RAmos shuffles its MiniQ out the door

RAmos is a little late to the shuffle knock-off game, but it looks like its new MiniQ player should stack up to the competition quite nicely, with it boasting many of the same improvements other companies have managed to cram into that familiar form factor. From the looks of it, this one is available only in a 2GB version, which includes a barely there monochrome OLED display and SRS Wow technology to give your tunes an artificially enhanced boost. All that'll apparently set you back 299 yuan in China, or just about $40.

[Thanks, BrianB]

[brett.m.lucas @ Oct 3rd 2007 4:01PM]

Last I heard was that Yuan was at an exchange of 7.5 to $1. I get around $40 and am confused how you reached the absurd amount of $170...

[aeo @ Oct 3rd 2007 4:05PM]

Per Google: 299 Chinese yuan = 39.839059 U.S. dollars.

Enter "299 yuan in dollars" in Google. ;-)

[BrianB @ Oct 3rd 2007 4:34PM]

aeo, I need to be hanged or something worse. I converted 1299, not 299 USD. We usually post about Chinese players, and the price didn't even hit me as weird.

[Tony @ Oct 3rd 2007 4:08PM]

So it's better than the shuffle, and cheaper.

If only it had an Apple logo..

[Carbonize @ Oct 3rd 2007 4:10PM]

They said $170 because like all Engadgets faux journlists (read: bloggers) Donald Melanson just copied the story as he found it and didn't bother to do any research or verify any of it.

[s @ Oct 3rd 2007 4:10PM]

299 yuan is $39.8375, not $170. Curency conversion is 1 USD = 7.50550 CNY

[ark_v2 @ Oct 3rd 2007 4:13PM]

Isn't it sad that a knock-off has more features than the real deal?

[Tanner @ Oct 3rd 2007 4:21PM]

Yes, because more features always means it's better. My swiss army knife has a saw, a knife, tweezers, a magnigying glass and a ton of other crap. That doesn't meen any one of those things is any good. Come on dude, it is a chinese knock-off product, do you really think that is a good quality device? Why don't you buy one and let me know how it works out for you, I would love to hear a personal review on how great all those many features work.

P.S. I have also had products in the past that has that SRS Wow 3D sound crap, it never sounds better, it always sounds wierd. I don't know why they still put that technology into things.

[BrianB @ Oct 3rd 2007 4:31PM]

yep, $40. Sorry Donald, my fault. I converted 1299, not 299

[dj-kenpo @ Oct 3rd 2007 4:33PM]

tanner, it plays mp3's and has a next back button. what is their as far as crap goes. with the nano knockoffs you can argue th os, especially if you've used one (it's horrible) but this.. I don't see any reason to say it's not way better than apples shuffle.

[anonymouspimp @ Oct 3rd 2007 4:45PM]

No, what's sad is that consumers are willing to pay 3X as much because it has an Apple logo on it.

[doctorSpoc @ Oct 3rd 2007 4:46PM]

@ dj-kenpo

the nano has pretty good sound and is reliable... no one on this board knows that about this player. but many Chinese knock offs have been wanting in these areas that you can't test without the device in your hand.

also i don't understand why anyone needs a display on a device that has 100 song on it... who cares? if i don't like the song playing i just press next... why do i need display? i think that is the most useless feature on an MP3 player with this capacity.

[Constable Odo @ Oct 3rd 2007 5:15PM]

But it's missing the most important features. The Apple logo and Steve's blessing. Amen, brother.

[reno6 @ Oct 3rd 2007 4:41PM]

On engadget, every mp3 player bearing a white ring of +,-, is a ipod knock off..

[steve @ Oct 3rd 2007 6:38PM]

at the end of the day though its from china and it looks like and comes in the same range of colours as the 2G nano.
white earbuds just completes the knock off job but hey i guess im just a fanboy

[k @ Oct 3rd 2007 9:52PM]

I guess wearing white earpud in public wouldn't attract too much attention to robber despite wear real one. Thanks, I feel safer now.