Customer Reviews

Samsung YP-X5X NeXus 25 XM Ready Digital Audio Player with 25-hour Playback

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I spent a couple months looking at portable XM radios in search of one to meet my needs. I eventually chose this device and I've been more than happy with my decision.

My needs were fairly simple. I needed to be able to listen to new music daily from within the concrete installation that is my workplace, and be capable of delivering it for the duration of my day. I also wanted to listen to it in my car or through a stereo. I had no interest in playing MP3, nor did I care about online functionality or interface with my computer. The NeXus has met every one of my requirements(with the purchase of the car/FM transmitter), and has done so exceptionally.

The radio will only play live XM when it's in the cradle. This seemed strange at first, but made sense as I got familiar with XM and it's capabilities. The decoder is separate from the radio(likely to keep the radio itself small), which I imagine is needed to recieve the signal. You must plug the decoder into the cradle along with the radio to play live XM. Also due to the relative weakness of the XM signal, the antenna needs to be long. These factors are likely the reason for only having recorded content on the go.

The menus on the device are fairly intuitive, though not entirely elegant. You can navigate by artist, by recording session, or with a flat list of songs for your recorded content. Live XM will allow you to navigate through stations naturally. There is also additional functionality that I have yet to use that seems to allow you to keep an eye out for certain artists. Navigation from the device is fairly simple, using the arrows on the face to move around, and the middle XM button to select. The remote is more robust in functionality, but is less intuitive in spots. The remote is also fairly weak, and the display on the radio itself is small. This limits the distance you can be from the radio when using it and making the remote a little on the useless side.

Battery life for the radio is very good, and has performed better than advertised for me. I get over 8 hours of continuous play from a full charge. I haven't run the battery completely dead yet, but it lasts my entire work day and still has a bar or two left when I plug it into the cradle in my car on my way home. Charging time seems to be very quick as well.

Storage is very good, though it doesn't sound impressive with only 512MB. You can partition the drive into 50% MP3 and 50% XM or 100% XM. I have opted for 100% XM, as I am sick of my MP3 collection. I currently have over 200 songs on my XM player, 8 of which are 30 minute segments, and one which plays slightly over an hour and a half. Assuming the average track is 4 minutes, that puts my current load at about 17 - 18 hours of recorded content.

The device itself is put together well. It small enough to fit in the palm of my hand, and is about a half an inch thick. That makes it about the size of your average flip phone - which is easily pocketable. The earbuds that come with it are not good quality, and are uncomfortable. I already had a pair of higher quality earbuds that replaced those. The music quality is decent. I'm no audiophile, so if it doesn't sound crunchy, or like it's playing in a can I'm happy. The other pieces like the audio cables and the carrying clip thing are of average to below average quality, but get the job done.

All in all I'm totally satisfied with the NeXus 25, and have recommended it to friends who are in the market for a portable XM radio.

I had orignally purchased the Pioneer Inno, but I returned it after I learned that the FM Modulator ability would be limited to use in a car dock with the first firmware update. To me, that wasn't going to justify the cost of that product.

Having said that, I have had XM in my home for a few years now, and I love it. So, when I found out that the NeXus 25 would let you record from XM to play back later, as well as recieve live XM in it's home dock, I decided that would be a much better match. The NeXus 25 costs about half the price that the Inno did.

I find it easy to schedule recordings, and the one-touch record button is very useful. I also like the fact that you can partition the memory of the unit so that you can record 50% XM content and 50% of your own MP3's. It is because of this feature that I have retired my portable CD player when I go out walking. I'm really looking forward to taking it on the family vacation this year, and turning it on when we hit the dead spots (you know, the parts of the trip where the only thing you can find on the radio is static!)!!

Firstly, understand what this player is NOT. It is not a receiver that will allow you to receive Live XM broadcasts when you're out walking around. for that try the Samsung Helix.

What it IS, however, is a very good portable player that also has the ability to record ANY XM channel for playback (the player must be docked to record). What this effectively does is allow you to have a near-endless library of songs or talk shows, etc. that you can play on your device.

I love and have an iPod, but part of the problem is that I'm stuck listening to the songs that I have in my library. What the Nexus does is allow you to record various XM channels - then you can sort back through the songs and play the ones you like - very cool. You can still use it like an iPod as well and put music from your library onto the Nexus as well.

As for the functionality of the device, it's small but has a good build quality and fairly easy to use (albeit not as intuitive as the Ipod). The screen is monochrome with a blue backlight.

