Samsung S3 4 GB Slim Portable Media Player (Green) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I have had 2 iPods in my life and this product by far surpasses it. It arrived fast. It is so easy to use and has great sound quality. It has some awesome features. I really like the radio so when I get bored of listening to my music I can listen to the traffic or news while I work out. It is a great purchase!

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Product Description:
MEDIA PLAYER - FLASH - 4 GB - STEREO - MP3;WMA - RADIO TUNER - FM - 25 HOUR(S)

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RCA S2501 Jet Stream Series 1GB Sport MP3 Player with Wireless Headphones Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Overall, I am happy with my purchase, even if there are a couple of issues.The sound is good, although when I use it at the gym, I need to have the volume all the way up in order to drown out the gym music.I think that's because the ear buds on the wireless headphones don't fit properly in my ears. They are a littl big.But outside of the gym, walking for example, I don't need the volume up nearly that high.

The largest fault I have with this product is the charger for the wireless headphones. They don't work all that well, in that the connection is touchy and it takes a few minutes for me to be sure they are charging and quite often the charge is not complete. I'm considering having the wireless charger replaced if possible...

The reception with the wireless headphones is good, although I've experienced some static when I have the unit in my pocket at the gym, and I am riding the recumbent bike. When I am lifting weights though, I experience no issues with reception with it in my pocket. And also when walking outside, there is perfect reception.

The battery life on the unit itself is fantastic.I can use it for three weeks without having to recharge it (using it only about an hour or two a day).

If you are a music fanatic, the storage is probably small for most people. For me it is perfect...I have about 200 songs on there plus two hour long podcasts.

My biggest frustration is the FF or RW function, which may be present on other MP3 players as well. If I am 30 minutes into a podcast for example and missed something, I need to be very careful how I rewind or it will go all the way back to the beginning and the only way I know to get it back to where I was is to just hold the Forward button down, which takes quite a while to FF back to the place where I was.

I don't have any experience with any other MP3 players, as this is my first one. But I wanted it for the wireless functionality and I am overall very happy with it's performance. Even with the issues I stated above, had I been able to try this before purchasing, I still would have purchased this unit.

Click Here to see more reviews about: RCA S2501 Jet Stream Series 1GB Sport MP3 Player with Wireless Headphones

Product Description:
1 GB MP3 Sport Payer with Wireless Earphone Compatibility

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Philips GoGear 4 GB MP3 player Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I've had the 4gb silver version for a couple of months now. Primarily used at the gym and during some outdoor sports (e.g. biking, snowboarding). Overall I have to say this is good small MP3 player, it has few shortcomings but it still does its job pretty well.

PROS:
1) Size and portability: If your used to the old shuffle, this one compares in size. The clip comes in very handy in the gym, especially when your gym clothes don't have pockets.
2) Construction: This Philips GoGear is solid! The outer shell is a brushed metal and hasn't shown any finger prints or scratches yet. The inner plastic components (under the metal) are plastic but seem pretty durable. I have no fears about dropping this little MP3 player. One more thing, while the MP3 player is solidly built it is very light, the few times it has fallen off my clothes it just hangs off the headphone cord.
3) This is a good looking little MP3 player with the brushed metal finish and curved design. Definitely gives the new shuffle a run for its money.
4) Compatibility: Is recognized right away by windows media player and syncs flawlessly.
5) Price: For less than a new 2gb shuffle you get double the memory. A very good deal.
6) Radio: Having radio functionality on a workout MP3 player is a must if you're into biking and running and want to catch up local news or listen to local radio.

CONS:
1) Sound quality: First I have to say that this MP3 player does sound good, but there are some aspects of the sound that drag it down. While the philips does sound good, it is not the best. I have another 2gb sony that I use for gym at times and there is definitely a drop in sound quality compared to the sony. For me it predominantly has to do with the bass and richness of the music, it seems like the philips is trying to produce too much of it. So what I get alot of times is the sound of static and too much bass for that can't be handled by the headphones, I've tried this with various types of headphones from philips to bose headphones and I get the same thing. Now I'm not sure if this has to do with the file format I have my music in, I have all my music as WAV files for better quality.
2) Music playback: At times the music just cuts out for about half a second and then plays again. This doesn't happen with every song, but it does happen most of the time when I'm at the gym.
3) Software compatibility: There is a manager software that is meant for updating the firmware on the player. Tried using a couple of times to see if it would take care of the sound quality and music playback issues. The software does not seem to be compatible with windows 7. Got it to work on a computer running windows XP.
4) Button sizes: With the exception of the power button. The other buttons are pretty small. For individuals with big hands I can see how this may be an issue.

