Customer Reviews

Samsung YP-P2JAB P2 Widescreen Touch Screen MP3 and Video Player

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is my third Samsung mp3 player. I own a YP-MT6Z, a YP-T9, and now this. I'm really thoroughly impressed with this player. The touch screen interface simplifies some tasks, such as quickly finding a song in a list. No more multiple button presses, just scroll your finger down to the song and tap.

The screen is beautiful and clear. They give you two screen protectors, but I'm horrible at applying them, so I just keep a microfiber cloth handy.

it comes with a nice mini stand that allows you to prop the device up at an angle while it's on a flat surface. That way you don't have to carry it in your hand while you watch video.

Video is clear and smooth. Be certain to configure the media studio to encode at 30 fps, because it defaults to 15, and that's too choppy.

I don't have bluetooth headphones, but I'd love to use that functionality. Turn it off if you don't have the headphones, though (it is on by default).

The ability to hear your music while browsing the other menus is really good. I can play a song, go through some photos, change some settings, build a playlist, and never have to worry about my current song stopping.

Gesture based functions come off without a hitch. Personally, the earbuds provided do not stay in my ears, but they do provide a decent sound quality.

I definitely recommend this. If I had any complaints, it would be that it doesn't come bundled with a pair of bluetooth headphones, and that there is no way to charge it without a usb port. Oh, and a carry case couldn't have hurt.

EDIT: I've since updated the firmware and if I could give an extra star, I would. The bluetooth functionality they added really boosts the value of the device. Out of the box, it can already pair with a set of bluetooth headphones, but as of December, it can also pair with your phone. If you've been wondering what the mic on the bottom of the device is for, that would be it. You pair it with your phone, and when you get a call, you get a tone in your headphones to let you know a call is coming. Take out your P2, answer the call, and speak through the mic while you hear them on the headphones. It's great. You can also add your address book to the P2, so that you can see specifically who is calling just as you would on your phone. I've used this with my Blackberry Curve, and it's really great. I was easily able to send my address book via bluetooth over to the P2, and call quality was pretty good.

I had a little trouble with the file transfer, but I'm blaming myself for that, not the device. Pick this one up.

I gave this product 4 stars because it not the easiest thing to get content on to. The player itself was simple to use. The menus on the screen has small icons. Not recommended for first time mp3 owners or persons with large fingers. Video conversion time will vary depending on the size and file type. From my experience it takes about the same amount of time as the video file or less, keep in mind that I have a 6 year old desktop. Conversion should be a lot faster for new computers. When converting make sure to choose the highest settings for quality.

pros
* light weight
* clear and bright display
* 1 free thin screen protector, not factory applied
* great sound quality

cons
* play lists are not as simple to make and sync as itunes
* according to the manual, which i read after buying this player, all videos must be converted to .svi before it can be transferred

Update: New features in firmware version 4.13 as of may 2008.
* Radio recording
* Calculator
* Bluetooth connection with a cell phone or headphones
* New menu styles
* 3 games
* Brightness and speed control directly from video play back screen
* New album viewing mode
* Full screen music playback(double tap to enter and exit).

Update 2: I downloaded the beta so there may be more stuff added when the stable version comes out. Version 5 of the firmware as of June 18 2008.
* 2 more games
* Voice recoding
* Subway maps for 24 major cities around the world

Sound Quality: Great, a majority of average users will be more than satisfied; audiophiles may be slightly disappointed.

Provided Headphones: Average, acceptable for common use, but for a significantly upgraded experience, invest in a slightly more expensive product.

Video: Clear, smooth. Above average quality when encoded at 30fps.

Bluetooth: Excellent functionality. Connected to my 5 year old Sony Ericsson T637 without a hitch. When a call comes in, music fades away and call is routed through the player. Can also make calls by entering a number, or by selecting an existing contact (requires you to bluetooth your addressbook to the player from your phone. in order to do this, make sure the two are NOT connected as a mobile device first). Functions as a headset when connected to a phone, wireless headphones when connected to bluetooth headphones/headset. Functionality requires a firmware upgrade (see below)

Firmware/Software: Firmware upgrades easy and without problems, just follow the onscreen instructions from the software. Software functions okay as a media player; transfer is quick and conversion speed is acceptable for video.

Microphone: Player with most recent firmware as of June 08 still does not have a voice recorder option. When relaying phone calls through the player, microphone is weak and requires either loud talking, or holding the mic end up to your mouth.

Screen Button Size: I have small/thin fingers, and even I have trouble sometimes with the touchscreen buttons, especially at the bottom. Generally not a problem, you just need to be very conscious about exactly where you touch.

Touchscreen: Easily picks up fingerprints, but also easily cleaned. Responsiveness is average, occasionally swiping left/right to go next/prev will activate the up/down volume control, and trying to swipe occasionally changes the visualization option instead. Outside of the Now Playing screen, functions well. Screen is bright and vivid indoors, but will be washed out and difficult to see outside.

