CNET Editor's rating: 7.7 out of 10
Reviewed by
Jasmine France
Review date: 11/07/07
The good: The Samsung P2 offers fantastic audio quality and a large, brilliant touch screen. The interface is fun and customizable, and the player is packed with features including video playback, a great FM radio, support for subscription music and Datacasts, and a plethora of sound enhancement options.
The bad: The touch screen of the Samsung P2 is not always precise, and the lack of tactile controls may not appeal to all users. There's no memory expansion option, and it's pricey.
The bottom line: The Samsung YP-P2 is an excellent-sounding MP3 player that will appeal to those looking for a cool touch-screen interface and stereo Bluetooth capability.
Editor's note: The Samsung P2 is currently undergoing an extensive update via the release of several complementing pieces of firmware known as Bluewave. Once the last major Bluewave update goes through, CNET will be reevaluating the player and considering a refresh of the review and rating. Please check back soon if you are interested in the update.
There's no denying that the Apple iPod Touch has the cool design appeal down to a tee, but not everyone wants to pay a premium for Internet connectivity on their MP3 players/PVPs. Some may instead prefer to cut the cord between their player and headphones, and for those users, there's the Samsung YP-P2, a touch-screen device with a sweet interface and stereo Bluetooth capability. And there's more good news: the P2, which is available in black, white, and red versions with 4GB ($200) or 8GB ($250) of flash memory, sounds great. This player ain't cheap, but audio enthusiasts will be satisfied.
Although it's noticeably smaller at 3.8 inches by 2.0 inches by 0.4 inch, the Samsung P2 resembles the iPod Touch more than any other MP3 player. Like the Touch, the P2 offers virtually no tactile controls, instead relying on its face-dominating (3-inch) touch screen for interface navigation. The similarities basically end there--the player's interface is decidedly less Mac-like than that of its iPod counterpart, but we daresay this is a good thing. Back to that momentarily. Rounding out the physical characteristics of the P2 are a mic hole, proprietary dock, and headphone jack lining its bottom edge; dedicated volume controls along the right spine; and a play/pause/power button and hold switch on the left side. There's also a multicolored, circular LED below the screen on the front that we originally thought might function as a home key; however, it is merely a visual status indicator.
So back to that interface: It's awesome. In the Samsung P2's settings, you can select from three fonts and three menu types. Our favorite is Cosmos, where the selections sit in different depths of field (as if in space) and as you swipe your finger up or down, the selections orbit into view. You may select any visible option on the screen, even if it appears "farther away" on the screen. There's also a My Skin setting: set any image as wallpaper and the menu selections appear as small icons across the bottom. Here, you swipe your finger left or right to move through options. Finally, there's the rather standard Matrix interface, which displays the icons in a grid--our least favorite because there's no swiping involved, and we think the finger dragging is what makes a touch screen fun.
The main menu is a good place to start delving into the features of the Samsung P2. Function numero uno is--of course--music, and the P2 knows what it's doing in this regard. Step into the Music option and files are organized by artist, album, genre and so on; or if you prefer, there's even a file browser. Once a selection is made, you're taken to a detailed playback screen, lined at the very bottom with onscreen back, contextual menu, and sound effect buttons. Just above these are play/pause and track shuttle selectors, and then a time elapsed/remaining bar (swipe your finger left or right along this to jog through the song). The very top of the display shows the time and battery meter, and the track name is always present a bit below that. The majority of the screen is dedicated to one of several available visual settings, which can be shuttled through by tapping the screen. Choose to display full track info, large album art, or one of four moving visualizations (a la G-Force), including a graphic equalizer.
The P2 comes with an excellent FM tuner that gets great reception and offers autoscan and up to 30 presets. The preset mode is cool and unique: numbered buttons show up along the bottom half of the screen so you can jump to exactly the station that you want.
Sadly, the Samsung P2 doesn't support a vast array of audio formats, just MP3 and both protected and unprotected WMA. However, it somewhat makes up for that by offering a massive amount of sound effects, including a nine-band custom EQ. In addition to music, the device plays video in SVI or WMV at a resolution of up to 480x272 and supports JPEG photos, which you can view while listening to music. There's also something called Datacasts, which are essentially bits of RSS feeds that you can transfer to the player (detailed instructions to be found in the manual), and a selection called PrimePack, where you can find a calendar, an alarm, and text files. Sadly, there is no separate sorting for podcasts, although you can make a folder of them to access via the file browser on the P2.
