Samsung’s another MP3P close to perfection, YP-S5!

Samsung’s another MP3P close to perfection, YP-S5 As a country who made MP3 players first, I think there are many users who can think of several brands going bankrupt in Korea. The market medium and small companies have built up was shaken by large companies, and then the situation too hard for minor companies had been made, so many of them became bankrupt. It was natural that Samsung having the broadest market field in domestic companies and standing out in a boom in IT took park in MP3P market. Once iPod swept over the whole world, Samsung has been getting back their power by releasing their models which combined their own design and various functions continuously. Before, an interesting video clip was put up on the famous video site. After a car stepped on the MP3P including a speaker, it doesn’t affect not only external parts, but also the function. This video clip strongly interested users all over the world. That interesting product was K5 which had an external sliding speaker to listen to music with other people, and because it used a magnesium case, it could be much stronger. Although magnesium has a weak point hard to shape and easy to ignite in powder, if it’s well shaped, it’s much stronger than aluminum. It’s now used for high quality products like DSLR. The product YP-S5 we are going to go over is an advanced model of K5, so a basic design concept are similar to K5. But in detail, it’s lighter and thinner than K5, and moreover some functions which made users dissatisfied were added, so I would say it almost made up a deficiency. 2. Similar but different design Samsung’s K5 was given favorable comments due to the unique design and the sound quality of the stereo speaker. Surely, the price was a little bit unreasonable, and that price difference between Korea and foreign countries was too big was the reason of customer’s dissatisfaction. But the product itself was good, and it was a good example that the new way of design which had never tried became a good outcome. ▲ Samsung YP-S5 When taking a quick look at S5, you can feel it is very similar to K5. But you will see the trials to widen functions and lower the price, when taking a look at the details. The first thing is the weight. little burden for women. The weight of K5 was 106g. It was okay for men, but a Also, when putting it in a pocket, the pocket sagged by the On the other side, S5 has 85g weight weight and it might be burdensome to users. reducing 21g. Users can definitely feel this weight difference by fingertips, so it means they successfully reduced the weight compared to the former model. But we could confirm this reduction in weight was connected to the change of material. While K5 used a strong magnesium case, S5 used a plastic case. I think of this change of material as a main reason. Fortunately, the feeling by the tip of a finger is so strong that it seems it has enough solidity, even though it is made of plastic. Another thing is a display part. LCD. While K5 used 1.71 inch OLED, S5 used 1.8 inch TFT But unlike K5 impossible to play Both of them are bit small to watch videos. videos, S5 can play videos, so it means S5 uses a display better. Changing the material of a case to plastic and a display to TFT seemed the measures to stop rising the initial cost. functions. I could say it’s for suppressing the price and providing more The last part is a size. 14.8mm. While K5 had 47.5 x 98 x 18.1mm, S5 had 46.5 x 95.9 x Length, width, and thickness became smaller than K5. A power switch is incorporated with the Lock function suppressing buttons in the top. Pushing the switch to the direction indicating the power for some time, it is turned on or off, and pushing it to the other direction, the Lock function is activated. It is a good try give a function with Lock in one switch. To keep away from the confusion, the switch moves with the feeling of hanging something, and the power direction gets back itself when pushing it, so we can distinguish the power and the lock without seeing it. But the switch is too small and tight to control it easily with fingers as a male Most of the time, I had to use a nail. I think this could stop the miss of user. functioning, but couldn’t get a good appraisal in convenience. There are a plug for earphone connection, a 24 pin port for charging and connecting PC, and a groove for a strap in the lower part. contamination by dust or something. The 24 pin port is laid with a cover, so it stops When connecting a charger or USB cable, it is automatically pushed in, and separating it, it automatically covers the port, so it doesn’t have the possibility of loss unlike a rubber cover. In the upper part, it has a speaker opening slidingly. That is the most unique part of K5 and S6, and exact half of the product is divided and comes up. Pushing up the speaker, a reset button for initializing and a microphone for recording in the lower part come out. Pushing up the speaker, it is fixed having 30 degrees angle between a bottom and the player, so putting in on the bottom, the speaker is inclined to the ears of users. A transparent and high luster panel is used in the upper surface. but also has a weakness easily leaving a stain by fingerprints. It is visually high quality and neat, The net of the speaker looked different. While the net is pieced with fixed interval at K5, It matches with the Samsung at S5 it is arranged as a circle type central to the speaker. logo in the