http://www.mp3musicinfo.free-information4u.info

Samsung MP3 Players

With Apple at the top of the MP3 player heap, it seems that other manufacturers try to compensate for their lesser position by offering more models. Creative does this – they have more than 20 different MP3 players and Samsung also does this with 23 current model numbers.

Granted, some of these choices are the same player with different memory sizes. Samsung flash players usually have a 'V','X' and 'Z' suffix which means 256 MB, 512 MB and 1GB memory respectively.

Still, knock out the duplicates and you still have about 12 different models, whereas Apple is offering just 3 different iPods. It's nice to have choice, but sometimes too much choice is overwhelming and confusing.

That said, Samsung does have a nice line-up of both flash and hard drive MP3 players. Their answer to the iPod 5th Generation is the YH-J70SB – 'The Intelligent Multimedia Jukebox' according to their promotional material. This player is available with either a 20 GB or 30 GB hard drive and features a 1.8” 256K color screen. A bit smaller than the iPod's but the greater color depth (only 64K on the iPod) makes for a more vivid display.

Supported audio formats include MP3, WAV and OGG. This makes Samsung one of the few manufacturers that support OGG – an open source audio compression format that is starting to gain popularity for its good sound quality.

The supported video formats are MPEG4 and DivX, and the player can also be used to view JPEG photos. Other functions include FM radio, voice recording, equalizer and a line-in for recording external devices like CD players. The built-in lithium-ion battery is good for 25 hours of audio or 7 hours of video – much better specs than the iPod.

The Samsung YP-T8QW is one of the biggest flash players on the market – 2 GB. It's got the same color display as the YH-J70SB mentioned above, and can handle all the same audio and video formats. The re-chargeable lithium-ion battery has a slightly shorter playing life than the hard-drive player – 20 hours of audio and 6 hours of video. 

Flash players are preferred by many people because they are more durable and offer skip-free audio playback due to the lack of moving parts. The 2 GB model is sure to find market acceptance – enough storage for about 900 songs or 10 hours of video.

Samsung also has a good selection of 'traditional' flash MP3 players. The YP-T55 model is available with 256 MB, 512 MB or 1 GB of memory and has FM radio, FM recorder, voice recorder, line-in recording and plays files in MP3, WMA, ASF and OGG audio formats. It operates on a single AAA battery that lasts for about 20 hours.

Samsung players can be used as USB computer drives, so transferring files back and forth from computer to player is a simple matter of dragging and dropping. Models with an integrated lithium-ion battery can be recharged from the USB port.

Navigation controls are well-designed and follow a logical structure so it's quite easy to find all the functions by playing with the controls for a few minutes. All the players have a digital sound processing engine that can be used to add stereo depth and other effects. 

We've come to the point where all MP3 players must be examined next to the iPod, but in the case of Samsung players, they compare quite favorably with the 'i' machine. The support for OGG files is sure to be appreciated by audiophiles, and the extra features for recording give Samsung a definite edge.