1 It was a great product but...
First, I fell in love with this tiny tiny MP3 player, it was great, I could say that I liked it more than my iPod mini. It was so small that I could carry my hunderds of favourite tunes anywhere.
However, I also had a problem with the firmware update as some of the other reviewers say. After the firmware update(which you can do from their website, and actually Samsung recommends you to do), the display started malfunctioning; it does not show menus properly anymore. For example, if I choose the "setting" from the menu screen, it leads me to "default volume" or if I try to play a particular song, the screen leads me to "format" etc, and it's happening in the entire menu screens, and I cannot choose correct commands or music files that I want to play anymore. I formatted it once, but it still does not work. I tried to reach people at Samsung, but no response. In my opinion, when you buy something, you are also buying their service, so I mean their service is also their product. In that sense, I am very dissatisfied because my MP3 player is not functioning right, but I cannot get any support from the manufacturer. So, now all I can do is to click on the play button to play and stop songs; I cannot choose what I want to listen to or other play modes such as shuffle or repeat or changing the equalizer settings.
Important!!! Besides, when you buy this product, as soon as you open the box, you will see an yellow piece of paper saying that
"IF YOU EXPERIENCE ANY TECHNICAL PROBLEMS WITH YOUR NEW SAMSUNG YEPP DIGITAL AUDIO PLAYER PLEASE CALL SAMSUNG CUSTOMER SUPPORT, TOLL-FREE..."
Yes, I have been trying doing that for 3 weeks, but I cannot reach anybody there. So, I am going to return it to the store in spite of whatever they say on it. And I will get a Sony's NW-E107 Network Walkman, which could play music with a single AAA battery for 70 hours, instead.
I am not trying to say that this product is terribly bad. However, if you buy this, you might love it, but you might also have the same problem as I am experiencing now. In fact, I ran a search engine on internet to see if there is anybody having the similar problems, and I found that there are a quite few people who have the same problem as I do. The product was great until it broke down, but after that, there is no grantee that you can get supports from them. Thus, if you think it's not big deal whether you can get satisfying supports or not when your device starts malfunctioning, then, this might be a good MP3 player for you(there is no grantee that you could be the next person like me), but otherwise, I would not recommend it to anybody.
2 works out of the box with Linux
I bought this player because of the Ogg support and that it acts as a removable storage device to load songs, so no proprietary software is needed. In fact, this works great under linux. Just plug it into the USB port and an icon appears on the desktop (under Fedora Core 3). Copy the files to /media/usbdisk/ and you are set.
The unit is very small. My only gripes are that the carrying case is pretty cheap, and the snaps used to fasten it add significantly to the thickness of the unit (although, this is also a testament to just how small this player is). Secondly, the flap that covers the USB port is hard to open -- I need to use a paper clip for this. This seems like something that will loosen up with use (hopefully).
3 Samsung YP-MT6 Z 1G MP3 player
I have this gear more than 2 weeks now and really "wow"ed by its rich sound quality. Battery life seems very good and not close to 40 hours as Samsung declared but rather close to 25-30 hours. Transfer 988M bytes MP3 only takes 9 minutes when compares with other no name brands MP3 flash players of more than 20 minutes.
Like other electronic gears, this pcs is not perfect and here are some unfriendly factors
1. Everytime download MP3 songs from PC to this gear through USB2 port, the "play mode reset to its default setting and requires re-program.
2. I accidently hit the record button and I needs to use PC to delete these voice files since I found it is very diffcult to delete the voice file w/o using the PC.
3. The play button also serves as power button and I found my myself constantly lightly touch the play button which cause device accicently turnon. In another words, the play button seems bit of "sensitive".
Other than these, I really enjoy this gear and bought another one already.
