All MP4 Player / IPod Nano clones are NOT all created equal!
(Read this before buying any type of MP4 player on eBay)

MP4 players are becoming one of the hottest selling items on eBay and the Internet. The designs of the players range from the design of the iPod Shuffle to the Nano and beyond. There are hundreds of different styles and even more sellers making the buying process difficult for customers who are trying to figure out who to buy from and who to stay away from. Because of these difficulties, we at Zetronix decided to develop a guide describing the features to look for and keywords that raise red flags alerting you to not purchase from that particular seller. 
The first and very most important feature to be looked at is the MEMORY, or flash, in the MP4 player. Samsung is the leading, and one of the only, flash memory manufacturers. So, if a seller advertises Samsung flash as a key feature this is not really an impressive feature because ALL MP4 players have Samsung flash memory. The key factor is whether or not the memory is 100% real, upgraded or fake all together. Without actually opening the player to look at the flash or downloading a substantial amount of data on the player, it is very hard to tell whether the memory is real, fake or hacked. Below are some tips on what you should look for in order to determine the type of memory you might be getting.

REAL MEMEORY - We had secret shoppers buy from other eBay sellers and you would be surprised at how many sellers are selling fake or hacked memory when they advertise the memory as 100% real, it’s sickening! Flash memory is available in 128MB, 1GB, 2GB, 4GB and 8GB which is really 2 4GB Chips. If the seller is selling an MP4 Player with 4GB of memory for less than $50 or 8GB for less than $80, there is a 99.99% chance that the memory in the player is FAKE or HACKED (these terms are discussed below). Players sold for less than these prices are almost always made with fake memory because flash memory is expensive. The flash memory makes up about 80%, and even more for units with more memory, of the cost of the unit itself. So, when you see sellers selling 8GB units or 4GB units that are advertised for less than market price of just the flash memory itself, only one conclusion can be drawn, and our secret shoppers confirmed it.

HACKED MEMORY - Most of the sellers that we purchased from who were advertising 4GB or 8GB units were hacked. A hacked unit is one that was originally made of 128MB Samsung flash memory. The unit is then opened up and original 128MB memory chip is remanufactured to 4GB or 8GB (see Figure 1). The chip is tampered with in order to upgrade it to 4GB or 8GB and as the pictures show, this process creates scuff marks on the memory chip. These scuff marks cause the memory to lose 90% of its original stability. Because of this instability, the memory in your new MP4 player will likely stop working in 20-40 days. Your player will not let you load anything on it and in most cases it won’t even turn on. This happens because the memory chip, which was originally made to hold only 128MB of information, cannot handle the high stress and heat that is caused by the extra information stored on the chip. Most of the sellers selling HACKED units only offer 7, 14 or 30 day warranties. These sellers do this because they know that the hacked chip will malfunction at some point and then the buyer is left with no warranty, no money and a worthless MP4 player. As you can see in the picture, Zetronix NEVER uses hacked memory. Zetronix guarantees our products for 1 Year because we stand behind our name.

FAKE MEMORY - Fake memory is memory that is compressed or that has firmware that is reprogrammed to think it is 4GB or 8GB. When you load more information that what the original chip was designed to hold the player will show a disc error or state that the drive is full. Some sellers even go as far as doing this (8GB* Flash Drive(act as a 8GB USB flash drive for storing data) then on the bottom of the page it will read *This is a compressed 8GB flash drive, the 8GB capacity is for storing date files only the actual playable and recordable capacity is 1gb) We at Zetronix think that this is misleading and WRONG! A lot of customers that purchase 8GB or 4GB units, do not load them fully, or even over 1GB, until weeks or months from purchase date. When the purchaser finally figures out that the memory is hacked or fake, the seller’s 30 day warranty has already expired. Now, the purchaser is stuck with an overpriced 1GB unit which they greatly overpaid for. 

(Figure 1)


Left: 8GB Zetronix iNanoz MP4 player. Right: 8GB HACKED MP4 Player.

Notice our Zetronix iNanoz MP4 player has two 4GB Samsung chips. Each chip 4GB to give the player a combined total of 8GB of REAL memory! The Green unit has a 1GB chip that is HACKED to 8GB. This particular unit stopped working after about 2 weeks. You can see the scuff marks and damage caused from being reprogrammed on the upper right hand corner of chip.
Also notice that the battery in the Zetronix player is much bigger and fits more snuggly in the player. This bigger battery has a longer play life and it does not bounce around in the player. A battery that does not fit as snug can move inside the unit and cause damage to the MP4 player’s board when being tossed around. The green case is also much thinner and cheaper than the Zetronix iNanoz case. The green case broke right away when we tried to open it. Also notice how many fewer parts there are in the Zetronix unit. Everything is built in on our Zetronix iNanoz  but the other MP4 player has flimsy plastic parts on the top and bottom.

QUALITY!

SCREEN
Most MP4 players sold on eBay have a 1.5" 65,000 color screen. This screen is very cheap looking and does not provide the resolution necessary to show good color balance with the pictures or video in their natural state. Our Zetronix iNanoz is 1.8" TFT 260,000 color screen. The increased screen size and increased number of colors results in better resolution. 

