Samsung YP-Z5 portable MP3 music player review

17 September 2006 - 13:12

I've been wanting to buy a portable music player for years but been put off by a number of things. First was that I really wanted a flash-memory based player (rather than harddisk based) so that I could carry it while running, but I wasn't happy with the capacity offered by most models. Then Apple released the first iPod Nano with 4Gb of memory and as Apple have done so many times before, they changed the market. All of a sudden 1Gb was no longer the top capacity available in a flash-memory based player. However it's taken a long time for other manufacturers to catch up with Apple's iPod Nano.

Before I talk about the player I eventually bought, the Samsung YP-Z5, let me explain why I didn't just buy an iPod Nano. If I just wanted to rip my own CDs and maybe play a few mp3 files I *ahem* collected from other places, the iPod would have been a fine choice. But ever since all-you-can-download subscription services have been available (like Napster, Rhapsody, etc.) I've been quite taken with the idea of being able to fill up the player with whatever music I want, all for a flat fee. Sadly, Apple has not seen the light on subscription services and their iTunes Store only supports pay-per-track downloads. Due to all the incompatabilities that DRM (Digital Rights Management) introduces, that means all Apple players are out of consideration. The other big player in DRM is Microsoft and the good thing about Microsoft's Windows Media DRM is that it is licenced to many manufacturers so you get a wide choice of players rather than being locked into those of one manufacturer (Apple). It has to be said that there are very few products as good as Apple's, but I believe the YP-Z5 is one of them.

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