your hood... then you gotta go another way. Perhaps a huge honkin JVC boom box from 1985.

wuzzupnshiat, i would never expect wheeling and stuff from a player for 1/4th the price of an ipod.

mp4 players are cool and great to have around. everything comes with its own pros and cons and unfortunately the mp4 players you have bought dont seem to have given you the best of experiences. its just your bad luck. even ipods have their own problems but that doesnt mean you stop buying them.

i am not forcing you to buy more. its just that if you do, be careful and you can also always ask this forum for its opinion on bad sellers and some common defects which the mp4 players have. and if you face any problems, we will always try our best to help you.

Re: I'm never buying these again.
 

Ok, you do loose the functionality but look at what you also gain:

1. Good pricing.

2. Video playback. iPod Nano's don't do that.

3. FM radio. iPods don't do that either. You will have to buy an adaptor.

4. Customising. You can reskin/retheme most of these players. Put in your own text, change the icons etc.

5. Voice/MIC recording. I don't think the Nano's do that either.


Ok, no scroll wheel, but at least you don't have to move your thumb if you want to scroll up or down all the time. Just keep pressing the button.

iPods also can have bad batteries too, not just these MP4 players.

Hope that makes a case for the MP4 players :).

wuzzupnshiat , when i first got my nano-clone last September, the initial outlook of it impressed me. The player looked very sleek and stylish.

However, the interface kinda turned me off. But got over it by theming.

Next, the limitation of functions kicked in. No multitasking, no file browser, etc etc..

But once you get used to it, it pretty much functions just as well as any mp3 players around, and with a good set of earphones, you're on your way to good music! Minus the static restarts i experienced frequently. :lol:

Re: I'm never buying these again.
 

No folder browsing?

really?

hmm..

well.... what exactly have i been doing when i go to "root" ?
wtf happens every time I put multiple folders in my mp3 player
and then direct myself to what song and what folder i desire?
you can keep the wheel thing.. i mean... didn't KNOBS become
obsolete mid 90's?... no one wanted to crank knobs back then,
i sure the heck don't wanna crank one now...
149 bucks for the cheapest nano... hope you enjoy it.
i paid $49 after shipping for my 1gig, and well..

if i get shoved in a pool, or wrestle with a hooker, no fricken worries.
it's just 50 bucks.


ever see the southpark episode where they reinvint transportation with that wheel thing? " why do I have to shove this thing in my *** and put my mouth on that when you have a controller down there?" .." dunno I just like this function"



if jobs handed you a brick and told you chicks dig this thing... it can be yours for $200...... i bet you would but it and then compare it to something that is modifiable and less expensive and half the worries.

enjoy your brick dude....

Great points everyone. Just wanted to add one more thing: It depends on the seller and the kind of player you buy. If you purchase from a seller who is known for selling low quality players, of course you're going to get crap. If you purchase from someone who is reputable, though, you won't regret it. True, mp4s don't have the same functionality as the iPod, but that's what makes them so attractive - they're DIFFERENT. I'm the only person at my school with an mp4 - everyone else is stuck on the almighty iPod.

Re: I'm never buying these again.
 

I personally see these mp4 players much like you wuzzupnshiat , but it really depends on how much you paid for yours as I wouldn't pay more then 60$

They are more of a curiosity then real MP3 players for daily use.
They work as your main mp3 player but at the same time it's also a much better idea to spend the extra 100$ and get a real player that has a decent battery life/ interface eg IPOD, Meizu, Zen, Clix

To hear that your model still doesn't support file browsing seems like you have the older gen nano clones.

The new ones should have a better interface but still a weak battery life.

Would I recommend a chipod to a friend, probably not unless they were on a super tight budget

These mp4's are so unrelieable my first one stoped working and i exchanged it for a new one but the second one just died. The reson why i bought it in the first place is because i thought it can do more things than an ipod and it's cheap.
one other thing i dislike is the earphone jack. It is so hard to find a compatible earphon for it.

IMHO, the 2 main problems with the clones is the sound quality and battery life. If the sound quality is greatly improved with new headphones (significantly, though) then that's one problem solved.

I don't recall what the battery life is (10 hrs or?) but with the current Nanos able to provide 20-24, that's hard to beat even for the price of a clone. Think of it as use time. While the guy who spent $150 on an iPod, the other guy who spent $60 on a clone is probably recharging while the iPod owner is listening to music. You get my point. The other interesting tidbit I have heard about mp4 players is that some use a cell phone battery and are easily replaced. I think if the mp4 player has removable batteries, that's a huge advantage. I could be mistaken but I thought iPods had to be sent for replacement.

