![]() Its long battery life is the icing on what is already a very nice looking cake indeed. Overall, the YP-Z5 succeeds because it produces very good quality sound output, has a lovely screen, and you can drag and drop music and picture files from your PC. All in all, getting round the player can be far more frustrating than it should be, but I did get the hang of it in the end. Additionally, scrolling through lists, be they menu options or tracklists, is incredibly fast – so fast, in fact, that it is easy to miss what you are scrolling for. You need a light tough to scroll, a firmer press to select and I found it incredibly frustrating getting the degree of pressure required just right. ![]() There are left, right up and down directional movements and the ability to ‘select’ but getting what you want will require either a harder or a softer press on the relevant area. It was the central section that caused me problems. Play and Pause, and moving sequentially between and through tracks and getting to the main menu were all straightforward. Each of the four edges of the outer ring has an assigned function and I had no problems with these. The area under the screen is made up of a central section and an outer ring. Pleasingly in the menus, there’s support for the composers tag – very handy if, like me, you are a fan of classical music and like to use Artist for the performer and Composer for, well, the composer.īut there is a major problem with the YP-Z5 and unfortunately that’s the control system. As you move around within menus they zoom towards and away from you in a manner that’s easy on the eye. The screen, too, is wonderful as it’s large, bright and clear. There is plenty of volume available and at the highest setting it was actually too much for me. My own preferred Sennheiser PX-200’s delivered really nicely too. The provided headset is really very good, and if you don’t mind the in-ear buds then it should suffice. There’s an equaliser with plenty of presents should you want to refine it further. When it comes to actually listening to music, sound quality is excellent. A mini USB connector would have been so much more convenient. It is irritating that this openness is scuppered by a proprietary connector at the YP-Z5 end of things. Open the one labelled Media and two more appear – Music and Pictures. The file structure on the YP-Z5 is pretty obvious, so it is easy to see where to copy music and pictures to. Just plug in the supplied USB cable to your PC and you are set to copy files across. The good news is that you don’t have to do it this way as you can drag and drop music onto it or use the YP-Z5 as a virtual drive. Windows Media Player 10 is important because the YP-Z5 supports Secure WMA DRM files, and if buying DRM music is your thing, you are going to need to use it. The slim and pretty rudimentary printed quick start guide doesn’t explain how to get photos onto the YP-Z5, though, and only shows you how to get music across by synchronising with Windows Media Player 10.Ī CD offers a copy of Windows Media Player 10 in case you don’t already have it, and also offers a more comprehensive manual, oddly in Rich Text Format rather than PDF, and ready for you to print out. You can view them individually and run a slideshow with or without musical accompaniment. Samsung has stolen quite a march over Apple in terms of battery life with Samsung saying that the YP-Z5 will last for 35 hours – two and a half times the 14 hours claimed for the nano.Īs well as playing MP3 and WMA, the YP-Z5 displays pictures (only JPEGS) on its 128 x 160 pixel, 1.8 inch LCD screen. I’ll get to the front controls in more detail later. The bottom edge houses a PC USB socket and a reset hole. The right edge features a long, thin volume rocker, while the top edge sports a hold button, a 3.5mm headset jack, and a hook for a lanyard strap (not provided). However, its sliver metal edging inevitably capture grease from your fingers and overall it doesn’t actually look as polished a product as the nano. As such it will be easily encompassed by all but the smallest of pockets. The 4GB version is slightly fatter at 12.3mm deep. While the YP-Z5 is a shade thicker it’s no giant – at 42.2mm wide x 89.8mm tall x 11.4mm deep. It keeps the rectangular format, with a screen at the top and controls below. Physically there are both similarities and differences to the nano. ![]() I was sent a 2GB model in black to try out. The former will set you back around £130 while the latter costs around £170. The YP-Z5 comes in 2GB and 4GB capacities. Its nano and iPod brands seem to have become generic terms for players (the shuffle is not so lucky), and the physical design of the nano is clearly the inspiration behind Samsung’s YP-Z5. Flash memory based music players are everywhere and if you are looking for a player, then you’ve got plenty to choose from.
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