Excellent value for money (Samsung YP-U1Q 2 GB)

Member Name: Lauren06

Product:	Samsung YP-U1Q 2 GB
Date:	27/04/06 (436 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Size, capacity, no USB cable needed

Disadvantages: Battery life, can only be charged from USB ports

I've owned this MP3 player for about a month now, and so far I've had no problems except with the battery life, which I'll explain later. I bought it after my previous 2GB MP3 player was faulty, and I had to take it back for a refund. (this was a Goodmans model, and it turned out that many other people had had the same problems with it that I had had)

So I decided I wanted another 2GB capacity player. This one has everything I was looking for.

2GB memory gives you about 500 4 minute long MP3 songs, or 1000 WMA (Windows Media Audio) songs which are of very good quality, and I don't really hear a difference between the two, so I use WMA. I have so far managed to put about 11 albums, with three of them being very long, (over 100 tracks of varying lenghts) and not even half of the memory space has been used up yet.

The battery is chargable through a USB, with the USB connector folding out of the player itself, rather than having to use a cable. The only problem with the battery is the life, at least with my model. It states on the box that the battery life is 13 hours, while I have only managed to get about 2 hours out of it. I have contacted Samsung via email, and received a response telling me there could be a fault and I should phone them. I haven't phoned yet, but I'll try to and update this review to let you know what happens. From reading reviews of other MP3 players I have found that they rarely live up to their battery life expectations at all.

Aside from that, I haven't had any other problems with this MP3 player. It comes with software to put music onto the device with, but I just use Windows Media Player 10, which is available to download free from the Microsoft website. With this, you can copy music from CDs into MP3 or WMA format and then synchronise songs onto the MP3 player. Ripping doesn't take too long, and synchronising takes even less time. This is the only way I have used of copying songs to the MP3 player, and I haven't tried downloading songs yet.

The menu system is easy to use, and if, like me, you just want to try using it before reading any instructions, then this allows you to do this easily. Actually finding the main menu was my only difficulty, but all you have to do is press and hold the menu button. Aside from that one confusion, I found it very easy to find music. You can set up your own folder system on a computer, and arrange songs by album, artist, genre, anything you want.

It also features voice recording. I haven't used this feature a lot, but what I have recorded does sound a but muffled when compared to the other music on the MP3 player, which plays at very high quality. Maybe I just need to adjust the settings a bit.

Songs can be played on random, repeat and repeat all, along with the normal play feature where you just choose tracks you want to listen to. There are also equaliser settings.

The size of the MP3 player is 23.8mm wide, 87.8mm high and 13.5mm in depth. It's almost small enough to fit inside the palm of your hand, and hardly takes up any room when travelling, so you can take your music collection with you in your pocket. The headphones are comfortable, and it also comes with a neckstrap, which attaches to the device like a phone charm.

When I purchased it, I payed £79.99 on Amazon.co.uk for it, and now they've reduced it by £2! You get free postage when you pay for it, or you can pay if you want it delivered faster. Super Saver (the free option) takes about a week. Don't buy it from Argos, they charge £120 for the exact same model, with the lower capacity versions costing about the same as this one does on Amazon.

At this low price, it's well worth buying. I highly recommend it, despite the battery life problem I am having.

Summary: Great value, quality MP3 player at a good price

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