Cut Price Touchscreen Portable Media Player iTouch Clone - Cheap, Cheerful & Not Unimpressive

Whilst we have seen more than a few iPhone and iTouch clones become available of late we’ve never felt particularly inclined to post about any of them - that is until our cheery friends at China Vasion decided to get in on the act with this cheap and cheerful iTouch clone known simply as the Touchscreen MP4 Player.

In fairness to China Vasion, not withstanding the blindingly apparent similarities with Apple’s iTouch, this is actually a fairly well specified PMP – especially considering the rock bottom price - what with the device sporting touchscreen functionality, a maximum of 8GB of integrated storage capacity expandable with miniSD cards (2GB, 2GB and 4GB models are also available), and a built-in camera capable of capturing images up to 1280 x 1024 resolution and 30fps video recording capabilities.

Built around a 2.8” touchscreen TFT LCD, the Touchscreen MP4 Player + Video Camera 8GB (China Vasion’s product naming conventions verge on the wholly mundane) not only supports AVI encoded videos but also offers compatibility with MP1, MP2, MP3 WMA and WAV audio formats up to 320Kbps and comes complete with FM tuner and integrated speaker which, all said an done, pretty much covers all bases (apart from Wi-Fi connectivity and web browsing).

China Vasion Touchscreen Portable Media Player Features:

• Memory: 8GB
• External Memory: Mini SD Card (Max 2GB)
• Display: 2.8 Inch TFT LCD Full Touch Screen
• Video Format: AVI
• Conversion formats: avi, mpg, rm, rmvb, wmv, dat
• Video Resolution: 320×240
• FPS (Frames per Second): 30fps
• Music Format: MP1,2,3 WMA, WAV
• Bit rate: 32~320Kbps
• Built In Camera
• Still Image Resolution (JPEG): 320×240, 640×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×1024
• Zoom: x4
• Timer Mode (5 Sec)
• Mulit Shot Mode (2 Pictures Taken One After the Other)
• Adjustable Brightness/Color/Contrast
• Effects: Normal/ Black & White/ Blue/ Classic/ Brown/ Negative
• Built In Video Recorder
• ideo Resolution: 320×240
• Format: AVI
• Zoom: x4
• Picture Display Format: JPEG
• FM Radio: 87.0~108.0MHz 70.0~90.0MHz
• Built in MIC
• Record Format: WAV
• Earphone Jack: 3.5mm
• Output of Earphones: 2×20mW(8Ohm)
• Built In Speaker
• Output of Speaker: 10mW (16Ohm)
• SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio): 85dB
• Languages: English, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Svenska, Arabic, Polish, Dansk, Dutch, Greek, Turkish
• USB: 2.0
• System: Windows 98/ME/SE/2000/XP/Vista
• Power Source: Built in Rechargeable Li-ion Battery
• Dimensions: 94×55x15mm (LxWxD)

Additional Features:

• Full Touch Screen Function
• 7 EQ Modes + 1 User Defined EQ
• 4 FM Regions- China, Europe, Japan, USA
• MIC Recording Settings
• Adjustable High/ Normal Quality MIC Recording
• Adjustable MIC Sensitivity
• Backlight Settings
• Adjustable Backlight On Time- Always, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 sec
• Adjustable Backlight Brightness
• Selectable Dim Backlight/ Power Saving Off Backlight
• Auto power off - Never, 10, 15, 30, 60 min
• Touch screen calibration
• Mute Button
• Button/Screen Lock
• Easy 3 Button Control

Let’s be honest here, whilst in mind of the fact that, in the past, we’ve been known to be rather scathing about some of China Vasion’s products, but all this for a mere $94.64 (the 2GB version retails at just $66.96) with further concessions on offer for bulk orders is not unimpressive (though it pains us to say it) but we still wouldn’t purchase one. Why? Because, after a while, we’d get just a little fed up of people saying ‘Couldn’t afford a real iTouch then?’

If only China Vasion had ‘dared’ to offer up something more than a thinly veiled iTouch clone, certainly in terms of aesthetics, we might (just might) have thought otherwise.

China Vasion