Samsung YP-K3JQB 2GB Ultra Slim MP3 Player - Black

• Stores up to 2GB.* Plays MP3, WMA,DRM-Janus and JPEG. * Flash Storage Device * 1.8 full color OLED * FM Tuner with autoscan and presets * Light emitting touch pad * Li-Poly rechargeable battery * Screensavers-analog clock * Sleep timer and auto-off * Supports USB 1.1, 2.0 * JPEG slide shows * 20hr bat life
• 1.8 full color LED display. The K3 has a full color OLED Display. With its 1.8-inch display you can view JPEG slideshows.
• With DNSe, Samsung’s proprietary Digital Natural Sound engine technology, the K5 offers virtual surround sound. This guarantees great volume, no distortion, and a more natural and accurate higher quality sound, even with just two small speakers.
• In addition, 5 modes of Preset EQ allow you to customize the sound experience to suit the style of music. These advanced music functions allow you to enjoy the same acoustic wow that you would hear from your home stereo.

You can stop looking because you have just found the best MP3 player on the market today. Yes, this is the fabled "ipod killer" that beats the ipod Nano in almost every conceivable category. It probably won't actually outsell the ipod, because lets face it: if features were what sold ipods, Apple would be out of business. But I digress.

Unlike other players on the market, the Samsung K3 focuses itself on being an audio player first, and ignores some of the more gimmicky features found on other players such as video support. Personally, I would rather drive nails into my eyes then watch a movie on a 1-inch screen, but maybe that's just me. The other notable feature missing on the K3 is album art support, although I have my fingers crossed that a future firmware upgrade will correct this. Samsung more than makes up for the missing features by offering what is (in my opinion) the best sounding player on the market. The sound quality and number of customizable sound options such EQ settings, 3D sound, bass boost, etc are outstanding, particularly in the latest firmware versions. Personally, I listen to my K3 in normal mode with high quality Sennheiser buds (CX300) and I have zero complaints about the sound quality. This is a music player, not a media player. Some other cool features of the K3 are a great sounding FM radio, photo viewing, and text / lyrics viewing.

The K3 also wins out in the looks department, being the slimmest, most stylish player you can buy. I have the red version of this player and I actually get complements on my MP3 player! Everyone who picks it up tells me how cool it looks. The K3 also has nice a solid feel to it in your hand it just FEELS like a quality product. This is an important consideration, because some other players on the market, such as the creative Zen-V, feel like a children's toy that just fell out of a box of Frosted Flakes (seriously, go hold one!). But where the K3 really shines is in the looks department. No other player on the market comes close in terms of style. Not only is the player razor thin, but it has a nice clean design. The great menu designs and graphics on the player all combine to offer up a sense of style that is rarely found in electronics. And then there are the ultra-cool touch buttons. They take a little bit of getting used to, but once you have them down, you will never want to go back. The touch buttons are a great rival to the ipod click wheel.

So the player itself is great, but where most MP3 players fall short is in the software / media management side of things. A short explanation of the two main types of MP3 players is necessary here: MTP vs UMS. MTP stands for 'media transfer protocol' and refers to the scenario where software running on your computer manages the transfer of media to your portable device. This is the ipod / itunes model, where only itunes can get music onto your ipod. The alternative is UMS, which stands for 'universal mass storage' meaning that the portable device acts like a mini hard drive and can be connected to any computer. There are pros and cons to each method, with the primary advantage of the MTP model being ease of use and transparency, while the UMS devices offer simplicity and portability at the expense of placing the responsibility (and control) for managing the player onto the user.

What makes the Samsung K3 so great is that they cater to BOTH of these markets by making the K3 firmware upgradeable and offering both an MTP steam of firmware AND a UMS stream of firmware. This does not seem to be a well advertised fact, and I will warn you that it is not exactly easy to do the upgrade, but the point is that it CAN be done. Any experienced computer user should be able to manage it.

Myself, I cannot stand MTP devices or itunes-like software, which is what makes the K3 so attractive to me. Unfortunately, the K3 comes out of the box as an MTP device, meaning that you have to install the bundled Samsung software at least once to get things running. The Samsung software is about as good as any MTP software (i.e. complete crap), but it does what it is supposed to. The nasty little surprise that Samsung bundles with their software I could live without though. Samsung has silently bundled some DRM software / spyware called "Markany" with their program. After installing the software, you will notice two new programs that will run at all times in the background on your computer. One is the Samsung software, the other is the Markany program. Some people won't care about things like this, but it drives me completely bonkers!

The good news is that by upgrading the firmware to UMS, you can successfully ditch both the Samsung software and Markany, and enjoy all the great features of the K3, without having to bother with any software at all. Just plug in the player and copy your music over like it was a flash drive. Simple, easy, clean. Once this minor headache is over, you are left with one of the most powerful, best sounding, and definitely most stylin' music players you can buy.