This unit also utilizes the XM Passport Mini-Tuner, which allows you to use one XM subscription on any Passport-ready hardware such as a factory-ready stereo unit, home tuner, etc. This is a big savings - perviously you had to purchase a new subscription for each separate XM device. Now with the Passport, you can have 1 subscription and simply take the small Passport chip with you and plug it in.

Overall, a very useful device and certainly a very good buy for the money.

First things first: this is NOT a portable XM radio. It can only receive live XM broadcasts when docked with the included cradle and satellite antenna. But you can connect this to your stereo and listen without earplugs. But the best feature is the ability to record XM radio for later playback--just live Tivo.

So at home you can listen through your stereo speakers, and then if you're away from home it acts just like an iPOD. This is better than the current portable XM radios since with those you cannot predict what kind of signal strength you'll get when on the go. The menu system is great, although the buttons are small. You can record any channel at any time, and build your own playlists. Everything you need comes included in the box except for the car kit, which is a separate purchase. For the price this device delivers everything I expected. I'm even thinking about buying another one!

The modular design of this system was unusual to me initally, but I soon realized how nifty it really is. I purchased the receiver (includes home dock) and the car kit at a very attractive price and have not looked back.

Likes:
1. I can record several hours of music and listen later when I'm indoors, working in the yard or otherwise in a poor reception setting. The tracks are individually tagged with Artist and Title info (like MP3).
2. The player is small, and I can clip it to my belt or slip it in my pocket.
3. When listening to recorded tracks, I can skip those I don't like. That's a big deal!
4.Sound quality of MP3 tracks is great. The radio tracks are, well, satellite radio. Which is to say tolerably compressed. Satellite radio in general is more about quantity, than quality.
5.The battery is removable.
6.The receiver module (Passport) can be plugged into other XM2GO products so that additional subscriptions are not required. I'm waithing for someone to offer a boom box that accepts the Passport.
7. If I hear a song in the car that I like, I can record it on the fly, including the beginning of the track.
8. Big bang for the buck.

Dislikes:
1. The Napster interface software is a little clunky.
2. Would like to be able to segregate and listen to recorded tracks by channel number without creating a playlist. This is a minor quibble.

This is a great product. Potential buyers are strongly advised to go ahead and get the car kit. Bundled pricing is usually very good.

I accidentally fried mine while plugging an external speaker system into its headphone jack - an operation I'd performed dozens of times successfully. It then began starting and restarting, blinking its poor little display on and off. I took it back to Sears for a refund and cancelled the XM service.

Nice product, but very disppointed when we realized that it requires a separate car kit. I gave a Christmas gift that required the recipient to spend more money. Amazon should have a "recommended accessory" link for the car kit when purchasing, and Samsung should label the product that car kits are sold separately.

I received it as a gift and am very happy with it. I record overnight in the dock and replay at work during the day.

Pros:
Several EQ settings.
Great antenna sensitivity (through an outside wall w/ vinyl siding).
Battery life 75% after two workdays.
Good menu system and intuitive controls.

Cons:
Display is small and hard to see from farther than arms length so the included remote control seems like a waste.
Recorded song quality is not great but that's only noticable when playing back through a stereo (and may not be the fault of the unit).
The clock stops during power off if not docked so the time display in the upper right corner is never accurate.
Limited song info available.

Nice if used as a MP3 player stand alone. When using the included indoor/outdoor antenna with the home stand, forget it. The antenna does not pick up the signal very good inside or outside the home.
A better antenna and this would be a sweet product with all its capabilities. Great stand alone MP3 Player. Samsung products I look at first and usually buy.

Let me preface this review with the fact that the unit I purchased was refurbished, but I'm not sure whether that had anything to do with the fact that it was a piece of junk from the getgo. It took multiple times of plugging and unplugging the antenna, passport and power cord to get the player (or dock) to recognize any of it. Then once I went through all that rigamarole, it would sit on a loading screen for 10 minutes before it would even pick up a signal. My signal strength was 3 bars, by the way, so low signal strength should not have been an issue. And just to give the player a chance, I moved the whole set-up to different areas of my home to see if that improved the loading issue - it didn't.

In both Live XM and record modes, the player would drop the first 5 seconds of audio during every, single song. After 10 minutes of listening to music, it would go back to the Loading screen for another 10 minutes. Meaning that less than 50% of the time I was getting audio.

So after struggling with all of that for a day, I upgraded the firmware and proceeded to try the player again. It had all of the exact same issues.

After several days of fighting with the Nexus, I was more than ready for it to go back to the seller, which is exactly where it wound up (although the trash would've also been a suitable place for it.)

I purchased this to replace a Pioneer Inno. The Nexus is definitely not a replacement for the Inno.