What A Looker! Samsung Proves It Has The Touch

If I was single and Samsung's 8GB YP-P2 digital music player was a girl, I wouldn't be single very long. I'd marry this little beauty (3.9 x 2.1 x 0.4 inches [HxWxD]) on the spot if she'd have me. Dazzlingly attractive (she comes in red, black, and white), intelligent, multifaceted, cutting-edge, and boasting a glorious singing voice, the P2 has me very much atwitter these days. I don’t even mind she has expensive tastes. I’m way under her spell, and it’s a beautiful place to be.

This cutie has so many fantastic qualities it’s difficult to know where to begin gushing. How about the obvious? The P2’s 3-inch, 16:9 widescreen display (480 x 272 top resolution) not only shows movies, photos, and video clips smoothly with sharp, accurate colors, it also doubles as a touchscreen. Finger taps and swipes let you skip through video clips at various intervals, scroll photos, and tunnel through a slick Cosmos user interface. Cosmos displays menu icons (Music, Video, Pictures, Settings, etc.) in a 3D style that rotates the icons at various depths of field as you slide a finger across the screen. The P2 also offers a Matrix menu that lays the icons in a grid. There is a third My Skin option that overlays menu icons on a photo you choose. If all this weren’t enough, the P2 also has three font choices. (Told you she was multifaceted.)

The P2’s touchscreen is a little oversensitive at times and prone to fingerprints and smudges, but I don’t think you’ll mind. Of the scores of digital music players I’ve used, none has won me over as quickly as the P2 did while zooming on individual photos, tuning in FM radio stations, turning ebook pages, and incessantly flying through the four visualization options you have for song playback. Touchscreens definitely aren’t for everyone, but I haven’t minded the P2’s shortage of tactile buttons once. (There are Hold, Play/Pause, and two volume buttons.)

Wait, there’s more. The P2’s audio quality is maybe the best I’ve heard from any digital music player. Volume levels are strong without distortion, and midtones are fuller even at default settings than what I’ve heard with the vast majority of players. Samsung builds in Street Mode and Clarity sound effects, as well as nearly a dozen DNSe (Digital Natural Sound Engine) options (Normal, Rock, Classical, etc.) designed to output audio that’s more accurate and natural. Configuring the P2’s seven-band equalizer gave me the best audio performance.

Can you handle more gushing? The File Browser simplifies navigation through data on the P2, including text you can read with a built-in text reader. The reader is on a submenu that has a World Clock, Calendar, and Alarm Clock with multiple-alarm ability. Elsewhere, a Datacasts menu holds RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds you can transfer from Samsung’s Media Studio, a decent media player and file converter.

Arguably, the P2’s best feature (at least potential-wise) is its built-in Bluetooth 2.0 functionality, which lets you pair the P2 with wireless headsets or Bluetooth speakers for stereo-quality audio playback. You can also pair the player with an enabled cell phone to take calls from P2 and speak through the player’s microphone. Further, Samsung recently released details of a Blue Wave program that will entail periodic releases of consumer-centric functions taking advantage of the P2’s Bluetooth ability, including extended phone-calling chores and wireless file sharing. Adding such abilities means you’ll have to perform some firmware upgrades, but if Samsung follows through, you’ll also have a player that will grow older gracefully. The P2 is drawing comparisons to Apple’s iPhone and touch iPod, which both have touchscreens and Wi-Fi for Web surfing (something the P2 can’t do).

The P2’s audio and video file support could be better (MP3, WMA [Windows Media Audio], and AAC [Advanced Audio Coding] through firmware and MPEG-4 [Moving Picture Experts Group-4], SVI, and WMV9 [Windows Media Video 9] for video). Compatibility with Rhapsody (http://www.rhapsody.com/), Vongo (http://www.vongo.com/), and other subscription services, plus CinemaNow (http://www.cinemanow.com/) gives you decent content-download choices.

Despite her flaws, the P2 is without question a knockout.


by Blaine Flamig,
Article from: http://www.smartcomputing.com/editorial/article.asp?article=articles/2008/s1904/03bs04/03bs04.asp&articleid=46497&guid=31A830356459411D898DC16C2A0A394