Customer Reviews

Samsung Yepp Hip-Hop 64MB Digital Audio Player (Blue)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Versatile, quality MP3 device! The Samsung Yepp comes equipped with: 64MB's of embedded flash memory with a slot for additional memory card upgrades, a magnesium casing, and a sixteen character LCD screen capable of displaying a song or artist's info. The Yepp supports the popular MP3 file format in addition to files protected by Samsung's proprietary encryption system, SecuMAX. Samsung's portable digital audio player is shockproof, which makes it ideal for the sports enthusiast who wants to listen to tunes while exercising. The end user can download MP3 files from the Net and compile the songs they want to listen to. The Yepp's graphical LCD display indicates: the song title being played, the artist's name, and the track's playing time.

Different from other most MP3 players, the Yepp features a digital FM tuner and a voice recording function. The outer case is made of magnesium, which is light and strong resulting in a greater resistance to external shock than other portable audio products.

Another of the Yepp's distinguishing features is the adoption of a Smart Media slot rather than the traditional Compact Flash card slot. The Yepp's Smart Media cards are ultra slim and are compatible with the PC file format, thus allowing the Samsung Yepp to store graphics and text files as well as MP3 music files.

All-in-all, the Samsung Yepp delivers quality at an affordable price in what is becoming a crowded niche of the portable electronics market.

I've had a rio 600, and it was good at first until it broke. The Yepp is awesome. It has a ton of great features, and only a couple bad ones that arent a big deal, but you just wish it had them. The sound is awesome and is WAY loud, it looks cool(the 1st day I had it 6 people asked what it was), it's very durable, and the software that comes with it is really good.(It comes with an -mp3,rmx- extractor/"ripper"<---for all the posers). Whoever says to transfer songs, it takes about 2 hours is wrong(unless they are running 90mhz processors or something), because I filled up the whole 64mb and my 32mb smartmedia card(which the software detected without a problem) in about 10-15 minutes. One of my favorite things is that when you are playing the YEPP, a green light flashes and looks cool.(its red when the USB cable is hooked up)
The only reason I give the YEPP a 4 is for a couple reasons. 1) the buttons are pretty small(no big deal) 2) I'm left-handed and the remote is backwards when i look at it(no big deal) 3) The software is sort of a pain to get going(just read the instructions), but this is partially due to the fact that I run Windows 2000.

Ignore the whole "Hip Hop" style thing, which is just a little bit of a gimmick. Really, this is an ultra-tiny, perfect working MP3 player. I listen to a lot of house and techno on it, usually with VBR encoding, and although I've run against the 64MB wall quite a bit, the addition of a smart media card in addition to the 64 MB on board is a huge help there. Rather than just limit you to one card at a time, you always have 64MB, and a card, available to you for storage.

The sound is clear at low and high volumes, with no distortion. The provided earbuds aren't terrible, but the device sounds great with better headphones. I listen to music with a LOT of bass, and response is always tight and powerful.

In addition, the dongle remote isn't covered here elsewhere, so I'll bring it up. It's a standard sit-in-between-the-headphone-and-the-machine remote, with all the buttons you'd ever want, and an LCD display to show track and time listings, and is the only way to actually modify the equilizer settings. Although I wish that the spring for the clip-on feature had a little more oomph, I love that I can just put the main unit on hold, stick it in my back pocket (where otherwise all the buttons would be pressed all the time) and still be able to change tracks and volume.

I think that my only gripe is with the software. I HATE RealJukebox, and won't use it. In fact, I had uninstalled it from my system in disgust previously. It's got too many horrid user interface "features" to really make me want to use it. But rather than just giving you a way to copy tracks to the yepp over windows explorer, you have to use RealJukebox. But as that seems like a pretty common way to interface with small solid-state MP3 players, I can't complain that much about that. But consider that THAT's my only complaint, I'd say I'm extremely satisfied with the Yepp.