To be fair to this product I would give a 3 1/2 out of 5 (could only chose 3 stars on menu). If Philips fixes the sound quality and playback issue on this player, that would bring it to a five out of five.

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Product Description:
Philips GoGear 4 GB MP3 player

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Sony 8 GB Walkman Video MP3 Player (Black) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I won't even compare it with any other mp3 player as this is a class on its own.
I just got it 4 hrs ago from sonystyle shop and am playing with this for a couple of hrs now.
I've had tons of mp3 players in past. Actually i have 3 ipods at this time (shuffle(1GB), nano(8GB) and ipod (20GB) and except shuffle other 2 are going to go to for sale today. Personally i can say with 100% confidence that ipods sound quality is at the rock bottom. Shuffle 1st gen is good though.
Ok now about this player, sound quality is beyond comparison (you need to hear it to believe). player itself is smaller in size than 2 gen ipod nano and is all brushed metal body so no chance of scratching. screen is absolutely gorgeous and vibrant with more than 260k colors.
player is extemely responsive and there is no lag in anything.
Drag and drop is the best you can ask for. it plays mp3 and wma files with no issues.
Connection port is also covered with inbuilt cover that automatically engages once usb cable is disconnected.
supplied earphones is of extremely high quality (though not as good as my shure e2c).
Overall i am absolutely convinced that Sony is the only company that knows how to reproduce excellent sound quality.
Also this player doesn't seems to need any kind of enclosure as it is really durable.
I'll update once is use this over the weekend.
Okey here is the update!!!
I've been using this player for a week now and i'm extemely satisfied with the performance, sound is the best i've ever heard from a mp3 player and there are lots of useful sound settings...
i've transfered a lot of video songs to the player by converting them to AVC format using nero 7 and it playes with absolutely stunning details and as i said earlier "no lag" the player is very responsive (i think sony used some very fast processor in there).
earphones that sony bundled with player is extemely good and very very comfortable.
I converted some movies to play on this player using nero 7 into AVC format and a single 2 hr movie is about 500 mb (at highest settings) which is great as i can have about 4 movies in addition to about 6 gigs of music on the player.
I have uploaded some pictures that i took comparing this player with various ipod models which might be useful for potential buyers.

Important Update:

Based on several other reviewers comments and a couple of emails i have received it seems that several users are having trouble playing and/or transferring videos onto the player. So for the benefit of everyone i'd try to explain the process.
For playing videos there are 3 important aspects
1. This player can only play videos in MP4 format (sony's "memory stick" video format) which has 2 varieties MPEG4 and AVC. Max bitrate for MPEG4 supported is 2.5 MBPS and for AVC 750 KBPS.
2. The player can only play video with maximum video size of 320x240, anything larger than this size will not be played.
3. Videos needs to be copied in video folder on player.
I find Nero Recode 2 (included with NERO 7 Ultra) to be an ideal SW for converting videos into MP4 format as it gives options for manipulating video size and audio range and also extracting parts of videos.
I use the following settings for video conversion
AVC format (portable) with 320x240 video size and 500 KBPS bitrate and i use very high audio settings (to keep audio low on player).
I hope this information helps users. Feel free to seek more help.

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Product Description:
Rock with your favorite music, watch crystal clear full-motion video and enjoy your photos on a beautiful color-rich screen with the NWZ-A818BLK Walkman Video MP3 player. The slim-line player lets you see it all on its high-resolution 2" QVGA LCD screen. Small enough to slip into a bag or pocket, the 8GB NWZ-S818BLK Walkman Video MP3 player can store up to 5,050 songs, 30 hours of video or hundreds of photographs, giving you the delight of multimedia entertainment anytime, anyplace. Also available in silver.8GB Built-in Memory
Store up to 5,050 Songs or up to 30H 40M of video on your Walkman video MP3 Player and never be without your entertainment again.
High Quality Video Playback
Playback your favorite videos right on the player using MPEG 4 and M4V profile at 30 frames per second.
Battery Life
With up to 33 hours of audio playback and up to 8 hours of video playback you don't have to worry about charging your player.
2.0" QVGA LCD Screen
Easily view your movies, photos and music information on the high quality, 320x240 display.
Compatible with Secure Windows Media Audio
Giving you more options than ever for downloading and listening to music.
MP3/WMA/AAC Audio Codec Support
Supports playback of MP3 and WMA DRM and non-DRM audio files downloaded from multiple sources. Also supports non-DRM AAC content, giving you multiple options for downloading music the way you want.
4 Clear Audio Technologies
Digital Sound Enhancement Engine(DSEE), Clear Bass, Clear Stereo and EX Series Headphones give an enhanced listening experience. Clear Bass enahnces the bass sound, minimizing distortion while Clear Stereo reduces the leaking from one channel to another. DSEE restores the higher sound frequency lost when creating compressed music files, thus reproducing a sound quality closer to the original CD quality.
Time Machine Shuffle
Shuffle play among songs from a randomly selected year. (Information will come from CD information that is downloaded from the Gracenote CDDB)
Music Search
Search for music on your Walkman video player by All Songs, Album, Artist, Genre, Release Year, Folder and Playlists.
Initial Search
Use the first letter of the song, album or artist to easily find the music you are looking for.
Bi-Directional LCD Display
Watch your videos and view your photographs either vertically or horizontally by adjusting the screen to the orientation you prefer.
What's in the Box
NWZ-A818BLK Walkman Video MP3 player, USB Cable (22 pin to USB), MDR-EX082 Headphones and extension cord, CD-ROM with Windows Media Player 11 and MP3 Conversion Tools, Quick Start Guide, Adaptor Plate (for optional 22 pin cradle).