Of course, the Samsung P2's most compelling feature might be the built-in A2DP (stereo) Bluetooth. That means there's no adapter required for those who want to cut the cord between their MP3 players and headphones, provided the headphones use Bluetooth as well. The P2 can also be paired with Bluetooth speakers, such as Samsung's BS300. And you can even pair the player with your cell phone; playback will mute during an incoming call, and you can use the P2's built in mic to talk. The player can be paired with up to 30 devices.
Insofar as performance is concerned, the Samsung P2 is almost entirely impressive. Our one point of contention is that the touch screen is not always precise and responsive, so it sometimes takes a couple tries to get the desired reaction. However, the player really shines in all other areas. Photos look stunning on the screen--they are exceedingly bright and crisp. Videos at the highest possible resolution look similarly excellent, though we noticed some pixelation in the videos with a resolution of 320x240. And we're pleased that you can set bookmarks and choose from a few video-specific sound settings to enhance the experience (normal, action, or drama). Rated battery life is great for audio (35 hours) and good for video (5 hours); sadly, CNET Labs came nowhere near matching the music-only number, squeezing out a comparatively paltry 15.7 hours. Video endurance proved better at 5.7 hours
Clearly, the Samsung P2 is an audio enthusiast's MP3 player. Music sounds simply fantastic, and the nine-band user EQ--a rarity--makes it easy to fine-tune audio to your exact specifications. (Several other enhancement options help, as well.) With a pair of Shure SE310s, we got clear, sparkly highs; rich mids; and a tight and sneaky low-end response--enveloping but not overwhelming. The acoustic guitar Nick Drake's folk track "Things Behind the Sun" was pleasantly plunky, while his vocals were warm and buttery. The Black Eyed Peas' "Request + Line" featured super thumping bass that highlighted--rather than overshadowed--the shimmering Middle Eastern strings in the background. Overall, the P2 provides a highly pleasant and engaging listening experience.
7 out of 10 - Very good Preliminary review of the YP-P2
I just purchased the YP-P2 today and have played around with it for a few hours. Here is what I'...
I just purchased the YP-P2 today and have played around with it for a few hours. Here is what I've observed so far:
The screen is huge, bright and the 480x272 widescreen resolution is amazing. Pictures look really great and seem to just pop out of the screen. Unfortunately, video performance is not as great. The Samsung Media Studio software is needed to convert your video files to Samsung's proprietary format, SVI. I converted a 30 min., 230 Mb avi file to the SVI format. Even at the highest setting of 1024kbps and 30fps, the video conversion was poor. The playback looked great for low motion scenes, but for fast paced ones, significant motion blur disturbs the video. This is quite disappointing as the screen is not fully being taken advantaged of. I will continue to play around with different settings and source files to see if any improvement can be made.
The touch screen UI takes a little getting used to, but once mastered it becomes amazingly easy to use and very intuitive. There are three different menu settings to choose from: skin, cosmos and matrix. Skin allows you to set a picture as the background and icons are selected at the bottom of the screen. Cosmos allows you to choose the icons as they appear to fly away or toward you in space. And Matrix shows the icons as a control panel. Samsung did a really great job designing the UI. The navigation, searching of files and playback screens are all nice, colourful and very well done. I especially like the fact that artist and album lists include small icons of the album art, which makes choosing a selection a little quicker. Everything about the UI makes using this player a great experience.
The sound quality is also very good. I would not say it's the best, but it's very good. There are plenty of EQ presets to choose from and you can define your own user EQ. A great feature is that you can change the EQ presets while listening to a track. The only problem I have with the player is that the maximum sound output could be a little higher.
This player could also use more internal memory or at least some expandability. It's a bit too pricey for the memory offered, however, you're paying a little extra for the screen, the touch UI and Bluetooth (if that's important to you).
Overall, I'm slightly disappointed with this player because of the poor conversion and performance of Samsung's video format, SVI. But it's lovely screen, sound quality and ease of use thanks to the touch UI and intuitive design almost makes up for it.
Updated In my preliminary review I said that the video playback on this device is poor because of the proprietary format, SVI, that this player uses. Well, half of that statement is true.
I tried different source files and output settings but the results were all the same; Significant motion blur for fast motion scenes and red bleeds badly between frames. So, I started to convert source files to WMV9 files instead, which can be directly transferred to the player without conversion to SVI. I was quite optimistic about it, but the same complaints remained.
In the end, I would have to conclude that the video problems are inherent in the actual display and player and not in the SVI format.