Battery Life: With bluetooth on, around 10 hours on full charge.

Physical Buttons: On/Off/Play/Pause, Lock, Volume Up, Volume Down.

USB Interface: Proprietary, requires the Samsung USB cable. When connected to a computer, the player is un-usable, and will display a USB Connected screen. When connected to power-only, player is usable.

Most annoying problem IMHO: Tapping the visualization in the Now Playing screen changes it to the next available vis. This annoys me to no end, as I like to keep it on the Album Info vis (static, no animation).

This is the best mp3 player! It has fantastic sound quality. Pictures and videos are really stunning on this 3" widescreen. FM radio is very clear. With a firmware update, you can even record the radio, which sounds terrific.

In addition, with the new firmware, you can even play fun games, with its good touch screen. With other updates you can have a calculator to perform simple calculations; you can also create your own menus with EmoDio (a new version of Media Studio). This player also has bluetooth. It allows you to pair the player with a pair of headphones or bluetooth speakers. You can even transfer files wirelessly between bluetooth devices.

The touch screen takes a little while to get used to, but after getting used to it, then it is really easy and fun to use. Its interface is cool and this player is fun to use. It has many useful extras like text viewer, alarms, and a world clock.

Downloading music and video onto the P2 is very easy even with Samsung Media Studio. You just bring in the file into Media Studio, then you click the arrow and it converts it into the correct format, svi, then transfers it to the P2.

Samsung has very good firmware updates that raise the value of their products and add more features. The first and second updates added added the ability to make calls with the P2 with bluetooth and transfer files to other bluetooth devices. It also improved the touchscreen interface so that it is more responsive. The 3rd update added games and more menu styles. This was followed by the fourth one that added a touchscreen calculator to the Samsung P2. As you have read, Samsung continues adding additional features to make the P2 even better. Best of all, each of these updates are all free!

I think more people should buy this rather than an ipod. An 8 gb nano is about the same price, yet you get much more with this mp3 player. It has a wonderful touchscreen interface unlike the ipod. It has a 3 inch screen compared to the ipod nano's 2 inch screen. In addition it has FM radio, bluetooth capabilities. Best of all you are not stuck using iTunes. You can easily transfer files with Windows Explorer or Windows Media Player or the included Samsung software.

I really recommend this player and I think everyone should get this. If you are thinking of getting an ipod, think again and consider this P2. You will be glad that you did so.

I bought the P2 about a week ago and it is great. I got it primarily to watch tv shows and movies on it and I am very happy. The sound is great and the video quality is outstanding. Here are some good things about each feature from what I have seen.

-The touch screen is great because there are not a lot of buttons to get dirt or dust into. So if I spill something (which I have not yet) or get finger prints on it, simply wipe it off. The buttons it has on the sides are convenient for adjusting volume and using play/pause without distracting from what you are watching, though you can do the same functions by touching the screen.

-TIP-There is a hold button so you do not press any buttons nor touch features by mistake. Out of the box, when hold is used, you cannot adjust volume nor pause even with the side buttons, BUT within the settings you DO have the option to operate just the side buttons while on hold.

-Audio sounds crisp and clean. The radio signal is clean and sounds good. The sound quality is only limited to the quality of whatever music/video you put on the device. I have not used the supplied ear buds yet, but I have used the HP ones from my laptop and the audio is awesome. The bass alone is outstanding, so movies are a good experience.

- Among other settings you can change the menu style to any of the templates on the P2, and you can also download many many more and even make your own using the emodio software.

-IMPORTANT- Out of the box the supplied software is buggy, and extensive research confirmed that it was in fact the software and not me. If you have trouble with the supplied software in the box, go to emodio.com and download the Emodio software. It looks the same as the one that comes with the P2, and works perfectly.

-The P2 stores pictures so you can use it as a photo album. The "finger slide" time between images is a bit slow but not a concern to me. I think I can wait the 1/2 second it takes to shift between them lol.

- The video capacity is decent and determined by the settings you choose for each video. There are various settings before transfering a video over to determine how good it will looks, such as bit rate, frame rate, and overall quality. This will take tweaking to get the quality that is best for you. I found a happy middle that looks good for me and allows for more storage on the device.

-Out of the box the P2 does not have a lot in terms of content, which you will see. You get the good stuff when updating the firmware, including games, subway maps, and blue tooth capability, and a few more. All very useful.


- Bluetooth. This is cool because it is possible. I do not have much use for that feature, but again I mainly got it for watching videos. You can transfer files from your cell phone to the P2, provided your cell have Bluetooth as well. You can also use the P2, through the phone, to make a call.
**This really serves no purpose to me because while you can connect to your cell, & even dial out on the p2, and use it rather than hold the phone to your ear, you still have to hold the P2 up to your mouth to speak into the mic. it is cool if you are laying down, or otherwise close to the P2's mic, but I don't use it myself.

