InsertUsernameHere wrote:

I’ve seen this thing in person and not only is it a blatant ripoff of apple’s nano but the quality is horrible.

Compared to the Apple iPod yes, it has less quality to a certain extent but I wouldn’t say they are all horrible. Many companies recently started selling this similar style of MP4 and do expect to see these everywhere this season. It is actually a great gift for the younger crowd since the price is much more reasonable than the iPod. Yes the manual is a waste of trees which is pretty much the same manual for all China made MP4 players. But please note, there are hundreds of different factories in China making the same MP4’s but the quality is different from each and every one. Some companies just use the really cheap parts.

Always beware on eBay unless it is from a powerseller with an eBay store and a respectable feedback. Anyone interested in buying one should make sure it says Samsung flash otherwise there is a chance that you will end up with less memory then you expected. This is called modified memory as they say. When you hook it up to your computer it will even show the amount of memory it claims to have but when the time comes that you want to transfer a large enough file you will be surprised to find out that it won’t accept it. These are the common issues with this product. You must find a good company who does the necessary legwork to make sure these things are legit and of good quality. If you pay attention to the details of the listing, you can certainly find a good deal for a quality MP4 without having to spend an extra $100 for the name iPod. The added quality of the iPod is realistically only worth about $20-30/player. So yes, it is good for Apple to have this competition so that they don’t go and charge you $800 for something that cost them $40 to manufacture. :wacko:

Don’t forget, the iPod has less features then the copy version. So you loose a touch of quality and gain a touch of capability. All while saving quite a bit of money.

InsertUsernameHere wrote:

… but I think brando sells nothing more than random dollar-store quality stuff from China.

While I disagree with your assessment of Brando’s products :p (I have picked up a few cool things there that I did not find anywhere else), you are certainly entitled to your opinion. Sure, Brando sells some pretty silly stuff, too. There must be a market for his odd geeky toys.

InsertUsernameHere wrote:

Please don’t get me wrong, the gadgeteer is the third (after engadget and digg) website I check on whenever I go online…

Here is where we really part ways.

The THIRD website you check?!?!?!?!?

I don’t mean any offense by the thing abour Brando’s stuff not being all that good, I hope none was taken.

Isn’t that’s what reviews are for… to help people know what not to buy?
I don’t agree with you that all Brando just sells is junk though.

I contacted the seller (eBay, of course) and he gladly exchanged it. Back and forth we tried to determine the issues, and he was quite helpful, and my expertize with crappy products helped a lot

Eventually, he decided I needed a complete refund, and also contacted his supplier (in China, of course) and sent all his inventory back.

It was later determined that the manufacturing orpcess of the internal memory was crap. A lot of the players were using only 1GB of memory, though the players were set up to show there was 8GB of memory.

Quite the scam.. and I have tried out many of these, as well.

http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/review/brando_nano_size_digital_audio_player

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