 "Pretty good for the price" | 2008-03-17 |
| - Reviewed By hocky201 |
| I've had this mp3 player since about September of 2006. It's easy to use and very lightweight and small which makes it perfect to use when jogging. The biggest problem is the buttons are very sensitive and I began having problems moving up the menu about six months after I bought it. Now all the buttons are on the fritz. Sometimes they work sometimes they don't. I don't think I did anything major to get them to stop working other than heavy use. As far as battery life, it seems fine to me. It's still on it's original battery and if I charge it for four or five hours I can still get several hours of play from it. And of course you can use it with any of the music services unlike some of the other big name products where you have to go exclusive to their service. |
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 "Review after 2 days --- good so far" | 2007-03-26 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1J8I5L2G93SUU |
Hi,
This thing works fine with Windows Media Player 11. (most of the reviews below call out Windows Media Player 10 ).
I moved some ripped files over and album art moved over automatically. When the song plays the album cover appear. Very nice.
Manual is unreadable. Litteraly. The install disk detected Windows Media Player 11 instead of 10 and aborted. I needed to get into the install disk directory to find a WORD 9 player then naviagte to the manual before I could read how the controls worked. Good thing no drivers needed -- media player recognized the device, downloaded something, then played just fine.
I still haven't found out how to move photos over for the screenshow. Looks like a nive feature though. The screen is very nice. BIG for tired eyes.
Sound quality is excellent through high end headphones. I haven't tried the ear buds yet. |
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 "failed to work out of the box" | 2006-12-16 |
| - Reviewed By osimonov |
| Did my research and read many good reviews. Had good experience with Samsung products before and decided to buy this one. It is probably a good MP3 player in principle, but I never had a chance to enjoy it - its touchpad controls were so miscallibrated that I couldn't even play a song or enter any of the menus. Called up Samsung support and found out that there's no way to re-calibrate the controls, and the player had to be replaced. Decided to return it, as I no longer had any confidence in the product. But it looks cool. Will get a SANDISK Sansa now. |
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 "Disappointed" | 2006-12-01 |
| - Reviewed By andreabramenko |
Update as of April 14, 2007. I recently bought Zune and Zune just like IPod does act as a hardrive (You have to use through proprietary software). Since Samsung does, I would change the two stars to three stars. The screen in Zune is nice but there are no movies in the Zune Marketplace which seem like a waste. Overall, if this little player could do video and had better navigation buttons I would give it five stars.
Original review:
This is my second Samsung (I had two ipods before Samsung). I loved the the first Samsung. Why did they have to change good things about it such as the software or navigation controls? The nice screen is a waste since you can't use it for video. The controls for scrolling up and down are frustrating since you have to press them very lightly. The only reason why I am not giving it one star is that the external design is beatiful.
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 "Excellent choice for digital audio" | 2006-11-03 |
| - Reviewed By hatchjaw2 |
| I had a Creative Zen Micro 5GB which ceased to function at the end of the warranty period (almost to the day.) In my search for an affordable replacement with good consumer reviews and at least a few gigs worth of storage, I found the YP-Z5QB. The Samsung is more reliable in its operations and a better unit overall. The option to store images (especially CD-related pics like sleeve artwork) is a nice bonus. The fact that one USB cable (provided) covers your upload and battery charging needs is wonderful. Works through Windows Media Player, and if you have WMP 10, no re-install from the provided disc is necessary. Very pleased with this purchase. |
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| "Disappointing service, battery life" | 2006-10-04 |
| - Reviewed By popec18 |
| I originally bought this because of the styling and the price difference between this model and other companies' MP3 players. It has been nothing but a waste of time and money. The battery life was fine during the first cycle and after four subsequent recharges ended up lasting no more than a few minutes. I sent it in for service. They charged it and sent it back to me. The same problem started happening again. The company refused to send me a new model or give me a refund. Instead, I had to ship it back to Samsung for yet another go at fixing it. Like the first time, they charged the battery and sent it back to me (after six weeks!). I received it yesterday, and only half of the battery is left after turning it on for the first time. The company also erased ALL of my music and picture files. I just called customer service, and the office is closed. What company does not offer 24 hour customer assistance? Overall, I do not recommend the YP-Z5 model, and I don't think I will buy Samsung products again. |
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| "Even more than it claims to be" | 2006-08-19 |
| - Reviewed By iclarke4 |
I recently bought one of these for my wife. I am no audiophile, but I find the sound excellent. It looks pretty sharp and appears durable too. I chose it because Amazon and others advertise it as an ogg vorbis compatible player. If you are looking for an ogg player too, you should know that Samsung does not support ogg files and says so on its website. But that's OK. Whether the company officially supports ogg or not, the engineers do, and the YP-Z5 plays them perfectly. And ogg compatability has been improved with successive firmware releases. You can get ogg files onto the player through Windows Media Player as described in the manual if you download a third party ogg plug-in for WMP first. But better yet, you can drag-n-drop them as long as you don't try putting them in the "Music" directory (put them in "Other" and the player will still play them). But wait, it gets even better! Get the latest firmware from the Samsung website and you can turn off the WMP-based interface entirely and your PC will treat the player the same as any flash drive (no file restrictions for the "Music" folder). Organize your music with Windows Explorer just as you would any set of files. I at least find that a lot simpler. The best result of this is that it becomes cross-platform compatible. I can manage the music on my Linux machine by mounting the player as a USB flash drive. It should work on a Mac too. I can also create playlists in XMMS (a Linux media player) and tweak them to be saved and used on the YP-Z5. This should work with Winamp as well. Wow.
