I’m personally fine with the built-in Li-ion battery. Charging is super convenient, and swapping it out in the future should be pretty straightforward.
i dont know enough about batteries, could it draw direct power from the USB C port even if the battery was shot? or is the worry that it’ll start ballooning
It probably just uses the same thing in the live series, they never changed it for those and it would make everything simpler to just use the same thing, it is ust regular 18650’s wrapped in a proprietary connection… it would be easy to pull them out and put new ones in and shrink wrap it back up in electric cling wrap if you don’t want to pay for a proper replacement. I hope it uses the same thing, they are pretty common parts now you can find. I doubt they would have a special battery for just this.
This likely wouldn’t have space for a 18650 pack, that thing is pretty large.
I’ve read the M8 can be powered without a battery. Not sure about other devices but it would definitely be a cool functionality.
I don’t think that’s a speaker, I think that’s the built in mic…
Could you do the same kind of fancy measuring using the side shot of the micro SD slot? Would be able to the apply the true size to the top down shot and work out the pad size. I think those pads are tiny…
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It has both a speaker (look at the grill) and a mic (look at the right hand side). (judging by the photos. I don’t know anything)
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Ah yeah I didn’t spot that I actually thought those little spots in the mic icon were leds to indicate wether or not it was getting a signal… 
it’s early… 
On a side note if it’s under 300 UK as the leaked price suggests I’ll defo be picking one up, as much as I like my live 2 I’m getting pretty tired of the beta program and the constant bugs, some of them are real buzz kills, it would be nice to have something simpler to just chill with, I hope this is like the move version of mpc to be honest, no frills fun…
When I pictured what I’d want from a mpc mini this was pretty much it.
A simple streamlined os is key here
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Competition is good. If it encourages Roland to update the SP404MKII sequencer seriously, I’m all for that AKAI Sample.
Hopefully we’re not limited to one track per sequence, although I don’t see any track management on the panel, only pads, sequences and songs. Looks like they went back to drum programs only, no keygroups, but 16 levels…
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…ooops…it has the old, original logo…like from back then when akai was the real akai…apple has entered the low price segment for the first time with the macbook neo and akai has a brand flashback while also going deep and cheap…!?
what’s going on…?
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I have a feeling they’ll sell a lot of these but it doesn’t make me interested at all. I’m clearly not the market for it though.
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Rampant inflation would be my guess. If nobody can afford your shit anymore companies are forced to create a new entry level bracket for their products 
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…well…i see a market for lowprice notebooks…but for further more low price plastic gadgets in “musicproduction”…errr, not soo much…
there’s defenitly a race to the bottom going on out there, all over the places…
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Judging from the button labels, it doesn’t seem like there are tracks. But since there appear to be about eight banks, maybe each bank works something like a track.
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What are the chances that this can record through the USB input? If I can plug my phone directly and sample from YouTube then it’ll be a very appealing travel toy. I love how my Digitakt II can record via USB, but I don’t know how widespread that functionality is. The 1010 Nanobox Tangerine can’t, for example.
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The SP404 MKII can do it can’t it? If AKAI wants to tap into that market, I think they should at the very least do what the competition does…
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I have many and tried many samplers. My main complaint is usability. If I want deep capabilities I go into my draw and can do whatever I want. If companies try to sell me hardware with daw capabilities but 10 times more difficult usability, I hard pass. This thing could be what I am looking for. Ableton move is almost perfect for my needs but is a bit too limited when it comes to sample chopping mangling etc.
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