However, I also did play around with the audio and EQ settings more extensively. After making user EQ adjustments and hearing the changes in real-time (which is a great benefit), I was able to get a very nice, clean and loud sound. Keep in mind that I'm still using the headphones that were included. I'm sure it would sound even better if I had a good aftermarket set of headphones.
In conclusion, I will still give this player a 7/10. The video playback and the 4 gigabytes of memory are the YP-P2's biggest cons. However, the display screen, sound quality, touch UI design and the overall user experience are great pros that will keep me happy with this player for quite a while.
9 out of 10 - Spectacular Great looking anti iPod
if you are looking for a great looking, small, light Non iPod, this is it. Plays videos on a beautiful ...
if you are looking for a great looking, small, light Non iPod, this is it. Plays videos on a beautiful screen. Pictures and videos look amazing, and this player sounds amazing..not sure if it is the headphones or the actual player, but it sounds great. Also packed with features, Bluetooth, FM tuner, alarm, calendar etc.
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by jasonappelbaum (see profile) -
January 2, 2008
2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
6 out of 10 - Good It's good just has some problems...
Touchscreen - it's a nice feature but of course that just leads to lots of fingerprints and lots of ...
Touchscreen - it's a nice feature but of course that just leads to lots of fingerprints and lots of cleaning of the screen. Sometimes it dosen't react to your touch but this is rare. It doesn't happen very often, and it probably won't bother most users.
iTunes - I use Rhapsody to get my songs which worked very nicely. You just drag and drop into the folder. After awhile though, there were problems with doing this. It would be "transferring" but nothing was actually happening.
"Neat" features - There's .txt reading, FM radio (it's nice to have, but in my opinion you probably won't touch it more than once,) Bluetooth (probably one of the best features), and calendar/alarm clock.
Audio - I can't really say much about the audio, because this is my first Mp3 player, so I can't compare it to anything. There's a DNSE funtion that makes your songs sound better.
Accessories - There is very little choice in accessories. You probably have to get them online, but if you are like me, you rather see things first in person.
Price - The price is rather high. It seems like every feature in this has some problem to it.
Thickness - It's a little over 1/2 inch thick. Pretty thick compared to Ipods which are insanely thin.
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by PrimeOcean (see profile) -
July 5, 2008
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
9 out of 10 - Spectacular Amazing MP3 Player
This is by far the best player on the market in my opinion. I purchased the player from Best Buy (...
This is by far the best player on the market in my opinion. I purchased the player from Best Buy (in Canada) after finding on $70 off it's regular price of $219.00. This instantly sucked me in to it's unique controls and amazing design.
Once I opened the box, the P2 was laid in it's fancy holder 1/2 charged and ready to be used.
Although the touch screen may scare some people away from this device, the ease of use was surprisingly easy to use. The screen was perfectly calibrated and made the seemingly impossible task of controlling this so easy.
After playing with the player for a few minutes, I found the video category on the main screen and was amazed at the quality of video it produced. The 3" screen was very bright and clear.
The one flaw that I've found is not even with the player, but instead the Samsung Media Studio software that was provided. If you transfer large amounts of songs at once, you're in for a treat of transferring each song individually.
The day after purchasing this unit, I updated the firmware and added their free games. This was an easy process and took all of 5 minutes. Although the games are quite cheesy, kudos to Samsung for adding one more great feature to this amazing product.
This product comes loaded with Samsung's DNSe which provides some of the best quality EQ's I've found. The music which was once lacking some Wow Factor, was boosted with any of the 5-10 EQ's.
Another great feature is the Bluetooth Connectivity. This device can connect with up to two sets of headphones through Bluetooth, and one with a wired set of headphones, no more fighting over the earbuds.
Overall, this is an amazing device and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a new MP3 player.
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by hateipods (see profile) -
March 17, 2008
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
9 out of 10 - Spectacular The firmware update makes this product much better
So ive owned the p2 for about a week now and im very glad of this product, the 2gb costs ...
So ive owned the p2 for about a week now and im very glad of this product, the 2gb costs nearly the 4gb of the new ipod nano and this mp3 believe me is much better.
I want to say that this mp3 is not a clone of the ipod touch, for you smartheads out there saying that it is. this was announced before the ipod touch, apple rushed with giving out the ipod touch because an touch screen mp3 player would make evreyone suprised.
I agree with the score that cnet put because when the p2 came out, it had unresponsive touch screen, it wasnt this cheap and it didnt have half the features it has now after the second wave. let me give a full review. Note that this is my first review of anything ever so please be kind when commenting. And another thing i live in Sweden so dont expect evreything to be spelled exactly right.