4 Fantastic!
I did a lot of research before buying this player and I believe it is the best in it's class. This thing is increadibly easy to use and has all the features you could ask for. The sound quality is excellent and I have had no problems what so ever with it. I notice some reviews with negative comments about file sorting. I have not had any problem with this. The navagation is very simple and logical. As for the bad review about the firmware upgrade, as far as I can tell, there is no available firmware upgrade for this player. The firmware that comes up on the support site is an older version then what's already installed on this model. That firmware is version 1.101. This player has version 1.111 installed. It would appear that this person has caused the problem for which he has given this player such a bad rating by installing the wrong firmware.
I can't vouch for the long term reliability of this player as I have not had it long, but I can tell you that in terms of features and function, this can't be beat!
5 Great player with needed firmware updates
Bought this player 2 months ago, and mostly happy. Actually, I bought the 512 version. Ran into the continually resetting problem. Took it back, and gambled by upgrading to the 1 gig. I have found that when it continually resets, changing the file name helps. Obviously, there is no way to do this while on the road, so it becomes a brick sometimes. Level 1 Samsung support did not know what a podcast is. He talked to Level 2, not much more help there. Heard firmware 1.2 is available from Korean Samsung site. Otherwise, a fine, small flash player.
6 A Great Value
I went to best buy with my mind set on buying a different model than this one. However, when I talked to one of the sales people there, they recommended buying this instead. I had purchased it, but I little apprehensive about it. Now that I've used it for a while, I am glad that I bought it. This player has many good features, 1. it plays any type of file, so you dont have to worry about what type of file you get. 2. it has an FM player with recording on it/ plus a voice recorder. i rarely use the recorders, but the quality is pretty good. the only bad thing that i would say about this is that it doesnt have an AM player. 3. the sound quality is amazing. i used to own a mp3 player that i bought from costco and the sound quality was horrible. this mp3 player really has good sound quality compared to any other player you will find.
I could go on and on about the other good things about this item. There are a few things that you should think about before you buy this, however. If you dont like a really small player, i recommend you buy a larger one, because this mp3 players controls are smaller than most of them. also, if you dont need 1 GB you should buy one with a smaller capacity. I realized after I purchased mine that I didnt need this much space. If you don't mind having a small player or one with a lot of song capacity, then you should definitely buy this. You won't regret it.
7 Believe the hype!
I must say that I was a bit skeptical when I purchased this item, but was relieved once I began to play around with it. I wanted a flash player that I would use exclusively for jogging. A hard drive would not work for hard runs, so I was looking for something without moving parts. I assumed that I would get a low volume, poor quality sound at best; I was wrong. The last thing I want to do while running is think about the fact that I am running. Therefore, I wanted volume and bass. This little player is adequate in both regards. It has a graphic equalizer so that you can adjust bass, treble and mid-range and volume comparable to a cassette Walkman. I was able to load over 150 songs into the unit (Mp3 format) and only use up about one-half the available memory. There is a one second pause between songs, so keep that in mind if you are wanting to make a "mix tape" that merges songs. If, however, you use a software package, like MAGIX, and you can remove track markers, you can load your mix tape as a single track. When you turn off the Samsung unit, it will return to the spot that you left off. However, keep in mind that there is no fast-forward function, so you will have to listen to every song in order. Personally, I found no problem with the navigation screen, and I did not miss any sort of armstrap, etc. The weight of the unit in my left hand balanced the weight of my house keys in my right. I was able to put songs in order by naming each with a three digit number at the beginning (001_, 002_, etc) as per the instructions. By changing the number, you can change the order of the songs. The software allows you to convert WAV files to Mp3 or WMA files, so you don't need any additional software to burn and compress. In a nutshell, my only complaints about this unit are the pause between songs, lack of a fast forward and the fact that you have to rename each track after conversion. However, the sound, volume, audio controls, ease of use (drag and drop) and convenience allow me to rate this with five stars in good conscience.
8 Great player, but....
Ok, I have the player, and I really like it. It is full of great features, it has a nice form factor, feels solid in your hands. It seems to be made very well, I have dropped it a few times, and it is no worse for the wear. The menus are easy to understand, and I love the little USB adapter that came with it.
