Review: Samsung P3 (YP-P3)

The Samsung P3 (YP-P3) is the long-awaited upgrade to 2007's P2 (YP-P2), the company's first touchscreen digital media player. Though almost identical in design, the P3 one-ups its predecessor with an aluminum casing, haptic feedback, integrated speaker, DNSe 3.0 sound enhancement technology, and customizable Flash-based user interface with widgets. It retains the same rich Bluetooth 2.1+EDR support and 3-inch 480 x 272 display of the P2, but features a slightly revamped design that gives it a cleaner, more streamlined look.

Released in Korea in December 2008, the Samsung P3 is expected to become available in the US in the first half of this year. Of course, if you can't wait, Warehouse123.com already has the 8GB ($247) and 16GB ($268) models in stock.

This review is based on the Samsung P3 running firmware version 2.07.

System Specifications

Capacities:	4GB, 8GB, 16GB, 32GB
Supported audio:	MP3, WMA, OGG, AAC, FLAC
Supported video:	MPEG-4, WMV, H.264, AVI (DivX and XviD)
Extras:	Bluetooth, Flash, games, sketch, subway maps, photo viewer, text viewer, datacasts, address book, FM radio, FM and voice recorder, calculator
Display:	3" touchscreen with haptic feedback (480 x 272)
Dimensions:	2.1" x 4.0" x 0.4"
Weight:	3.4 ounces
Colors:	Black, silver

Full specifications in the product database.

Check out my Samsung P3 unboxing to see the player's packaging and included accessories.

Design

At a glance, the P3 looks almost identical to the P2.

 

The P3 is a bit longer, but both devices share the same width, thickness, and general design.

 

Yet the P3 is so much nicer. The reinforced aluminum body feels extraordinarily durable, while the shiny silver accents and smooth, button-free sides give it a look that is undeniably sexy. I would've liked a bigger screen, one that makes better use of the unit's face, but I don't think the extra border detracts too much from what is otherwise a beautiful player.

Size

The P3 is in direct competition with the Cowon S9 and, to a lesser extent, the iPod touch.

 

 

My husband still uses a first-generation iPod touch, so that's what you see next to and beneath the S9 and P3 above.

 

Left to right: SanDisk Sansa View, Cowon S9, Samsung P3, Microsoft Zune 4, Sony A810, Creative Zen, SanDisk Sansa Fuze.

Display

 

Though not as brilliant as an AMOLED display, the P3's 3-inch LCD is truly stunning. Colors absolutely pop! The screen is made of glass, so clarity is crystal clear. Viewing angles are excellent too. The device doesn't have an accelerometer, but the screen orientation can be rotated 360 degrees using a swirl-like gesture with your fingertip.

This is definitely the best screen Samsung has used on one of its own players to date.

Controls

Not only is the display a joy to look it, it's a joy to use as well. Good thing, too, as the 480 x 272 capacitive touchscreen is the primary navigational control on the P3.

Even though you can see the "touchscreen grid" (that diagonal grid shown above) from certain angles against dull backgrounds and when the player is off, the screen's responsiveness is still fantastic. Gestures and taps are registered immediately and accurately.

The P3 responds to the following gestures:

• Single tap - selects items, moves to the next screen, displays playback information and function icons
• Double tap - zooms in photo and subway map viewers, changes video screen size and font size in text viewer, changes music playback screen
• Press and hold - plays recently played video or music file, moves to playback screen of current file
• Horizontal slide - browses main menu screens, moves to next/previous track/photo/video/etc., customizable through horizontal stroke setting
• Vertical slide - adjusts volume, moves to next/previous screen in list view
• Dragging - controls media playback, moves widgets and icons
• Circling - rotates photo/text, takes video screen captures

Providing further confirmation of a recognized action (not that it's needed) is the inclusion of haptic feedback. The P3 isn't the first digital media player to use the technology, which enables the screen to vibrate when touched; however, your fingertip isn't "buzzed" when it touches the screen the way it is on other devices. Instead, the vibration is felt in the palm of your other hand (the one holding the player). It's difficult to explain, but if you put the P3 on a table and tap the screen, you don't really feel the vibration.

Beneath the touchscreen is a touch-enabled strip called the "music hot touch key" in a press release and the "mini-player touch area" in the manual. Whatever its name, its purpose is simple: to provide quick access to your music library or the FM radio without having to find either mode on the main screen.

Sliding your finger horizontally across the touch strip brings up a small window with basic playback controls.

Now let's take a quick tour of the hardware before moving onto the P3's graphical user interface.

 

At the top of the player are a mono speaker, volume buttons, and power/hold button (press and hold to power on/off, quick press to lock/unlock). The small rectangle between the volume decrease and power buttons doesn't do anything. It looks like a button, but it isn't. I assume there's a reason it wasn't done, but Samsung should've made something (preferably the speaker) longer to get rid of that pseudo-button.

 

A reset/mic hole, proprietary connector, and standard headphone jack are on the bottom.

And on both sides of the P3 are nothing but soft curves and a decorative silver band.