All in all, much more than I expected. I wish I had one of my own, since once I have loaded it with her music, I will need to give it back to my wife. I am giving it 4 stars instead of 5 because I wish all this stuff should be described in the manual and officially supported. If you're like me, this is how you think a music player should work. |
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| "Sleek design, sound quality is good - couldn't ask for more!" | 2006-08-08 |
| - Reviewed By dragnilar |
The Samsung YP-Z5 is a well balanced MP3 player, despite having a relatively small HD space. For the price, the user gains a relatively easy to install interface for their PC (The player uses windows media player exclusively, which most users will already have loaded on their computer), decent quality headphones and a well sized player that does not seem to have any glaring flaws.
The player itself is small and comfortable to hold for the most part. While it is composed of a metal that could easily smudge and show finger prints, the usability of it could not be better. It features a touch pad that is similar to the Ipods, although it uses a more rectangular touch pad than the Ipod's circular version. The volume control is on the side, and thankfully it is not a roller wheel (which in the case of the Rio Carbon is a peripheral that could easily break off.) The player also has a hold button, which will be useful when the user does not want the player to cut on while getting bumped around in their pocket. The screen itself is rather sturdy and will take a decent amount of punishment, so scratching is not that big of a worry for most users.
As far as performance goes, the player has a lengthy battery life that for the most part lives up to it's claim of 35 hours. The only advice is that the user should diffidently charge it fully and let the player sit before they actually start using it. The sound quality itself is very good and has plenty of bass. There is a slight annoyance however when it comes to the equalizer on the player. The user cannot do any custom EQ settings, but it does come pre-loaded with several configurations that should work well with most users' music preferences. The device also allows the user to load photos and customizable background wall papers onto the device, so it can double as a photo sharing utility. Sadly it does not provide video playback, but with only 2 gigabytes of storage space, that is understandable. While on the subject of the storage space, 2 gigs might be a little small for a player that costs anywhere from $150-200, but you are paying for a quality player after all. The player also has a color screen, and the quality of the color is none too shabby, so it is a step over the b&w/gray screens of yesterday.
As far as charging the device goes, one will need to plug it into a PC. I have not tested it yet with a USB power outlet, and it might not even work with such a device, so it is not recommended to go with that route (judging from the accessories available for the device, one might have to purchase a charger that plugs into the audio port). The device seems to P&P rather quickly with any windows media player friendly computer however, so charging it should not be too big of a problem when you are away from home.
Overall the YP-Z5QB is highly recommended for a music listener who wants quality and can stand to have a HD player that does not have extremely high HD space. 2 gigs should offer enough amount of space to put probably 10 CDs worth of songs (depending on the MP3 quality) on the player. The player itself is easy to use and can take a decent amount of punishment, and it thankfully is very well sized.
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| "Wow...Just wow." | 2006-07-08 |
| - Reviewed By User: A8S7VKJYBGBHW |
I have to admit I bought this not expecting as much as I got. First of all the player looks sweet. 2nd o fall, the ear plugs that come with it sound better than ear plugs you'd buy individually. Probably the best sounding ear buds I've ever heard.
Also, putting songs onto it is easy as hell. Just click and drag.
HIGHLY recommended. I love this thing. |
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| "Good player... yet, I can't avoid including some buts..........." | 2006-06-12 |
| - Reviewed By dango579 |
I was planning to give this player 3 starts, but since I had to pay for it, I think I am still trying to be optimistic about it.
I got this player as a warranty replacement from Best Buy. Originally, I'd bought a Rio Carbon, but after 6 months of not so much use, the poor thing started to freeze on me, it'd take for ever just to load or delete songs, and it was automatically syncing songs I already had in it, so it was doubling my memory usage.
Since Best Buy didn't carry that player anymore, I was told to get another player of similar price and pay for the difference. First, I tried a SanDisk - Sansa 2 GB, but I didn't like the fact I had to manage my music Through Rhapsody. Also, I didn't like the fact that the spinning wheel feels kind of loose, and the screen display turns off almost immediately after the last time you touch any button. Then, I decided to go with the Samsung YP, and it's been a fair experience so far.
Here's what I happen to find frustrating about this player: It's a pain trying to create a playlist. I can transfer music easily, but creating just a playlist, such as my favorite music when running, or a different playlist for when I lift weights, it's something I haven't been able to do, so I have to set my music on shuffle, and pray for it to play my favorite tunes so I don't have to skip to the next song, specially if a new song starts as I'm in the middle of lifting weights.
About not including an AC charger, I don't care about it. Usually, I just work out an average of 1 hour per day, so it's not an inconvenient for me to plug it into my laptop once or twice per week as I do my homework, or surf the net. If you are too much into sound quality, you'll find disappointing that you won't be able to customize an equalizer. Instead, they have different sound options loaded, but you can't make any changes. Also, the earphones included aren't the best. They are comfortable, but they don't provide a great sound quality. I think I get better sound quality from my Verizon Wireless music phone. Also, I find it 100 times easier to create playlists on my phone, instead of on my own MP3 player.
Overall, it's a nice product, but I think Samsung has some things to work on with this player.
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Expedited Available
