mp3 Players Blog

Samsung YP-P2JAR P2 4 GB Slim Portable Media Player (Burgundy)

P2 Widescreen Touch Screen MP3 and Video Player

The Samsung P2 is the first Samsung MP3 widescreen video player with an optimized touchscreen user interface and Bluetooth functionality. The P2’s Bluetooth capability will enable the P2 to pair with other Bluetooth 2.0 devices.

This MP3 player sports a touchscreen interface and built-in Bluetooth. View larger.

The P2 comes ready to pair with stereo Bluetooth 2.0 headphones and speaker systems to provide high-quality wireless listening. For added convenience, the P2 is able to pair with up to two devices at the same time. Full integration with cell phones will be available via a firmware upgrade in November 2007. Users can even set up datacasts (podcasts) by using the SMS software that comes on the included installation disk.

The Samsung P2 is a 4 GB Flash-based portable media player with a three-inch widescreen LCD and a slim-style form factor. Capable of video, music, photo, and FM radio playback, the P2 lets you enjoy your favorite media files wherever you go. The player supports video playback in MPEG4, SVI, and WMV9 file formats and audio playback in MP3, WMA, and subscription WMA file formats. JPEG files can be viewed as pictures or slideshows. Packed with such additional features as an alarm clock, world clock, and calendar functionality, the P2 is an extremely multifunctional media player.

The P2 also comes with a file viewer, which you can use to view and delete any file on the device without the PC. The P2 supports up to 30 hours of music or five hours of video playback with every full charge of its internal Li-Poly rechargeable battery. The P2’s battery charges whenever the device is connected to an active USB link. Compatible with Windows XP and Windows Vista operating systems, the P2 measures 3.94 x 2.05 x 0.39 inches and weighs just 2.88 ounces.

Audio playback supports MP3, WMA, and subscription WMA.

Any JPEG on the P2 can become wallpaper.

Speed through your preset FM stations.

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Great item and great price
I bought the P2 about a week ago and it is great. I got it primarily to watch tv shows and movies on it and I am very happy. The sound is great and the video quality is outstanding. Here are some good things about each feature from what I have seen.

-The touch screen is great because there are not a lot of buttons to get dirt or dust into. So if I spill something (which I have not yet) or get finger prints on it, simply wipe it off. The buttons it has on the sides are convenient for adjusting volume and using play/pause without distracting from what you are watching, though you can do the same functions by touching the screen.

-TIP-There is a hold button so you do not press any buttons nor touch features by mistake. Out of the box, when hold is used, you cannot adjust volume nor pause even with the side buttons, BUT within the settings you DO have the option to operate just the side buttons while on hold.

-Audio sounds crisp and clean. The radio signal is clean and sounds good. The sound quality is only limited to the quality of whatever music/video you put on the device. I have not used the supplied ear buds yet, but I have used the HP ones from my laptop and the audio is awesome. The bass alone is outstanding, so movies are a good experience.

- Among other settings you can change the menu style to any of the templates on the P2, and you can also download many many more and even make your own using the emodio software.

-IMPORTANT- Out of the box the supplied software is buggy, and extensive research confirmed that it was in fact the software and not me. If you have trouble with the supplied software in the box, go to emodio.com and download the Emodio software. It looks the same as the one that comes with the P2, and works perfectly.

-The P2 stores pictures so you can use it as a photo album. The “finger slide” time between images is a bit slow but not a concern to me. I think I can wait the 1/2 second it takes to shift between them lol.

- The video capacity is decent and determined by the settings you choose for each video. There are various settings before transfering a video over to determine how good it will looks, such as bit rate, frame rate, and overall quality. This will take tweaking to get the quality that is best for you. I found a happy middle that looks good for me and allows for more storage on the device.

-Out of the box the P2 does not have a lot in terms of content, which you will see. You get the good stuff when updating the firmware, including games, subway maps, and blue tooth capability, and a few more. All very useful.

- Bluetooth. This is cool because it is possible. I do not have much use for that feature, but again I mainly got it for watching videos. You can transfer files from your cell phone to the P2, provided your cell have Bluetooth as well. You can also use the P2, through the phone, to make a call.

