Exciting goods have helped Moondrop, an enthusiast audio company, to continuously grow in popularity over the past three years. Among the best entry-level IEMs available, the $18 Chu II is from the same company that previously developed ground-breaking devices like the Dash75, a mechanical keyboard with a retro aesthetic that includes a DAC.
Moondrop produces planar headsets as well, the Venus, but its next offering, the MIAD01, has even higher goals. MIAD01, an acronym for Mobile Internet Audio Device, is a phone with a single-ended 3.5mm jack, a flagship decoding processor, and independent audio circuitry that should reduce interference.
That leaves the phone hardware itself. The 6.7-inch flexible OLED display of the MIAD01 will support 1080p resolution, 120Hz refresh, and interestingly 2020Hz DC dimming. The device has the ports at the top and resembles any other enormous slab in the renders that the brand has posted on X.
Being someone who evaluates a billion phones and enthusiast audio devices annually, the MIAD01 seems to meet the majority of people’s needs.
Moondrop hinted at the MIAD01’s specifications in the beginning of the year, but we didn’t take those seriously. Grandiose plans are something that audio companies often offer, but the majority never materialize. Here, though, it appears that the company will actually go ahead and introduce a phone.
That naturally raises a number of questions. Moondrop is creating phones for what reason? Would the Play Store be available? Will it receive many updates? And the after-sales service? Making a phone is far more difficult than making audio goods, so most companies decide to go with digital audio players. Usually running an AOSP version of Android, these players have a screen, respectable hardware, and dedicated audio circuitry. Consider these gadgets to be phones without all the connectivity features.
The 5-inch 720p screen, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, ESS Sabre’s premium ES9038Q2M DACs, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 660, and 5300mAh battery of Fiio’s M11S are all excellent examples. Running Android 10, it will upgrade to Android 12 later in the year. In this case, Android 10 is still usable even though it is out of date because all you’re using the UI for is playing your preferred music streaming service.
Phone design is even more difficult; in addition to playing music, it must be able to perform a wide range of routine chores including sending texts, making calls, surfing the web, using social media, and gaming. It also requires cellular radios. Moondrop just lacks the funds and the technical expertise to create a phone, hence the MIAD01 will be a rebranded version of an already-existing model.
Also Read Our Article On ” Windows 11: The Day Your Operating System Turns Against You”
Given that the MIAD01 dims at 1920Hz PWM, the possibilities are restricted to Chinese entities. If we had to speculate, the MIAD01 is employing an ODM that services smaller manufacturers like Kaneoh, as we personally don’t see Xiaomi or any of the major companies somehow becoming a white label manufacturer.
Though the MIAD01’s blocky look is evocative of ZTE’s Nubia Z60 Ultra, it will be a mid-ranger. The MediaTek Dimensity 7050, which employs two Cortex A78 and six A55 cores older Arm v8 cores will power it, the company revealed. Along with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage, it will include a MicroSD card port that can accommodate up to 2TB cards.
Though conjecture about the technology is fascinating, the software is the main obstacle for a new firm entering this market. And unlike digital music players, AOSP doesn’t work well on a phone, hence the MIAD01 will require specific software. And nevertheless, we don’t think Moondrop can deliver on that front; the company’s Link app, which connects to its earphones, is frequently broken and full of problems.
Also Read Our Article On “Why Your Laptop Has Slowed Down, and How to Fix It”
A phone that serves as a music player would be perfect, and LG did a fantastic job of meeting this need. But that was in the past, and Moondrop doesn’t really seem up to the task. The company hasn’t had many successes lately, and with the MIAD01, it could have taken on too much. The gadget will have to beat the top mid-range phones and provide excellent audio at the same time.
Launching a digital audio player a la HiBy, Sony, and other audio companies would have been a more rational choice, but Moondrop doesn’t like to follow the rules, as we’ve seen in the past.