Roti Canai

Yes, I got my hands on the highly appraised Meizu MPSL, and its a 4GB.
Although its a second hand unit, only a few scratches are seen on the screen, well, what would u expect with a second hand unit. And there is some stain on the scrolling pad too.

Done with the ranting, here is my review~

Design
I would say that the meizu is not bad in design, but only in the MPSL. The other version, the card player(I think thats the name) is weird, and looks un-stylish. The MPSL features a big screen for viewing, with a thin film of I don't know what's that stuff, but I heard it protects the screen and minimises the scratches. The back is made of aluminium. There is a scrolling pad, like the kind u see in a laptop, that serves as a navigational pad. The lock key is on top and most of the navigation is done by the pad.
Overall, the big screen is an advantage, especially with such thin body unlike Ipod.

Screen
The screen is big enough to serve a good long movie without straining your eyes real bad, which can be considered an ipod killer. The brightness is adjustable, and shows moderately under bright sunlight. The screen is good for on-the-go videos, and it doesn't shows any lag when having video playback. WallE looks good in it and I enjoy the whole movie, although with a little eye strain afterwards. I think thats normal because I was not used to small size viewing.


User Interface
The player comes with whole lot of language, although it is made in China, the english in it is appropriate and just like any other players, not showing any error or false(which most of the china product does). You get to control what to show on the main menu, the background image and all sorts of stuff like font color etc. Scrolling is done using the pad, but the disadvantage is you cannot control the sensitivity of the pad, which I find is over. Tapping on the pad is "select", then you have the fast forward button, rewind button, play button and the menu or back button. Navigating around is easy, but need some time to get used to. Nothing fancy in the display, just normal and easy, just like Nokia.

Sound
The meizu is highly appraised because of its sound quality and highly customizable EQ. You have about 8 kind of EQ to choose from, and if that is not enough, you can customize it. Pairing it with my Philips SHE9500 produces good bass with high and mid just nice. Although it can be better with the sound of the music instruments needing a bit more detail. But overall, it is definitely better than ipod, my sansa express, and sony ericsson walkman phone.

Video
Video playing is OK , with 20 frames per second. You have to convert it using some softwares, such as BatMan, into avi file format. I think it is very good, because I don't see any lag or squares when playing it.

Feature
This is also a feature packed PMP, not like the ipod. You get to record audio and FM, play games, look into the calendar(which serve no purpose because it only shows the date, with nothing else), and of course browse pictures and watch videos. With some trick, you can show the album art while playing the audio. Sleep function is a bit of a downside for me because the least time is 30 minutes, which I find too long. The big thing about this player is it is capable of playing lossless audio, such as FLAC and APE file. Til now, I am unable to play APE file, but FLAC file do just fine with high quality reproduction. You can also directly make your own playlist in the player. And lets not forget that it can also act as an ebook reader, able to read txt file.
The problem with this player is everytime you plug it to your computer or you charge it, it needs to update its music library, eventhough you did not add anything or do anything. It is annoying because it takes a long time, some even up to 5 minutes. The firmware upgrade is easy, but you may fail like others in the meizu forum but not something google can't help.

Battery and Transfering Media
The battery lasted for about 10 hours, if I am not mistaken. I got the impression that the battery drains really fast, mostly because I am addicted to it and plays it whenever I can. But it is also because the battery really doesn't last long. I think it is a good deal because the size of the player is so thin with such huge display, its a wonder it can stand that long battery life. There are 2 types of media transfering ways, just like the sansa express. You get to choose MTP or MSC, but it makes not difference for me, drag and drop will do for me. You can also sync it using WMP. The speed of transfering is relatively slow although using USB2.0, but it is OK for me because I am not in a rush.

Accessories
Because the set I get is a second hand unit, there is not any accessories included. But with what I have surveyed in the net, it is found that the package that comes with the original packaging consist of a lot of accessories, such as charger, earphone, pouch etc. The earbud included has a high rating based on some user reviews who does not favour the bass too much.

Verdict
All and all, the meizu lives up my expectations and produces beautiful sound enough to satisfy my ears. I can't get enough of it and found myself charging it often because I was using it almost all the day. It serves as a book reader and an audio player for me, which lots of features and big screen so that I can show off to my friends. Definitely better than an Ipod, I would say again. Firmware upgrade is something I look forward to, and I don't think I will change a player any time soon. Maybe get myself a better pair of IEM or headphones.~
My points? 9 out of 10.