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.

I bought a Sandisk Sansa Review on the last PC fair in KLCC. It was because I was already dreaming having 1 mp3 player for a long time, mainly because I always take bus to go to school, and waiting is just frustrating. With a mp3 player, I can kill time and not be so pissed off why the bus haven't come.

Back to the point, I surveyed a few mp3 player on the net, and from friends. They all agreed that Creative and Sony are 2 trusted brand, but Sony is damn expensive. Creative Zen Stone gets a lot of good comments online and was voted really good. I was preparing to buy that too, but went with this Sansa mostly because of the price tag. Sansa Express 2GB free 1GB micro sd card only costs RM189, while Creative Zen Stone Plus 2GB costs RM199. Less 1 GB but RM10 more expensive.

Design
The design of the Sansa is nice, but I am confuse why they design a little bulge on behind. the four way navigational pad is easy to understand and one does not have to read the manual to operate it. The cap is tight and is nicely placed.Other player should learn from them because I see a lot of players with loose cap and they just lose it. The lanyard can be connected to the cap part. I wish the lanyard was attached to the body so it won't be so easily snatched. You can insert the micro-sized micro sd(really small) just below the 3.5mm port. It doesn't have a cap to secure the card so I was scared that the card will fall out easily, I didn't even dare to use it until now. The front part of it is a finger magnet, but once you wipe it, it works really well as a mirror! Thats what I call nice! The volume button is located at the lower side of it, and I wonder why they don't integrate the menu button that is on top of the player to the middle of the navigational pad. It would save some space and easier too. There is also a hold button on top but it looks cheap and plastic-ky.

Screen
The four-line bright OLED screen of the SanDisk Sansa Express MP3 player is displaying two colours; orange for the battery indicator and green for all the other items. It displays the singer, the title and the album when you play a song. It doesn't have a picture renderer so no album arts for me. And I don't need one too. You can read the screen quite clear when indoors with good lighting. It also works as a light in dark and even easier reading those lines in dark. Only problem is when you are under bright sunlight, and reading is hard. But you can always shade it with your hand and then you can just read it like normal.

User Interface
The user interface is quite user friendly. Each time you power up,it will update its database(usually takes about 5 seconds), then it shows a dog(yes, it is a dog) eating the "Sandisk" word. Then it plays back what you have left back when you close down. The first time it will let you choose language, which consists of more than 20 languages! Thats what I call user friendly. Probably they aim to sell worldwide. I heard that the newest firmware even have egypt language and a bunch more. First, you get to choose from "Music" for song playbacks, "FM Radio" to listen to radio, "Audio" to record voice, then "Settings" for all kinds of settings. You can choose to play from a specific album, artist, playlist, genre or whole collection. There is also a on the go playlist called Go List which you can add any song when you play them. Easy to learn, easy to navigate. You can also make your own playlist but only on the computer. You can auto search for station too in the FM Radio and set the time to record. Audio recording is easy. Equalizer consists of five choices or you can customize it. On the Settings option, you can change the sleep time, the language, display brightness, reset all, format, see system info and a lot more. The system info shows the number of songs,space and firmware version. The menu button on top lets you switch between different kind of menus without pausing the song. Nice.

Features
The main reason I fall in love with this player is because it's features rich. First of it, it can listen to FM radio, which is great because not everytime I want to listen to music. Then, I can record FM! How often do you see a player that does that? Also, the result is quite good. Next, it has sound recording. Not big deal, but having it is just nice.Micro SD slot is the best, when you can upgrade the storage space with only RM20 for a 2GB card. You can also adjust the brightness of the screen, also you have 2 kinds of volumes to choose from, loud and normal to suit different kind of people. You can also format the whole player or the card with it too. The favourite function is the sleep mode, which I use very often. It will automatically turn off when you set it your desired time with sleep mode. However, the downside is I always forgot to turn off sleep mode and it shuts down automatically. It also has a lousy shuffle function because it doesn't shuffle the songs quite well. All radio and voice recordings can be listened to via the 'Music' menu as well. Users comment on the net says that it hangs quite often but I did not encounter such experience except one. A hard reset button is enough to recover everything and it just looks new again. No bad things happen to me although many encoutered such experience. Well, hard reset was good enough. File format support is not comparable with other brands of player but enough for me. MP3, WMA and protected WMA. audio books too.

