Samsung T8

[Dinko]

So I finally began switching. In the past few weeks a number of triggering elements occured which seriously questionned my devotion to Sony products.

We'll see how things develop, but I'm seriously considering ditching Sony.

Today was one more step in that direction. I couldn't resist wasting my paycheck on a Samsung YP-T8.

It's that little gizmo that does it all: play music, video, FM radio, recording... the works.

Initial web impressions left me thinking it was bigger than it actually is. The thing is tiny and feels even tinier when holding it.

While it hardly looks like a very solid player, the build quality looks good.

Buttons are much more responsive than on Sony flash players. I would say the feel and pressure required for the T8 buttons are closer to the ones on the MZ-RH10 HiMD recorder or the NW-HD1.

The provided accessories are nice too:

A space-saving power adaptor. Contrary to the flat & fat Sony adaptors that cover the whole power outlet, the Samsung adaptor has been designed to plug in the outlet and leave the outlet's other holes free for other use.

A USB host adaptor (regular USB on one side where you plug the USB cable from a camera, micro USB on the other which you plug in the player).

Lanyad.

Soft plastic belt clip (kind of ugly and doesn't look too solid).

Line-in cable.

Earphones (bassy, and nowhere near Sony quality).

CD-ROM.

Full printed manual.

Quickstart guide.

Features of the Samsung T8:

* colour LCD screen

* image support

* video playback (mpeg4)

* WMA, mp3, OGG support (including protected WMA)

* TXT files

* FM radio playback

* FM recording (manual and time-programmed!)

* line in recording, to mp3, user-defined bitrate up to 192kbps

* voice recording

* built-in games

* 20 hour battery life

There is no doubt that the 20 hour battery life would have been 30 or 35 if this were a NW-T8 Sony player. But the rest...? This is what Sony should have done a long time ago. The OLED NW-A3/1000 are nice and all, but I mean, the features on this Samsung thing are incredible.

1GB of flash memory, FM tuner are pretty standard. Sony does that too.

But where is FM recording from Sony? What about timer-programmed FM recording? When I'm home I record radio shows on minidisc. But Hi-MD can't be programmed to tape radio shows. So when I'm not home I use AudioGrabber and leave my PC then AudioGrabber shuts it off.

FM recording is nice, but timed FM recording is an important feature for me.

Voice recording... I've rarely used it. But I can see how it come in handy when an idea jumps in your head and you're out of paper to write it on.

The colour screen... not essential. But makes browsing menus much more interesting.

Built-in games... I don't particularly care. But it's value added. Sure beast reading lame magazines in a waiting room, and it's much smaller to carry around than a PSP.

Text mode... when you really need to study for that philosophy final. Not essential, but again, could be useful.

USB host... when you don't have a PC nearby. The little bugger can grab the photo files and you're all set to show them, or delete them from the camera so you can take more pictures. If you forgot your flash card or can't buy a new one, it's just one more option.

Sometimes... it's the little things.

* Alarm setting.

I don't plan to use this to wake up every morning. But it could come in very handy on a bus/train, or just as a reminder at some point.

* on-gadget file deletion. Tired of a song? No PC around? No problem. Just hit delete. Or rather, browse to the "delete" option from the menu. No need for a PC. No need for CONNECT to delete your files. Just the player in your hands.

* earphone output power: 20mW

The Sonys are still stuck to 10mW.

Samsung Media Studio looks a lot like CONNECT & iTunes.

The difference being that it has very few functionalities. It doesn't seem to build a huge library of songs. Instead, it just browses the folders you tell it to browse and it adds songs to the screen. Result: it's fast. And it doesn't clog up the PC's memory.

I tested the earbuds with an NW-E407. They had a deep bass line. A little excessive for my tastes. They lacked the clear and transparent sound of Sony earbuds. But they still performed better than most non-Sony earbuds I've encountered so far.

Transfers of 160kbps WMA files using Samsung Media Studio is about three or four times faster than SonicStage transfers of 132kbps files to NW-E407 or NW-E99 devices. Deletion is much faster than Sony devices too.

The device file structure is a little messier than the Group options in SonicStage.

You can't move files accross folders using Media Studio.

I haven't yet tried video. Can't seem to get the Multimedia Studio to work properly to convert mpeg4 to svi (the format required by the T8).

Using the Samsung earbuds sounds much better than using the Sony earbuds. What was a massive bass line on the earbuds plugged to the Sony player is a good but not excessive bass line on the Samsung player. Whereas highs were muted on the Sony player with the Samsung earbuds, the Samsung earbuds on the Samsung player offer clear, crips highs and good transparency.

It should have been a Sony. Too bad.

Edited December 8, 2005 by Dinko

[Ascariss]

You traitor, you should be shot. j/k

Congrats on the purchase, but sadly the picture you took makes it look rather cheap in the comparison to the sony you also photographed.

1 gig is nice, but not enough for me, so flash based players fall off the screen for me right off the bat.

Props for the features like colour OLED, playback of the adiditional files, voice recording, FM recording (who will use that though?) and line in.

I would like to get your opinion on the quality of the line in. Games and alarm are 2 things I wouldn't need in a player. lol. The overall bulk of features does make it a lucrative buy, but it depends what you're after in a player in the end.

All in all, looks and build quality would be the factors that would lead to my decision. And since it looks like a cell phone and the plastic kind of looks cheap in your photo, press pictures make it look not bad though.

huge ass picture:

http://www.samsung.com/at/presscenter/imag...mp3/YP_T8_B.JPG

Why do people insist a player have wma support? Does napster have wma files offered in its service?

I only use 192 or above mp3s and really haven't used anything else since winamp is my main means of listening to music.

[Guest Stuge]

Looks like a great mp3 player with lots of features .When i went to buy nw-e505 in august i saw this player & i was amazed to see it but in India they only sell 256mb model & it was priced at around Rs 15000(around $328) ,Price too high for mp3 flash based player.

It's that little gizmo that does it all: play music, video, FM radio, recording... the works.

FM recording that would i like to see from Sony in near future

Why do people insist a player have wma support? Does napster have wma files offered in its service?

I think i have many files stored in wma .So i would also like sony to add this wma support(without converting into atrac).Since i`m living in India many sites doesn`t sel there music & if they then i need to give my credit -card number,which i`m not comfortable with ..

A space-saving power adaptor. Contrary to the flat & fat Sony adaptors that cover the whole power outlet, the Samsung adaptor has been designed to plug in the outlet and leave the outlet's other holes free for other use.

.

Yes i really agree with u .Sony adapters really space eating & they doesn`t leave any outlet for other adapters or anything.

Full printed manual

No full printed manual with NW-E505.Bacically they r trying to protect environment(see on the back side of the sony box there is information about ECO.INFO) but infact we need to switch on Computer to see its pdf manual which also wastes a lot of electricity.

There r many thing that sony an add but they r not listening to there customers

Thanx a lots for sharing ur review about this new gizmo(T8) & Congrats for buy it (new pinch)

Edited November 16, 2005 by Stuge