Samsung Yepp YH-J70 media player review

Being a punk was a generation’s way of saying “we’re different”. Unfortunately in our GAP – “we must all look and dress the same” world, it’s difficult to sometimes stand out in a crowd and be different. But if you look hard enough there’s always a way. And if you want to be slightly different but have a safety rope around you, the Samsung Yepp gives you that opportunity. Think of this as the iPod with a slight makeover. What you get is very similar to Apple’s iPod but is different enough to make you feel special.

Design

While Apple went for the virginal white, Samsung have gone for naughty black. And rather than going for a wheel control they’ve opted for a silver bar on the front that allows you to navigate tracks, rewind or forward songs. On the side there’s handy buttons to move to navigation mode or to access the tools. And finally at the top you’ve got your headphone socket and a little loop to aid carrying the J70 around. The black exterior is smooth to the touch but like Samsung's black range gets mucky quickly and could be prone to easily scratching.

Setup/Installation

This isn’t all together easy. The software that comes with the YH-J70 is a bit convoluted and doesn’t convert all files. But once you’ve got the hang of it, things become easier.

Features

The first thing you’ll notice about the YH-J70 is it comes with a 1.8 inch colour screen which is slightly smaller than the iPod. The 20 GB memory (it also comes in a 30GB) can support MP3, Ogg Vorbis, WMA and MPEG-4 and has a shock protection system so there won’t be any jumping in your music even if you’re jumping up and down like a hysterical cheerleader. As well as video playback it also shows JPEG and text documents. And then of course there’s the FM radio with an FM recorder, direct line-in recorder and digital recorder.

Performance

On the whole this seems to tick all the boxes. It’s got a decent screen that’s not a bad size at 1.8 inches. However it is slightly of a lower resolution than the iPod and if you don’t look at it head on you sometimes have difficulty seeing the image. The software is the biggest issue. You don’t want to spend all your time trying to transfer things over to your MP3, you want it to be instantaneous. And as your music seems to go into files you’ve not allocated, it can take a while to locate them. Having said that, the battery life on the J70 is very good lasting around 25 hours. The actual bar to navigate around can sometimes be temperamental but on the whole works pretty well. Sound quality is good, especially once you’ve played around with the equaliser. However the quality of the radio is a letdown.

What's In The Box?

Samsung MP3, adaptor and headphones.

Overall Opinion

If you're looking for something that's a little different to the iPod but still has a decent size memory and video facilities, the Samsung Yepp YH-J70 media player is not a bad alternative. There are a few glitches in the system like the complicated software and the fact you can't see videos unless you're looking in the right angle, but on the whole it's not a bad machine.

Pros + Alternative to the iPod. good sound. FM Tuner Plays MP3 / WMA / WAV	Cons - Case could scratch easily. Good storage.
Media Capacity 8/10	Appearance 8/10
Ease Of Use 8/10	Build Quality 8/10
Value For Money 8/10	Overall Rating

By Babita Wakelin
10/7/2006 at 2:30:13pm

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