While we weren't too impressed with the battery life of Samsung's first portable video player, the YEPP YH-999 PMC, we were taken with its striking and stylish design. The opposite is true of the company's latest PVP--which is not a Portable Media Center--the YM-P1. Its rated battery life of 6 hours for video (15 for audio) is impressive, but the design isn't particularly inspiring. It's not ugly, though, and it has a nice, wide screen (4 inches diagonally) on which video looks great, probably due to the 16 million-color display capability. The control layout is also straightforward and intuitive with a four-way joystick; a play/pause key; and Menu, Back, and Tool buttons all on the right side (front) of the player. On the left side (front) of the player is a single speaker, which gets surprisingly loud and actually doesn't sound horrible. Like all PVPs, the YM-P1 plays back music, photos, and video. Supported audio formats include MP3, WMA (Janus included), OGG, and AC3. Compatible video formats are MPEG-4, DivX, XviD, AVI, and WMV. JPEG and BMP images and TXT files are also viewable on the device. The YM-P1 works as a video recorder as well, so you can record directly from your TV and unprotected DVDs. And you can connect the player to a TV to view stored content with VGA resolution. Additional features include an FM tuner, a voice recorder, and USB host capability that lets you connect a camera for photo off-loading. An SD card slot allows for memory expansion.

Article discussion: Samsung YP-M1 Portable Media Player