Samsung YP-S5 Multimedia Player Review

Product Number: YP-S5JAB
Price: Click Here To Compare Prices
Warranty: 1 year
Colors Available: Black
Manufacturer's Product Page: YP-S5JAB MP3 players - MP3 players SAMSUNG




With technology changing in the blink of an eye on an almost daily basis, companies are forced to find innovative ways to stay at the forefront of consumers’ minds. Being that as it may, Samsung has always been ahead of the technology curve and is considered one of the primary innovators in the consumer electronics world. This Korea-based high tech juggernaut was founded over 70 years ago and currently employs over a quarter million people in its various factories and offices around the world. Their products touch on nearly every part of the electronics world and in this review we will be looking at one of their smaller yet by no means insignificant products: a multimedia player. Samsung has been producing MP3 players since their inception and this unit we will be testing today represents the next logical step in the evolution of the MP3 player into a fully-fledged multimedia player.

Here at Hardware Canucks we show you the best (and sometimes worst) of what the computer component world has to offer but it sometimes feels good to take a short detour and show you what the rest of the high tech world is doing. So, when Samsung Canada approached us with an offer to review their new YP-S5 multimedia player, we gladly pulled our heads out of the pile of power supplies, graphics cards and whatnot to see what Samsung had to offer.

With the advent of players like Microsoft’s Zune and Creative’s Zen players not to mention the ever-present Apple iPod, MP3 players are quickly evolving into a one-stop-shop for everything multimedia related. While the S5 is not targeting the same market as some of the larger-screened devices, it is still the kind of player which wants to offer something for everyone. It is able to play MPEG and WMV video formats and WMA, OGG, ASF music formats in addition to AAC files so all you iTunes lovers will have something to listen to. It also boasts Bluetooth connectivity to headphones or your cell phone (yes, we said cell phone but more about that later), the ability to view JPEG images and even has built in speakers. This all comes in a sleek package which is reminiscent of the award-winning Samsung YP-K3 and is available in only one capacity: 4GB. Unfortunately, the S5 is not expandable via SD cards so the consumer will have to make due with its somewhat limited storage size.

The Samsung YP-S5 is quite widely available at Canadian retailers and etailers even though it was launched a few short months ago. Prices seem to range from $160 all the way up to around $200CAD which is quite a bit for this product if you are using it JUST as a music player. However, the S5 is capable of so much more than mere music playback so its asking price is somewhat less extreme when you consider the versatility it seems to offer.

Is the Samsung YP-S5 a jack of all trade but master of none or is it the first and last word in portable multimedia players? Read on to find out…