Samsung YP-55V 256 MB Digital Audio Player with FM Tuner

[Archived in $100 - $200, Audio, Over 65 MB MP3 Players, Portable Audio und Video, Products, SAMSUNG]

Manufacturer: SAMSUNG
Price at amazon.com: New from $159.00

List price $249.99



Product Features:

• 256 MB built-in flash memory
• Supports playback of MP3 and WMA files
• Features upgradeable firmware to support future file formats
• Includes FM tuner and voice recording
• Backlit LCD display

Product Description:

This Samsung 256MB Digital Audio Player with FM Tuner is the first MP3 player to include WOW surround sound simulation technology. The YP-55V also comes with 256MB of flash memory, an FM radio, a real-time encoding function and multi-format support. Other features: Backlit LCD display - ID3 Tag display (Title, File Name); multi-language support; voice recording; USB support (direct plug to PC); MP3 or WMA playback; advanced 2xMP3 feature - Scalable MP3 - which allows double file Storage at128KB per second compression; USB 1.1 support for fast, accurate 2-way transfer of MP3 and Windows-Media files with your PC; low power consumption for long play time; up to 15 hours playback on 1 AAA battery; compact, lightweight design.

Average Customer Rating:

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Comment: Amazing sound, I love it, but get the new firmware! Rating:
Before reading my review, if you already got one of this, get the new 5.7 firmware for folder navigation, playlists and lyrics support. Just go to google.com and search for "YP-55 firmware"

This is the third MP3 player I own and I must say I love it. I researched a lot of MP3 players before buying it and I'm confident it must be one of the best flash based players on the market.

Sound is amazing and loud, and the YP-55 feels like a quality executive item, it is not a flimsy toy like mi previous iRiver. The WOW function is incredible, it nicely spatializes the sound in your head making it sound pretty amazing. You must hear it to believe it.

You can configure everything from the menus. USB transfers are quite speedy, a lot faster than my previous players and my digital camera. Battery life is quite good, too. May be because it doesn't consume power from the battery when downloading songs, it is powered by the USB port when doing this.

Package includes a nice and small USB adapter for direct connect for those times you don't want to carry around the USB cable.

Out of the box it does not support playlists or folder navigation, but it does with the new firmware 5.7.

Overall I am pretty happy with the YP-55 and the only con I can find is the included headphones. Like every other MP3 player, it comes with low-cost earbuds. Sound is adequate but not great. Once you get better earphones, there is a HUGE difference in sound.

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Comment: not as good as I expected Rating:
Some reviewers below give their credits to YP-55V just for its small compact size, mp3 and fm capability, which is not specific at all and could apply to most of the flash-drive mp3 players in market nowadays.

I was in market for a mp3/fm player for my jogging. I bought it at Bestbuy for $139 plus tax basically for it¡¯s cheaper that iRiver iFP-390T which is selling for $169AR plus tax in the same store.

Pro:
1 Cheaper than iRiver iFP-390T.
2 YP-55V uses 1 AAA battery which makes it smaller, while iRiver 390T uses 1 AA battery.
3 YP-55V has an aluminum case, comparing to the plastic one of iRiver 390T. But I don¡¯t know if this makes YP-55V stronger. Those manufacturers should conduct some devastating experiments to find out this.

Con:
1 The quality and build of the earphone is so-so, worse than the one comes with iRiver 390T (a Sennheiser MX300).
2 YP-55V¡¯s playback time is shorter (up to 15 hrs) comparing to 390t (up to 24 hrs). It¡¯s a trade-off for the AAA size battery.
3 Multilanguage support is not as it is claimed. The truth is, Samsung don¡¯t have a universal firmware version yet to support all claimed languages, i.e., English, Korean, Japanese and Chinese. English is supported in each version of firmware. For other language, you have to have the right firmware. The one comes with my item (ver. 1.500)only support English and Korean, rather than Chinese. I have to flash the firmware to a version of 1.511 to gain Simplified Chinese support. In order to get Traditional Chinese support, you need a Hong Kong version firmware (ver. 1.52). The latest version (ver. 5.7) added some interesting functions such as subfolder viewing/playing, but the language support of this version is poor. It took me several hours to search the Internet to figure out what¡¯s going on, to get the right firmware, to learn how to flash/update the firmware. I¡¯d like to share my knowledge here: How to update firmware for YP-55V
1 Download the right firmware.
2 Install it by running setup.exe
3 (the most tricky part) hold down the play/stop button while you connect the player with the computer via USB, which will turn the player into a ¡°recovery mode¡± necessary to update.
4 run the ¡°YP-55 Update¡± from Start->Programs->Samsung YP 55.

Neither the manual nor Samsung¡¯s website are helpful at all for all of these. It¡¯s a huge waste of consumer¡¯s time due to the manufacturer¡¯s negligence.

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Comment: Great = Simple functionality Rating:
Myself, I like this player because of its simple design. The player doubles as a USB jump drive. First this means that you can store data other than MP3s on it for transport to other computers. Second, it means that you do not need to use the management software. This makes the player compatable with Windows as well as Mac and Linux (my own choice). You can also share with others without the need for them to have the manufacturer's software on their PC. The line in record and FM record are nice functions also. Of course the ear buds are not great, but then no player near this price will include nice headphones. The only truely bad feature of this player is the included case. It is terrible. Small complaint though!

Posted at November 11, 2003 07:59 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)