Samsung YP-T7
Samsung's YP-T7 is a tiny flash-based MP3 player, which isn't as cheap as an iPod Shuffle, but it features a voice recorder, in-line recording, an FM radio and a 65K-colour screen that can display JPEG photos.
Like SanDisk's Sansa E100 series, different coloured models represent different capacities on the YP-T7. It comes in three different models, blue, black and silver, which correspond to 256MB, 512MB and 1GB of storage space, respectively.
Supported music formats are MP3, WAV, WMA, OGG and ASF and unlike Apple's budget iPod Shuffle flash player, which has no display, the Samsung YP-T7 sports a text viewer. An interesting feature is that it allows you to schedule recordings FM radio, which it then stores as MP3 or WAV files.
Accessories bundled with the YP-T7 include a neck chain, headphones, CD, carry case, USB cable, direct connect USB adaptor, line in cable and charger.
Downside: The YP-T7's 65K-colour screen is going to draw a lot of power from the internal battery, which might mean more frequent recharging. However, the Korean manufacturer claims the battery lasts up to 10 hours - we'd be interested to see how long this means in real world situations, though. Without any room for expansion cards, users wanting to add more memory as their digital music collection grows will need to purchase a higher capacity player.
Outlook: The recommended retail price for the YP-T7 starts at AU$229 for the 256MB model. The 512MB and 1GB versions have an RRP of AU$279 and AU$329, respectively. With the advances in flash memory, Samsung is hoping to have 2GB and 4GB solid state players on the market by the end of 2005.
Another colour-screen flash player, the YP-T7F, is expected to be released locally in August, 2005. Samsung claims the TF7 will play DivX files on its screen and allow direct DivX encoding from sources such as a DVD player, provided it is not copy-protected content.