Great player, poor software
Written: Feb 12 '02 (Updated Feb 12 '02)
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Pros: Stylish, lots of memory, good usability and controls, great unit.
Cons: Weak software and OS support, bad connectivity.
The Bottom Line: Great player, but getting the music onto it may be tedious. If you tend to listen to the same music for awhile, this little machine may be worth it.
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| rwdaigle's Full Review: Samsung Yepp YP-E64 (64 MB) MP3 Player |
The Samsung YP E64 is a great MP3 player. When I was looking around for one (about a year ago) I had a few criteria for the player:
- Sleek looking
- 64MB of memory
- On-unit LCD
- Belt clip
- Non-exorbatant price
The YP E64 was about the only one that fit those criteria at a reasonable price. The unit definitely lived up to to my expectations. It was very light, had a enough memory for about an hour's worth of music and looked pretty slick and simple. It was also quite durable. I can't tell you how many times I dropped it on gym and hardwood floors and bumped it has I walked around the corner.
I used it for a workout/jogging player, hence the need for a belt clip. You'd be surprised how many players don't address the need of having the ability to attach it to your personage while you're doing something. Do they expect you to always carry it in your hand or stuff it into your pocket? This seems so unreasonable to me, yet so many players don't have some sort of belt clip/strap. Perhaps I'm not a typical user...?
The controls are nicely located on the unit. With it strapped to my side I could easily pump up the volume of navigate through the trackes while I was jogging. That is a huge plus. Have you every tried looking down to adjust a player and drift off the treadmill? Not something I would suggest doing, very embarrassing.
So all in all, it was a great machine with sound quality that satisfied my ears. I can't remember if the earphones were ok, but I know I ended up replacing them with an in-ear foldable pair. But I digress. Despite its several good points, there are a few cons.
The software used to put music on and off the player (Yepp Explorer) is pretty terrible. It gets the job done, but the UI is weak and not very informative (stuff like you can't resized the window so you have to put up with scrunched song titles...). It has the look of some VB app that a high schooler wrote as part of some computer camp project.
In addition to the less than perfect software, it's only supported on Win98, which caused me much grief when I installed Win2K (which worked initially, but then stopped working to never come back to life again). I believe that XP will be supported, but you'd have to do your own research on that one.
The cable that comes with the player is a serial port cable. You can buy a USB adapter, but it just seems like something that should be part of the standard package.
So, if you can handle the pains of getting the music onto the player, it will be a great buy for you. If you do a lot of transferring, you may want to look into a player with more modern and extensive OS support and a more full featured transfer program.
To give you an idea of my satisfaction with the product, I recently upgraded to a new Samsung player (the Samsung YP-NEU64B - see my (upcoming) review on that one for my verdict). I liked the YP E64 as an overall product so I wanted to stay with Samsung. The newer Samsungs have better OS support, USB connections and better software. Seems like everything I didn't like has been fixed...? For the time being I would consider myself loyal to the Samsung brand for their equipment quality and style based on my experiences with the YP E64.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 180
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Epinions.com ID:
rwdaigle
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Location: Chapel Hill, NC
Reviews written: 6
Trusted by: 0 members
About Me:
Tech head/gadget guy
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