If you're looking at a solid state device, I cannot recommend enough the Yepp.

this was the worst electronic gadget I've ever bought ! it's not as cool as it looks... first of all, the display. the screen is too small and only numeric (you aren't able to see the name of the song anymore) and it's located on the remote control wich is on the headphones cable ... this remote is too heayy and ugly by the way! software: mini-usb is cool but the songs are converted into a protected format wich make copying on drive from yepp impossible anymore ! so why does this option exist ? (it worked on the fist yepp) no more microphone to record some voice reminders, ... ... in fact the first YEPP (YP-E32) was a great buy. it wasn't as expensive as the new one and the options were great. I've heard they did a 64mb version of this model... 64 was the only positive point I've found for the new model so prefer the first yepp !!!

(I think samsung is laughing at me at the moment 'cause it's so incredible that a second model isn't better than a first... and so expensive for so little options)

DON'T BUY THIS YEPP (BUY THE FIRST ONE)

[at] samsung they say: "3-line LCD display" and they show a hiphop model !!! the 3 lines were on the fisrt yepp only YP-E32

sorry for my bad english ;)

I've had my Yepp for a few months now, and I've found it to be wonderful, overall. It has good sound quality, it's small and light to the point you can have it in your pocket while jogging and not be annoyed by it, and it's got a sleek design. There are a few points where the Yepp could use some improvement, however. First, it's too dependant on the remote control: the shuffle and repeate functions, the battery life indicator, and the song indicator are all on the remote, the only display on the player itself is a green or red LED. That's not a problem if you plan to use the remote a lot, but for me it's just one more thing to carry. Second, it takes a lot of power to record files onto the player. If you plan on adding and removing songs often, plan to buy a lot of batteries. Additionally, be aware that you can't insert new songs between old songs in the memory card. Finally, the player doesn't have upgradeable firmware. There's a new file format that ought to be out this fall sometime that'll have files half the size of current MP3s, and this player won't be able to play them. Sure, you can get a converter if you want, but it'd be better to get an upgradeable player that'll be able to hold twice the music in a few months. Still, overall, it's a great player and I'm glad I bought mine. You could do far worse than the Yepp.

This is a small, lightweight unit that has all the requisite features expected in an mp3 player. It does not, however have some of the niceties found in other players such as song title display, voice recording, rechargeable batteries, or song playlists. It also plays ONLY mp3 files, not any other formats.

The player comes with:
-Unit
-Wired remote
-Earbud headphones
-CD with Real Jukebox software for ripping/uploading songs
-Extra battery door
-Belt clip
-USB to mini USB cable