Right now on to the review
Design: The design is absoulutley gorgeous. it looks sleek and nice, my friends were absoulutely amazed when they first saw how it looked. but still its a fingerprint magnet and it can be annoying when theres alota light that reflects on the screen because you cant see, but there have to be ALOT. The buttons on the sides is pretty good for using it without taking it out of youre pocket. it feels more comfortable in hand because of the size and the little extra weight that it has ( note its still lighter then the Touch)
UI: The cosmos menu system is amazing, it looks so good and my friends were like WOW when they saw it. you can put the my skin or matrix menu to show the background picture more. the ui isnt as fun as the ipod touches for cycling through photos and stuff but still pretty good. It uses double tap wich can be annoying sometimes and sometimes a blessing. The icons after the 2nd wave look much better and 3d like now. The touch screen is very responsive now so that is something you dont have to think about. By the way its now multi-touch like the touch so that can maybe be something that people want to have. I still love this mp3 with the Uni-Touch for rotating and doing stuff.
The firmware updates that is always coming to the p2 is the biggest ever made for an mp3 player. They are adding alot of stuff evrey time. let me put some sections.
Music: It sounds Nice with the Dnse 2.0, It has 10 Eq presets and an custom Eq with 7 bands (2 more than the normal number) and a 3D and bass setting. It has street and clarity modes wich fixes upp the music alot. You can make 5 playlists on the go pretty fast.
New:in the second wave the album art and visuals have gotten bigger, Theyve put a neat feature here that you can view Lyrics that is very nice. They've added A-B And Play speed wich can be useful sometimes. You can now cycle through album art.
Fm Radio: It has an inbuilt Fm radio with the best response iv'e ever seen. it has 30 presets and a very good scanning mode. Sadly you cant do anything else while listening to the radio.
New: you can Fm record
Bluetooth: You can use this to connect to bluetooth headphones. Cutting the cord is pretty nice but the radio cant be used with this because it uses the cord of the headphones normally for the reception.
New: Now you can connect to a phone through bluetooth and answer calls and talk in it with the mic on the bottom of the P2. You can file transfer too without any restrictions so you can get all the songs youre friends have on their phones.
Video: The video lookes so good and colorful on this Lcd. It is just fun to watch episodes and it has bookmarks for the video.
New: nothing new that im aware of.
Pictures: Pics looks gorgeous on the p2. The lcd is so cool and you can do a hortizonal stroke with the finger to change between them, annoyingly theres a time lag for this.
New: You can now rotate the pics and zoom in them with touch gestures. And crop them for background images.
Datacasts: This is like podcasts but not live. This downloads rss feeds through Samsung media studio evreytime you connect it to the pc after putting some sites there.
Prime Pack (Extras): It has a text viewer that is pretty good you can make the fonts bigger. A world clock, Calendar , adress book so that you can call from the p2.
New: theyve added 3 pretty fun games, The text viewer can now be rotated, changing the backgrounds and font color for better viewing. An alarm have been added.
As you see many features have been added to the p2 to make it better.
Well this is the end of my review. I hope it will help you buying this product. im utterly happy with mine and i think that you will be too. Thanks for reading
Best regards/ Syrish
Ps. i just put the ipod touch in comparison because many are confused between those two and they're often compared. Dont tell me that the touch is better after jailbreak and bla bla bla because that is not how it came fabriced. I think both of them are good mp3 players and pretty nice actually but i just wanna break the habit of buying ipods for the premium price when there's alternatives out there.
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by Syrish (see profile) -
February 8, 2008
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
9 out of 10 - Spectacular best mp3 player i have owned so far
I've had three ipods and a yp-k3 before, but this has to be the best out of all of ...
I've had three ipods and a yp-k3 before, but this has to be the best out of all of them. It has a fun interface and great sound quality. Its really fast at downloading music from the computer. The touch screen needs some getting used to though.Overall im really satisfied.
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by jojo0827 (see profile) -
January 30, 2008
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
7 out of 10 - Very good Great design but has some flaws
just bought this player yesterday on sale at Bestbuy for the very cheap price of $150 (the 4gig model). I ...
just bought this player yesterday on sale at Bestbuy for the very cheap price of $150 (the 4gig model). I reviewed the 8gig version (didn't realize the 4 gig version would be reviewed seperatly since they're the same player, with different capacity) but I'll also add some comments on the bluetooth.
