PMP Today

A Chinese MP4 player with Half-size VGA instead of Quarter-size VGA? The Tsinghua Tongfang PMC-M880 gives you 400 x 240 pixels in a 3.0-inch TFT screen. Just how much better HVGA is compared to QVGA? Just take a look at Dakota Blue Richards face from The Golden Compass (below) is shown first with an HGVA resolution then with a QVGA. QVGA will make even Kate Moss look fat.

It’s pretty obvious, HVGA supports true wide screen format. I wonder why all PMP manufacturers has not adopted this screen resolution instead of the ubiquitous QVGA. The M880 is a 2GB-capacity player supporting RMVB, RM videos and MP3, WMA, APE, FLAC audio. Battery can play video for 7 hours and music for 25. This player goes for 599 yuan or $83.

Note: 599 yuan may seem pricier than other PMPs with similar feature but when you consider that this PMP is among the few portable devices along with the iPhone and the iPod Touch using an HVGA screen, you’ll understand the premium.

[yesky via zol]