center, and changed to much better look, so I’m pleased with the change. The output of the speaker is the same 1500mW as K5. It’s not enough to use in a noisy place, but in general the output is sufficient to use it with a few friends. The display for S5 is 1.8 inch TFT LCD 208 x 176. It’s better to use OLED like K5, but I Therefore, don’t think there are many users who enjoy videos with this size of display. TFT LCD will be enough. When listening to music with an earphone, mostly users hold S5, so looking at the screen vertically is more convenient. On the other hand, when using the speaker or putting it down somewhere, horizontal direction is convenient. S5 considering the truth rotates the screen automatically with 90 degrees whether using the speaker or earphone. This automatic rotation function makes this product easier and more convenient to use, and the control button changes up and down, and left and right, according to the direction of the player. Because left and right button is always selecting a song, and up and down button is always changing volume, it’s very simple. In a control part, it is activated by touching lightly with a tip of fingers as K5. Merely, while K5 had a 4-way button with bright blue light in a straight line, S5 used light purple and a dotted line in 4-way button. emotionally than K5. I think they intended to change the design more A 24 pin standard charger widely used for cellular phones is used to charge a battery. Charging takes 1 hour and a half, and when using an earphone, it can play 24 When using a speaker, 5 hours for music and 3 hours for music and 5 hours for video. hours for video are possible. Generally, the playing time is a little shorter, because the size of the product became smaller with the size of the battery smaller. But 24 hours music and 5 hours video are possible, and it’s enough for one day, and if using it only for music, it’s a quite long time. I think it’s not insufficient. The appearance of an earphone is bit peculiar. easily, and after that, it’s not burdensome. Unlike its shape, you can put it in ears But it doesn’t have the preparations for entangling a line, so it might be a little inconvenient for using. Software, USB cable, and insert cable for recording are provided. If it’s not very But the basic expensive, I think it’s better that a cradle for stable positioning is included. supplies look enough. 3. Convenient and various functions Among K5 users, some functions are classified as a deficiency, and S5 filled up the shortage. The thing almost all the functions users can expect are realized is the strongest point of S5. Most of all, let’s take a look at the Bluetooth function now being popular. most missing point of K5. That is the S5 improved that and supported all the connection function to connect a mobile phone and a headset simultaneously. Therefore, once you make the situation S5, a mobile phone supporting the Bluetooth function, and a Bluetooth headset using altogether, you don’t need to connect an earphone to listen to music, and worry about taking a phone call while listening. bell rings, S5 will notice, and give information to users. When a Just giving information. Is that all? Of course not. S5 is not only giving information, but also possible to take it. Without taking out a cell phone, just with S5 and a headset Moreover, if you were using a or earphone, the telephone conversation is possible. speaker, you can talk with the speaker. Making a phone call? Definitely, it’s possible. If users are using a mobile phone supporting the bluetooth function, this convenient telephone functions can be used by pairing S5 and their cell phone. reviewed the accessory of iPod having a similar function. further accessory to provide this function. In the past, I This S5 doesn’t need any Bluetooth doesn’t have a compatibility problem with other machines, only if they support a Bluetooth function. When trying to pair with Samsung’s mobile phone, and LG’s mobile phone, there was no problem to connect. After recognizing, you can see the YP-S5 registered in the cell phone. Recently, in a cell phone including that if the paired machine is separate from the region, the cell phone gives the information audibly, once utilizing it, it is very helpful to prevent loss. The second menu is a prime pack. It gathered various functions. Text viewer, voice recording, game, alarm, checking world time, and insert function from external audio (a separate cable for this is provided as a bundle) are supported. 5 kinds of games are providing. Reading a text with a text viewer, recording the conference or lecture, or playing games are good for enjoying extra time. A file explorer is a kind of a windows explorer. According to the character of each file, basic folders are sorted, so it’s easy and convenient to access the files users want. After finding out the file, it can be played or read there. An image viewer is also supported. less than 3MB. The type of file should be JPG and the size has to be Both auto searching frequency and manual adjustment by 0.1MHz are possible in a FM radio function. Maximum 30 frequencies can be saved, and recording while listening to radio is also possible. Recording files can be saved up to 999 files, and in 2GB model, when setting sound quality 128Kbps, approximately 30 hours recording is possible. It also plays MPEG4 type video with 15 frames per second. is a little insufficient. itself. Seeing videos, the size of S5 Anyway, since K5 didn’t