That about covers it for what I have used and what I know about it so far. If you are wanting wifi or to watch live tv, etc I would go with an ipod touch. However I have no need for that and I am happy with what I have.

Overall I totally recommend this little gadget to anyone looking to listen to crisp clear audio or good looking video on the go, or otherwise away from household devices. The only drawback I can think of is also a good thing. The touch screen is very sensitive, so you don't have to apply much pressure at all. I can't stress how literal that statement is. The only down side to that is if you don't have the hold button on, and you barely swipe it by accident, you can click out of whatever you're watching/hearing. Other than that, yeah...go get it =)

Like many others before me, I want to say that the Samsung P2 is a great MP3 player with an interface that is well designed and a touch screen that works pretty well.
I can think of few ways to improve the player itself, along the lines of what other reviewer have already suggested, but at this time I'd like to point out that the Samsung/Emodio software accompanying the MP3 player contains major weaknesses, especially in the area of podcast files management and synchronization.
For instance, video files need to be converted to a proprietary SVI format and many people have had trouble getting the conversion to work (a solution that seems to work is to upgrade to WMP11 and install a stable version of FFDSHOW).
The synchronization between podcast files on your PC and on your device can get stuck. Other times, the same PC file will be copied multiple times on the P2 with different names.
Also, there is no synchronization button available on the Emodio interface and when the software doesn't start synch'ing automatically, it's not intuitive what you need to do to synch manually.
On one hand, the people who are going to use the P2 to watch video listen to music will enjoy this player immensely given its great audio and video abilities.
On the other hand, podcast listeners will have to put up with the poor functionality of the Emodio software, or look for a different software solution that can work with the P2.

Ok, I gave in and finally purchased an MP3 player.

Criteria - small/thin/light, ample storage, not hard drive, not Apple, not Sony. Must do MP3, needs a screen. Anything else a bonus.

Took me bloomin ages to decide but after plenty of Internet use I came across the Samsung YP-2 range. Was still undecided for a bit and even started looking at the Apple I-Touch but was just trying to be realistic about requirements.

OK, so the review.

It looks nice. It sounds nice, but then when you start to really use the DNSe it sounds damn great. Combine it with some great heaphones and it moves into wow. This comes from the person with the CD player with Play on it and the amp with a volume control and nothing else. (not cheap!)

Useability it's pretty good. The touch screen could be more accurate at times or maybe my fingers should be smaller. Either way it misses on occasion. Customisation of the interface is easy and the games aren't bad either.

Video - it's ok. Limited viewing angle and brightness at times but otherwise it's actually quite impressive. Tv replacement - defo not - it's an MP3 player after all.

RSS - yes it does them - called datacasts on this model. They are ok but the user interface on the PC side is an arse. Some restrictions on the text RSS side of things seem also to just get in the way. For mp3 rss it's fine, quite good actually compared to many.

Bluetooth wise - pretty impressed. I actually use this with my phone quite frequently - it's better than using another headset. Also have bluetooth to my car stereo so it doesn't need one of those awful FM transmitters (although you may need a new car, car stereo or additional box in the car somewhere for it to work).

Battery life is pretty good - on month 3 and it's still doing about 15-20 hours if I'm not busy poking the screen.

Firmware updates are simple and work fine. In fact they are essential. Keep them coming. The potential after each firmaware upgrade leaves you wanting more. Do I want Wifi though - probably not. Phone does that and laptop, I wanted an MP3 player that would play through my car. Do I want web browsing - well ditto to that.

Basically all in all I think it's damn good - not quite an IPod touch beater but if you don't need all those bells and whistles and just want an MP3 player that looks and sounds good then this is the one for you.

Be aware it seems to be a work in progress - there are frequent firmware updates (yey!) and even the PC software is now 'upgraded' to a Beta release. Works great with MS media player though.

Ok first off i have this mp3 player for about 4-5 months. I am carefull with it (for a teen) and i dont like like ipods. This mp3 is great i have the 4gig burgandy and it is sleek. it has awsome sound especially if you use the EQ to tweak its sound ( I also bought bose in ear headphones with it i recommend) the video is great to but get the 8gig if you store alot of video and the program comes with makes the res perfect for + it reduces the space needed. The updates come are awsome to games calculator records radio and many other things. I highly recommend because of good sound, Video and overall usabillity

this mp3 player is bluetooth
it was amazing when i used this
it is cheaper than ipod and it has good sound quality
if you are trying to buy mp3 player
buy Samsung P2
it is the best mp3 player.
and samsung has the best warranty
better than apple!
buy this and you will not regret
the screen is so clear and video quality is really good

I love everything about it, the touch screen, the sound quality. It beats an ipod in my opinion anyday. The battery life is long as hell, its even better when you hook it up to your phone with the blue tooth it has and talk. It so easy to convert movies on here. And the video quality are crazy, it looks a mini HDTV.