First MPx Player

[dirul]

Hello everyone. I recently was looking for an mp3 player, something small, cheap, an alternative to the way over priced iPods. I found some decent 256/512 players that fit my budget and told myself that's all I really needed for the amount of time I'd actually be using it. Then I stumbled upon MPx players.

Wow! ~$50USD for 2 gigabytes!

Then I started to do some research on these things. Seems people have a lot of negative things to say about them, but of course I realize that people that have bad experiences are always more vocal than people with good. This forum has been a great tool to really figure out what I want and what to expect when purchasing one of these devices.

So that being said, I'm looking at purchasing a Glacier. A big 2" screen, nice controls (i.e., they don't try to look like an iPod), good size, good price, and a replaceable battery (!) make this the player I'm liking the most. Also these two videos have really convinced me:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAopmBfBeIg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rM-6qFJq20o

I just ran across the Teclast and Meizu. I'm not so keen on all the red or the joystick on the Teclast and the Meizu is out of my price range. Comparing the players, I really don't see a big difference in features from the Glacier. Teclast's UI seems a lot worse than the Glacier and they have the same sized screen - one plus is that it can multi-task. The Meizu's screen is a bit bigger, and has a QVGA display, but it's also more than twice as expensive as the Glacier. Honestly, I'm looking for a reason to not like the Glacier, but I can't find one. It seems really nice to me.

So I come to you all, with your infinite experience, and ask if it's a good buy. What should I reasonably expect from this, and other ChiPods? Is it really as much of a "crapshoot" as it appears to get a good working device? The only lingering doubt in my head is that if something were to go wrong, the firmware is unsupported at the moment and I'd have a dead player and many wasted hours of research and $50 out the window. For the most part I just want to be an informed consumer, so if you have anything to add, please do. :)

[princessanne1026]

dirul - I'm not trying to convince you not to buy a glacier, but I just wanted to say that a lot of members here including myself have had problems with them. Do a site search for "glacier" and you'll see what I mean. But if you have your mind set one one, by all means buy it. There are some people here who have reported no problems with their glaciers, so I guess it's a gamble on whether or not you'll get a glacier with defects. I just wanted to tell you so you'd know the pros and cons of glacier before you go ahead and buy it. Besides uxcell, another good seller on ebay is tinydealdirect. They sell glaciers as well as a wide variety of other players for extremely low prices. Good luck in your search for an mp4 player!

[tadad1]

dirul,
I like the look of the new Teclast C260 only 1Gb but supports SD card expansion for $79.
http://houseofdap.com/index.php?act=...d&productId=42
Meizu is releasing 2 new players in March, an 8GB M6 and the 2GB\4GB\8GB M3 as a result the prices of the existing 2GB\4GB M6 players will drop considerably.

At least with these players you bypass any firmware problems and believe me there is considerable difference in the quality, reliability and functionality between these players and the Glacier.

[dirul]

Thanks for the replies.

Yeah, I've been reading some of the problems with the Glacier. That's too bad, looked like it could be solid little device. Honestly, I'm looking for something that doesn't resemble an iPod. I'm just sick of seeing them.

princessanne: I checked out that Ebay store you mentioned and I see they have 4gb devices that look like Glaciers. I was under the impression that the 4gb versions of these things were scams. Two drawbacks to Ebay anyway: 1) No access to PayPal, 2) with the shipping costs I'm looking at $70 for a $50 item that I can't be sure is legitimate.

If I'm going to pay $70 I might as well just go with the Teclast. Especially if, as tadad said, there aren't the risks of faulty parts/flaky firmware.

[newbielives]

I am here to confuse you mahahaha

I say spend the extra 60-80$ and get a Meizu 4GB
It has a good battery life, an interface as good or better then the Ipod, better muisc format support then chipod or ipod, resolution twice that of the Teclast, has TOUCHPAD(not on chipod or teclast), Custom EQ settings (Not found in IPOD or Chipod)

Supports PLAYLIST (Not supported by the glacier or any other cheap chipod)

Yes you could buy a glacier but really if you have never had any other chipod before, I think you will be severely dissapointed by the user interface, and from the history of other members, it seems like the glacier could crap out at any moment.


On another note, I can't wait for my 4GB Glaicer to arrive lol

[dirul]

Ok, I made a really rash decision and just bought a Teclast C260. >.<

I fell in love with it the second I saw it. SD slot, QVGA screen, touchpad.. I don't even really know that much about it, except that it's pretty. :x

I usually don't do impulse buys, but the Teclasts are some of the better manufactured Chinese players right? Say yes.. lie, if you have to. :P

[tadad1]

dirul, Teclast produce an excellent quality product and release regular firmware updates for fixes and improvements. I look forward to seeing a full review when you receive your player .
Just found a You Tube video you might enjoy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmJDKsLVDXQ

[dirul]

Well, I just received my C260.

First impressions:

• It's small! Both height and length are smaller than a credit card.
• It looks very elegant, nice shiny back.
• Screen is very bright and colorful. The included videos don't really show that off, but the pictures they include of brightly colored fruit really stand out.
• It's very pretty

I'm going to fiddle around with it for a few days, encode some video, put it through it's paces and then I'll write a review. If I do it now, it's just going to reflect my excitement because it's so pretty.

So far, so good, though.
Oh, and did I mention it's pretty? :P

[deepakrr]

cool and congrats.

[lddrizzt1]

But how does it look?