User Interface

There are few things more disappointing in the gadget world than a mismatch of hardware and software. What's the point of a gorgeous device if its software is atrocious? Who wants a great UI on a device that you'd be embarrassed to use in public?

Fortunately, users of the Samsung P3 don't have to answer these questions.

 

The "evolutionary Emoture" graphical user interface is incredibly polished and is the perfect complement to the touchscreen gestures (detailed in the "Controls" section above) and of course the stylish design of the player. Like the iPhone and iPod touch, it features multiple "pages" instead of a single main menu screen. Response is good and lag times are minimal.

 

Tapping on an empty space anywhere on the screen calls up the GUI customization menu:

• Tap Style to change the main menu style. There are three predetermined styles to choose from, but each can be further customized with different fonts, backgrounds, and user-created interfaces. Samsung provides a guide on how to create your own UCI on its EmoDio website, where you can also find, download, and install UCIs made by others.
• Tap Icon to move and rearrange the main menu icons within and between pages. A total of 5 pages is supported by the player.
• Tap Widget to add/delete widgets and rearrange them.

Widgets

 

Widgets and main menu icons can coexist on the same page or be moved to their own pages according to personal preferences. Until users start creating and sharing their own, the 12 widgets that come preloaded on the P3 are the extent of the feature.

Most are gimmicky but some are useful and the potential is there.

 

When not in use, the widgets are stored on a horizontal band that can be swiped to display the next set of icons. To add a widget to the main screen, tap and drag it to your desired location. To delete a widget from the main screen, simply move it back to the band.

As of this writing, the following widgets are included on the Samsung P3:

• Analog clock (various styles)
• Digital clock (various styles)
• Memo (two different sizes, various styles)
• Calendar (various options)
• World clock (displays time in two major cities)
• Slideshow (selectable image folder and frame shape)
• Light bulb that adjusts screen brightness when tapped
• Adjustable sleep timer called "sleep cat" (cat meows when tapped)
• Butterfly that flies across the screen and lands on two flowers
• Daisy with petals that "flutter" when tapped
• Coffee cup with heart-shaped foam that disappears and steams when tapped
• Gingerbread man that cracks when tapped

 

Transferring Content

The Samsung P3 is a universal mass storage (UMS) device, so it shows up as a removable disk just like your everyday USB flash drive when connected to a computer. Transferring content, then, is a simple matter of dragging your media content into one of the pre-existing folders.

For more advanced music management (syncing, playlists, etc.), Samsung provides its new EmoDio software. It's fairly standard in terms of features and the interface is nice-looking and straightforward. Other UMS-compliant management applications can be used as well.

Audio

Music organization

A great feature of the P3 is that it supports both ID3 tag and folder-based browsing from the same menu. Like most DAPs that support both organizational methods, the P3 has a separate file browser that provides access to the folder structure on the device. Music can be selected through this browser, of course, but I like that the music menu includes a "Music Browser" option for users who don't keep their ID3 tags in order. My husband is one of these users, so I appreciate that he's not shunned from the primary music menu, which he often has to ignore on DAPs that don't integrate the file browser like the P3 does. His ID3 tags are terribly untidy.

Music navigation

Artists, songs, genres, and playlists are all arranged in a simple list. The P3 doesn't have the momentum-based scrolling of the iPod touch, but a vertical slide gesture will quickly display the next "page" of songs. Scrolling can also be done manually by holding and dragging the scroll bar on the right, which enlarges when touched; tapping the bar performs the same action as a vertical slide. Missing from the music library interface is an alphabet strip, which would make navigating through a long list more efficient, especially if you're in the A section and you want to get to your M songs.

Unlike the list-only view in the other categories, there are three ways to view albums: title with small album art, title and artist with medium album art, and Samsung's take on Cover Flow, in which album covers cascade diagonally downward and a horizontal slide gesture "flips" through each one.

Sound quality

The Samsung P3 is positively brimming with audio enhancements and sound effects.

When listening to a song, tapping the menu icon brings up an overlay that contains various options, some of which have their own sub-menus. "Sound Effect" allows users to enable/disable and choose settings for street mode, playlist DNSe, audio upscaler, and VibeWoofer (the player vibrates with the rhythm of the song).

With headphones plugged in, a DNSe option is listed in the overlay (as shown here). The P3 utilizes Samsung's DNSe 3.0 enhancement technology to simulate various sound environments. There are 13 presets (normal, studio, rock, classical, jazz, ballad, club, R&B, dance, cafe, concert, church, and auto, which selects a DNSe mode based on the genre in the ID3 tag) and 3 custom modes called myDNSe. MyDNSe allow users to tweak a 7-band equalizer, 3D sound effects, bass enhancements, soundstage (dubbed "concert hall"), and clarity.

With most DAPs, I prefer no audio enhancements with my Ultimate Ears triple.fi 10 Pro canalphones. This is strictly a matter of personal taste, but my ears are usually happier this way because preset EQs and other sound effects tend to sound too artificial. With the Samsung P3, however, I think the sound quality benefits from these add-ons.

