SmartQ, one of the few companies to shake the 'iPod clone' stigma attached to many Chinese media player manufacturers has been hard at work again on a new player called the 'TAO'. The TAO sports a tidy 3.3 inch 480x320 resolution, 262,000 colour display (not a touch screen), a perfect balance between size and pocketability. You also get a huge array of audio/video and image format support. On the audio side, you get MP3, OGG, FLAC, AAC, APE, WAV & WMA support. Images are viewed in a scrollable carousel format, similar to apples 'Cover Flow' (except for photos instead) which has been originally named 'PicFlow 3D'. BMP, JPG, PNG & GIF file formats can be viewed, the player also supports album art.

Finally to top it off you get support for high res XVID and DIVX (upto 720x576) video files as well as RM/RMVB, FLV, WMV, ASF, 3GP, MPEG & DAT. An eBook reader & sound recorder are also included as well as a range of sound manipulation, presets and EQ options. The player has no internal memory but supports cheap as chips SD/SDHC cards up to 16GB. Battery life is rated at 20hrs for audio and 6hrs for video. Importers are pricing the TAO at around $150 /£85 (with 8GB card) however in China it is significantly less. Click the links for stockists, videos and additional info:

Smart Devices - Chinese Home Page
PlaysmartSG - SmartQ Fansite/Retailer
SmarTQ TAO - Youtube Videos