:: Stylish MP3 player YP-S3 by Yepp

The second round beginning with the hot weather

Generally, June starting rainy season is a off peak time for electronic appliances. Normally, the winter is more peak season than summer. However, this year, there are many companies who want to have the summer market. Looking at the lineup major companies released, I think it will be a great competition. While the innovative design S2 still remains its power, Samsung released another fashionable MP3P. Following Sony, iRiver, let’s take a look at the new Samsung MP3 player YP-S3.

What is this made for?

The first thing we should see is the marketing point. You can see who this is for, and what advantage this has. The first noticeable point of the S3 is the Ergonomic Design. In easy words, it seems they’ve considered many customers’ request such as convenience, function, and quality scientifically, when they designed this. Already, many of the Samsung’s products are based on this, and the P2 won the human engineer award. The main feature for this is ‘real multimedia player’. The cheap price with various functions such as Music, picture, video, text, FM radio, datacast, and prime pack is the most important point. In this view, the S3 will be a good competitior of the iRiver E100. Let’s find out if it is real multimedia player.

Tantalizing package

I was unsatisfied with the package of the P2, but this time, I’d like to say the package of the S3 is tantalizing. It’s the same transparent package as the S2 package. Compared to other products similar size, it’s small and cute. As a global target product, there are various languages on the back to explain it, and to be competitive, the product is fully exposed. Opening the cover, users can detach the product by pushing the under part and pulling down. Body, earphone, earphone cover, USB cable, CD, and instruction manual are included.

Not strange

Not strange. Seen somewhere. At the first time, “Where did I see this? It’s familiar to me…”, and an idea came up. The curved side lines are similar to the T8, T9. However, it’s more like the K3. Buttons are minimized, and the front and back are coated with UV. And the side and bottom are chrome rounding to maximize the grip and design quality. And, like the K3, T10, the touch pad which didn’t appear and respond before power on is valuable as an appearance point. Personally, the design is not much high as K3, but it will appeal to public more with the various colors and the curved line.

Turning on, it appears

The touch pad of the S3 is like the K3, K5, and S5 which is normally hidden, when the power is on, 7 touch points appear with backlighting. The color of the touch pad is blue with cross type buttons, and white LED for menu and back buttons. The feeling of touch is not as convenient as the buttons, but it was okay. Is it UI identity of Samsung?

Splendid effect UI

Similar to the S5 which was getting attention due to the slide speaker, there are 3 kinds of UI sets such as sparkling, crystal, and my skin which uses a picture for a background. At the lower part, there are mini icons, and every time you select it, the splendid menu icons draw eyes. With the touch pad to move and select, beginners can easily be adapted. Personally, the crystal menu is charming, and the sparkling menu UI is also great to see. But, that there’s no difference from former models and the slow response are little unsatisfied, but it’s not inconvenient to use it.

Music is everying for the S3

Here is the thing. This is not for only music. But the music is the majority. It supports WMA, MP3, and OGG. And with the DNSe, it plays high quality music. Besides, the clarity making sound more vivid can be set. Almost all functions needing such as playing speed, skip interval, bookmark are supported.

As a Samsung product, users still set the 9 bend EQ, and the range is 60Hz~16kHz. When listening to music, 5 kinds of display can be set such as album art, equalizer, two kinds of effects, and music information.

Video is an option

Even though the main purpose is not to watch video, recent products can play video files. The S3 can play SVI files changed from in the media studio, and 1.8 inch screen with 15fps video is the quality of sub function. To be honest, I wondered it really needs the video function with 1.8 inch screen. However, as a general user, not from CDP Korea, it may be a sales point, I think. The video playback function of the S3 is just a sub function.

FM radio and Prime Pack

Now, it’s a basic function, but the FM radio is the most frequently used function except the music. The good radio function is just like other products, and it supports FM radio recording, alarm set, and auto preset. I think it will be very useful with music. In addition, the prime pack supports text viewer, 5 games, alarm, and world clock. Especially, the text viewer can set bookmark, font size, and viewer color. I could see that they tried to be a good low price multimedia player.

Stylish cradle speaker

With the S3, the cradle speaker was released. The YA-SD210 is not a exclusive model for the S3, but compatible with the P2, T10, S3 and PB2 which will be released. Like the iPod speaker, each skin for each device will be connected to the cradle speaker. The former cradle speaker makes sound with the internal battery, but the YA-SD210 doesn’t have any internal battery, and uses the battery of the MP3 player. That’s why I worried about the sound quality, but it wasn’t bad considering the size of the speaker, even though there was some scratch in the high tone. This is not only the speaker. With the 24 pin connector, it can charge, and if it connects to a PC, it becomes a great cradle. And if the power is provided with the 24 pin connector, the speaker can be connected to other products which are not compatible with the Line In terminal. I thought it’s great for design. However, because the YA-SD210 I got wasn’t a complete one, but there was some noise.

Stylish MP3 player YP-S3

The overall feeling of the S3 is a mixture of various products such as the K3 and S5. The mixture doesn’t mean it’s bad, but I wasn’t satisfied with that there was no new thing. When looking at recent products, it’s really hard to review them, because things which were very important in the past now become basic functions. I mean the time that if the product supports OGG was a big thing, the playing time, or the price. Now they are perfect multimedia players and cheap, so it’s really difficult to select a product to recommend. The S3 made me worry about this, and the lineup of Samsung will appeal to the market with the S2, S3, and PB2. With the expectation of the S3, I’m finishing my review.