Up in the sky, an Ipod, a Zen? No, the P2!
Pros:
Great touchscreen interface, great crystal clear sound, attractive looking design
Cons:
The screen protector isn't much, it falls of with little jostle.
The Bottom Line:
Go get it.
If you like music or video, this is the thing for ya.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
This is, to put it simply, the best thing for portable media since the Ipod classic. It has Bluetooth capabilities, a touchscreen attractive interface, dozens of features, and a design that near imitates the Ipod's sleek, white classic image. But this isn't an Ipod.
I got this for my birthday, for about 30 bucks lower than the normal price, but it doesn't really matter, I'd have paid the 200 anyways for it.
I got mine in white, one of the many colors out there, rivaling the Ipod's many colors, and there are some in red, black, you name it. It's actually a shame that the black one only comes in 8 gigabyte, since that looks to be the most attractive color on the market.
Now,onto the stuff you care about!
One of the most important things about this player, is that it had upgradeable firmware! so it's like the Playstation 3 and the Playstation Portable, you can update it to make it better.
This is one of those touchscreen media players, and it works pretty well. It takes some getting used to(but not much), since I just came from an MPIO MP100. (Yeah, I know, old) and the controls are very responsive. Almost all the functions are touchscreen related, only the very necessary ones have their own buttons; the power/pause play buttons, the hold button and the volume buttons. The first menu you get is a modern one, with ziggy zaggy patterns of icons, but you can change that like I did, to make it more easy to navigate and easier to look at. Mine looks like an Iphone now.
Since most of the functions are touchscreen related, this should come with a screen protector, right? Well, yeah, but not like the one they supplied with the player. The "protector" leaves plenty of noticeable air bubbles, falls off when it's touched, and gathers dust in the places where you don't wanna see it, on the screen. I recommend that you just get a separate one, one that actually has quality.
The Functions
Aside from being an mp3 player, a WMA player, and a video player, the Samsung P2 has many other functions, some that you wouldn't expect to find on a player, but would be definitely delighted to see them. There's a sleep option which turns your player off after a selected period of time, and an alarm option, for those that like to sleep to music.
There is a World Clock, but it has a fairly limited amount of countries, maybe we'll get more in the next firmware upgrade. There are also games included, games where you shoot fish and targets, put together car puzzles and do this confusing circle game. It's all included in the firmware update that was released on Feb. 15.
The battery life lasts around 15 hours from a full charge.
Pretty long time, but make sure to charge it at least once a month to prevent battery failures,
The Sound of Music
The tunes sound awesome. for such a small device, it has such a big sound, even with as little volume as 3 out of 30.
It may be the headphones with the gold plated jack that came with it, but who cares, it sound great. It also has this new feature which is supposed to revolutionize the portable listening experience, the DNSe, kind of like EQ's on older players, but with bigger bang and more selection.
All the different EQ (9of them) settings are distinct, crisp, and loud.
There are also other options to enhance your listening experience, all of them, like the EQ's, distinct and very loud.
The Video
The video is nothing short of spectacular. I've also had a Creative Zen Vision M, and even the video of that wasn't as crisp and clear as this ones. The video looks great and on a 3 inch screen, it looks pretty understandable, with no blurs or anything.
The videois also easier to put on your device than my previous mp3 players, you just have to run it by the included converter and it'll do the rest of the job for you.
The video it plays sport a few important formats, like WMV and mp4. I took a Burnout Paradise video from my Playstation 3, mp4 format, and just got it in the player, and it looks and sounds great.
Bluetooth
Ah, Bluetooth. It looks pretty ambitious, although I haven't tried it yet (my headset won't work on it, Ugh.) and I'm looking for cheaper bluetooth headphones. I'm trying to connect it to my phone, and it looks pretty good so far, with me being able to redial and such.
Accessories
The P2 doesn't come with much. It comes with a protective case that isn't very nice, a pair of headphones with gold plated jacks, and a little clip to get your player standing up when you play video.
Overall
The Samsung P2 is definitely worth your money, it may be a bit expensive, but it's totally worth it.
It's like a replicate of an Ipod, hovering on the same amount of greatness. It's actually almost identical (feature-wise)to the Tpod Touch, but his one doesn't have wireless internet access. Maybe in the next firmware updates.
Thanks for reading, and go get it!