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Samsung T10 4 GB Slim Portable Media Player with Bluetooth (Black) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I have had this player for about 1 month now.Have only used it for music so far.Had issue getting one computer to recognize the player while a different computer had no issues.Level I tech support was not very helpful (wanted the player sent back for repair even though it was a Windows problem), and level II support quite knowledgeable (make sure you have the .net updates installed - they ask you to install all optional Windows updates).It was nice to actually have a real person answer the tech support phone # with very short wait.

I had wanted to get a Sansa, but could not understand why players purchased in the USA have no Asian language support, but if you buy a Sansa in say Hong Kong then you can buy it with Asian language support.They also refuse to provide that option through firmware upgrade.The T10 automatically displayed correctly the song names in my music library that were in Chinese.

Pros:

Great music quality great, and even better battery life (3 day car trip without recharging).The player is stylish, small, and very lightweight.

Many ways to sync - using included software, Windows Media Player, or drag and drop from Explorer.

Cons:

No easy way to manage playlists.If you create playlists in the included software, all songs in the playlist are transferred to the same folder.Say you created 3 folders in the T10 to manage music, and a song happens to be in 2 playlists -> this song would be copied twice to the 2 folders.Of course, this eats up memory fast.Why use folders?Because I like to organize my music, and also to avoid filename conflicts from older CD's which have ripped songs with filenames like 'track 1', etc.

Another feature that would be nice is to be able to play all songs in a genre or master folder, instead of having to drill down to the album and only playing that album.For a long car trip, I would prefer that the T10 plays multiple albums without need of user intervention.

Miss the feature in iTunes where I could set up sync profiles to sync different set of songs to the iPOD depending on what portion of my library I wanted to take.

Recommendation:

Definitely a good player worth buying.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Samsung T10 4 GB Slim Portable Media Player with Bluetooth (Black)

Product Description:
The Samsung T10 is Samsung's thinnest and most lightweight portable media player with built-in Bluetooth technology. With the T10, you can take your music, videos, photos, and FM radio wherever you go. With Bluetooth 2.0 built into the T10, you can enjoy all that great media content with wireless Bluetooth headphones and speakers in full-stereo, high-quality sound.

Samsung's thinnest and most lightweight portable media player. View larger.View menu overview.

If that isn't enough, you also can make live recordings with its built-in microphone or make recordings of your favorite FM radio stations. Users can even set up datacasts (podcasts) by using the SMS software that comes on the installation disk.
When you're not listening to robust audio playback on the T10, kick back and enjoy an MPEG4 or WMV9 video file on its bright and brilliant two-inch QVGA full-color display. The same screen can display album art and stylish screen savers. Samsung multimedia software is included with the T10 to transcode video on your PC before transferring to the T10, so videos on the T10 play at the optimal frame size and rate with minimal effort from the user. T10 will play back video at up to 30 frames per second for seamless video clarity.
Lightweight and portable, the T10 comes with 4 GB of built-in Flash memory and supports WMV, SVI, JPEG, MP3, WMA, OGG, and TXT files. Its Li-Poly battery supports up to 30 hours of audio playback and four hours of video playback. The battery can be charged while synced to a PC with the provided USB cable. (The device supports USB 2.0 connectivity for speedy file transfers.) Measuring 3.78 x 1.63 x 0.31 inches, the T10 weighs just 1.6 ounces and is compatible with Windows XP and Windows Vista operating systems.


The T10 features picture slideshows and wallpaper, an FM tuner and recorder, a text viewer, and a file browser.

