Unboxing the mintpass mintpad (and accessories)
When the limited supply of palm-sized mintpass mintpad devices were made globally available last week, I wasted little time in securing one of my own. And within just 48 hours of placing my order, the 3.2-ounce unit and some lovely accessories made their way from Korea to my front door in Hawaii.
The box only arrived a few hours ago, so I haven't had time to do anything but take the round of photos you'll find below.
I'll give the tiny mintpad my full review treatment in the coming weeks, as well as write up a few other bit about it here and there, so what follows are just a series of unboxing pictures with some commentary based on my immediate impressions.
Mintpad
Mintpass is a spin-off of iriver, so the packaging is very iriver-like: minimalist, clean, and nicely put together.
Included in the box are the mintpad, standard battery (est. 30 hours for audio, 5 hours for video), stylus, USB cable, and quick start guide. Additional accessories are available separately (see below).
The player itself is built well and makes a positive first impression when held in the hand. It's made of a high quality plastic that feels sturdy and durable while remaining lightweight. The design is a little chunky, the bezel in particular, but it's still cute and stylish.
Considering all that it has to offer (multimedia, internet, camera, memos/drawings, microSD expansion, built-in speaker), the compact size is really impressive, not to mention highly pocketable.
Two immediate advantages of the mintpad over other devices are its removable battery and microSD expansion slot.
The card slot is inconveniently located in the battery compartment. The retail box indicates that cards up to 16GB are supported, though, so you could just pop one of those in there (the mintpad itself has 4GB of flash storage) and forget about it. More internal storage would be a welcomed improvement in the next-gen mintpad, but the current 4GB isn't a dealbreaker when paired with microSD cards.
Mintpad Accessories
The mintpad is only mintpass' first product, so the selection of official accessories that are already available for it is pretty impressive.
LCD protector film
I don't know yet whether the device's 2.86-inch touchscreen is better served with a screen protector, but the official one made by Pure Plate looks good. The thickness and clarity remind me of the ClearTouch Crystal protectors (my favorite).
Silicone carrying case
The silicone skins are available in four colors: pink, white, black, and light green.
The mintpad slips into and out of the case with ease, and there are cut-outs for all of the hardware elements (ports, camera, speaker, stylus slot, etc.). I usually prefer to keep my gadgets naked, but the silicone is so soft and smooth that it's hard not to want to pet it all the time.
Cradle
Not surprisingly, my favorite accessory for the mintpad is its matching cradle. One minor thing I like is that it comes with the same proprietary USB cable included with the device. A lot of other cradles/docks require that you use the cable/AC adapter that came with the unit, so it's nice to have an extra one.
The cradle features a line-out jack and 20-pin connector port on the back.
And that's it for now. Stay tuned for my full review and a handful of additional feature articles in the next few weeks.
If you're interested in picking up a mintpad for yourself, there may still be some left from the original limited supply. The English firmware is also still expected to be fully complete by June 30th (right now, the web browser menus aren't translated and the file manager and ad-hoc chatting features aren't ready; everything else is translated and done) and will be available to existing users through a funware update.
Full specifications of the mintpass mintpad in the database.
Update: First impressions of the mintpass mintpad
