I have not checked PMP market since I purchased my last player. The market is changing so quickly. Today I am impressed by the brand new MID-like PMP (Smart Q5/Q7) by Zhiqi, China. Zhiqi stands for smart device in Chinese, so hereafter I refer this company as SmartDevices. Smart Q5 and Q7 do not focus on media playback, since its performance of decoding is worse than the popular PMPs, which now are be able to decode H.264 HD (720P/1080I) content.

SmartDevices Q5 and Q7

I am not surprised with Linux enabled PMP, since Linux is the mainstream OS kernal for embedded devices. But Q5 and Q7 are running a full version of Ubuntu distribution for ARM ! Q5 looks like a MID, and Q7 looks like a digital photo frame, rather than a regular PMP. Let us check out their specification:

• CPU: Samsung S3C6410 (ARM11) 667MHz
• LCD: Touch-lens, 800*480 (WVGA), 4.3 inches (Q5) or 7 inches (Q7)
• RAM: 128MB DDRAM (I think 512MB is better, DRAM is so cheap anyway. Some new OMAP3530 devices have 2GB DDRAM on board!)
• ROM: 1GB NAND Flash, user space for 256MB, (it is better to have more on board NAND flash.)
• OS: Ubuntu Linux ARM, users are encourged to download Windows CE 6.0 firmware as well.
• Application: As same as Ubuntu Desktop
• Media: MPEG-4, Xvid, RMVB, APE, MP3, FLAC, FLV, WMV...
• Language: Chinese, English, German, French, Portuguese
• Extension: Up to 32MB microSD card
• Connectivity: Embedded 802.11b/g WiFi, and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, USB OTG for EDGE/HSDPA adapter or mobile phone.
• Battery: 2000mAh (Q5) or 4500mAh (Q7)
• Price: 899RMB (131USD) and 1200RMB (175USD)

SmartDevices claims to consider to Freescale i.MX515 and TI OMAP3530 in future product lines, both devices are CORTEX-A8 based. That means the media playback for HD content will be its focus in next generation.

Market Feedbacks

The users of Q5/Q7 have swordplay conclusions. Many ordinary consumers are sick of these products, 

" They are not user friendly." 
" I can not playback video properly on Q5." 
" It is totally a nightmare for common users. " 

On the other hand, Linux fans, who are enjoy exploring Linux in Q5/Q7 and feel them "awesome". They claim the whole process painful and enjoyable. The user doesn't have to be an expert for embedded Linux to understand bootloader, JTAG programming. If you are familiar with some important features in desktop Ubuntu/Debian such as repository setup, sudo and commands, it is enough for you to play with Q5/Q7. To be frank, it is still a big challanege for people who have only Windows experience. That is an important reason why Q5/Q7 support Windows CE 6.0 firmware as alternative firmware. SmartDevices Q5/Q7 are dual OS capbale devices for both user groups. 

Personally I consider Q5/Q7 as iPod-touch killers and cheap Linux development kits. Of course, Smart Q5/Q7 have many problems as a consumer electronics. First of all, Smart Q uses Ubuntu Hasty for ARMv6 without optimization, which still has many desktop applications. Some media player software can run on Smart Q, but the skinned UI is too tiny to press. The UI should be optimized for a handheld device, rather than a small desktop UI. 

Second, the system memory is limited to 128MB, which is too small for Ubuntu. As a result, the overall system performance is also very slow. As a media player, Smart Q has worse performance than its competitors. MPlayer is a general performance, it has optimized its codec for x86 over MPEG4/AVI, rather than RMVB and other proprietary codecs. 

Finally, SmartDevices doesn't have official user community for its products, which means it should reveal the bootloader, schematics, modified device driver and etc. Although SmartDevices regularly releases new firmware, that's not enough.

And so many bugs in the Ubuntu. But I have so much fun with it. I am waiting for its better product on CORTEX-A8 devices as promise. 

Reference

Beijing SmartDevices Co., Ltd (Zhiqi)
http://en.smartdevices.com.cn/index.html

Ubuntu Repository URL
http://repository.handhelds.org/hasty-armv6el-vfp/pool/

Smart Q5/Q7 tutorial in imp3.net, in Simplified Chinese. Please use Google to translate it.
http://images.imp3.net/special/2009/zq/index.html