support this function, it’s good When playing a video, changing the brightness and a tone is also supported. In a setting part, users can change the style of menu, various sounds, and the style of display. Setting time and language is also done here. There are three type of menu design my skin, Crystal, and Stella. fonts Gothic, Jumok-tree, and Al-candy. It also has 3 type of It doesn’t seem so enough, but also doesn’t seem very insufficient, because the frequency of use is low. Let’s take a look at the music setting most frequently use. you can see the ‘sound effect’. When coming to music menu, Street mode is used to clear the sound, when listening to music outside with much noise. Articulation makes music more lucid, and can be chosen from 0 to 2. DNSe is Samsung’s special sound effect. installed. it. In S5, more improved DNSe 2.0 was The tone color is too unusual to explain it to users who have never experienced It’s so regretful that there’s no way to explain the exact tone. Generally, the sound is balanced and clear, so it’s satisfactory, unless you are a very sensitive user about sound quality. get better sound. Also, you can use the street mode and articulation to Simply, as a feature of MP3P, most of the time, it is used outside with noise, so generally we use MP3P with higher volume. At that time, if setting the street mode and articulation, Although they higher tone becomes too sharp, so it feels like putting something to ears. are good functions, using them outside with noise is burden to ears. Only using DNSe 2.0, it’s rather less. Whatever the sound effects you use, when a volume is higher than a certain level, the higher tone become sharp. And, while the lower tone is relatively light and elastic, the volume is much higher, so it feels like beating. Unfortunately, that the lower tone is not harmonized with the higher town is another weakness. However, there was an unexpected satisfied part. It was an external speaker possible to load as a sliding type. size? Do you really think good sound quality is possible with the tiny The output is not The speaker makes But, the balance, resolution, and separation all surprised me. loud enough, but it’s true that the speaker isn’t any accessory at all. great sounds. The quality of sound can be defined objectively, but the preference depends on a person. Some users can feel this sounds of S5 is better, or worse. As a reviewer, however I’ve tried to be objective, you should keep that the quality of sound couldn’t be objective enough in mind, so definitely the evaluation of reviewers can’t be absolute. If you couldn’t find your preferred style of sound, you don’t need to be disappointed, because it supports the manual setting of equalizer. With equalizer, 3D and BASS part can be adjustable, so users can change the sound to their own. Generally, I could make satisfied and enjoyable sounds even for the BASS and high tone, after adjusting the equalizer. If I am asked that ‘Is the sound quality of S5 the best of But I can say it is one of the best, and much better all?’, it’s a little hard to answer it is. than general products. When playing music, 3 display effects are supported. As the rest, adjusting searching and playing time is supported, so with this users can optimize the product. Media studio is software to connect S5 with a PC and use it. Transferring files to S5, to a PC, or making a playing list and CD are supported. Playing music is also possible. Buying music in the online shop and Datacast function are possible. Datacast is to show updated news by searching blog or news site, and users can sort them as Entertainment, sports, pictures, etc and manage them. selecting basically sorted IT section. You can confirm the news of K-Bench by 4. Elegant design and various functions are charming The first distinguishable thing of S5 is a unique design, which is high luster front, and lusterless rest, and pushing type sliding speaker is very new and finished well. Moreover, smaller size than similar K5 and improved functions are enough to entice users unsatisfied with K5. Strong Bluetooth, video, image viewer, game, and some other minor functions to customize the instrument are the real advantages of S5. The weight is also lighter than the former model, so not burden to women’s hand. have to remember that. We Certainly, how much it will cost is the biggest variable of evaluation by the market. Looking through K5, I can roughly guess the price. But the relationship of price and function is not included with this review, because it has to be after the releasing. - The strongest point is various applications We are living in a good world. Can we imagine sharing music with a palm-sized MP3 player with many people before? There’s no reason to miss a phone call, because S5 can fundamentally solve a problem with a cell phone for users always listening to music. Besides, the inside speaker can be It is awkward to used for not only sharing music with people, but also study or business. give an earphone in business meeting, but with S5 we can get over it. In group meeting or trip with someone important, it may be a good item to make a good memory. Like that, S5 make it use variously with the functions. you don’t need to buy this with the price. If you want a player only for music, However, if you think some minor things may be a problem or something, or you want to solve the problem with a MP3 player, this multi functional type MP3 player like S5 will be a good solution, right?