**This really serves no purpose to me because while you can connect to your cell, & even dial out on the p2, and use it rather than hold the phone to your ear, you still have to hold the P2 up to your mouth to speak into the mic. it is cool if you are laying down, or otherwise close to the P2’s mic, but I don’t use it myself.

That about covers it for what I have used and what I know about it so far. If you are wanting wifi or to watch live tv, etc I would go with an ipod touch. However I have no need for that and I am happy with what I have.

Overall I totally recommend this little gadget to anyone looking to listen to crisp clear audio or good looking video on the go, or otherwise away from household devices. The only drawback I can think of is also a good thing. The touch screen is very sensitive, so you don’t have to apply much pressure at all. I can’t stress how literal that statement is. The only down side to that is if you don’t have the hold button on, and you barely swipe it by accident, you can click out of whatever you’re watching/hearing. Other than that, yeah…go get it =)

5 Stars Best Mp3 player i ever had!!!
I love everything about it, the touch screen, the sound quality. It beats an ipod in my opinion anyday. The battery life is long as hell, its even better when you hook it up to your phone with the blue tooth it has and talk. It so easy to convert movies on here. And the video quality are crazy, it looks a mini HDTV.

5 Stars very pleased
I received the mp3 player very quickly and in the shape described. Very Happy with this seller will do business with them again. Thank You.

3 Stars Great piece of hardware, poor accompanying software
Like many others before me, I want to say that the Samsung P2 is a great MP3 player with an interface that is well designed and a touch screen that works pretty well.

I can think of few ways to improve the player itself, along the lines of what other reviewer have already suggested, but at this time I’d like to point out that the Samsung/Emodio software accompanying the MP3 player contains major weaknesses, especially in the area of podcast files management and synchronization.

For instance, video files need to be converted to a proprietary SVI format and many people have had trouble getting the conversion to work (a solution that seems to work is to upgrade to WMP11 and install a stable version of FFDSHOW).

The synchronization between podcast files on your PC and on your device can get stuck. Other times, the same PC file will be copied multiple times on the P2 with different names.

Also, there is no synchronization button available on the Emodio interface and when the software doesn’t start synch’ing automatically, it’s not intuitive what you need to do to synch manually.

On one hand, the people who are going to use the P2 to watch video listen to music will enjoy this player immensely given its great audio and video abilities.

On the other hand, podcast listeners will have to put up with the poor functionality of the Emodio software, or look for a different software solution that can work with the P2.

2 Stars Too many drawbacks
Pros:

1. Small and light. Easily fits into a shirt pocket.

2. The best features for people on the go:

2a. The tactile buttons on the sides make it very easy to pause, lock, turn volume up/down. If you use your media player in your car, these are critical features.

2b. On the touchscreen, just use your thumb to swipe left/right to jump ahead/back by 10, 30, or 60 seconds (set this up in the settings). Again, if you’re on the go, driving or working out, and you want to jump ahead in an audio book or podcast or trying to navigate without looking, this is an unbelievably critical feature that, as far as I know, the iPod touch does not have.

3. Speed up. If you listen to podcasts and audio books regularly, then you can listen to them up to 1/3 faster by cranking up the speed. This allows me to plow through more audio books and podcasts in a month. iPod Touch does not have this feature, as far as I know.

4. Radio. Very nice. Your earbuds are the antenna. When the power was out in my house due to wildfires in the area, I listened to my YP-P2 for evacuation notices. I was also able to record a song on the radio I had never heard before using the Record feature.

5. Battery life. As long as your screen is off, the battery life on this is epic as an mp3 player, which is all I use it for. I do not use bluetooth, although I hear it’s a battery drainer.

Cons:

1. The software you install on the PC is terrible. Even if you upgrade the Samsung media center that comes with the YP-P2 to Emodio, it’s still terrible.

2. No true sync. Using Emodio or Windows Media Player, you cannot remove dead weight automatically. That means, your daily podcasts will pile up unless you manually go in and get rid of them. I also loaded a ton of Christmas songs that weren’t properly tagged. Getting them off one at a time after Christmas was too big of a pain, so I just formatted and reloaded. Remember, these are not headaches that iPod users have.

