Meizu M8

[angiud]

I've seen today, in Panthip Plaza, the new Meizu M8, a chinese clone of the IPhone. Although the price is high (15.000 baht) and is grey market (with all the assistance problems), the phone look good, with better functions of the Apple one.

Do anybody have some experience about it?

[Guest Reimar]

Looks good.

The website is here: http://en.meizu.com/m/m8.html and here: http://www.meizu-minione.info/

I do believe that the price will come down in not a long time. But it's really worth a look.

[Cromarty]

they have certainly spent time and effort on a flash website.

But 15,000 and no GPS?!? Even if they give it a 50% discount it is still way over price wise for the spec.

plus, like most things Chinese, it will probably fall apart after a month!

[tigerbeer]

15k is a no go for chinese stuff. 3-4k is more like it.

[angiud]

I have been again in Panthip this morning, and I play a little with this new stuff. A nice piece of machine, well done, very good software, open to many software (running windows mobile). Wifi works fine, little slower than Iphone, a good 3.2 autofocus camera, a player that supports a lot of codecs, including mkv, easy to download software, not jailed like the iphone.

I'm thinking to buy it...

[tigerbeer]

I have been again in Panthip this morning, and I play a little with this new stuff. A nice piece of machine, well done, very good software, open to many software (running windows mobile). Wifi works fine, little slower than Iphone, a good 3.2 autofocus camera, a player that supports a lot of codecs, including mkv, easy to download software, not jailed like the iphone.

I'm thinking to buy it...

would nokia n85 or nokia 5800 not be a better alternative?

sorry but with that kind of price, perhaps its better to hold on?

[monty]

With all due respect, I think the price looks to be ok, mainly because of the 720X480 resolution screen, which is very expensive!

I think this is only bettered by the HTC touch HD and only with a very small margin.

They did save by putting only a GPRS/EDGE data modem in, which is actually smart for the Thai market as we won't have any 3G soon.

[sniffdog]

Correct, with many True customers happily waving their 3G Iphones.

[Obiwan]

On the website of Meizu M8 is no mention of Wifi.

[borovik]

I have experience with older Meizu products:M6 and M3,they are mp3 players,very good indeed.But!

Before they became very good,they had period of maturing through three or four firmware upgrades.

I advice to wait sometime.I also advice to buy in Shenzen,or at least in HK,which will save you a benjamin,or

more.

[angiud]

Yeah, they have a new firmware almost every week. I don't know if is a good sign or not...

[nikster]

Whats the software on this? Windows Mobile? Or what?

Asking b/c saw one of those fake nano iPhones recently. It has the same home screen as the iPhone - well, more or less - and the same form factor. But if you click on any of the buttons you are presented with a comparatively 1980s looking application handling this. All in all the phone was still fine because it was really dirt cheap so anything you got with it was a bonus. But... iPhone it was not by a long shot.

Personally, I don't support companies that outright steal ideas and designs so that would be the first reason not to buy this. The second reason would be that the software is probably garbage...

[joka]

There is a review on Engadget. It runs Windows.

[borovik]

Whats the software on this? Windows Mobile? Or what?

Asking b/c saw one of those fake nano iPhones recently. It has the same home screen as the iPhone - well, more or less - and the same form factor. But if you click on any of the buttons you are presented with a comparatively 1980s looking application handling this. All in all the phone was still fine because it was really dirt cheap so anything you got with it was a bonus. But... iPhone it was not by a long shot.

Personally, I don't support companies that outright steal ideas and designs so that would be the first reason not to buy this. The second reason would be that the software is probably garbage...

Mr Nikster!When one crook is stealing from another crook - God is happy!

Apple has stolen name "i-phone" from Linksys.

Apple used ideas patented by Creative and they had to pay to Creative around 100milion $ after losing in courts!

Creative and 2 other companies were first to market mp3 players,not Apple.

I-Pod/I-Phone: rip-off for I-diots!just look on prices...

[nikster]

Whats the software on this? Windows Mobile? Or what?

Asking b/c saw one of those fake nano iPhones recently. It has the same home screen as the iPhone - well, more or less - and the same form factor. But if you click on any of the buttons you are presented with a comparatively 1980s looking application handling this. All in all the phone was still fine because it was really dirt cheap so anything you got with it was a bonus. But... iPhone it was not by a long shot.

Personally, I don't support companies that outright steal ideas and designs so that would be the first reason not to buy this. The second reason would be that the software is probably garbage...

