Samsung T10 (4GB, black)

Summary: The only reason I give this a 9 instead of a 10 is that it uses a proprietary USB connection instead of a mini-USB connection.

Other than this quibble, this is a fantastic player. I also own a iPod nano and this is a better player in all respects. I decided to switch to Rhapsody for my music service because I like the subscription model, and so I had to get a different PlaysForSure compatible player. After using Yahoo Music for a while I went back to the iPod/iTunes model for a while, but got frustrated by how much I was spending per month on songs. This was the closest player available to the nano in size, reliability.

The construction of the unit is incredible, with a lot of attention to detail. It uses a touch based controls which are intuitive and because there is only a power/hold button, the unit is extremely sleek and distinctive in a world where everyone owns a iPod. The player comes with a plastic cover over the screen and controls so you don't need to buy a separate screen protector if you are in to this. I did a few scratch tests on the player at best buy and it seems to be fairly resistant to scratching, so I may remove it in the future.

This player is one of the few that has Bluetooth! I paired it right away with my BT headphones and it works great! Why won't other companies add bluetooth to their players? Samsung is supposed to be adding phone passthrough capability which will be great. BT quality is about what you expect. Not up to par for an audiophile (this is a BT issue, not the players problem), but great for casual listening when you want to leave the player in a backpack, pocket or on your desk while moving around. I still use noise isolation headphones when I want to tune out the real world.

Video quality is great, but just like all "nano" sized players, the screens are small. Notably, the T10 screen is far superior to the ones used in iPod players in clarity.

Audio quality is good. The included headphones are adequate, but if you are into audio quality you should consider replacing them.

Samsung was nice in that they have their own media management software which automatically syncs podcasts with the player, which is the major drawback of Rhapsody vs. iTunes. It is kind of a inconvenient using both Rhapsody and the Samsung program but the Samsung program works simultaneous while Rhapsody is running, so it is almost as easy as iTunes, but this is the best implementation I have seen of autosynced podcasts in the PlaysForSure field.

The user interface of the YP-T10 is pretty neat. It has lots of eye candy and is extremely responsive and customizable.

The player has a FM radio. The quality is what you expect, but since FM radio stations have too many commercials I only have used this feature once to listen to a game while working.

You can even display album art!

A BIG NOTE IF YOU WANT TO BUY THIS PLAYER AT BEST BUY!

DO NOT buy this player from Best Buy, they load a special firmware on their player to integrate the player with the Best Buy music store. Significantly, YOU CANNOT UPGRADE THIS FIRMWARE to the newer versions of the regular firmware from Samsung. I almost got burned by this and only found this out when I was looking at some reviews of the player after seeing it at Best Buy and almost walking out of the store with it. Buy the player from Amazon, Circuit City or Walmart (etc.)

Overall for $125-$140 (the price range at the time of writing) it is a solid 4 GB player.