With all that said, however, it is easy to suggest considering one of these clones. You are not tied to particular software and you can get one at a decent price. The iPods are overpriced, aren't they? I was thinking of getting one or a brand name mp3 player but only because I was not too happy with the sound in my mp4 player. Also, I have had to buy an adapter and I discovered the player won't play VBR files (another disadvantage).

But, I bet that these mp4 players will eventually improve, both in design and overall quality. It's just a matter of time. For now, I think they are only good for the price. However, given time and addressing the issues, that could change.

Nah, there are some Nice Chipod's, the touch wheel isn't the most important thing :P and mp4's has video :)

i DON'T like the fact that you can't go through your song list while playing music.

The Nano's are 20-24 hrs battery life? When did that happen? I always read they struggled between 8 and 15, depending on the generation. The Meizu's are known to have better battery life than the Nano's, and they're 20 hours.

OKAY TIME 4 SOME QUICK FAX:

You can change the battery on your Chipod. So long as you are able to snip wires if necessary, solder if necessary, it should be a fairly small easy job. And so long as you can find an iPod battery that has the same dimensions as yours or the dimensions of the opening for your battery, and the voltage rate. The voltage ratings will probably be the same and given that the players are similar in dimensions, the dimensions shouldn't be a problem either. Particularly since the Chipod is thicker than the Nano.
Now all you have to do is find a battery that can fit with a high mah. You can theoretically supercharge your Chipod with a battery that's stronger than the one coming with the iPod.

iPods do have to be sent in for replacement (it used to cost $100, now I believe its $50-60, about the price of a good chipod), but if you're halfway competent, you can do as described above and replace your ipod battery too.

Headphones: You can buy high quality earbuds or headphones with a 2.5mm plug, you just gotta know where to look. I've seen Sennheiser PX100's with the 2.5mm plug on eBay for example. Pair a chipod with one of those and you won't complain about sound quality.

IPods ARE overpriced. They cost less than $90 to make. I think advertising accounts for the rest of the price. The mp4 players will and have been improving. Apparently, so much so that Apple is getting out of the iPod business and into the highly competitive phone business, because apparently, they can't compete with the cheaper, better equivalents that are flooding the market.

I think a lot of things are missed in this discussion about comparing chipods with ipods. You are literally comparing Apples with Oranges. The differences go far beyond a click wheel and a battery. See my chipod v. ipod guide (below) for an idea.

I'll agree with michiganjfrog on this part. I guess it is very difficult to compare the nano-clones with the ipods. The very basic thing is, what you pay is what you get, well almost all the time.

But to compare an ipod with the nano-clone would be like comparing the BMW 5 or 7 series to the perhaps Hyundai or Kia or even China's own Cherry QQ (hope i got the name right).
One is an overpriced luxury, whilst the other is just a simple runabout. Both does the same thing with petrol, but the expensive one gives you additional functions.

Think of benchmarking the BMW with the Hyundai. In terms of speed, functions, comfort, the BMW wins hands down.
The same thing goes for the nano-clones vs. ipod.

As michiganjfrog mentioned, the cost of the ipods are probably at around $90, and the nano-clones might be at around $10 to $15 (i think). So with much lesser costs involved, you really can't expect much (or even the same) from the clones.

Given the choice of the latest ipod and the clones, i'll definitely chose the clones, well the Meizu or Teclast at least.
With the money left over, i'll get a very good set of earphones, get great sounding music, and a couple of bucks left in my pocket to enjoy a latte at the cafe! :lol:

Re: I'm never buying these again.
 

What I have notice that I find ironic is that my Nano clone has better sound quality then my Ipod Video.

I am using Koss Porta Pros headphones which are almost audiophile quality and OMG the Nano clone sounds so much better.

I have tried every EQ preset in the IPod, but nothing matches the sound quality of the cheapo Nano clone using the Classic EQ Preset setting.


1Up for Nano Clones

Re: I'm never buying these again.
 

Hear, hear! I will second that. I took out my 1st gen Nano clone chipod for the first time today, listened for about 15 minutes on my (slightly tweaked) Koss Sportapro headphones, and while I don't know what the Apple Nano sounds like, the sound I was getting was really impressive. It even made Elton John sound good.

Well if you ask me... You should have taken it as a R-I-S-K buying cheap mpx player so that you have at least lessen your expectation/s for the device itself. The fact that it's CHEAP really means a lot for the device this is equals to "l-e-s-s-e-r" functionality. Have that in mind that the more expensive the gadget is the wider range of functionality it could get.... ^_^