3. Emodio didn’t recognize that new firmware was available. There was an ENORMOUS bug a few months ago where you would hear a siren or UFO sound during a song or podcast. It was sudden, jarring, incredibly LOUD, came without warning, and nearly gave me a heart attack. New firmware fixed this and Samsung released it, but Emodio didn’t pick it up for me. As a result, I suffered from this bug for weeks more than I had to before realizing firmware had already been released to fix this bug. Then I had to find somewhere to manually download it and find installation instructions to manually install the firmware since Emodio wasn’t going to do it for me. It turned out to be simple, but that’s another hour of my life gone and weeks without an mp3 player thanks to Samsung. Also, formatting does not get rid of firmware. This bug I’m referring to was introduced by Samsung via a firmware update; there is no way to roll back as far as I know.

4. Corrupt database!!! This is the biggest killer. All of the above might be minor annoyances, but this kills it for me. Playlists will duplicate, disappear, or your imported songs/podcasts will not show up in the playlist after syncing. I’ve tested it on 3 different PCs, so I know it’s not the computer. I’ve also switched from Emodio, back to Samsung Media Center, and over to Windows Media Player with the same results. I’ve had this thing for 10 months, and while it doesn’t corrupt every playlist, it’s VERY COMMON. The database in the YP-P2 is simply too unstable. If the playlist disappears or if the song was imported but doesn’t show up in your playlist, it’s possible to find that song or podcast on the YP-P2 via Artists or Albums or File Browser. I.e. the file you imported is on the YP-P2, just not in the playlist. You can get rid of the corruption by, you guessed it, formatting the YP-P2. Very annoying.

5. Bloat. Even if you delete files, sometimes the memory will bloat and fill up, forcing you to format and reload your files. I once painstakingly removed less-than desirable files so that I could free up some space and load new content before realizing that it made no difference how many megabytes of content I deleted; I never got more memory space. I had to format and reload. (Yep, more formatting)

6. Screen too small for video. Even if the resolution is better than iPod’s, it’s still too small to enjoy for a full-length feature. I can actually sit through movies on the Touch. For the YP-P2, I have to take off my glasses and hold it close to my eyes. I was hoping to use this as a video player at the gym, but no way is that possible for me.

7. Screen too small for touch screen. You will make mistakes when selecting songs or pushing touchscreen buttons. Also, any mp3 you want to select that’s at the bottom of the list is also right next to the buttons at the bottom, like Back or Menu. Instead of pushing the song you want, you’ll push Back or Menu. Annoying.

8. Touch screen response not as quick as iPod Touch.

9. A-B should NOT be an always-available button on the play screen. How many times do you need to loop a segment of an mp3? For me, it’s never. But I accidentally hit it more often than I would like since it’s so close to Back and Menu. Baffling design choice to make this button so available and so close to buttons you actually use.

10. Not really Samsung’s fault, but a lot of podcasts I listen to are only available on iTunes. As a result, I have to download them from iTunes and import them into the YP-P2 instead of using Emodio’s datacast manager. This means every morning, I’m manually adjusting my playlists and importing podcasts I downloaded from iTunes for the day. I try not to think about how much time I waste doing this.

11. Video conversion takes a long time. Don’t start a video conversion if you’re almost late for work (I learned my lesson). And without a 3rd-party program, you will not be able to convert YouTube or other video types unsupported by Emodio that you may have downloaded from the web.

Conclusion: I got my wife got an iPod Touch for Christmas and I’m jealous. While I would miss the features I listed above, I would gladly have paid another $100 to have one over the YP-P2. The Touch is just waaay cooler than my YP-P2. Touchscreen controls on the Touch are more responsive. The Touch is also very quick, much quicker than the YP-P2. iTunes’ true syncing abilities makes managing your library easy, especially if you change it as often as I do due to subscribing to daily podcasts. Also, you wouldn’t have to convert any video podcasts that you download from iTunes. As for my YP-P2, the fact that I have to cross my fingers in hopes that my playlist was truly synced falls far below the minimum reliability I expect from a device. It disappoints me to give it such a low rating since I own so many other Samsung products. Still, 2 stars, and I’m being very generous about those. This is not an iPod killer. I wish that it were. I wish the YP-P2 hype on Apple-hater boards were true, but it isn’t.

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Filed under: Samsung Mp3 Players Reviews