Customer Reviews

Samsung YP-U3JQB 2GB Touch Control MP3 Player (Black)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

I was in the market for an mp3 player, but I didn't really want to shell out a whole lot of money for an iPod or its comparable competitors. Not only am I terribly tight, but I knew I wouldn't need a lot of the features: video, pictures, a huge screen, and so on.

I also knew I wanted an mp3 player that had enough space for what I planned on listening to: currently, I'm listening to a year's Bible study on mp3, and I needed enough space for at least the final 25 of 52 (I'd already listened to most of them while cleaning house and traveling). That is to say, I needed enough space for at least 25 hours of audio.

Of course, the young man selling me this item couldn't tell me how many hours of audio the mp3 player would hold, because that all depends on the audio compression. I tried to tally in my head how many megabytes each audio file was, but couldn't. I liked the Samsung best out of all the mp3 players, so off I went.

Likes:
--Two gigabytes is more than enough for my purposes (saying that makes me sound like I'm going to take over the world, but don't worry, I'm not like that). My entire study of 52 hours of audio at 32 kbps takes up about 690 megabytes of space on my hard drive itself, so I have plenty of space left. I cannot recommend purchasing any less than 2 gigabytes of space, no matter what mp3 player you buy.

--It doesn't have buttons on the front to get jammed or broken; you just touch the volume up/down track forward/back. (The power, pause, and hold buttons are actually buttons or sliders, though, and placed on the sides.)

--Its screen gives you a clear readout, mine in a very stylish blue. (I did not want a Shuffle with no way to see what I was listening to, especially when listening to a sequential study or perhaps in the future, an audiobook.)

--The voice recorder is pretty cool -- records in mp3 audio. I can't speak to how clearly it would record in a crowded place: I tried it at home, in a quiet environment. Of course, I didn't buy the thing so I could hear myself talking, so this is just a nice bonus.

--The radio was a feature I completely forgot about until I returned to the main menu. Works pretty well, at one point clearly picking up a station 50 miles away. Not so well in my building where I work (still got local stations, though), but that's okay. I didn't buy it for the radio. It's just a bonus.

--Easy to put music on it. Mine came with an installation disk for the Music Studio, but I didn't need it. (I'm one of those people who hates installing things on my hard drive.) I use Windows Media Player, which is compatible.

--No battery to change.

--The battery lasts ages. I was a bit peeved when it suddenly said, "Low Battery!"; I didn't realize that I'd already listened to almost 17 hours on it: more than I'd expected.

Dislikes:
--I would have liked more of a warning that the battery was going to die. Of course, I say that and then I think maybe it had already told me: I turned off the "beep" that came with each button push/pad touch, and I am uncertain whether or not that turned off any battery warning.

--"My mp3 player" is more time-consuming to say than "my iPod." So I named my mp3 player Troy. I'm just kidding.

--It's more lightweight than I thought it would be; a bit more heft would psychologically inspire me not to toss it around as much as I do. (I have a case for it; I'm just clumsy.)

--I was a bit perturbed with the USB connector. It doesn't rest as snugly in the USB port as I would like; it feels quite loose. Even as I write this, it's charging in the port, and I can visibly lift and lower the player. I'm just afraid it will break off.


All told, I'm very pleased with this purchase. Its ease of use and excellent audio quality far outweigh its shortcomings.

Recommendation: If you're prone to breaking things, this is probably not the mp3 player for you. However, if you're careful, and if you don't need bells and whistles, I really do recommend this mp3 player.

I'm a little conflicted about the Samsung U3. The major problem I have with it is the sensitivity of the buttons. I like to listen to podcasts while jogging and it's darn near impossible to change the volume without accidentally touching the forward button and changing to the next item or if there's nothing next, restarting the current item. It's especially bad if I've been listening for a while and have to search for the place I was at.

If you're looking for an MP3 player that you just start, maybe put in shuffle mode, lock the keypad and let it go, then it's a fine little device and I'd rate it a 5.

If you think you'll have to change the volume or anything while moving, I'd look for something else.

