Samsung YP-K5 1GB

Posted by T3 Online on Thu 25 Oct 2007

MP3. Speaker built in. Peace on the bus, RIP

Samsung's latest MP3 player has its very own slide-out stereo speaker built in. Like cloning and guns, this is clearly something that can be used both for good and evil, so let's all cross our fingers and pray that the hoodie-wearing community finds the Chocolate Phone-esque styling on this too subtle for their tastes.

That hidden speaker makes this exceedingly thick by MP3 player standards. Granted, it's small compared to standalone "portable" speakers - which are generally about as portable as Jo Brand's lunchbox - but put it up against a nano and it looks gargantuan.

The stereo's still a neat feature, but you can't turn it up full whack as the sound distorts - which put paid to our plan to soundtrack our picnic with some summery Lily Allen tunes (well, that and the English weather).

Ironically, it sounds excellent through headphones, especially for bassy bouncers like Basement Jaxx's Lucky Star. Unless you have exceedingly oddly-shaped earholes, you'll want to replace the rather "experimental" earphones that are supplied with it, though.

The battery is excellent, giving up to 30 hours of headphone listening and five or six with the speaker. The FM tuner works well too, but the OLED screen isn't big or sharp enough to make photo viewing any more than a gimmick.

The manual implies you have to use Samsung's own software to sync tunes, but it works with Windows Media Player too. Sorry Mac users - you're barred.

The clincher, perhaps, is price. When you consider that a far more stylish and portable 4GB iPod nano is just �20 more, this seems not only potentially evil, but also rather over-priced.