Battery
Battery life was rated 15 hours on their website. It lasted quite a while but I didn't calculate it. I am sure it is sure to that number because with light use, I can listen for a week without charging. Charging is through the USB port, but you can always buy a adapter because normal ones will do just fine. It charges for about 3 hours and shows a "charged" sign. You can't change the internal battery, but I think it will last a long time and by that time, you have more advanced player to choose from.

Transferring Media
The internal memory of 2GB is actually really enough for my song collection. Transferring is done really simple, drag and drop is easy, Or you can sync it with Windows Media Player 11. Its fun to see the nice little icon in My Computer when you plug it in. It also lets you choose between internal memory or external memory. Playlist can be made inside and you can drop the songs you like into it. Transferring is quite fast, a whole album only takes up my 20 seconds. The best part is you can use it as a portable memory device. Just drag the files you want into it and you can store it inside, although the player cannot play it. I use it like a pendrive and a micro sd reader.



Audio
The sound quality can be considered quite good. I've listened to it before I buy because I don't want to buy some cheap player with robot sound in it. I've compared with Creative and it doesn't have much difference. But maybe because of earphone, the expensive Philips player sounds better. You can't ask for everything but the sound is super clear and the bass is just normal. Nice for my ears and my wallet. The recording is considered really clear as I can hear what my officer say in the recording. Considering the price tag, it is a best buy. Maybe an earphone upgrade will make a big difference because I heard that earphones plays big part in sound quality.

Accessories
The included accessories are lanyard, earphone, a really short USB extension and some stickers. Those stickers stay in the box whilt the lanyard is in good use and can act as a fashion accessories. The earphone is comfortable and fits quite well in my ears. But it doesn't block out sound and I need to tune up the volume when it is noisy outside.


Verdict
As a budget MP3 player, Sansa Express did a great job with nice design, user friendly interface, multi function and budget wise, not to forget with a micro sd slot. People tend to look down on other brands of MP3 player that aren't that well known.Sandisk did quite a good job. This is definitely a Ipod killer and Zen Stone killer if they could just upgrade the firmware to a more stable version. The build feels tough enough and the front part that acts as a mirror also gives advantage. They can work on the firmware and the audio quality to make it the best player in town. Overall, I give it a 8 over 10 because of the unstable firmware and lack of cap for the micro sd slot.

wuwu.... lost edi lo....

I decided to compile a list of movie that I think is well worth the time and gets my 9/10. Well, here it is.

Titles are in random position:

1. Lord of The Rings Trilogy
2. Castaway
3. Forest Gump
4. Gone Baby Gone
5. Juno
6. No Country For Old Men
7. The Kite Runner
8. Blood Diamond
9. American Gangster
10. Hot Fuzz

Stay tune for more!

Everyone wants the truth, until they find it.

What a movie! I just watched "Gone Baby Gone" by Ben Affleck, and it was mind challenging. The story goes through a smooth flow and it lets me thinking even after watching it for a long time. What would you do? Will you do the right thing or do the best thing you think? This is the problem faced by Patrick Kenzie, an investigator hired in search for a missing kid...

*spoiler ahead*

The movie makes it looked like there is two ending, but it still fits well. After the first part, I thought it was a lame story with the ending. But with the following conspiracy and plot to kidnap the child, it was mesmerizing. I was racing with the main character trying to figure out how the story should go and who is the real kidnapper. The truth was Remy thinks that the best for Amanda is to leave her with a family, leaving her own birth mother.

*spoiler ends*

The plot is nice and twisting in a good way. I like this kind movies a lot because it makes me think and wonder what is the best choice. I think I would agree with what Kenzie did at last but I would not do what he did. Confusing? Me too. Watch the movie and it lets you realize that life is made up of choices, and taken from a caption from the movie"I always believed
it was the things you don't choose, that makes you who you are.". I believe in both, you are made up of what you choose and what you don't choose.

Verdict
Great movie. Lots of cursing and F word in it. But still well worth. The characters are good and plot is nice. Well the money you pay for the ticket. A must watch! (although I did not go to the cinema to watch...). One more thing, watch out for my new MP3 player, Sandisk Sansa Express 2GB review!

Added to top movie list.

I'm migrating to this blog, mainly because the inconvenient of friendster's blog and the lack of customization ability. So now, here I am, in my new blog, posting my first article! Hope to get more traffic and people visiting in the future! Come back soon for reviews and my daily stuff...

One more thing, I couldn't get the http://roticanai.blogspot.com because some guy abandoned this blog and didn't delete it! If you are the author of http://roticanai.blogspot.com, please delete it and tell me! I would really appreciate it!