Without them, the sound needs improvement. Highs lack clarity and the lows definitely lack punch. These shortcomings aren't audible using the included earphones, slightly upgraded IEMs, and even the super.fi 5 Pro. The triple.fi 10 Pro, on the other hand, which are almost double the cost of the P3, are obviously less forgiving. But with the audio upscaler function enabled and careful consideration of the myDNSe settings, the Samsung P3 can sound fantastic: full of sparkle and depth.

Other features

Play modes (normal, repeat, repeat one, shuffle), various music playback visualizations, A-B repeat, five on-the-go playlists that can each contain up to 200 tracks, deleting content without the use of a computer, adjustable play speed, adding music to the alarm sounds list, and customizing whether a horizontal slide will skip to the next/previous track or move 5, 10, 30, or 60 seconds forward or backward within a file complete the P3's music capabilities.

Video

With the newest firmware installed (version 2.07), which adds support for 800 x 600 XviD/DivX files and customizable SRT and SMI subtitles, the Samsung P3 is an impressive portable video player. A video-out feature would take the player to the next level, but it's still pretty outstanding as it is.

Playback is smooth and everything looks great because of the quality of the screen (described in more detail in the "Display" section). A mosaic search function (above), bookmarking, screen capture, video-specific DNSe modes, play speed, VibeWoofer, screen size, and brightness round out the P3's video features.

Extras

The P3 has one of the most extensive sets of extras I've ever seen on a non-WiFi digital media player. From Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and text-to-speech to games, Flash files, and a sketch app, Samsung has nearly all the bases covered.

Bluetooth

The most significant of the P3 "bonuses" is the inclusion of Bluetooth.

 

Everything that the Samsung P2 was able to do after all the Bluewave updates were released, the P3 can do out of the box. This includes streaming to a Bluetooth stereo headset, using the player to make and receive phone calls when paired with a cell phone, and wirelessly transferring files to and from other Bluetooth devices.

Flash

The P3 supports Flash files and includes a cool little metronome that takes me back to my piano-playing days.

 

The tempo is customizable and a horizontal swipe sets the pendulum in motion. I haven't tried any other Flash files, but Samsung warns that some may not be supported. I'm interested to see what all those Flash developers out there can come up with that would work well on the P3. I think there are a lot of possibilities.

Games

The player comes preloaded with 7 colorful games, 2 of which can be played against another P3 user via Bluetooth.

 

The games are nothing fancy or complex, but they're not bad for killing time when waiting in line or commuting.

Sketch

The newest firmware also adds a fun sketch feature similar to MS Paint.

 

There's a selection of art tools, an assortment of line and background colors, and some cute stamps. The device's 3-inch screen limits drawing to rudimentary doodles and I don't know how much long-term use it would get, but it's fun and relatively unique.

Subway maps

And speaking of unique, the P3 comes with a handful of subway maps!

I imagine that the people who would find this most useful are the ones who are already familiar with their city's subway system (I live in Hawaii so I wouldn't know), but I guess it could come in handy when traveling.

Photo viewer

There isn't a whole lot of innovation going on in the realm of DAP photo viewers, so the P3's slideshows, zoom, drag, rotate, and set as background features are simply par for the course.

Text viewer

Text viewers on portable media players are also standard fare, but Samsung takes it a step further by adding text-to-speech support.

 

The supplied EmoDio software can convert TXT files into TTS files, which the P3 can then read aloud. Other features include orientation rotation, bookmarking (one per file), text viewer color, and adjustable font size.

Datacasts

Datacasts are Samsung's version of RSS feeds and podcasts. It's included on the P2 (do a Ctrl+F search on that page for "datacasts" for more details) and isn't something I use. It's an interesting function, to be sure, but having to connect to a computer to download and sync isn't appealing to me. Datacasts would be better if the P3 were WiFi-enabled.

Address book

The player has a read-only address book that supports vCard files and can be populated via Bluetooth. Contacts listed there can be called with the player when using the Bluetooth mobile phone mode, which is a great feature.

FM radio and recorder

Like the photo viewer, the FM tuner is exactly what you'd expect: good reception, manual and automatic scanning, 30 presets, FM sensitivity and region, and recording in MP3 format (128kbps only, up to 5 hours per recording).

Voice recorder

The voice recorder also records in MP3 format (128kbps only, up to 5 hours per recording). Mic sensitivity isn't adjustable and there's a fair amount of hissing audible when recording in a quiet room, but the overall quality is sufficient for a lecture or meeting.

Calculator

Yep, the P3 has a built-in calculator.

Battery Life

The player's non-removable lithium polymer battery is rated at 30 hours for audio and 5 hours for video. Actual runtime varies according to usage and other factors. The newest firmware (version 2.07) is said to improve battery life, but I haven't noticed anything significant personally or heard any exact numbers from anyone else.

Conclusion

What else can I say? The P3 (YP-P3) is the hands-down best digital media player Samsung has ever made. Period.

 

Get yours from Warehouse123.com: 8GB for $247, 16GB for $268.