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Insignia Pilot with Bluetooth NS-4V24 - Digital player / radio - flash 4 GB - WMA, Ogg, MP3, WMAPro, protected WMA (DRM 10) - video playback - display: 2.4" Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I bought the 8gb version about a year ago based on features only. I was a little skeptical about straying from more established players from Cowon, Apple, iRiver, Creative and others but took the plunge. I've owned two iPods, a Rio Karma, Rio Carbon(s), an iRiver something, Audible Otis, Rio 500 and several others.

The Pilot has them all beat on features and most on performance. You won't find a player that 'does it all' like the Pilot. As a long time Audible subscriber, the Pilot is perfect. Hard and soft bookmarking, timer and plenty of storage. With an sdhc slot, storage can be increased by at least 2X. Better yet, the Pilot integrates the card completely so you don't have to mess around with annoying navigation from one drive to the next.

Sound quality is a solid B to B+. CNET just chose it as one of their top five audiophile mp3 players. They tested the players with an audio analyzer to eliminate personal bias. Music sounds every bit as dynamic as my iPods (a 2nd and 4th gen).

Battery life is a pretty standard ~20 hours. The FM tuner is surprisingly sensitive. I'm actually able to walk around outside without an unreasonable amount of static or drop out. It's an RDS tuner. You can see song and artist info on the screen from compatible radio stations. You can record FM or from an external, line-out source. There's a video output(or secondary headphone jack depending on how you set it up). I haven't tried it but apparently you can load a video in the Pilot and then connect it to a television.

The Pilot is a ums device so you can plug it in, drag and drop, no drivers required. I bounce back and forth between a mac and pc so having a player that is seen by both as a mass storage device is very convenient. Standard mini usb plug too. No proprietary cables. Video playback isn't a priority for me but I tried a couple videos and in spite of a small screen, was pleasantly surprised by the quality. Very smooth and about 30 fps.

It has stereo bluetooth which I don't use but it would be handy if your car stereo has bluetooth connectivity. Mine doesn't unfortunately. Fast forwarding is audible which makes it much easier to find what you're looking for. The Pilot has proven to be virtually scratch proof. I never use a case and always carry it in a pocket. I've had it in a pocket with keys, change and grit. No scratches. Pretty impressive. It supports several different formats but I use mp3, wmv and aa exclusively. It can display jpg's and txt files as well.

It comes with a pretty good video conversion program but I use Handbrake, a free, open source program that is a lot more capable. The only downside to this player is a somewhat less polished feel than class leaders from Cowon, Creative and Apple. Not to overstate it but the controls could be smoother. The jog wheel is a little cheap feeling and the bookmarking button is a three way design that can prevent a smooth bookmark sometimes. I wish they would have used a single button.

Another nice feature with bookmarking is that when you delete a file with bookmarks, the bookmarks are deleted too. Seems like a no-brainer but my Rio would retain the bookmarks even when the file was deleted. On the other hand, the Rio would let me overwrite bookmarks automatically so old bookmarks weren't much of an annoyance. The Pilot doesn't do this so if you run out of bookmarks, you have to manually remove them or the file to make room for more. Fortunately, you can do all this with the Pilot without having to connect it to your computer. The Pilot has proven to be completely reliable with almost daily use. The only glitch is occasionally (twice I think) having to reset it. Both times it locked with Audible files. I'm willing to give the Pilot the benefit of the doubt as I've had issues with Audible files before with other players. Fortunately, resetting this is a snap. Simply pull back the power switch for about ten seconds and you're done. My Rio Carbon needed a small paperclip inserted into a tiny hole. Not convenient if you're outside without a small paperclip handy.

Bottom line, if you want all the bases covered, this is an excellent choice. Probably the best choice in my opinion. This player has to be the most feature rich dap out there. If you only want to listen to music, this may not be for you. If features, Audible, podcasts, audiobooks, video, file management, expandibility, sound quality, intuitive controls and reliability are priorities, the Pilot is a great buy. The 8gb Pilot frequently goes on sale for $99.00 at the Best Buy website so keep an eye out. Great value, outstanding performance.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Insignia Pilot with Bluetooth NS-4V24 - Digital player / radio - flash 4 GB - WMA, Ogg, MP3, WMAPro, protected WMA (DRM 10) - video playback - display: 2.4

Product Description:
This Bluetooth-enabled 4GB MP3 video player delivers powerful sound without the wires. Compatible Bluetooth headphones (not included) let you listen to music anywhere you go. It supports MP3, WMA, WMA Lossless, WMA DRM, WMA Pro, OGG, WAV, Audible, MPEG4 (30 fps), WMV (30 fps) and JPEG formats.

