Technology

It seems that Video Ipods have become very popular since their introduction and their newly refined price tag of $249 for the 30GB, it doesnt seem like a bad price. But then there are those who do not need all that much in terms of space and want a lower price. Recently, I received two 1GB Video Ipod Clones (I believe they are available in 2GB and 4GB versions also). I was actually quite impressed, they play music, video and ebook files, have a video camera/still camera, FM radio and a picture viewer. Although, they are not as popular in the United States, you would be surprised to see how many are actually being sold daily on eBay. I decided that it would be a good idea to do a picture-based review of the Video Ipod Clone.

First, lets start off with a look at the outside of the player while it is turned off.

The front is very clean and just a reminder, this doesnt come with a clickwheel, what you are seeing is just a standard push button wheel. Its actually the same size as the video ipod in terms of screen size (2.5″ TFT display) and in terms of dimensions, except it is not as thick as a video ipod.

This is the bottom view of the player, which shows a SD card slot on the left, a USB connector in the middle and a AC adapter plug on the right.

This is a side view that shows the microphone (the small hole that appears as a dot), and a back button that takes you back to the home screen.

This is the other side that displays the reset button and a settings button (silver button towards the top) that allows you to change the setting of the 9 available menu options.

This is the top of the player and it has 2 headphone jacks and a power button which is a good button as it cannot be easily pressed while being placed in your bag or pocket.

This is the back of the player that shows a 2 mega pixel camera that supports a 2x digital zoom. It also has a flash which is seen at the top right of the picture and has a rather crisp speaker that plays music and videos out aloud.

On startup, its noticeable that the screen is very nice and bright and the menu is well laid out. With regards to the features mentioned earlier the menu options are as follows (in order): FM Radio, Video/Still Camera, Picture Viewer, Ebook Reader, Video Player, Audio Player, Games, Explorer & Settings.

This is the radio of the player and it is very easy to browse the stations as well as create presets (which i believe you can set, about 20 of them in total). Great feature, as well as there are different settings such as Europe, Japan, etc for the FM stations.

This is the music player that is pretty much to the point. There are no frills other then the fact that you have a graphic equalizer and presets, along with a karaoke mode that displays the lyrics on the screen as the song plays along. Lyrics are based on .lrc files and actually work pretty well!

This is the music player’s song list, as you can see pretty easy to navigate as you can browse through and select the song that you want and actually add individual songs to a playlist that you can save for later use.

This is the video player and please note that the bottom bar is only active because I have the video on pause, during playback the bar does disappear and provides a true fullscreen display. Colors are crisp and playback is very smooth.

This is the explorer mode and basically what you see here is the SD card in use. It displays the ‘drive’ onboard and the additional SD Card thereby allowing access to either of the two. The explorer mode doesnt differentiate between video and audio files and therefore allows access to all the file types, sort of like file explorer in windows.

This is the digital camera mode in action. The video camera mode is also the exact same. I have to say that I was quite impressed with the video and picture quality. For being implemented in such a small device the pictures are quite good – comparable to cell phone camera pictures.

Overall, its a great player in terms of features, design and durability and thereby I would say that if youre looking for a 1-4GB Video Player that the Video Ipod Clone is a fair choice. It may be hard to find in stores unlike players like the archos, creative or ipod but it can be easily found on places such as eBay or other resellers. I received the player from Shobi Group Ltd where more details for this player can be found.

Hope you guys enjoyed this review and feel free to leave your feedback and do keep checking back for daily updates!