I got mine yesterday and contrary to one other reviewer (shown below), my U3 was immediately recognized as a USB storage device.

I have a relatively new PC that's running Vista and upon plugging into the USB slot the U3 showed up as another device/drive. I 'explored' and found that they had pre-loaded it with four folders: Music, Playlists, Recorded, and System. There was no 'music management' software pre-loaded so I was immediately able to drag & drop a bunch of MP3's straight into the "Music" folder. I really like this ability to have total transparent control over how I load the player - as opposed to all the iPod stuff that forces you to use their iTunes software.

After letting it charge for the recommend 1.5 hours the screen showed that it was fully charged and I gave it a try. I think it works great especially for my purposes. I enjoy having music and/or downloaded radio shows (like "Car Talk", etc.) to listen when I run or work out in the gym. It's so small and light that I simply route the headphone cables underneath my shirt and put the U3 into a pocket of my shorts when you can't even tell it's there. There's no need for an arm band or other similiar gear.

I do find that the intutive controls (I didn't have to look at the manual to figure anything out) are very sensentive and so it's important that you use the 'hold' slide switch on the side before putting it into your pocket, or whereever. If you don't put it on hold then you'll undoubtably touch one and cause it to switch songs, etc.

There are plenty of custom set-up options, and I found that the defaults were already what I like. One of the features that's especially important to me is the ability for it to 'remember' the spot you were on when you shut it off and then resume from that same place the next time you turn it on. Often I'll only get halfway through a downloaded radio show when I'm done working out. With most other players you have to try and search around to get back where you were if you want to hear the end of the program. If you'd rather not have it operate in that way then you're given the option to turn that feature off.

This is a delicate piece of electronic equipment and will need to be treated with a little bit of care. For example, the built-in USB connector that pops out when you push a little slide switch is a little plastic prong that is thinner than a standard, full-sized USB connector and (I imagine) could potentially be snapped off if it were treated roughly. For me, this type of issue doesn't pose the slightly concern, however young kids and/or those who are harder on this type of stuff may run into trouble. I'm speculating here because maybe it's made of tough plastic that wouldn't be easily broken.

Anyway, bottom line is that I'm really pleased with every aspect of this player and can highly recommend it.

I read all the reviews of this player and also the sansa express. I wanted to an ultra-small player for the gym. Unfortunately, the heat-sensitive buttons on this player utterly ruin it for me. It is nearly impossible to change tracks or volume or navigate menu options without holding the player directly in front of you, and carefully (and slowly) pressing the correct location on the front with a finger. Since there are no actual buttons on the face, and no tactile feedback, it's easy to fat-finger the device and ended up inadvertently changing tracks, or even switching to an entirely different play mode, when all you wanted to do was up the volume a notch. Really, really, poor design, and useless as a gym player, even though it comes with a well designed armband and clip. I ended up putting it in the bin and buying the Sansa Express, which has a MUCH better menu design and real buttons. But NO armband or clip. Life is never perfect.

This player is not too bad, what a bad rap it is getting from computer illiterates. OK, it is not a flash drive, so you won't get a drive letter for it. However, you can easily drag and drop various files to it within explorer. It works on the MTP protocol, which means you need to update to Windows Media Player 10 or you won't be able to access it. Note that you do not have to use Windows Media Player 10, you just have to install it. At any rate, it's a free update from MS. It's not one of those critical updates, so use the Windows update feature and click over to the software updates. That being said, the absence of documentation from Samsung to explain this little detail (and there is no indication of this on the packaging) is incredibly incompetent; it took me an hour to figure this out.

As for the player, yeah, the display is really small and difficult to see if you're running or such. The so-called buttons aren't buttons, and I'm constantly hitting the wrong one. Real buttons would be nicer. The sound quality is quite good, though, and the volume can be cranked way up. The snap-on clip is useless - it just snaps off... It's good overall (I have a drawer full of MP3 players, and it's a good one), haven't had weird firmware freezeups like on old Samsung players....

My only beef with this device is that it is too small (screen and buttons). Size matters.