Here are the key points to know about this player:
-Functions: The unit itself has volume up/down buttons, stop (power off), play/pause (power on), ff/scan, rew/scan, and a handy hold switch to lock the player in either play/off to prevent accidental bumping of buttons. The headphone port also works as the remote control port (when using remote, headphones attach to remote itself), but can be used with just headphones. There are also 3 EQ settings, but these can only be accessed via the remote. There is no LCD display on the unit itself, only a green/red LED that indicates status.
-Sound quality: While I haven't listened to scores of players, the sound rates as good or better than the other players such as Rio's, Nomad's, and Sony's I've tried. Works with low (32kbps) and high (128 ) bitrate mp3's.
-Remote: The remote is a small cylinder (about size of roll of 35mm film) with a small LCD display that indicates song number (not name), time, volume, EQ, and battery status. The display is also backlit for a few seconds upon each button press. It has the same controls as the main unit, including another hold button(each are independent) and the EQ button. This is a handy feature for those who want the unit stashed away in a pocket and just the remote handy. It has a nice spring clip to attach it somewhere on your clothing or bag strap. The headphones attach to the remote itself, which explains why the included headphones have such a short cord (does not reach from my hip to my ears without remote!)
-Uploading software: Included is the RealJukebox software to burn mp3's (up to 128kbps), manage files, and upload mp3's to the player via USB cable. Personally, I like the Jukebox software, but it can be a pain unless you are meticulous about making sure the file info is accurate (genre, artist, title, etc). Another option is to go to the Samsung website and download the YEPP explorer which just lets you drag and drop. Also, the Yepp explorer is the only way to rearrange song order on your player. Jukebox will not let you do this. I use the Yepp explorer now. The upload times seem hideously long for a USB player. Not sure if this is inherent in the SmartCard flash memory architecture, but when compared to a compact flash card I use for my digital camera, it's like molasses. To upload 64MB of songs, takes about 8 minutes. Not much faster than a serial connection I used for an older Nomad player. If you like changing songs frequently, keep this in mind.
-Battery life: Decent, about 8-10 hours without the remote. About 6-8 with the remote, as it has a display and backlight.
-Poor design throughout: My main beef with this player is that there are some real shoddy design elements such as the battery latch and the belt clip. First off, the battery door design is so poor, they acknowledge it by including an extra battery door! Well, what happens if, as in my case, it's the latch on the unit itself that breaks? Here is the direct quote from Samsung customer support:
"Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts. Broken component are considered out of warranty conditions. I'm sorry our player did not perform to your expectations." That's it? I knew the latch was doomed, because it's so small and narrow and would fatigue over repeated battery replacements. So now I am sadly relegated to utilizing masking tape to keep the batteries in place because it's one of those designs where the battery door acts as the contact and counters the battery springs on the other end as opposed to a more sensible design that houses all contacts within the unit itself, with the door only acting as an access cover. This of course means every time I need to change batteries (since this has no rechargeable ones), I must break out the masking tape. ...! Then there's the belt clip, glorified strips of plastic that criss cross all over the unit, covering half the buttons. The last time I saw a clip like this, it was on my cousin's original Sony walkman from 1980! Functionally, it works, and you can still press the buttons through the plastic. I have run with it and worked out with it frequently, though the cheesy plastic holster makes me cringe in public. These poorly designed elements reflect the gap between Samsung's vision of quality with that of other brands like Sony. This unit was denied a proper QA review before heading to production, and just before shipping, someone said "hey how about a belt clip? oh and throw in an extra battery door".

In conclusion, while this player does everything it needs to, it does absolutely nothing more. Also beware of some shoddy design and a battery cover that will require masking tape within a year. If you can live with that, and you can find this unit cheap enough to justify these hassles, go for it. Otherwise, look elsewhere because Samsung's customer service will only tell you sorry it didn't live up to your expectations.

The Yepp Hip-Hop is everything you read. Small, light, great sound quality (especially if you buy better headphones, the ones that come with it I dislike), and best MP3 price/performance/memory ratio to date IMHO (Aug, 17, 2001).

But I have to add that the data transfer rate for this is not good, even though it uses USB, transfering 64MB to the player takes waaaaaaaay to long. This isn't a reason not to buy it, but you'll have to schedule your life around this fact.

Product is excellent in terms of delivery of recorded files. The recording process is broken. Doesn't accept all standard smart media cards such as Viking media. Have had "range errors" when recording some files and software crashes. I have sent three emails to samsung tech support and they haven't even acknowledge receipt let alone reply. Check out their support page on the web. They provide you with a pdf file of the manual they sent with the product. These guys are way out of touch.

If you feel like you need any tech support to get this running, this IS NOT the product or company for you. Otherwise, after a month of use, it has performed as manufactured.

I bought the Yepp for my wife last Christmas, who has used it daily without issue. Due to it's light weight and small size, she comfortably wears it at the gym and while running on the track. Loading music has been simple and trouble free, and the sound is excellent. Battery life has been longer than anticipated - averaging about 20 hours of playtime between changes.

I've had my Yepp for about a year now, and the headphone jack is just about worn out (you have to constantly manipulate the headphones to make it sound normal) and the battery case needs to be held on with a rubber band because an important piece of plastic snapped off. I don't know if this reflects on product quality or my treatment of it, but either way, it's no good.
Transfer times are painfully slow, and even worse when transferring to the Smart Media card (which you must buy separately, I paid about 100 bucks for mine). The Yepp comes with a version of RealJukebox you can't get anywhere else, and mine is constantly crashing and needing to be re-installed. Searching through tracks can be tedious, especially when you've got two hours of music to go through. On the upside, battery life isn't too bad, and the Yepp is very compact, lightweight and portable. But it's expensive, and for [a little more] more, you can get an MP3 player with a capacity in gigabytes, not megabytes.