Samsung's latest MP3 player can also double up as a removable storage device, FM radio, voice recorder and an MP3 encoder. Read our Australian review.
Samsung's latest offering in the area of digital portable audio is the Yepp 55, also dubbed the YP-55. Its lipstick-shaped exterior is novel and comfortable when the Yepp placed in your pocket. Matte-finished aluminium encases the MP3 player alongside a purple streak down the back.
The YP-55 comes in 128MB and 256MB varieties; we had the former to test. It weighs in at 45 grams and measures 2.6cm x 8.1cm x 2.6cm. At one end of the device is the battery cover that houses the single AAA battery the Yepp runs on, and next to it is small piece of rubber that protects the USB connection port. A direct-connect USB adapter and a USB cable are provided in the box for connecting the YP-55 to a PC.
Windows XP can recognise the device as soon as it is plugged in to the USB port but for older operating systems you may have to install the driver that Samsung supply on the CD in the box. Either way, you can then use the device as a removable drive in Windows Explorer and drag-and-drop files on the drive.
As it only supports USB 1.1 the device is not incredibly fast at transferring files. On average it took us around 3 1/2 minutes to fill the Yepp with MP3 files in our testing. While some storage devices such as the newer ThumbDrives and Micro Vaults support USB2.0, we can't wait until it's the default standard.
At the other end of the player is the neck strap hook--which pokes out a fair bit--and beside this are the earphone and encoding jacks.
Directly underneath these is a small part of the player that rotates about a quarter-turn either way. Twist this away from you and the player skips forward a track (or scans forward through the track if you hold it there). Similarly, twist it back and the player skips backwards a track (again, hold it to scan). We found it a bit confusing to remember which way was forward and back, especially if it was in a pocket, but it is an innovative way to move through tracks.
The volume rocker is on the side of the player and raised metal bumps on it allow you to quickly find and adjust the volume even when the player is in your pocket. In the middle of the rocker is a tiny, plastic mode button used to swap between music, voice and FM radio.
The Yepp can save 20 FM radio presets but we found the reception average as there is no external antenna.
With the flick of a switch you can enter voice-recording mode, which the Yepp then saves as WAV files. You can also record from other sources using the supplied line-in cable and encode these as MP3 files in a variety of bit rates.
The display on the Yepp is somewhat small yet presents quite a lot of information. Whatever mode the device is in the battery status is always showing. In playback mode the title (and artist) of the track scrolls across the screen and you can adjust the scrolling speed. You can choose what other information should be shown at the top of the display. Either elapsed track time, remaining time, used space or free space can be shown. The strength of the blue backlight is also adjustable and we had no problem seeing reading the display in the dark.
To the right of the display is the main play/stop/pause button. Pressing this button when the device is off will power it on and automatically play a song. Press it again and the song will pause, and if left for 10 seconds the Yepp will power down. While we found it slightly annoying that we couldn't pause a track for longer than this, we recognise that this conserves battery power for those of us who forget to switch things off.
The earbud-style headphones are comfortable to wear even for long periods of time. Music sounds crisp when played through them and output of the YP-55 is between 20Hz and 20KHz.
There is a small, circular Wow button that takes you through various sound effects. SRS emulates a 3D effect and TruBass works well at increasing the bass levels. The most impressive setting is Wow, which combines these two effects.
The Yepp boasts a solid and handy hold switch along the purple strip at the back of the player so you can't accidentally knock the players buttons when it's in your pocket.
A single AAA battery averaged about 12 hours during our tests with the volume up reasonably loud, usually around 27 out of a maximum of 30. This is pretty close to Samsung's estimated 15 hours. A safety feature of the YP-55 that irked us somewhat is that the volume returns to 25 even if it was set higher when the player was last on. Mind you this is probably a good idea for the longevity of your eardrums.
Samsung Yepp 55
Company: Samsung
Price: AU$299
Distributor: Selected resellers
Phone: 02 9763 9700
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I was reading "Samsung Yepp 55" when I came across you said that it shuts off after 10 sec. while on pause. I am irked to hear that because if you actualy look you can change that setting for how long you want it to wait before it shuts off.