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Been looking around for a good mp3 player for about 6 months now, ever since I realized my iPod sucked (between the lack of real battery life and the complicated software intrface, I had had enough with Apple).

Believe me I looked into everything from Microsoft Zune to Creative Zen to the 30gb iPod, and a few lesser known players. THIS PRODUCT IS THE BEST ALL AROUND MEDIA PLAYER OUT THERE RIGHT NOW, and here's why:

1) Unprecedented battery life! It's been 4 days of on-and-off play for me since I first charged it out of the box, and I STILL HAVE 2 BARS LEFT.

2) Easy software interface: uploading songs and pics through the samsung program can get tedious if you want to make playlists, but other than that, I simply use the plug-n-play option (simply dragging media files into the removable disk folder).

3) Awesome sound quality! I was truly amazed with the cd-quality sound of the FM radio feature.

4) Plays WMA along with MP3: you will find that this NECESSARY feature is lacking in many of the other big wig players out there right now (ie Creative Zen)

5) Beautiful seamless controls (no "buttons")

6)YOU CANNOT BEAT THE PRICE!

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This device has lots of good points and only a few bad points and bugs.

First, the good.

1. The sound quality is fantastic, much better than my first generation iPod. I am using my own headphones, the provided ones have not been opened.

2. Transfering files is fast and simple, no software is needed although a CD is provided.

3. The response is super fast. This is also bad, see below.

4. There have no glitches, no freeze-ups, no occational skipping. That last one is important as my old iPod got jittery all too often.

5. Although it is not the cheapest, it is substantially less that the iPod Nano.

6. The screen is bright, colorful, and clear, at least indoors.

7. The battery charges quickly and lasts forever.

8. I don't use pictures much on these tiny devices but the images I tested by loading them through the Samsung software were excellent, considering the tiny screen.

9. It looks nice!

Now, the bad.

1. The controls are so fast I still haven't figured out how to avoid holding them down too long. The screen sometimes goes wild jumping from menu-to-menu as I clumsily try to stop pressing buttons!

2. The provided software is mediocre at best and doesn't run very well under Vista. Everytime it starts up, it goes into convulsions before settling down. After that, is is fine. Works properly on my XP desktop.

3. I have yet to figure out how to get playlists over to the device. Every playlist, rather than being a reference, starts copying duplicates of the files already there. I don't have the space for that.

4. It is easily scratched even just sitting there. Get screen protectors for it before you even take it out of the box.

Finally, the ugly.

1. My 1 Gig iPod was never filled so I got the 2 Gig Samsung. Wow, it holds less that the smaller iPod. However, I think the sizes are larger which may be why the sound quality is so much better. Get the 4 Gig model.

2. The device is really geared for Europe. None of the free-for-30-days music stores with free downlaods are available to those of us in North America.

3. The on-line registration is crazed, I filled out the form at least 5 times and each time some silly tiny "mistake" was made. It didn't even like my address! I gave up.

Over all, this is a great compromise between the expensive iPods and the error-prone cheaper models of mp3 players.

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This thing really looks much better in person than the pictures would have you believe! I was in a retailer to pick up a different model, but when I saw this one.. the search was over. The menus are animated in a very cool way, and the sound quality is EXCELLENT. Even the supplied headphones are not that bad. It took just a few seconds to get used to not having an actual button to hit, but it really is a sleek little player. 5+ stars!

Let me preface this by saying that I have been looking at MP3 players for almost 9 months and couldn't find one that had the right features for a price that I was willing to pay. Samsung has always been able to hit my "sweet spot" when it came to technology and the K3 is no exception.

Pros

1) FM Receiver This was a big one for me. When I started my search, only the lower end units even thought to add this on.

2) Incredibly slim and sexy design This says it all. The K3 is perhaps the skiniest electronic device I have ever seen.

3) Durability I have already dropped it, banged it, and kicked it... It still holds up.

4) Seamless controls This adds to the sleek image and the controls are incredibly responsive

5) Ease to upload The firmware interface is extremely easy to use.

6) Hold button The hold button (which you need due to the incredibly responsive controls see above and below) is perfectly located.

Cons

1) Incredibly responsive controls It took a little getting used to quick taps. If your finger hangs out to long, you zoom right by the menu that you were looking for.

2) Owners manual The menus are not exactly straight forward for a first time user. So you will need to skim the owners manual (which is only provided on CD).

3) Location of earphone jack The earphone jack is located at the bottom of the unit, which while it keeps it out of the way of the controls, isn't the most convenient for everyday use.

All in all, the Pros WAY outweigh the Cons on this device. If I were starting from scratch or buying a MP3 player as a gift, the K3 is the way that I would go... hands down.