Samsung YP-K3JAB 4 GB Ultraslim MP3 Player
See it at Amazon.com for $103.77Average Customer Rating
(4.0 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
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(5 out of 5)Simply the best on the market!
YP-K3 came in a cute little box. I opened it, plugged it into a USB port on a Dell WinXP machine and it immediately came up as a hard drive. I drag&dropped several dozen mp3s (transfer was super-fast!) and K3 started playing them with an astonishing sound quality (at least as good as the ubiquitous IPod if not better). No need to get tied to a stupid buggy proprietary software for mp3 conversion&transfer. I refused to purchase an IPod for this reason for over a year. YP-K3 plays radio as well, and it looks very stylish. What more can you ask for? (unless you are looking for an overpriced robot dog or a massage chair you can plug this into.)
(5 out of 5)"Nano-killer"?
Everyone who wants something that beats an iPod needs to get over it. iPod Nano is a solid product and so is the Samsung YP-K3. iPod Nano is trendy, slim, holds a lot of songs, and has a nice, tough exterior. The YP-K3 doesn't have such a tough exterior, it has great storage, you don't need to deal with iTunes or the disgusting Quicktime program required to install iTunes, and it's just as slim as the nano. The touch controls are nice, people complain about smudges and how easy it is to skip a song, well anything with a glossy finish will have smudges. Do smudges make the music sound any worse? No. If you put it on hold and just listen to the music, it's fine. People who complain about this product are just upset that they didn't get a product tailor-made just for them, well tough cookies it's not a perfect world. The YP-K3 does everything I need it to do and more, it's a solid buy if you don't want to shell out $249 for 4 gigs of music and trendiness, and I like the headphones included. My only gripe is that because Samsung doesn't own 75% of the marketshare on mp3's there are almost no accessories for this, not even just a sleeve to put it in. The best I found was a full-face protective cover like they have for the original nanos and a silicon case but both aren't what I'm looking for. For now I wrap it in a microfiber cloth I got from another product and I have zero complaints. Samsung addressed most of the big problems CNET pointed out with firmware updates, so no problems there.
(4 out of 5)One SLEEK looking player
The K3 is slightly larger, heavier and more prone to scrathes than its direct competitor, the iPod nano. But at a cheaper price tag, it comes in a much more appealing exterior - it's certainly one of the NICEST looking mp3 players currently available. I've been comparing the K3 to a 2G nano for about 3 weeks now using a pair of Grado GS1000 headphones. Soundwise, the K3 sounds more congested, with the nano sounding slighlty clearer. The nano has slighlty more visceral bass, but at the same time, has harsher highs. These differeces were slight, but noticeable.
K3 navigation is very simple, but due to the nature of the touchpad, accidental button depressing is inevitable. When the K3 is inside a pocket, it becomes difficult to issue commands as it lacks physical buttons. The player comes bundled with Samsung Media Studio, but is not required. SMS is a decent program, but its interaface is not as simple to use as iTunes. Creating playlists for the K3 using SMS is quite annoying, and nowhere as easy as iTunes. It does support Gracenote however and I find SMS's song-info-retrieval system to be excellent. Transfer speeds are slower than in iTunes due to SMS pausing briefly after each song transfer. All in all, the K3 is a nice player that I'd buy just on looks alone.
(4 out of 5)Samsung 4GB Ultra Slim MP3 Player
Excellent gadget, marvellous sound system, visually attractive, easy to use, appropriately priced.
(5 out of 5)Great alternative from the Ipod.
I recently wanted to get a MP3 player, but NOT an Ipod. Everyone seems to have an Ipod so I looked around for other good Mp3 players. I read a few reviews on this one and researched into it and this one became my final decision. I really like the size, battery life and GUI of the player. One thing you will want to decide is what firmware you want to run.
USA firmware (standard):
-Few sound sets such as vocal, bass boost, etc.
-Organizes music like most Mp3 player by reading the ID3 tags and organizing in Artist, Genre, Album, etc.
-No text viewer
Korean firmware:
-Lots of sound options along with custom bass boost and custom EQ settings.
-You have to organize your music in folders, it doesn't organize by ID3 tags.
-Text viewer
-Plays .OGG music files.
Right now I am running the Korean firmware because I enjoy the custom EQ and bass boost, but it is up to you. All in all, I like this player.