ZuneHD. Coming This Fall!

It's official: www.zune.net/zunehd
Coming: September 5th, 2009.

Multi-touch interface.
HD radio.
WiFi with IE-based browser.
AMOLED screen, 3.3", 480 x 272
Accelerometer.

I've always wished someone would make a device that combined the best features of the iPod Touch, the Cowon S9, the Samsung P3, and so on.

This ZuneHD may come very close. It's got the amazing screen of the S9. It's thin like the P3. It supports videos up to 720p (1280 x 720) and can play them out via an accessory dock to your HDTV. Wifi and Multi-touch of the iPod Touch.

Yes, I'll probably get one.

And there is an indication the Zune 120/80 will also get a firmware update that brings, perhaps, a browser to it. ;)

4D

Showdown! Cowon S9 vs Samsung P3 vs iriver SPINN!

All three of these Korean-made players are available now in the U.S.. Each has been around long enough to benefit from a few firmware updates. All are pocketable touchscreen players with 480 x 272 resolution. All support FLASH games and apps. All have Bluetooth. These are easily the showstoppers from each company this year, and the competition between them is good news for consumers. Here we'll take a look at the Samsung P3, Cowon S9, and iriver SPINN.

I'll compare them for aesthetic design, hardware details, format support, usability, price, and overall satisfaction as personal media players. I've had all three for some time now, and done exhaustive testing of each. Scores will be explained in each category and will be from 1 to ?, with the higher number being the better score. You'll have your own priorities for the player you own, so don't let the final tally dissuade you from your favorite.

Aesthetic Design. I'm a furniture and product designer, and greatly appreciate the looks of a player. Players that go beyond being visual "knock-offs" and seek new aesthetic territory get my vote. These players all caught my eye before getting further attention from me. My guess is that they've caught your attention too. I've rated them as I see them. Click on each to see their manufacturer support pages and the relative "press" given to the aesthetic design of each.

Cowon S9 · 5 Points.

Simply beautiful from every point of view.

iriver SPINN · 4.5 Points.

Original Spindle control breaks away from the pack.

Samsung P3 · 3.5 Points.

Minor improvement over the P2. No iPod clone.

Hardware Details. These days a player has to be more than just a touchscreen. The P3 and SPINN both have haptic (vibration) feedback when you touch them. The S9 and SPINN are AMOLED (beautiful!) screens compared to the P3's backlit LCD. All have Bluetooth but the P3 has far greater profile support than the other two. They all have external volume buttons. The SPINN and S9 offer external Pause/Play and track Fwd/Back. The P3 has a speaker. The SPINN and the S9 have 3.3" screens to the P3's 3-incher, but the S9's screen supports a greater color range than the SPINN. Each device gets a point for any feature all three don't have.

Samsung P3 · 5 Points: Haptic + BT Phone pairing + BT File transfer + BT game play + Speaker.

iriver SPINN · 4 Points: Haptic + Spindle controls + AMOLED + 3.3" screen.

Cowon S9 · 7 Points: G-Sensor + Track/Play/Pause controls + AMOLED + 3.3" screen + more colors + LineIn + TVout.

Format Support. This is simply another counting comparison. If you're coming from an iPod then AAC and MP4 media playback will be worth more to you than OGG or FLAC or WMV. Yet each codec has value to somebody. As such each audio and video and photo codec supported gets one point. Click on each to go to their specifications page.

iriver SPINN · 13 Points: MP3, WMA, OGG, FLAC, ASF, APE for music.

MP4, WMV, XVID for video. JPG, GIF, BMP, PNG for photos.

Cowon S9 · 10 Points: MP3, WMA, FLAC, OGG, WAV, APE for music. AVI, WMV, ASF for video. JPG for photos.

Samsung P3 · 13 Points: MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV, AAC, FLAC for Music. JPG, BMP, PNG for photos. SWF, WMV, H.264, MPEG for videos.

Usability. How easy is it to turn on the player, find the song you want to play, and start listening to it? The P3 will resume on the page it was on when you last turned it off. It's also got a touch interface that really takes advantage of the hardware's potential. With the S9 one tap on the Music icon goes directly into the media player, yet makes you "back up" to pick a song to play. The SPINN lets you look for and select a song without touching the screen, yet doesn't let you control it completely with touches on the screen. For this comparison 5 songs are chosen among all the common songs each player contains. The average number of taps/click/spins/strokes it takes to begin playing each song will be part of that player's score, with low score winning. The songs were all from different albums, and spread across the alphabet. From Boof by Tony Remy to Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield.

