MyMPx.org - [Review] Meizu M3 - Good things come in small packages :)

Having had a crap couple of months I decided to treat myself so ordered a black 4GB (Also available in 2GB & 8GB) Meizu Music Card (M3) from www.houseofdap.com. The well packed parcel arrived in perfect condition on Tuesday by registered airmail only 7 days delivery which I thought was great China-New Zealand.

Being a big fan of Meizu players since getting my M6 from HOD about 7 months ago I followed the M3 from it's early design development to release in China several weeks ago and having seen all the product photos at Meizu.com I had a reasonable overview of the player. When I finally got it out of all the bubble wrap and unpacked I was amazed at how truly compact the player was. Much smaller than I had visualized, with mirror finish backing smooth glass like face with perfectly flush touch controls the M3 looks stunning. The only break in the sleek design is the hold button at the top which protrudes about 0.5 of a mm.

The Package:

Included with the player is a 76 page manual, a quick start guide, warrenty, USB cable, good quality PT850 earphones with 2 sets of foam covers, mini cd with drivers and video conversion software and a small quality control inspection ticket. At the moment all the literature is in Chinese but I am sure that once the player is exported out of China an English manual will become available as with the M6.

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The M3 is a few millimeters longer than the M6 but only about 3\4's of it's width and 2mm (7mm) thinner in fact the M3 makes the M6 feel big and clunky. They are 2 very different players though, the M6 with its bright crisp 2.4 inch LCD is very much geared towards video and music but the M3 is primarily designed for enjoying music at it's highest quality hence the name "music card".

M3 & M6 side by side:

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The M3 is also considerably smaller and thinner than the nano clones around.

M3 & Nano clone side by side:

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Design:

Do not be mistaken though M3 and the nano clone are poles apart in fact the only thing they have in common is that they both come from China. The sound quality of the M3 is exceptional even slightly crisper and clearer than the M6 and out of the ball park compared to the clones. The build quality is excellent everything perfectly aligned and practically seamless. The face has a scratch resistant protective coating to keep it looking it's best but unlike the M6 the back does not so I would expect to see a bit of scuffing on the back over time. The M6 also came with a soft leather like pouch which is not included with the M3 but then the M3 is designed to be affordable so in order to keep costs down I am glad Meizu decided to cut back on extras rather than quality.

The Controls:

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All functions are controlled by the center touch pad and the small directional button with the exception of the hold\lock function which has it's own switch at the top. The touch strip is responsive and easily operated for scrolling through menu's and adjusting volume and can be gently tapped for selection. The play\pause at the bottom of the touch strip also acts as the on\off switch with a long press. The Meizu M at the top of the touch strip opens the menu window and a long press of the M button will turn the LCD off or you can set an auto off time from 5 -20 seconds.

The small direction button will skip through tracks when in the Music feature with a short press and a long press changes direction. The button is also touch sensitive and will display on screen what direction the button is currently configured to when touched so if you put your thumb on it the forward arrow appears on screen you know you need to give it a long press to switch it if you want to go back a track or two. Initially I thought a rocker switch would have been easier but after a couple of days use it is actually quite simple and effective. The default setting is forward and if you change it to step back it will default back to forward after 10-15 seconds.

The Display:

The LCD screen is the best I have seen at 1.5 inch with a resolution of 176x132. It is bright and sharp with good contrast and saturation it displays vivid colour. I found setting background blend to 0 made the text sharp and easy to read on the small screen. The liquid crystal display has a silver backing that reflects light back through the panel making it excellent even in full sunlight.

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Features:

As mentioned the M3 is designed primarily for music, it supports WMA, WMA VBR, WMA LOSSLESS, OGG, WAV, FLAC audio formats. It has Bass and Treble boost settings, a 10 bar EQ with 6 presets and user defined settings. Virtual 3D, ViBe Bass and Phase correction all enabling you to customise the audio to just the way you like it. Album art, lyrics and EQ visualization are also available within the music function.

The M3 also handles video well with 176x128 resolution @ 25 fps, xvid or divx AVI. This makes the M3 perfect for short clips or music video. Whilst it handles full length movies equally well it is not really suited to them as there is no FF\RW or resume feature so if you stop a movie you have to start it again from the begining but then it is called the "Music Card". Consider the video feature as an extra, but who knows Meizu have been known to make changes to the firmware based on user feedback so more video features may be included in future firmware releases. I hope so because video quality is superb even on the small screen.

Other features include a stereo FM tuner that works well and can quickly auto scan for stations or you can edit the FM.ini in the players settings folder and create a preset list of your favourite radio stations.
A record function for FM radio or voice recording and a calendar. The time can also be displayed in the top bar at all times but like the M6 the time feature tends to lose a few minutes everyday. A photo viewer with thumbnail previews and a text file reader round off the package.
Within the Photo viewer you also have the option of setting any of the images as a background to the Music, FM Tuner, Record and Text Reader functions. Battery is rated @ 20- 23 hours depending on settings. The M3 like the M6 supports both MSC and MTP so that it can be used as either a USB device or fully intergrated with Windows Media Player.

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There is a Resource Editor available for theming the firmware and editing text strings. Meizu also release firmware updates to add new features or improve existing ones which can be downloaded from Meizu.com

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Hands on Music Card Video Preview: YouTube M3 Video Preview

Finally:

A couple of months ago when real 4GB players were released I purchased a 2nd gen nano clone for $180.00 (NZD) or $130.00 (USD) and it was a piece of crap, file transfer was slow, 3 hour battery life, and the markings on the controls wiped off.
I ended up sending it to "wiRe" to help him in the development of the firmware extraction tool for the 9.XXX series firmware.

This excellent 4GB M3 from Tomas at houseofdap.com was $119.00 (USD) plus $20.00 shipping ($139.00 USD Total) . For $9.00 extra I received a state of the art ultra portable multimedia player of the highest quality. A 12 month warrenty, no bullshit firmware crashes and hassles, no hacked memory scams, regular firmware updates, fully themeable, impressively fast file transfer, a 20 hour battery life and an on-line support forum at en.meizu.com

If you are thinking of buying the latest chipod with all the bells, whistles and headaches at an insanly cheap price off ebay or elsewhere I strongly suggest you give the M3 some thought you wont be sorry.

And finally thank you again Tomas for your great service, I will most likely be back for the M8 when it is released. :)