Samsung YH-820

Posted by T3 Online on Mon 8 Aug 2005

Great sound let down by puny battery.

Now we know how Snow White must have felt. A few bites of that shiny, sweet apple, savouring its wonderful flavour... and then collapsing, to be looked after by a bunch of bumbling munchkins who couldn't even pick her up, never mind take her to the nearest MRSA-infected A&E department.

We were smiling away, only just starting to enjoy this little gem of a player, when the battery stopped. Hmm. Nope, we hadn't done anything wrong - this model only has eight hours of juice from one charge, if you're lucky.

Thankfully, the battery is the only thing that lets this product down. The screen, which can display JPEG images, is clearer than its size suggests, while the central four-way pad makes it a piece of cake to navigate the colour menus.

Sound quality is fantastic, with the earphones providing genuinely full bass - not something we've come to expect from supplied cans. There's also a line input for recording directly onto the device.

As with its older brother, the YH-920, this player is designed to be hooked up to Napster To Go, but thankfully it didn't provide us with the same problems connecting with the service as we had with the 920.

That shameful battery shortage would have been a bit stingy two years ago, but now it's unforgivable. Unless you're dead set on the picture playback and Napster compatibility, you'd be far better off spending your money on an iPod mini.