Mr Nikster!When one crook is stealing from another crook - God is happy!

Apple has stolen name "i-phone" from Linksys.

Apple used ideas patented by Creative and they had to pay to Creative around 100milion $ after losing in courts!

Creative and 2 other companies were first to market mp3 players,not Apple.

I-Pod/I-Phone: rip-off for I-diots!just look on prices...

LOL

Well, Mr Borovik, you are entitled to your opinions like everyone else. I do not think that any of your statements above are true but then again, I don't really care enough to argue the point. We all make our own reality.

[webfact]

Sorry, maybe off- topic

But I can't help myself and I must voice it. I always got the impression for a lot of "proud" I-phone owners it's this feeling "look I've got an I-phone and you don't..." what makes them happy...

Sorry folks I get this impression every time I ride the Skytrain when I watch those jealous glance on some faces if someone is playing with it. Its some kind of a social status issue.

This applies to both sexes. So, some folk are happy to get at least their hands on something which looks similar.

Yeah, I agree it's a great peace of hardware. I trust it wasn't easy to built an Ipod with a phone inside.

I am prepared to be burned at the stake for my heretical post... but it is MHO

Edited April 1, 2009 by webfact

[borovik]

Whats the software on this? Windows Mobile? Or what?

Asking b/c saw one of those fake nano iPhones recently. It has the same home screen as the iPhone - well, more or less - and the same form factor. But if you click on any of the buttons you are presented with a comparatively 1980s looking application handling this. All in all the phone was still fine because it was really dirt cheap so anything you got with it was a bonus. But... iPhone it was not by a long shot.

Personally, I don't support companies that outright steal ideas and designs so that would be the first reason not to buy this. The second reason would be that the software is probably garbage...

Mr Nikster!When one crook is stealing from another crook - God is happy!

Apple has stolen name "i-phone" from Linksys.

Apple used ideas patented by Creative and they had to pay to Creative around 100milion $ after losing in courts!

Creative and 2 other companies were first to market mp3 players,not Apple.

I-Pod/I-Phone: rip-off for I-diots!just look on prices...

LOL

Well, Mr Borovik, you are entitled to your opinions like everyone else. I do not think that any of your statements above are true but then again, I don't really care enough to argue the point. We all make our own reality.

Amigo Nikster!I did not mean any offence!I am sorry!Really!!

What I mean is,that Apple Co.is villian itself in department of stealing somebodys ideas.Linksys -( name known in this forum better,then Apple) - produced phones called "Iphone" some years.AppleCo. decided to use this name WITHOUT Linksys consent!Outrigous behaviour dont'you think so?They decided to put I-Phone on the

market without settling this matter with Linksys,who was THE OWNER of the name

"Iphone".They had settled that later,somehow.

You can google it yourself if you do not believe me.

In year 1998 I bought myself the first mp3 player called Diamond Rio PMP300.

The very first was produced in the same year in march,and is called EigerLabsMPMan.

In 1999 CreativeLabs came with "Nomad".Many others followed.

This was 1000yrs ago - previous Millenium!

And were was Apple then?The Next Millenium - October 2001.....first iPod.

And who invented mp3?German mathematicians may be 15 years before and they even did not want to patent it!-out of idealism,will you believe?

3 years ago I bought mobile Nokia 61E;one year before Apple iPhone.

It has big screen,keyboard,a lot of memory,sd card slot,GSM,GPS,3G,it can play music,it can play videos,radio,loudspeaker and...it is very good telephone!

One year later MrSteve J. appeared like magician on stage with brilliant "new" idea:

multimedia mobile phone!called - iPhone(it can play music,videos,no sdcard,no keyboard,no radio,no 3G,and it was lousy phone unfortunatly).........pathetic....

Have a nice day

[angiud]

Actually this was a thread about the Meizu M8 smartphone.

....that I've got in BKK for 15000 baht, maybe expensive, but a very good piece of work.

I stay in Bali now and i write this post with the phone, via wifi connection.

Software still some bug but they upgrade the firmware nearly weekly, so hope the bug disappear soon

[nikster]

Sorry, maybe off- topic

But I can't help myself and I must voice it. I always got the impression for a lot of "proud" I-phone owners it's this feeling "look I've got an I-phone and you don't..." what makes them happy...