Everything is great about it, except one thing: Even though it is a 1 gig player that also can be a mass storage device, it has a folder limitation. Yep, if there are more then about 20 or 30 folders in the player, things start to work erratically. Songs are not in folders on the player, but if you look using the PC, they are there. If you delete other folders, the songs that did not appear in the player previously, start to show up. At one point, I synced, and then could only play the one current song it was on. Anything navigating or track skipping would cause the player to reboot.
I spoke with a samsung level 2 tech support, and was told that I should only use 10 folders or less. He recommended I put all 400 of my files at the top level. He also said there is no firmware that he was aware of that is being worked on that will address this.
To me, having all my files in only 10 folders, when I have a gig of storage is unweildy, so I will likely be returning the player. This is unfortunate, as in all other ways, it is excellent.
9 They Don't Make Em This Way Any More...
How rare it is that I can give a 5 to a product. It isn't perfect but virtually nothing is and this is close. How often do you buy something to find out it doesn't come equipped with the basics which require you to buy more later? How often do you wish that many other features were present when you find out all the limitations? That doesn't happen here. Where oh where do I begin?
Let's start with the package. Not only do you get the mini-USB to USB-2 cable, but you ALSO get an ultraportable mini-USB adapater that is an inch long. But there's more. You get a cheap plastic cover with good cutouts for the buttons, you get an alkaline AA battery (how many never come with batteries?), decent pair of comfortable in ear headphones, necklace strap, acceptable software for ripping CDs and CONVERTING CDs and files from various formats to MP3, Ogg, WMA, etc., an EXTRA stereo to stereo 1/8" plug so you can go directly into a line in somewhere such as a car stereo -- nice so far eh? But you also do get a full GB of RAM too for a price that without the accessories is at or below the competition.
Now let's get to the actual unit. The FM radio is OK (not super strong but what did you expect? It's very reasonable.) Sonic quality is very reasonable to very good too (and I'm a musician) but what really compensates for any deficiency is the wealth of options such as preset EQs, WOW, SRS, and various different settings you can use to completely change the way the music sounds in your headphones. Amazing - I didn't like the way some of the files played until I found a superb setting that emphasized the bass a little but also had middle edge. Very cool. Using a Palm Treo I can say that the sound is virtually as good if not better, with the ability to add more effects to customize the way you like the sound. It can be punchy!
But there's more. You can setup various playlists, folders with different files so you can separate your albums and songs, It shows current and next song, does a quick fade from old song and fade into new song that really soothes the ear, records MP3 off the FM radio (!), has a weak but acceptable voice recorder (hey, it's just an extra) with a built in Microphone (only records in wav), upgradeable software (cool!), a neat blue light, and works forever on 1 AA battery (it really lasts very long, definitely over 30 hours.)
You'll find the menus pretty well setup and it's understandable that there is a little learning curve because you can't fit loads of buttons on it. However, it's pretty intuitive. It DOES have a hold button to prevent accident turn-ons.
Negatives? Very difficult to find and I'd say they are more wishful thinking for the next generation. Would be nice if voice recording would go directly into an encoded format. I wish the case was a little less plastic (the battery door is a little flimsy and handle with care.) Otherwise, this thing is barely bigger than an AA battery, is light, tiny, packs a HUGE amount of music if you put it in the superior OGG or WMA format (much more efficient than MP3)... oh yeah. Unlike the iPod you can drag and drop files onto it like it was a RAM stick and it will work to play audio files immediately and can also be used to store data.
I am unusually harsh on products and like to find those where manufacturers created a labor of love and wanted to give consumers good value for their money by building the better mousetrap. This is and even for the money it didn't skimp. I love this thing and didn't even expect to buy one...
10 FM Reception leaves much to be desired...
I bought this device mainly to get clips off of the radio, and because it is the smallest 1GB player made. However the size must have something to do with the quality of the radio, because it is very muffled. It is missing a whole lot of the upper spectrum of sound and so I will have to get something else.
