Samsung YP-T7JX 512 MB Digital Audio Player with FM Tuner & Recorder

• Lightweight, multi-format digital audio player with 1.2-inch color LCD
• 512 MB flash memory holds 8 hours of MP3 and 16 hours of WMA audio
• Compatible with MP3, WMA, and PlaysForSure secure WMA
• Integrated voice recorder; FM tuner (with record function); 8 EQ presets; line-in recording
• Internal rechargeable battery with up to 10 hours of life

A good friend of mine who is quite intelligent and geeky but non the less a total luddite relented to the digital age a bit and picked up a laptop for school. He is a lover of music and has literally thousands of CDs scattered around his apartment, so for his birthday I went shopping for an .mp3 player simple enough for him to use. The Samsung YEPP YP-T7X fit the bill nicely.

DESIGN/FUNCTIONALITY

Every bit of the YP-T7X design is well thought out; the case alone, rectangle of matt silver and sky blue about a fourth larger then a Zippo lighter with an equal weight, is wonderfully crafted. The buttons are well laid out, though the play/pause needs to be larger.

A squat, 5-way joystick set below a gorgeous 1.2"x1.2" 65,000-color screen serves as a simple, effective and easily recognized interface, and performs well at the task with no lag and a comforting amount of resistance.

And the screen...what an excellent surprise in such a small device. The menu system takes full advantage of the available 65,000-colors with a series of moving, monotone images that clearly distinguish the various options, making navigation quick and simple. There is a photo viewing option at well, though with the small screen size this is a novelty at best. Disappointing is the fact that the device doesn't support ID3-tagged album art, which would have been an excellent and impressive use of the screen.

A small, retracting loop sits at the top of the case, and the kit comes with a plastic lanyard so that it may be worn around the neck (which I thought was silly, but might be fun for kids). The headphone jack is recessed along the top, left side and the line-in and USB ports are protected by an attached rubber flap that actually manages to stay firmly closed while also being quite easy to open. That alone is a small miracle.

SOUND QUALITY

There are two things you need to do before you listen to this .mp3 player. The first is to throw out the included earbuds. These horrid little pieces of flimsy plastic produce the kind of sound you would expect from earbuds sold behind the counter of a 7-11. They are simply that bad.

The next task is to make sure that the WOW effects are turned on; when off, the sound isn't quite as rich (though after testing, we suspect that you get about an hour less playback time with it on). With a decent of earbuds you will get a clean, rich sound that has only the tiniest amount of hiss at the highest end of the volume setting. And while the volume max is plenty for earbuds, standard headphones may fall a little short with only 10mW output per channel.

FM RADIO

Washington D.C. is notoriously bad for radio signals, but the YP-T7X preformed wonderfully. Stations came in clean and crisp, and procedure for finding and locking in up to 20 radio presets was easy. In fact, I was able to set up all aspects of the device without once cracking open the manual; all the options are presented well and in a simple, easy to navigate structure.

BATTERY LIFE

The posted 10 hour battery life is also disappointing, and my friend claims he gets anywhere from 8-10 hours of actual use with a full charge and the WOW effect turned on.

FEATURES

The YP-T7X comes with an excellent range of features and settings, ranging from the ability to play a wide array of files (MP3, WMA, protected WMA, Ogg Vorbis, and ASF) to the preset EQ settings (Normal, Classic, Jazz, and Rock, as well as the ability to create your own) to the ability to set timed FM recordings.

In addition, there is a list of sound enhancements you can activate to bolster the equalizer, including the afore mentioned WOW effect, TruBass (a bass "augmenter," which fully admit I don't understand, but it sounds good), SRS (surround-sound), and a bass-booster. All of these effects are unique and distinctive, which is surprising for such a small device and much more then some of the larger, hard-drive models have to offer.

You also have a line-in jack that allows direct recording of any device with a headphone jack at a bitrate of up to 192kbs, which is good enough for me but proved just a tad to imperfect for my friend's well-trained ears.

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I got this for christmas. The first time I listened to it I was blown away. It may not have all the high tech video like others ..If that is what you need or want then go spend 300.00 ++ dollars ..Buy this for mowing the lawn,walking or to just get away from the noises of life. You can't beat the price.

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Okay, so it's not an iPod, but I didn't want one anyway. I admit some of the attraction for me in this was the color (I'm a girl, after all) but the TFT screen rocks, the sound quality is terrific, and the size is perfect for sticking into the change pocket of your jeans.

Synching it through Windows Media Player is really easy, although I can't get the date to synchronize correctly. Some of the controls are less than intuitive and I did have to RTFM to figure out how to do some things like add songs to Favorites.

The Photo display is a nice little feature if you want to carry photos with you. You can also use it as a storage device, although since it's only 512Mb you might be better off just using a USB flash drive for portable storage.

Recharging and synching is done via USB/mini-USB, and since so many devices already use the cable, it's convenient to just swap it in and out with phone, headset, etc.

The included ear buds are great; they can't handle more than, say, 30 out of 40 volume, but neither can my ears, so we're all good there.

My one issue is that the jog button occasionally sticks, so we'll see how that pans out over time.

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If your looking for clear high resolution sound then this is it. This player has 3d sound options that make the music sound the way it should it comes alive. Scrap the ear plugs that come with it and get a pair of the shure brand plugs there expensive but really make this unit sound like your there. The color screan is great with great clairity and color quality. The unit is nice and small you can put it any were and not even know its on you. The only down side of it I dont like is the 10 hours of play back on a single charge. Over all I am very happy with it and was blown away with the sound Qualiy with the shure ear plugs. I would buy this unit again.

I like the small size and ease of use. A good value over other MP3 players. The color screen is amazing in its clarity. I like that it holds a good number of pictures plus plenty of songs.