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Samsung S3 4 GB Slim Portable Media Player (Black) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Samsung's YP-S3 player is a great little MP3 player with high quality sound.When you purchase any stereo player of any type, there are at least 2 attributes you are concerned with: S/N or signal to noise ratio and frequency response.Samsung's S3 excels in both areas.

Samsung's S3 has a PDF manual available for download on their site and also on the included 8cm mini-CD.The manual claims a S/N ratio of 90 dB and a freq. response of 40Hz-20KHz which are excellent.With S/N, the higher the better and 90 dB is very good.Most stereo equipment never exceed 92 dB.A full freq. response would be 20Hz-20KHz which is the full range of the human ear.While many CD, DVD, and digital players are capable of playing all the way down to 20Hz, almost no home speakers are capable of outputting such a low response.

After listening to the S3 for several days, I can say Samsung delivers on their high specs.There is absolutely no machine noise or humming during music quiet spots.Also, I can hear the full range of the music, excellent.I use the "DNSe" settings which are quite good.DNSe allows you to set 3D and extra Bass effects.There is also a range of equalizer settings you may use.I use the 9 band user equalizer which is great.The specs say 7 band but it's really 9 which is better.

While the S3 delivers excellent performance, I cannot say the same for the included software: their Samsung Media Studio (SMS).SMS offers the bare minimum in features.For some reason, every time I start my Windows XP Pro SP2, SMS puts its icon on my TaskBar.I am NOT going to use SMS every single day (or even every week) so why does it load an icon on my TaskBar?!There is no option in SMS to prevent it from doing this.I am going to have to edit the Registry to remove the SMS startup entry!Also, every time I start SMS, it always attempts to connect to the Internet and there is again no option to prevent this.

Before I purchased the S3, I carefully named each of my own MP3 files I wanted to load starting from "001 Artist - Title" and on.I then discovered SMS has NO column for sorting filenames.SMS was totally worthless for loading my MP3's!Because Windows Explorer doesn't work for creating numbered folders on the S3, that's the only thing I used SMS for.I used Explorer for the actual loading process.

BTW, I called Samsung tech support and they told me the S3 would not list MP3's by filename.This is incorrect.They also said the S3 would show MP3's with no ID3 information as "Unknown."This is also incorrect.Just use "File Browser" or "Music Browser."

Samsung claims 4GB's is "enough space for 50 hours of music using 128 KBit MP3's."No one uses 128 anymore.If you do with the S3, you're going to be unhappy because the quality will be poor.Amazon sells their MP3's at 256 (they should really go to 320).Companies should really stop using the 128 KBit spec.Regardless, 4 GB's is plenty of space for even 256 KBit MP3's.As an MP3 player, the 4 GB S3 will store all your favorite songs and still have space leftover for any extra files you wish to transport to another PC.

As a video player, 4 GB is not enough space.If you wish to play video content, you should purchase the 8 GB S3:Samsung S3 8gb Mp3 Player - Black.For some reason, Amazon doesn't offer the 8 GB model.Even with 8 GB, you may not be content playing video on a small 1.8" screen.For video, you might want to opt for a different model, perhaps one of the OEM makers which offer 3" screens.

Samsung claims 25 hours battery playing time, again probably for 128 KBit MP3's.After you have gone through several recharging cycles, expect about 12 hours playing time for your 256 KBit MP3's.I haven't done this yet.

Finally, because the S3 uses Microsoft's proprietary USB MTP standard, it has some rather high PC requirements: minimum XP SP2 and WMP10.I upgraded my system to XP Pro SP2 (dual-boot system).Even after the upgrade, I was STILL unable to access the S3.I had not realized my SP2 disk only has WMP9.After wasting half an hour trying to find the problem, I realized I needed WMP11 and upgraded.Why the brand name MP3 player manufacturers don't use the universal USB UMS standard I don't know.If you use Linux, Ubuntu or other non-Window$ O/S, you will need to convert your S3 to UMS (probably voiding your warranty in the process).Visit AnythingButIpod and you'll find the Samsung BIOS and instructions.

Overall, after loading my S3, I can say this is a great little player.It costs LESS THAN HALF of iPod's.The S3 has very high sound quality and plenty of space.I have not been forced to recharge yet.Hopefully Samsung will improve their SMS software and then the package will be perfect.If you want to buy a better set of earbuds, try the JVC HA-FX66:JVC HAFX66B Air Cushion Headphones (Black).

Click Here to see more reviews about: Samsung S3 4 GB Slim Portable Media Player (Black)

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