All of it's other features appear to be top notch though, and 40+ hours on a penlight battery is where it's at!
11 great but have questions
Almost bought another player because I thought rechargeable might be better. At 42 hours, it is better to use a regular old battery!!! (and you could get rechargeable ones if you want.
My only issue with this is the playlist feature. It is hard to figure out how to make playlists.... I have put a zillion songs on here and to get them on the playlist you have to scroll through and mark each one (unless you want to do a whole folder). If you want to make a new playlist, you have to go through, find all your marked songs, and unmark them. This is VERY tedious. There needs to be a "clear all" function...unless I missed it. Also, I can't figure out how to easily ignore a playlist and just get it to play randomly from the entire collection. If anyone out there has figured out these issues, I would appreciate advice. Even though the instructions are pretty good...obviously they aren't perfect because I have the above issues that should have been in the instructions more clearly.
Having said all that, I love the player.
12 Hardly a complaint.
I did a lot of research before buying this player. I wanted something that was small in physical size, while still having a decent storage capacity and battery life. There are similar Yepp players, like the slightly smaller YP-T5Z, but I chose this model over that one because of the extra battery life (a boastfull 40 hours compared to the T5Z's 20).
First, let me say that it's a great comfort to be able to use something with ease straight out of the package. I opened it, put in the provided AA battery, connected it to my PC and after a simple drag and drop, it was ready to play. Very convenient, and you don't have to waste any space on your PC with peripheral software. It also can double as a jump drive, which is great. They even include a short usb key-style attachment, in case you don't want to use the longer usb cable (also provided). There's a line in cable as well, so you can connect and record from any device with a headphone jack. The flimsy case they give you is unnecessary, however, and it doesn't have holes for all of the buttons, just the main menu navigation nub, and a hole for the mic. Accessing the battery door or the line-in jack means removing that case, and it's a bit of a tight fit, so I personally do not use it at all. I think it's much more attractive that way. A sturdy lanyard is provided as well, but it's small enough to carry in your hand all the time, or in a pocket. Besides, the position of the lanyard loop throws the weight off center, and walking with the device around your neck may be a little more cumbersome than you'd like.
As for storage, it's 1gb, but of course, some space must be sacrificed for the player's internal interface. It's not enough to be really noticable, however. I opted to get this player, and not an iPod Mini, because I don't feel the need for 4 gigs, or 6 gigs of space. A single gigabyte is plenty for my needs. The space is more than sufficient. The radio is excellent, as are the other features. Recording from other devices is simple.
I've seen a few complaints about the sorting issues. I've noticed that it seems to take the files in the order that you add/move them. That's been my experience, at least. This may prove to be a problem when moving many files en masse, but it's a minor quip. The equalizer is amazing, and the volume is great.
I really have nothing bad to say about this player. Best bang for your buck if you want to get something that's just the right balance of size and storage.
13 Nice player with one real flaw
The only significant, if surmountable, problem with this player is the screwy ordering of music files. A previous reviewer mentioned this, but shoppers may not clearly understand: Any files without a numeric prefix appear in an apparently random order, not sorted alphabetically. This is especially bad for single pieces/songs divided into multiple files, as with movements in classical music. So, even if you have a numeric suffix, such as "BachPartita1.wma", "BachPartita2.wma", and "BachPartita3.wma", they may not play in order unless you prefix them as "001BachPartita.wma", "002BachPartita.wma", and "003BachPartita.wma". Fortunately, file renaming utilities (a free one is called File Renamer) can be used to quickly rename groups of files, but obviously this is still tedious and dumb. NOTE: I've tried to add a note to this review about Samsung Support's very poor response to this problem, but Amazon won't post it. So, one should distrust all reviews on Amazon.
But I'm willing to work around this problem because I'm happy with the player and impressed with the sound quality and features found in such a tiny package. It's the best choice among the Flash-based music players and doesn't have the downsides of the hard disk-based players.
