Teclast M30 on sale

chengdude · 02-25-2008

There's been a big surge in M30 listings on Taobao.com in the last couple of days, which must mean resellers are finally getting their hands on them. Unfortunately, from the speculative listings over the last couple of weeks up to now, it looks like there's been no change in exactly what resellers are getting their hands on: only 2GB units. Pretty pathetic, Teclast.

I was hanging out in Shanghai last week and ran across an M30 in a shop. The seller was offering the 2GB model at an Early Adopter Special Sale Price of 699 RMB (MSRP is 499). Hahahahaha...yeah, good luck with that.

Price-gouging aside, I think the M30 is Teclast's nicest player to date. It's solid, razor-thin, has a nice heft, the black front/anthracite brushed-metal back looks really sharp, and that AMOLED really shines. It's just a smooth, near-seamless, elegant litttle package. The GUI is definitely not off-the-shelf Rockchip, but the deeper into the menus you get, the more likely you run into that nasty Courier typeface that's the bane of Chinese players. If you've seen the reviews on the Chinese tech sites, you've seen the main screens. Navigation is quite straightforward. The touchstrip is, as you'd expect, is a little touchy and will probably be the player's Achilles heel. At the extortionate price the seller was asking, I wasn't going to waste their time with listening tests and whatnot, so I'll be doing that locally over the next few days.

Too bad I won't be buying, though, as it looks like more waiting time for the promised 4GB.

chengdude · 03-09-2008

It looks like Teclast is finally getting around to releasing a 4GB version of the M30:

M30 4GB...hint to Teclast: 8GB

Still pretty sad in these days of 8, 16, & 32GB but the 4GB M30 is a promised 599 RMB, so a mighty nice price for a mighty nice little player.

Err0r · 03-10-2008

I'm not sure if the price is mighty nice.

Flash prices are currently very low, you could get a 4GB player using the new Rockchip for around 350 RMB.

chengdude · 03-11-2008

Well, true, you are paying for that AMOLED...but with a typical no hassle discount, $80 isn't so bad for a 4GB player with those specs. One thing that really stands out when you actually hold the thing is how thin it is compared to previous Teclasts..and other Chinese players. It's thinner than either of the Meizu SL's and the Oppo V9, although it's getting close to hair-splitting in the case of the V9.