If you’ve ever thought that the large touchscreens that come with MP5 players should be used for much more than just touch playback of movies and music, and for turning the pages of an occasional e-book, then you’ll be glad to know that the future of MP5 players is quickly catching up to you. There is a revolution brewing in the media player world that is merging the MP5 player and Android tablet markets closer together. This revolution is the inclusion of two operating systems in one MP5 player device, allowing users to chose to boot either to the standard OS of a high-definition media player or into a version of Google’s Android OS.
Two leading MP5 manufacturers have been on the forefront of this new generation of MP5 players with dual boot capabilites: Ramos and Benss. Both companies have had extensive experience in the design and development of media players and are two of the most well-established media player manufacturers in the Asia-Pacific region, with avid followers within the region and around the world.
While the development of MP5 players in this direction comes with little surprise, the quality of these first generation of dual-booting MP5 players is really a thing to behold. Between the two manufacturers, 5 new dual-booting MP5 players are currently out on the market.
Ramos is the clear winner when it comes to the number of models it has released that are capable of dual-booting between the HD media player operating system and Android OS 2.1 Eclair. Ramos’ selection of dual-booting MP5 players includes the T8Pro, the T11Pro, the V70Pro, and the T20. The Ramos line feature MP5 players of varying specifications and prices. When purchasing the dual-booting Mp5 players from online wholesalers, Ramos starts with the 4.3-inch T8Pro pricing in at $65.65 at the lowest end of the line and finishes off at $130.09 for the 7-inch T20 at the highest end of the food chain.
Benss has decided to take a more conservative path by releasing only one dual-booting MP5 player, however, it has shown its desire to be competitive in this new area by releasing its modestly priced $49.25 B3 with Android OS 2.3 Gingerbread instead.
All 5 Mp5 players share several things in common. First, instead of having the Android OS installed directly onto the hardware, booting into the Android operating system is instead accomplished by inserting an SD card loaded with Android into the SD card slot and selecting the OS of choice at the start-up screen.
Second, although capable of booting into Android OS, none of the 5 MP5 players are tablets in the true sense of the term. All 5 dual-booting MP5 players do not have WiFi capabilities, so installing any software is once again done via the SD card slot and some basic rooting. All 5 MP5 players also do not have the sensors that come standard with almost any tablet at the moment, like an accelerometer or G-sensor, so games and applications requiring this won’t work as expected.
Ramos had released a more advanced version of the T11, called the T11AD, with WiFi capabilities, an accelerometer, G-sensor, compass, and other more tablet-like hardware specifications, however, this is dual-booting MP5 player is more correctly classified as a tablet rather than a true MP5 player by both users, critics, and Ramos themselves alike.
