MaximumPC 2007 02

reviews Tes Ted. Reviewed. veRdic Tized

 MAXIMUMPC february 2007

T

he MP3-player landscape is littered

with me-too merchandise, so a new

product needs a little something extra

if it’s to rise above the noise. Samsung’s

YP-K5 succeeds with clever slide-out speak-

ers and a 1.7-inch OLED screen; unfortunate-

ly, its $210 asking price is much too steep for

a player with just 2GB of flash memory.

Samsung’s pricing strategy is regrettable

because the YP-K5 looks great and sounds

terrific with headphones. While we’d never

classify its diminutive speakers as “hi-fi”

(drivers measuring just one-half-inch wide

can push only so much air), they’re better

than some of the portable add-on jobs we’ve

auditioned. They slide out from the bottom

of the player on a sturdy set of rails to form

a convenient stand. You wouldn’t want to

subject your ears to these speakers for any

length of time, but they come in handy when

you want to share a tune with a friend.

All but the crappiest earbuds sound

better than the YP-K5’s microscopic speak-

ers, but we were impressed by the audio

quality and uniquely comfortable design of

Samsung’s earphones: Their bodies fit snug-

ly outside your ear canals, while pliable rub-

ber tips protrude ever so slightly into them.

They’re much more comfortable than most

models we’ve tested, and when paired with

the YP-K5, they serve up plenty of punchy

bass without compromising the middle and

high end of the dynamic range.

We found the player’s touch-screen

controls to be just slightly twitchy, but

Samsung puts the OLED to good use with

an intuitive user interface for browsing your

music and photo collections and chang-

ing the player’s many settings. The display,

which automatically changes to fit the

player’s horizontal or vertical orientation,

defaults to a graphic EQ with the current

song title scrolling beneath it. This is even-

tually replaced by a programmable screen-

saver (choices include an analog clock,

animated graphics, and digital photos). The

player doesn’t support video at all.

The speakers accomplish their goal of

rendering Samsung’s YP-K5 unique, but we

expect a lot more than a gimmick for this

kind of money.

—Michael Brown

MeDia PLAYER

6

MICROSOFT ZUNE

$240, http://www.zune.net

$210, http://www.samsung.com

yp-k5 Mp3 playER

neil Dia MonD

Rhapsody and PlaysForSure

support, great sounding ear-

phones, excellent display.

BlooD Dia MonD

6

Doesn’t play video, and the

built-in speakers don’t justify the high price tag.

MicroSoFT ZUne

If you still want to buy a Zune after read-

ing our review, you’d better not count on

filling it with music from Microsoft’s Zune

Marketplace. While our view of the 30GB

player is a matter of opinion, the tiny inven-

tory of music that Microsoft has on tap is a

sad matter of fact.

Aside from its large, excellent dis-

play, the Zune’s most prominent physical

feature is a control mechanism that looks

remarkably like the iPod’s scroll wheel;

unfortunately, Microsoft’s “wheel” doesn’t

spin. It’s actually four buttons arranged at

compass points, with a fifth button in the

center, but as you’ve probably guessed,

the very first thing every person did when

we wordlessly handed them the Zune was

try to spin that nonexistent wheel.

One of the Zune’s most hyped features

is its ability to wirelessly transfer tracks

(and pictures) to another Zune. Don’t get

too excited about the music-sharing half

of this equation: You can transfer tracks

you’ve purchased or ripped, but the recipi-

ent can play them just three times; the

tracks expire after three days whether

they’ve been played or not, and they can’t

be resent to the same player (although

we’ve heard of a hack that disables this

limitation). The Zune’s wireless-networking

capabilities are more interesting, but you’re

limited to streaming digital audio, video,

and photos to Xbox 360 consoles sitting on

your wireless network.

The Zune’s not a terrible first

effort—it sounds good and Microsoft out-

fitted it with a fine screen—but it seems

to us that the features that could have

set it apart from Apple’s iPod are really

designed only to tie the Zune’s users into

buying other Microsoft products.

—Michael Brown

Samsung YP-K5 MP3 Player

Wee speakers don’t justify a giant price tag

Samsung’s YP-K5 features built-in speakers, an FM tuner, PlaysForSure support, an

alarm clock, and a great display. But it’s much too expensive for a 2MB player that

doesn’t support video.

2.5

4.5