Cowon S9 · 2 Points: 5.4 average.

Samsung P3 · 1 Point: 6.2 average

iriver SPINN · 0 Points: 7.2 average

The other part will be a boot-up value. Using my stopwatch each device will be timed from when the power switch is pressed/slid to when an icon can be tapped on. The quickest device gets 2 points. Second place gets 1, and last place gets 0 additional points.

Samsung P3 · 0 Points:

From OFF = 11.90 seconds. From SLEEP = 2.70 seconds. (14.60)

iriver SPINN · 1 Point:

From OFF = 7.71 seconds. From SLEEP = 1.18 seconds. (8.89)

Cowon S9 · 2 Points:

From OFF = 6.09 seconds. From SLEEP = 1.52 seconds. (7.61)

Price. The price has fallen on both the S9 and SPINN since they first came out. The P3 is the latest to arrive, yet it's MSRP is competitive with the other's current prices. The SPINN doesn't come in a 16gb version, so these prices are all for the 8gb versions of each device. The P3 is a bargain here, with 16gb models still under $200. There is more cost involved with the AMOLED screens that the S9 and SPINN use, but their prices have crept down since the P3 was released, and may come down more. Lowest price gets the highest score.

Samsung YP-P3 8gb · 2 Points: $149.99

Cowon S9 8gb · 0 Points: $169.99

iriver SPINN 8gb · 1 Point: $159.00* normally still $199.

Overall satisfaction. This part is purely subjective. I hate the SPINN's user interface. I love the efficiency of the P3's UI. The one I most want to hold in my hand is the Cowon S9. All three sound great once you get to your music and start listening. The S9's amazing battery life reduces that annoying need to charge these players periodically. Cowon has a U.S. based retail arm (jetmall.net) that make is easy to find cables and other accessories. The P3's extended bluetooth capabilities exceed those of the other two, but in practive I don't use them much. That little speaker the P3 has makes it easy to check sounds when your headphones are out of reach. Widgets are generally eye-candy and have little to do with media play on the P3 or S9, yet some provide easy access to system settings. No widgets on the SPINN. What pushes the S9 over the edge is it's support for video-output and line-in recording. Watching videos on that 3.3" AMOLED screen is satisfying, but watching them on a 40" HDTV is easier on the eyes. Neither the P3 or SPINN allow this. For these reasons I score them:

Cowon S9 · 4 Points.

Samsung P3 · 3 Points.

iriver SPINN · 0 Points.

Totals. Simple addition. The Cowon S9 wins!

S9 = 30 Points. P3 = 27.5 Points. SPINN = 23.5 Points.

Your personal satisfaction may vary, but online forum activity seems to follow these results. The busiest forum (of these three devices) is the Cowon S9 forum at anythingbutipod.com. Their Samsung P3 forum is most recent to the game, yet is building in activity as more people get them. It's hard to find anyone checking their SPINN forum these days. The one I pick up most often is the S9, yet I'll take the P3 with me to show off it's capablities to friends. I think 99% would be happy with either, and the SPINN will satisfy anyone who hasn't seen an S9 or P3. ;·)

4D.

What do YOU think? Leave a Comment.
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Samsung YP-P3. My Review.

Samsung's YP-P2 was my favorite player for the last year or so. The Cowon S9 with it's AMOLED screen has leapfrogged it though. Now Samsung's P3 has arrived at my door, so it's time to see if the new kid on the block has what it takes to earn the title back.

Included in the box:

- Samsung's proprietary USB cable.

- Earbuds + foam covers.

- Warranty card.

- Quick Guide

The user manual and Emodio software are stored on the P3 itself. This is a new trend with Samsung and it makes perfect sense to me. One less little CD to deal with. My P3 arrived with firmware version 2.10 U.S.. The battery was full out of the box. Already on the P3 were sample files including 5 MP3 files, 2 videos, several sample photos, and a couple of text files along with their associated TTS (Text To Speech) files.

Media play capabilities includes Music, Videos, Photos, FM radio, Flash apps, and Text. For fun the P3 supports widgets, and comes with several.

Hardware features include Bluetooth, Haptic, an on-board Speaker, microphone, and FM radio.The P3 unfortunately is short on hard controls. You get volume +/- and a Power/Hold button. That's it. The P2 at least had Play/Pause in addition to what the P3 has. Compare this to the Cowon S9 with Play/Pause, Volume +/-, and Track FWD/BACK along it's top edge. The little grill you see above is the P3's speaker. On the bottom edge you see the data and headphone jacks. There is a tiny reset/mic hole as well. There is also a mini-touch area below the screen that when swiped provides quick access to music play control when not in the music app.

