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Meizu 's iPad clone to pack 1080p, 12-hour battery

updated 07:05 pm EDT, Sun April 11, 2010

 

Meizu sets early goals for mBook tablet


Meizu CEO Jack Wong on Sunday posted some of the first details of his company's iPad clone, the mBook. The tablet will be slightly smaller than its Apple counterpart at 8.4 inches but should play 1080p and officially last longer on battery at 12 hours. He promised the same 1024x768 resolution and capacitive touch as the iPad but noted it would have an HDMI output to show HD video at full size.

The tablet should achieve many of its goals through a 1.5GHz processor (likely Snapdragon) and would have all the features of Apple's 3G iPads, such as 3G with some form of GPS as well as "high quality music playback." It's expected so far to run some form of Android, but heavily customized for the larger screen.

Wong hasn't provided a firm date for when the mBook would ship, though the timing and history make it more likely for 2011 than anytime this year. A sequel to its iPhone clone, the M8, is also in development and will be tentatively smaller; the M9 mini would have a slightly smaller 3.4-inch touchscreen.

Meizu is widely considered one of the most prominent device cloners in China but has developed a reputation for putting its own original spin on designs by the time they're released, often getting a significant audience both within China and through exports. The M8 was originally announced just weeks after the original iPhone, but it actually shipped in February 2009 with certain unique interface elements.


By Electronista Staff

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iPhone, gadgets, Meizu, Android, Apple, iPad

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Previous Comments

  1. msuper69

    Mac Elite

    Joined: Jan 2000

    +10
    04/11, 07:21pm | report spam | reply

    Here comes the copycats...

    Well, what it's missing is the Apple infrastructure which makes all the difference in the world.


  1. bjojade

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jun 2007

    +13
    04/11, 07:29pm | report spam | reply

    It's about the specs

    don't you know, all you have to do is make a product that beats a couple of Apple's specs, and people will flock to it?

    I mean, if they jammed a camera in there, the iPad would be DOOMED. DOOMED I say.


  1. davester

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jul 2001

    -2
    04/11, 07:30pm | report spam | (2 replies) | reply

    A design that Apple should've come up with.

    Bezel-less frame, glass all the way to the edge. And yesteryear's Titanium PowerBook heat grille to boot.

    Though the fascination ends with the arrangement and size of the icons.


  1. davesmall

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Oct 2006

    +10
    04/11, 08:10pm | report spam | reply

    One of the many

    So many companies have tried to copy the iPhone. And so many companies will try to copy the iPad as well. It's relatively easy to copy the hardware. You can purchase off the shelf parts and assemble something that looks like a real apple product. That hardware can have better specs than the real thing.

    But the real value in the iPad is the iTunes ecosystem with 180,000 apps, Apple's customer support, and the iPhone operating system. None of the competitors can even come close. You'd have to be crazy to buy a no-name product like the Meizu.


  1. WiseWeasel

    Junior Member

    Joined: Apr 1999

    -8
    04/11, 08:15pm | report spam | reply

    Nice

    This looks like a pretty decent tablet. I don't know if they can ever get their products sold stateside with the patent issues, but a major US vendor doing something like this would be a pretty decent competitor to the iPad.

    The only thing that strikes me is that with the screen going almost to the top and bottom edges, the device seems mostly meant for use in landscape orientation, as your fingers would register as input and interfere with the ability to use the device in portrait mode.

    If they can get developers to start writing software for these things, I'd expect them to do alright, if Meizu can support a proper development kit for the thing in the first place. On the plus side, being able to use it to present 1080p via HDMI output might be useful at times, if the thing can actually decode 1080p video in real-time half-way decently. Personally, I don't see a flash storage device playing 1080p video being very practical, as the files just take up too much precious space, and you can't stream 1080p from the internet in real-time. It'll be a while before flash storage is cheap and plentiful enough to make it practical to store 1080p video locally.

    In any case, if the rumors of running Android are true, this is miles ahead of the HP Slate and JooJoo tablets that have been touted as competitors lately.


  1. iphonerulez

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Nov 2008

    +4
    04/11, 08:25pm | report spam | reply

    I well remember the Meizu M8 from years back...

    It was supposed to be the ultimate iPhone killer. I had followed it for awhile but it never seemed to go anywhere. The Meizu M8 looked like an iPhone clone or maybe it was the other way round. I don't hear much about M8 anymore.

    This Meizu mBook will be the iHaters newly found ammunition against the iPad. (I'm sure the iHaters are going nuts over at Engadget) This mBook already has more features and more power than the iPad. The only drawback is whether it will go into production. No matter. All the geeks will spit on the iPad because this non-existent product will be the product the iPad should have been. Its really so easy for companies to build better hardware versions of the iPad. I'm not sure how they manage to undercut Apple in price without losing money since Apple can buy such huge amounts of memory and displays to lower their purchasing costs. But, any company can build a prototype with better specs for sure.

    Apple's iPad will continue to have an edge with its ecosystem, digital content, retail stores, loyal user base, brand recognition and very good customer support. That will be very hard for a nearly unknown brand to beat. By 2011, Apple will have likely moved 6 million iPads for an overwhelming lead in the tablet market, for sure.


  1. JeffHarris

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Oct 1999

    +13
    04/11, 09:56pm | report spam | (1 reply) | reply

    Meizu means MeToo in Chinese

    Good luck to them.

    It kills me when these companies tout "plays 1080p video" when the screen only supports 1024 x 768. Do they think people are idiots?

    Apparently.

    I suppose it may fly with featuritis and spec-itis challenged lamebrains. There may even be enough of them to actually sell SEVERAL. JUST like the JooJoo... Loads of hype. 90 pre-orders, 15 cancellantions.

    Written on my iPad, BTW.


  1. ggirton

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Nov 1999

    -7
    04/12, 12:40am | report spam | reply

    Android runs Flash

    So... the marketplace will decide if Flash is important.

    Since Flash enables well over a couple hundred
    thousand "apps", and Adobe MAX is a long-running
    yearly conference that about five thousand developers
    attend in person, the Meizu device and the HP slate
    (which has a still/movie camera, plus editing software)
    and the various other tablets will have no
    shortage of interactive content and ability to
    do content CREATION that anyone with a real computing
    device will be able to consume.


  1. dliup

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jan 2006

    +8
    04/12, 01:35am | report spam | reply

    @ggirton

    Ever heard of JooJoo, the flash tablet? It's so successful that they had a whole 90 pre-orders in a few months. That's how much buying power those nerds got.


  1. dliup

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jan 2006

    +9
    04/12, 01:35am | report spam | reply

    Vaporware

    No storage capacity
    No release date
    No price


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