Already I can pinpoint a few problems with the player and some great advantages. I'll begin with the cons and move on the the pros of the device. The software that's provided with the device is slow and not very user friendly. Moreover, there is very little you can do in the way of options or customization with the interface or features. Converting video is a pain! I'm a pretty proficient computer user with years of experience with peripheral devices including varioud MP3 players and PDAs, but I tried numerous times with numerous file types and file sizes but could not get the file to transfer to the player and play. The device is very limited in terms of video playback and though it is primarly and audio player, video should be just as big an asset on such a beautiful screen. I'm still trying to figure out how to transfer videos and I might just have to call Samsung for assistance. The other disadvantage to point out is it's touchscreen. The touchscreen is not accurate what so ever. On numerous occasions, I had to repeat my inputs to get the player to perform the desired actions. The bright LED light at the bottom of the device is nothing more then decoration and doesn't serve any practicle purpose. It would have been nice if it would be used as a "home" button like on the Touch. The bluetooth is a great asset to have especially when you consider that not many players in the market have built in bluetooth. However, I had great trouble pairing my P2 and my Samsung D820 cellphone. Samsung claims that the device can be paired with cellphones and allow you to pick up a call through the the player itself. Try as I might, I couldn't get this feature to work. Others have had no problems with this player so maybe it's just my bad luck. If anyone can help me out, I'd appreciate it.
That being said, on the plus side, this is an audio player and the sound quality therefore should be the most important thing. I'm happy to report that the sound quality is bar none. Samsung's sound engine technology is really impressive. If you're an audiophile, this MP3 player can't be beat (take that iPod!). The look of this palyer is also a huge pro. It's sleel and stylish and is the perfect size for everyday use being neither to big or to small and the player does have a nice heft to it. The screen is bright, clear and crisp. The included videos on the MP3 player played beautifully (if only I could get mine to work) and the included pictures were displayed beautifully. The GUI is nice, but I'm hoping that in time Samsung will release more options for themes and icons. The music player itself is well designed with many visualization effects including album art and track info. My favorite feature of this device and the primary reason I bought this over other players is the P2's ability to navigate through files through a file browser. I sort my music by folders and for me accessing that folder hierarchy is important becuase it's how I organize my music. The automatic library features of most MP3 players (including the iPod) really pisses me off becuase often, my music files are not properly organized because of missing ID3 tags. With the file browser I can organize my music how I want.
Over all the player does music very well but I'm still trying to figure out how to transfer videos. The touchscreen is a little bothersome but I blame that on a necessary learning curve and besides, the many dedicated tactile controls really ease the operation of the device.
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by afakirani (see profile) -
November 29, 2007
9 out of 10 - Spectacular P2 would be the masterpiece of the MP3 player category.
P2 is a good MP3 player. Do you know that Samsung recently released YP-PB2 so called "P2 DMB" in Korea ...
P2 is a good MP3 player. Do you know that Samsung recently released YP-PB2 so called "P2 DMB" in Korea for only Korean users? Since P2 DMB supports DMB (digital multimedia broadcasting), it is used only in Korea. This meams that P2 would be the best one for the world. You may refer to the following link for P2 DMB.
http://goitworld.blogspot.com/2008/06/review-samsungs-dmb-mp3-player-yp-pb2.html
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by brianken2 (see profile) -
July 2, 2008
9 out of 10 - Spectacular very good touch screen, just some flaws
i got the p2 2 months ago and it is awesome! touch screen is great. i liked that u can ...
i got the p2 2 months ago and it is awesome! touch screen is great. i liked that u can change how you can change how much bass you want to have. the movies are very nice and how she said crisp. only problem was that the battery life is kind of short for me. it will last you the whole afternoon but i would have liked something longer. another thing is that it will get scatched. get the dlo jacket from best buy for about 35$. overall i love it and i will stick with it.
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by peruvian dude (see profile) -
June 24, 2008
9 out of 10 - Spectacular All-around AMAZING mp3 player
I just purchased this mp3 player today, and I have yet to turn the thing off, it's so cool. ...
I just purchased this mp3 player today, and I have yet to turn the thing off, it's so cool. The user interface is spectacular, sound quality is amazing, and with the real-time eq adjustment, I don't have to play around with the player for an hour to get the desired effect.
The screen is crisp and clear; I dont really watch alot of videos, so I dont really understand what other people say about the screen not being of high quality- I love it.
The only downside is the price; I just bought this on sale at best buy (for $149.99 CAD)- personally, I'm a bit anti-iPod, so this worked out great for me without gouging my wallet.
All around AMAZING player if you aren't afraid to spend a little extra for the video and touch interface. DEFINITE RECCOMEND!
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by hkarmorer (see profile) -
March 15, 2008
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