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Review Believe it ornot, 'yepp peetoo' is Samsung's preferred pronunciation of the name oftheir new media player. Thankfully a coterie of Yepp Girls were on handat the launch of the peetoo a month or so back and they had such lovelythighs, sorry, smiles, that we instantly forgave Samsung its assault onthe English language.
Samsung's YP-P2: it's all about the 'stroke'
Essentially, the P2 is the big brother to Samsung's T10, recently reviewed here, but is aimed at those whose mobile media consumption is more video-centric.
Measuring 100 x 52 x 9.9mm and weighing 85g, the P2 occupiessomething of a no-man's land between smaller and lighter Flash-basesplayers with a similar memory capacity - the T10, the iPod Nano and thelike - and larger, heavier hard drive-based players with much largermemory capacities, such as the iPod Classic and Creative Zen Vision W.From a purely media playback frame of reference, the iPod Touch is onepossible benchmark though as only the lowliest of the Touch rangeshares a common memory size with the highest in the P2 hierarchy andhas a higher basic spec that's a comparison bound to flatter the GrannySmith until price is factored in.
Basic functionality is pretty much as per the T10, so you get anon-RDS FM radio, A2DP Bluetooth stereo, a voice recorder, world clock,an alarm - though without an external speaker we are n't sure how muchuse that will prove - and support for WMV, JPEG, MP3, WMA, Ogg and textfiles. Strangely enough, it lacks the T10's ability to vary audioplayback speed, so anyone planning on using their P2 to help study anew language should take note.
Dominating the front of the P2 is a 3in, 272 x 480 LCD screen thatacts as both playback screen and the main control device. Yes, with theP2 we are most definitely not in Kansas but firmly in the realm ofiPhone-esque touchscreenery. For the eagle eyed among you, who'vespotted the LED below the screen, it's just to tell you when theplayer's battery is fully charged.
Power consumption proved pretty impressive for a player with ascreen of this size, constant video playback only draining the batteryafter more than 4 hours 20 minutes of continuous use - Samsung claimsfive hours. Left repeating music content the player was still goingafter 30 hours, making Samsung's claim of 35 hours seem credible. Aswith the T10, time to full charge via the USB cable is around 2.5 hours.
The supplied software package is Samsung's Media Studio 5 which isone of the better manufacturer-supplied media organisation andimporting apps we've come across and deserves a pat on the back forbeing able to import, re-format and transfer to the P2 20 minutes'worth of The Trap Door H.264 video substantially faster thaniTunes managed to perform the same task with an iPod. Media files canalso be dragged and dropped via Windows Explorer or you can sync andmanage your media library using Windows Media Player.
Asus? Pah...
As for drawbacks, one thing struck us straight off the spec sheet: avideo-oriented player with a memory of between only 2GB and 8GB?Assuming you only store video what this means is that the 2GB model isgood for about 3 hours 45 of content, the 4GB for 7 hours 30, and the8GB for a little over 15 hours. In our book 2GB is just too little forserious video storage, or even flippant video storage for that matter.The range really should start at 4GB and run to 16, that would also putsome blue water between the P2 and the smaller, cheaper T10.
An iPod Touch beater? Not really. With its web browser, wi-ficonnectivity and larger screen, the Touch is frankly in another, ifmore expensive, league, which rather leaves the P2 first in a field ofone.
Now where did those Yepp girls get to....
VerdictThe P2 has all the qualities that impressed us about Samsung's T10but with a bigger screen and a flash touchscreen UI. But should reallycome in 4, 8 and 16GB flavours for the same price. As it is, unless youreally do intend to watch a lot of video it's a little difficult tojustify buying the P2 over it's smaller, cheaper brother.