The touchscreen is more sensitive than that of the P2. It takes only one tap to pick and play a song from a list, whereas the P2 required a tap to select it and another one to play it. Samsung has clearly been working to make the interface smoother, although when scrolling through a song list I often end up picking a song I didn't mean to. Their algorithm still needs a little tuning. Still, the P3 is very responsive and graphics move about much more fluidly than they did on the P2.

The P3 uses many little interface tricks. You can touch, long touch, double-tap, swipe, drag, and draw circles on some screens to great effect. Read all about it beginning on page 20 in the USER MANUAL (4.68mb download). You'll want to know these tricks as they make getting around on the P3 very efficient.

These players are all about media playback, and the P3 is very polished at it. Music formats supported include:

MP3 (8kbps ~ 320kbps, 22kHz ~48kHz),
WMA(8kbps ~ 320kbps, 8kHz ~ 48kHz),
AAC-LC (16kbps ~ 256kbps, 8kHz ~ 48kHz),
AAC-Plus (16kbps ~ 256kbps, 16kHz ~ 44.1kHz),
Enhanced-AAC-Plus (16kbps ~ 256kbps, 32kHz ~
44.1kHz)

The P3 will play your DRM-free iTunes AAC files!The Signal to Noise Ratio is 89 dB. A higher number is better here. For comparison the Samsung Q2's S/N Ratio is 90 dB. For what it's worth the Q2 also supports the lossless OGG format. Although not mentioned, the P3 also plays WMA lossless files at 1152kbps. It won't play them over Bluetooth, and they require the P3's full attention. I've been listening to the P3 while writing this post and am having a hard time hearing any faults with it. Audio is crisp and detailed. Individual instruments are easy to distinguish. You'll hear the singer's breath and fingers slide across guitar strings. This all assumes you've got high bitrate samples and are using something better than the included earbuds. The Music Play screen (above) is clean with album art, album title, song, and artist all displayed. You have several ways to sort your music, and the album sort option gives your three clever ways to graphically see your album covers as you flick through them. It requires an annoying extra tap to call up the play controls. You have access to all music settings from a submenu here. I'm giving the P3's Music app an A-. More format support and fewer taps to make it work is what it still needs.

Video playback is exceptional. The P3 plays AVI/SVI, MP4, and WMV formats at 30fps. You can play files larger than the P3's 480 x 272 screen resolution. The screen is beautiful. I'll have to do a side-by-side comparison with the same movie file on each device to decide if it's any better or worse than the AMOLED screen of my Cowon S9 or the LCD screen on the Samsung P2. A quick glance tells me the colors are truer, more saturated on the 3.3" AMOLED screen of the S9. You won't be disappointed in any case. The P3 also shares a trick with the Cowon S9 in that it can take an array of snapshots of videos scenes so you can more readily jump to a give point in the video. A larger screen is always nicer, but the P3 will be a better fit in your hand and pocket. I'm giving the P3 an A for video play.

Picture display is improved from the P2. You get a slideshow option with three speeds and some nice transitions between images. A double tap on an image will zoom it in to 2x, 3x, and 4x it's original size on the screen. Once zoomed in you can pan around on the image. You can also set any image as the booting image. The P3 simply has better graphics processing power than the P2, which makes pans and transitions much more fluid and impressive. You can put huge photos on the P3 and it will still display them, but don't expect to zoom in progressively to see tiny details in those large pictures. 4x is all you get, and it's limited to how big the image appears at 1x on the P3's 480x272 screen. The Picture app is a couple of steps up from the P2's version. I'll give it an A-. There is still room for improvement.

FM radio is relatively unchanged from the P2. You'll need to switch to the EU version of the firmware to enable RDS support for FM stations that broadcast it. To switch to EU, copy and save the following text into a CONFIG.DAT file (use NotePad on your PC) , then copy that file into the root directory of the P3:

YP-P3

EU EN MTP

Then unplug the P3 and let it reboot. If the station supports it you may notice added info below the frequency number near the top of the screen. Station IDs, current song and artist, and even the genre may show up. It all depends on the station.

You can switch between preset and manual tuning. You can set the FM region and sensitivity. There is a small speaker/mute icon to tap near the frequency number, and you can RECORD anything you hear on the radio. I'm giving the FM Radio app an A. It could be a little better, but not by much.

