Samsung announces next-gen touch-screen player
Samsung's H1 MP3 player shows its pretty little face a bit early.
Looks like Samsung is taking a pre-emptive strike against any potential embargo slip-ups by jumping the gun with its CES announcements, at least on the portable audio side of things. The first device out the gate is the YP-H1, Samsung's next-generation touch-screen MP3 player and likely complement to the P3. In that vein, what say we go ahead and drop that "YP-" now, eh?
Since I won't have a chance to lay hands on the actual device until CES starts later this week, my initial impressions of the H1 are rather generic. It certainly seems pretty cool, with its transparent AMOLED display and slick interface. The player is distinguished by its tempered glass, 2-inch touch screen on top paired with a smattering of tactile controls on the bottom of the edges, namely volume buttons and a power/hold switch. In case you're wondering what it is exactly that makes this "transparent" screen so interesting, check out the photos below--the display is visible from the back of the device. It's definitely a neat effect, though the usefulness of such a feature is debatable.
More useful qualities include top-notch audio playback thanks to Samsung's DNSe 5.1 channel sound enhancement technology. File format compatibility extends to MP3, WMA, OGG, FLAC, AAC, M4A, WAV, and MP3HD--not a shabby list, really. In addition, the H1 support photo and video viewing, with support for MPEG4, WMV, H.264, Xvid, and DivX. Samsung also asserts a long battery life thanks to the low power consumption of the screen.
The Samsung H1 will be available in a 16GB model sometime in the first or second quarter of 2010. However, its pricing has not been released.