SWITCH
You may not think that the switch is of any importance to the quality of the MP4 player you buy. But, it is important to keep in mind that the switch is toggled each and every time you turn your player on or off. If the switch is cheap and it breaks after being used for several months you will not be able to turn your player back on. If the player is not under warranty when this happens, you player will be a paper weight instead of a media device (See Figure 2). Therefore, it is important to purchase a player with a durable switch. 
(Figure 2)

As you can see, the ON/OFF switch on the top unit is bigger, straighter and looks less likely to break. This is the switch to our Zetronix iNanoz MP4 units. The switch on our MP4 player is built-in to the board which makes it a lot less likely to break and it feels more solid when you toggle between on and off. The bottom player was purchased from a different eBay seller. The switch on their player is smaller, it is more fragile and it is NOT built into the player (See Figures 3 and 4). Every time I used this switch it felt like it was going to break.

OVERALL QUALITY!

Figure 3                                     Figure 4
 

Do you see the small white thin covers, those glue on to the top and bottom of the green one and hide the screws.

They go to great lengths to conceal the truth, see the black gob of glue on the green one, there is also double stick tape inside. They are almost impossible to take apart without destroying them. You probably would not want to take yours apart, unless you don't want it any more.

The Zetronix iNanoz only have three different parts (See Figure 4). Our On/Off switch is built-in and the On/Off switch of the player purchased from another eBay seller is not built in. You can see how cheap the other player looks. On the outside they may look exactly the same and this is where the problem is, but when you open them up you can clearly see the difference between quality and junk. 
You can see the damage that was done in taking apart the green 8GB MP4 player with the fake memory. The green one would be difficult to repair. Any seller selling the green one probably wouldn’t a warranty more than 7 days.

The Zetronix iNanoz slides right out and it goes back together just as easy. This demonstrates how much easier a service job is on the Zetronix iNanoz as compared to the other eBay seller’s MP4 player. Also, Zetronix has a 1 year replacement warranty against factory defects.

ACCESORIES

Most of the MP4 players sold on eBay come with a box, a silicon case, a manual that was poorly translated from Chinese to English and an A/C charger. At Zetronix we sell you a whole package so that you don’t need to go to the store and spend another $100 dollars on accessories that you may need further down the line.

That’s why we sell the iNanoz with a bundle of accessories to make sure you do not have to spend a dollar on anything else. Zetronix includes everything the other eBay sellers include (gift box, silicon case, and A/C charger) but we also decided to take an extra step and we rewrote the manual ourselves. Our manual is easy to understand making it easy for our customers to figure out how to use their new MP4 player. Additionally, we include:
Sports Strap: Arm band that goes around your arm so you can jog or work out freely while listening to your favorite tunes.
Soft Cloth Case: We know our customers want to protect their new investment from scratches or anything else that may ruin your Zetronix iNanoz MP4 player so we are including a soft cloth bag to store your iNanoz when you’re on the go or for when you are simply storing it.
FM Transmitter: Love listening to your MP3's in your car? Who doesn't, that’s why we included an FM Transmitter that plugs right in to your iNanoz. You do not have to go to the store and figure out which transmitter will work and spend time and money, just plug it in, set your FM transmitter to a desired station as well as the FM Radio in your car, and listen. It’s a seamless integration! The FM Transmitter also comes with a charger for your car so you do not even have to buy batteries!
In-Ear Headphones: The headphones that come with most MP4 players are, by any standards, poor quality. They may look like iPod Nano headphones, but the do not sound anything like them. Zetronix includes high quality in-ear headphones with every MP4 player we sell.

WARRANTY

Most sellers offer only a 7 or 30 day exchange and some even offer no warranty! This is a big red flag! These sellers do not allow you to return the item if you are not happy with it. They are so unconfident about their product that they will only give you a short warranty with the hopes that you do not find anything wrong with it in that short time. After that, you are on your own.

Make sure to purchase from sellers that offer a refund policy and a 1 Year Warranty. This shows that the seller has nothing to hide about their product. Zetronix offers a 1 Year Warranty on every MP4 player that we sell and we have been in business for over two years selling MP4 players. Remember, if an eBay seller offering a one year warranty has feedback of less than 1000, they have not been around long enough. They might offer a 1 Year Warranty, but if they are not open in two months, that warranty is worthless.

CONCLUSION

I hope this article educated and enlightened you on different types of MP4 players and sellers out there on eBay and the Internet. When buying from a seller, make sure the player is not fake or hacked. As mentioned before, a good rule of thumbs is price. If the advertised price is below $50 dollars for 4GB or $80for 8GB, it is most likely fake or hacked.

Look for feedback indicating that previous purchasers have had problems with hacked or fake memory. If some feedback indicates this, most likely all of their MP4 players are fake or hacked. The positive feedback customers have just not discovered this problem yet. 
Look at the seller’s warranty carefully. Check to see if they offer a one year warranty, make sure the eBay name has been registered for at least one year, check to see if it is an individual person or a company selling the player and look to see if they offer a return policy. Always make sure it’s a US seller and that shipping takes under five days. If shipping takes longer, that seller is drop shipping the players from China and you will be in for a surprise. Finally, check what kind of accessories come with the unit. Many sellers offer very little with their players. Zetronix iNanoz come with more accessories, last longer and easier to use than any other MP4 players on eBay.