Don't worry, this is pretty temporary. Witness any country in Europe or the USA. I was in the US recently and was kinda surprised to see iPhones everywhere. Everybody already has one, or so it seemed. I was at a birthday party and at some point I counted 9 people out of a total 12 guests mucking around on their iPhones. They are still cool, but exclusive? Hardly.

More interesting is how much time I spend with this phone - surely I spend way more time with this phone than I ever did with any previous phones. Because it has many useful functions that I like to use.

Example, do I need a good general education? No. Because my knowledge at most times is only limited by my ability to phrase Google search terms. Don't know something? Whip out the iPhone, search in Google, and usually Wikipedia has more information than you really want on the topic. It's not like in the SciFi books where computers are directly wired to our brains but having the internet in your pocket is in reality closer than I would have assumed a few years back.

[nikster]

Actually this was a thread about the Meizu M8 smartphone.

....that I've got in BKK for 15000 baht, maybe expensive, but a very good piece of work.

I stay in Bali now and i write this post with the phone, via wifi connection.

Software still some bug but they upgrade the firmware nearly weekly, so hope the bug disappear soon

I guess the question is, is it better than other WinMo smartphones you could get for 15k? I guess if it works well it could give the HTC touch a run for the money...

[angiud]

I've installed today skype and works fine! The screen is gorgeous and the camera shots (3.2 Mpix) are very good. (I must confess I never had an Iphone in my hand so I cannot confront the two phones)

Thumb up for battery (long life and can remove)

for player (eat nearly every codec)

Multi touch screen very effective

Run Windows mobile

Screen 720x480 with million colors

Good hardware (one of the first appliances made in China of good aspect and quality) with 667Mhz CPU, 256MB ROM, Proximity /Gravity /Ambient light sensors

CONS:

software to implement. Still several bugs, english translation not so good

[mezzoninny]

Sounds like it's a pretty good pick for 15K. If I didn't already have an overpriced smartphone, I'd probably get one

While I'm here, I'd like to ask what do people think about companies who keep updating firmware for their products?

Because there are two ways of looking at this. On one hand, you can say they're nice, benevolent, they keep giving you better bang for the buck with new features, more likely than not these will be features you never thought of.

On the other hand, why can't they give us something that's already stable and loaded with features in version 1.0? Couldn't this be an excuse to deliver crap firmware on product launch? Why make the non-savvy customers walk the rocky path of firmware updates? Why wait for 3-4 months for a promise that the companies could honestly just run away from, and the most you can do is shake a tiny fist at their multi-billion-dollar logo?

I've brought up this question before, elsewhere, and the opinion I got was... wait for it... "what's wrong with them giving you extra freebies?" But sometimes when I'm really serious, my own ethics would disagree, so I'm just wondering what your thoughts are.

[borovik]

<br />Sounds like it's a pretty good pick for 15K. If I didn't already have an overpriced smartphone, I'd probably get one <img src="style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="biggrin.gif" /><br />While I'm here, I'd like to ask what do people think about companies who keep updating firmware for their products?<br /><br />Because there are two ways of looking at this. On one hand, you can say they're nice, benevolent, they keep giving you better bang for the buck with new features, more likely than not these will be features you never thought of.<br /><br />On the other hand, why can't they give us something that's already stable and loaded with features in version 1.0? Couldn't this be an excuse to deliver crap firmware on product launch? Why make the non-savvy customers walk the rocky path of firmware updates? Why wait for 3-4 months for a promise that the companies could honestly just run away from, and the most you can do is shake a tiny fist at their multi-billion-dollar logo?<br /><br />I've brought up this question before, elsewhere, and the opinion I got was... wait for it... "what's wrong with them giving you extra freebies?" But sometimes when I'm really serious, my own ethics would disagree, so I'm just wondering what your thoughts are.<br />

<br /><br /><br />

Well,it is quite common practice:let users debug our product!Cowon is another guilty party.The latest Cowon S9 is good example.

They can be on market quckly,before competition - this is their reason.I think its not very honest,but bugs happen in best companies.

They can correct firmware - even after sale.Not everybody can do it;and often - it is not painless(black screen of death - and then what??)

Service?where? - in Shenzen!

[angiud]

I agree, as far as the new appliance works fairly good, they can upgrade the firmware and use the customers like technicians.

Anyway the firmware not yet at the 1. version, so look at me like a simple beta for developers. But after about 2 years, it was time to show the new phone.

BTW I'm fairly happy with the phone, and I hope an wait for new, more definitive, firmwares.