Samsung YEPP YP-Z5 (4GB, black)
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CNET Editors' Review
CNET Editors' Rating
- Reviewed by: Eliot Van Buskirk
- Released on:
- Reviewed on:
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The good: The PlaysForSure Samsung YP-Z5 outputs clean and punchy sound and won't hog a bunch of real estate in your pocket. Its relatively large, bright color screen is great for viewing photos and navigating well-designed menus. We also like its solid aluminum chassis, sturdy dedicated controls, and extensive sound settings. Battery life is exceptional, though it's much less than the rated 35 hours, and you can simultaneously view photos and listen to music.
The bad: The Samsung YP-Z5's touch pad, due to its varying degrees of sensitivity, can be difficult to deal with, especially when scrolling through menus. The Z5 also lacks some extra features, such as an FM tuner, audio recording, PIM functions, and on-the-go playlists.
The bottom line: If you're looking for a tiny, well-built, color-screen MP3 player with excellent sound, the Samsung YP-Z5 is a great choice. Just make sure that you're comfortable with the touch-pad controller before you buy.
On the lower half of the Samsung YP-Z5 sits a square touch-sensitive control that requires you to lay a fingertip gently on the top half for scrolling up or the lower half for scrolling down. Once the proper item is highlighted, you click the middle of the touch pad to select it. There's a slight lag before the cursor starts scrolling, and if you press too hard or softly, nothing happens. Furthermore, it'll take some dexterity to get your touch just right, and you'll often find yourself scrolling past the intended selection. After a few days of use, most people will get used to it, although it's clearly not as intuitive and easy to use as Apple's competing Click Wheel.
We appreciate the Samsung YP-Z5's dedicated buttons for back, fast-forward, rewind, and play/pause/power. They surround the touch pad while the dedicated volume buttons are placed on the side for easy access with the right thumb when the device is in your hand. With its dedicated volume and play/pause (more on this later) buttons, the YP-Z5 bests the iPod, which has neither. A handy hold switch on the top and a recessed reset button on the bottom round out the controls. You will notice two screws on either side of the player, and presumably, you can replace a dead battery yourself, though we wouldn't recommend it.
All of the Samsung YP-Z5's buttons feel solid, and the device's aluminum case is pleasantly cool to the touch. The YP-Z5's overall build quality appears to be quite high, and its screen is nowhere near as scratch-prone as the Nano's. We dragged a key right across it, and it didn't scratch until we pressed hard.
We should mention that the Samsung YP-Z5 utilizes a proprietary dock/USB port, much like the iPod Nano. There's no word yet on YP-Z5 accessories, though the unit ships with white earbuds, a proprietary USB connector, an installation disc, and a manual (both paper and electronic).
User Reviews
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Most Helpful User Review
stars 4 of 4 users found this review helpful
"Looks and acts and sounds superb!" By wastedyuthe
Pros The control system for navigating music, the display, the album art, the sound quality, the extremely small gap between songs, very fast
Cons having to use WMP10 or drag and drop, some album art doesn't show, picture viewing control not as user-friendly as with music browsing
Summary What a superb player. I have the 4gb and my wife has the 2gb. I have had to do a bit of fiddling around with some of our albums in order to get the album art displayed on the player- but the majority did without any problem. There are at ... Expand full review
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Specifications
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- Digital Storage / Capacity: 4 GB
- Flash memory installed: 4 GB
- Digital player supported digital audio standards: MP3 Protected WMA (DRM) WMA