Midget Music Players

[bgerber]

Can a music player ever be too small? Choose between convenience and control, color and monochrome, cuteness and connectivity with the iPod shuffle and Samsung's blue-lit YP-U2. You may be surprised by the audio quality too: we think Samsung has the edge here.

 

[warezme]

the mobiblu was mentioned but no comparison was made. It is not bigger than the shuffle. It also does MP3 audio voice recording, built in FM tuner, graphic equalizer and OLED screen for file management, works as an external drive. Paired with a pair of E3Shure earbuds sounds outstanding and I bet its probably cheaper.

 

[Luscious]

It's so ironic considering that only a few years ago cellphone makers were bitten by the same bug - how much smaller can we make the cellphone. Motorola came out with the v66 and then Samsung released an even tinier model.

But as we have seen with cellphones, small size versus features is a tough battle. Technology can only get you so far, and for maufacturers to make money and consumers to get hooked, in the end it is features that sell.

For my money, I'm very happy with my PPC phone. It fits in my pocket nicely, and I can pull it out anywhere and watch a full-length movie on it. Heck, for the price of a video ipod, it does WAY MORE for me than just play movies and music!!!

 

[brendanh]

My YP-U2 also has an FM radio which this article does not mention. Great little player, there is no smaller flash player with a radio and USB jack. Great for running. Got it from Pixmania so think it's a continental europe one rather than UK. God knows why Samsung cripples them for some countries by removing the radio.

 

[marypcb]

the import tax, Brendan; the EU slaps a far higher import tax on anything with digital recording capabilities and they've been doing the same for FM radio-enabled players, but several companies have told me this is due to end and they'll be going with the same spec for UK and US soon (and the sooner the better). Other companies leave out the FM radio rather than raise the price in a market where they believe price shifts more units than features.