Samsung YP-S5 Multimedia Player Review

Conclusion

Throughout the month we have had the Samsung YP-S5 in our possession; it has impressed us again and again with its intuitive design and ability to play nearly any media type. While some of them may have been subjective, across every one of the tests we put it though the S5 showed that it can play with the big boys of the multimedia player world while keeping its size down. The quality of sound it puts out is quite good compared to some of the competition but this is largely dependant on the headphones you use since the stock earbuds what come with this player leave a bit to be desired. Heck, even the menu layout is top-notch with everything you need no more than four to five button touches away. Speaking of buttons, while the touch-sensitive pad may come off as a bit annoying at first, you will quickly become accustomed to its quirks and wonder how you ever did without one on your past MP3 players. We also liked the fact that the Media Studio software was one of the easier file transfer programs we have used in a long while but make sure to go to the Samsung website to download the latest version of it along with the updated firmware for your player.

However, while we can sing the praises of the S5 until doomsday, there are a few issues we had with this player with the first and foremost being the lack of a wall plug to recharge the battery. The entire point of having a multimedia player is to increase the portability of your various media types but needing a computer to recharge your player partially eliminates the convenience. Imagine you are on a vacation down south without your laptop (for all you workaholics out there: yes, there is a life outside of laptops and Blackberries); this takes away the only semi-portable way to charge your precious S5 without resorting to a wall outlet to USB adaptor. Unfortunately, Samsung doesn’t even make their own adaptor which means you will be saddled with something that could fry your player if you go this route. Other than the supremely uncomfortable headphones and the lack of storage expandability, this is the only major fault we could find with the S5.

The Samsung YP-S5 can not only be considered a good music player but also a kind of Swiss Army Knife for urbanites looking for a quick and easy link to the digital world. The Bluetooth integration is seamless to the point where we used it on a daily basis without any problems, you can also listen to FM radio, read text, listen to music and that is just scraping the surface of what this player can do. The only thing that holds this player back from our top honors is the lack of a wall charger along with a few other, more minor issues.


Pros

- Easy to use
- Sleek design
- Hide-away speakers
- Good sound quality
- Bluetooth integration


Cons

- Lack of a wall charger
- Uncomfortable headphones
- Storage size not expandable
- Long Start-up time