·

Flash support is the latest trend from the Korean manufacturers. The P3, S9, and iriver SPINN all play FLASH apps and games. The P3 comes with a Metronome app, but many more can be found in cowon S9 forums at www.anythingbutipod.com. You will probably have to register there to be able to download them. I haven't had a chance to try any additional Flash apps on my P3, so this post may be updated in the future.

·

Bluetooth. The P3 not only does bluetooth to stereo headphone. It allows game play over bluetooth to other Samsung players, file transfer between bluetooth devices, and can even act as your cell phone once connected via bluetooth. Yes, you can receive and make calls through the P3.

·

There is plenty more to keep you entertained on the P3. You get a great text reader that can read your text to you, a simple calculator, a calendar, contacts, a memo pad, several games, a subway map app, a world clock, an alarm clock, and a sleep timer. I'm sure I've missed a few things.

·

So is it a good buy? For $149 you can buy an 8gb ipod Nano. You'll get Music, Videos, Photos, and the same "extras" such as alarm, calendar, clocks, games, and notes. The Nano has a 2" screen. The P3 has a 3" wide format touchscreen, adds FM radio, Voice recording, FM recording, Bluetooth, file transfer, inter-device play, and more. No math is necessary. Buying the Samsung P3 for the same $149 is a no-brainer.

·

4D

Samsung YP-Q2 Media Player. My Review.

Samsung's YP-Q2 surprised me when I saw it hanging from the pegboard at my local Target store. At $99.99 for an 8gb player it's a good value and a smart looking player.

Package: The Q2 comes with what appears to be Samsung's standard but proprietary USB cable and earbuds. There is also a Quick Guide and the typical warnings and registration reminders.

Looks: Strong on style, with a refined chrome edge surrounding the flat glass face, the Q2 is impressive to look at and comfortable in the hand.

User Interface: The bottom half of the front is a touch-sensitive backlit surface you'll use to maneuver from icon to icon, up and down lists, and to control volume and track selection.

External. To it's disadvantage the Q2 is short on external hard buttons. All you'll find is this power/hold/custom (∙∙∙) button on the right edge. Press the Hold end for a few seconds to turn it ON or OFF. A quick tap activates HOLD so the touchpad is deactivated. What the custom button does depends on the app you are in.

You'll find the headphone jack and data port along the bottom edge. The cable used is the same one included with Samsung's P2, P3, and T10. Any headphones with a 3.5mm plug will work, and I recommend upgrading from the included buds.

Apps. The Q2 is a versatile media player. You can play music, watch videos, enjoy your photos, listen to the radio, read text files. There's also a voice recorder and three games.

For Music you can play MP3, WMA, FLAC and OGG files. Audio quality is excellent. The Music application also gives you direct control over what is displayed on the screen and how the music is altered. You can speed up or slow down audio files without changing their pitch. You'll discover Samsung's 3.0 version of DNSe, it's custom sound processing filters, and you have four possible User defines equalizer settings. You can sort music by Artist, Albums, Songs, Genres, Playlists, Recently Added, and Most played. when in Album sort mode you can list by album names or album art. You have the required play modes including Normal, Repeat, Repeat One, and Shuffle. You can flag an A-B section for repeat. There is also Samsung's Audio Upscaler for those low bitrate files you may have. It is supposed to add back the missing bits to restore the song to it's uncompressed quality level. I haven't tried it so you'll have to take Samsung's word for now. The only negative aspects I can find is that there are no external volume or track buttons. You have to wake up the touch pad with an extra tap before you can use any of the controls. Otherwise Music play gets an A.

The Video app will play MPEG4 and WMV files. Video looks great on the 2.4" 4:3 ratio screen. Specific support includes SVI(Video : MPEG4, Audio : MP3(44.1kHz, 128kbps)), WMV, WMV9 Simple Profile, Max bitrate : 860kbps, WMA Audio Spec), Resolution : 320X240, Frame Rate : 30fps. You can't play higher resolution videos, although they can be converted by Emodio on your PC. You get brightness control from within the video app. There are also a couple of EQ presets to choose from. Videos play in landscape mode, and the touch pad controls rotate to work as expected in that orientation. Larger screens are more satisfying for movie watching, but the Q2 does a decent job with video. I wouldn't buy it for videos alone, but I'll give Video play on the Q2 a B. It would be better if it supported larger resolution files and a few more formats.

Photo support includes JPEG(Baseline) under 5MB in size. Other formats can be converted using the Emodio desktop application before installing on the Q2. At 320 x 240 Photos look good, although you won't see fine details. You can zoom and rotate images, although not as easily as you can using most touchscreen players. You get the option to turn on or off music or the FM radio from within the photo app. There is a decent slide show option. You have several transitions to choose from, and can control the delay between images. It's not the best photo app I've seen on a player, but the 2.4" screen is in the second tier. Photo display gets a B+.