Perhaps I'm too old or my hands are too big, but my recent purchase of the Samsung YP-U3JQB 2 Gb Touch Control MP3 Player has left me using my old radio/cassette Walkman again. With my Walkman I can see the buttons and nothing happens without me knowing why. I know that if I use the radio today, tomorrow when I use it again, it will be just as I left it. The Samsung is so small that once I place my thumb on it, I can't see the dial anymore and things start happening without my permission. My wife has tried to help me but I really think it's my kids I need. They wouldn't be having this problem, they would know just what to do.

I think this is a product best left to the young.

Having being a happy owner of two Samsung yp-u2 players (one lost, one smashed) i was confident that the yp-u3 would have the features I, as a podcast listener, needed. Pause and resume, easy navigation, time remaining, simple loading of files and long battery life. I was very disappointed. It does not work as a usb drive, you need media player to transfer files, very very irritating! I've written my own program to manage and load my podcasts and now it can't work without a usb drive!

The touch controls are maddening! You must have the thing in front of your face to use it with confidence, but, be careful how you hold it or it will rush off and do things you dont want. I can't keep it in my pocket and use finger touch to find the buttons. Only by the constant application of the key lock is the thing reliable.

The new interface is fancy but a downgrade from the yp-u2. You can't change the time remaining/used display or the search speed. Also, there is now no way to prevent the sleep feature! BAD BAD Samsung.

Sound is ok, battery life is good, usb charger is ok but feels flimsy, and the screen is easy and bright to read.

But, another problem, the screen turns off after a few minutes, and then you can't read it at all. You must carefully stroke it to get the screen to come back on. OLED is not an advance.

I'm taking it back and will try to find the older and BETTER player.

I already owned the Samsung YP-U2 before I bought the YP-U3 recently. I use Linux as my OS and a dominant music compression program available with most distributions is OGG-Vorbis, which does have not the legal baggage associated with MP3. So when Samsung advertisements stated that the YP-U3 offered OGG-Vorbis I jumped at the chance to buy one. However, Samsung's technology has begun to bow to the Windows way of doing things. I am not able to use the YP-U3 as a mass storage device (think USB thumb drive) like I did with the YP-U2; it has evolved into a device that requires separate music management software to upload music - which Windows users will understand if they use Media Player to manage their music files. Linux users have a limited means of using separate software to manage music, but in my case (with some adjustments to my system) I was able to use Amarok (a music program available with Linux/KDE) to upload music to the YP-U3. This is very cumbersome and much - IMHO - has been lost with Samsung's change in technology. Now that I have managed to modify my OS I really enjoy listening to OGG derived music on the YP-U3 but it has unneccessarily complicated what was a essentially a seamless process before with the YP-U2.

My experience with this has been mostly positive. For everything that really matters to me (i.e. sound quality, navigating) it has surpassed my expectations for a sub-hundred-dollar MP3 player in a streamlined and intuitive package. I also like the "no-cord" approach, so that the USB port doubles to transfer files and charge the battery. The FM radio and voice recorder features are nice.

I was a bit worried about the wiggly USB port that projects out, switchblade style, but I've seen several videos where over 20 pounds were hung from it before it broke. Time will tell but it seems sturdy enough for now. It comes with a cd but I haven't even taken it out of the package -- WMP and even drag-and-drop worked immediately for me (with XP).

However, the "skin-and-bones" approach does seem to leave some gaps: there is a nice FM tuner and a nice voice recorder but no FM recording feature; some of the user settings (like skip interval) do not persist after the device is restarted; it cannot be used as a USB drive. Also, the touch-activated buttons can be difficult to operate since you can't identify them by touch and they are fairly close together (this doesn't bother me much, but I have a feeling my dad's big fingers would find it awkward).

All in all, I am finding it to be a very nice, good value, stripped-down MP3 player. However, I strongly recommend playing with it a bit before you buy it, to see if you like it.

I was all excited when this order arrived and it works great as long as you leave the "hold" switch on. If you accidentally bump it, it'll skip to the next recording. I use it to download teleclasses and listen while I drive. Works well for what I need, but if I went back I would choose a different MP3 player. Something that's less touchy.