The FM radio app on the Q2 is worth having and very thorough. You can auto-search for stations. Stations that support it will display RDS data when tuned to. You can flip between preset and manual tuning mode. The Q2 will record anything you can tune, and you can change the quality of recording up to 128Kbps MP3. The custom button will delete or save your current channel depending on it's current state. A nice way to build and edit your presets list. Quality of reception depends on your headphone cable as antenna. It's length and position both can effect how well stations come in. I'm impressed with the FM app on the Q2. It gets an A.

Voice Recording is handy, and the Q2 makes it easy. You get three quality levels to choose from. The highest is 128Kbps MP3. The microphone is on the back near the headphone jack. I'm impressed with the quality. I haven't tested it in a lecture, so can't speculate on it's range, but it should be great for voice memos. You get a chance to play your recording right after saving it, and can delete it from the recorder app.

Text files can be viewed on the Q2, and the text app does a decent job of displaying them. You can change the font size (custom button), rotate the text, change the background and text color, and bookmark your spot. The small screen limits how much you can see at a time, but paging through is easy. I doubt anyone will want to read a novel on their pocket player, but lists and notes are perfect excuses for a text viewer. You also get the option to play music or the FM radio from within the text app. The Q2's text app is better than most and only limited by the screen size. I'll give it an A-.

Games are included, and although they didn't interest me you might find them a decent distraction if stuck in an airport or without electricity some day. You get Bubble Smile, Bomb Bomb, and Chicken Runaway. You can find short descriptions in the owner's manual linked HERE.

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Summary: The Q2 suffers only from it's limited external buttons. All the media apps are well thought out and thorough. Playback quality and options are entertaining, and not hard to figure out. If they had included Bluetooth I'd give the Q2 a "Must Have". As it is it's a good buy. Far better than the Ipod Nano of the same capacity, and $50 cheaper. You won't be disappointed owning one.

·

4D

Tweakers. Great Portable Speakers For Your MP3 Player.

Here we have another "Good Thing in a Small Package". Tweakers, manufactured by Grandmax and available at Amazon.com for under $30 are the most well-thought out small portable speakers I've come across to date. They were a Engineering and Design Innovation award winner at this year's CES. In addition to the speakers you get a nice carrying bag. Tweakers will "stick" together, base to base, with the help of magnets. This make them an easy bundle to slip into the bag. You also get a usb adapter (for charging the speakers) and instruction sheet. That's it. Yet this little package has everything you'll need to share the audio from your MP3 player or pico projector with friends and family. Cables to connect the speakers to each other and your player are wound inside the body and extract when needed. The battery and amp is in one speaker. It connects to the other with it's retractable USB cable. The other speaker has a volume control dial and hides the 3.5mm stereo audio cable used to connect them both to your player.

The top of each speaker will twist to pop up (about 1/2") for what Grandmax claims in better bass (low frequency) reproduction. The effect is noticable, and I recommend you open up these little speakers for better playback. You won't be shaking the floorboards with these speakers, but they do a decent job for their diminuitive size. Bass tracks on my favorite songs are completely absent from these speakers, but mid range is helped quite a bit. The included specifications rate Tweaker output at 1.7 watt x 2. Fequency range is 280Hz ~ 16KHz. SNR >= 80db

You get just a little more than 14" worth of cable to stretch between the speakers. This will leave them 16.5" center to center at maximum stretch. You will notice some stereo separation if you're within 20" or so, but farther than that you might as well move them together.

They are powered by a lithium battery, which is charged via the USB port on your PC or with any 120vAC to 5vDC USB charger. Charging should take 2~3 hours. An LED glows Red when charging and Blue when fully charged. There is no indicated play time in the documentation, but I'm guessing it will vary depending on how loud you turn up the speakers. I've used them through two movies (3.5 hours) on my AAXA projector and the duration of this blog post, with no indication that they need charging. I recommend you do your own duration test before counting on them to entertain you for a long period between charges.

How loud are they? It depends on your source. Of the two dozen or so players I have no two have the same output from their headphone jack. You won't entertain a large crowd with them. They can be overwhelmed in a noisy room (like a cafeteria). If you gather a few kids around an entertaining movie from the AAXA projector, and can keep the giggling down, the Tweakers should do fine.

I rate Tweakers an A+. If you're in the market for some small portable speakers then these can't be beat.

4D