Strengths:
-- Use of a single AA battery gives good battery life and I can share spare rechargeable AA's with my still camera. I've only gotten about 24-30 hours leaving the player on continuously, but this still beats most other players handily. One can find a spare AA anywhere, and rechargeable AA's are inexpensive. The proprietary lithium battery game with iPods and other players was something I wanted to avoid, and I didn't want to carry yet another charger on the road.
-- WMA file format provides equivalent quality at half the size of MP3 format, letting you fit more music on the player. I'd already converted a large part of my CD collection to WMA, so this saved me a lot of work. An iPod or Sony player would require conversion to their AAC or ATRAC formats, or MP3. I refuse to buy AAC tracks from iTunes and be locked into an iPod.
-- A flash memory-based player is more rugged, smaller and lighter than a hard disk-based one (and allows use of AA batteries). A gigabyte holds about a third of my collection, and encourages better discipline for me: when I carried my whole collection around, I found it too easy to stick with familiar music, and a 1GB limit encourages me to listen to new stuff while still providing a large selection. (On a long trip, I can transfer from my laptop computer.)
-- The display is of course far better than the one on the iPod Shuffle, which doesn't have one. :) It's small, so one has to wait for long names to scroll by and it's not especially readable in the car while cranked up on meth and being chased by the police, but the contrast and backlight are good.
-- The FM tuner is of course much better than the one in the iPods, which don't have one. :) And when NPR airs a story about my CEO being jailed for fraud, I can just press Record and it gets saved in MP3 format, compressed to a selected bitrate and ready to be played at the company picnic. The sound quality is good, though recording at anything less than 128Kbits is not recommended for music.
-- The user-interface was pretty easy to figure out and it's been natural to use. Some menus could be better organized, but the interface gets four stars out of five. I've only looked at the manual for a couple of things. There are many user-settable preferences.
-- There are several equalizer and bass-enhancement settings, and a custom equalizer. The WOW setting seems to introduce low-amplitude noise, so I use the TruBass setting and get great results.
-- The build quality looks solid. Based on this player and their phones, it looks like Samsung has reached quality parity with other top-tier electronics companies.
-- Looking carefully at competing flash-based players, I found these problems: Creative Labs players seem to easily break and I see reports of noise problems and numerous firmware fixes. SanDisk players seem flimsy and many people complain about their baffling user-interface. iRiver also seems to have quality control trouble and, fatally, their devices don't appear as a disk when connected to a computer (i.e., as USB mass storage), require iRiver's software to copy music to them, and prohibit copying from the device to a computer (i.e., you can't use it as a general flash drive).
Minor weaknesses:
-- USB transfers could be faster. The specs say it transfers at 18Mbits/sec, which isn't much faster than USB 1's 11Mbits. Other players go faster.
-- No audio is heard when seeking within a track (fast forward/rewind), though comments I've seen about slow seeking seem unfounded. It gradually accelerates to one minute per second.
-- The carrying case is minimal, with no armband or belt clip. The lanyard is good, but all lanyards tangle with headphone wires.
-- The square shape means the player doesn't settle into a single orientation when hanging from one's neck on the lanyard. (Shows an advantage of the iPod Shuffle's shape.)
-- Voice recording can apparently only be done to uncompressed WAV format, at 8KHz, using 4-bit sampling (!), making for very low quality that's just barely usable for voice. You could get back to FBI headquarters and find that Tony Soprano's murder confession is unintelligible. Seems like they could have used MP3 encoding (as with FM recording) for much better quality even at the same data rate (32Kbits/sec).
-- Variable-bitrate (VBR) tracks don't display elapsed time.
Even with its one glaring flaw, this is the all-around best flash-based music player out there.
14 Great product, future upgrades may make it better
I just bought my player yesterday and I am very happy with it. It is very small, LCD is clear and the sound quality is great. My only complaints are that the rewind/fast forward speeds are constant and not very fast. This can be kind of a pain if you are trying to find your spot in a 60 minute PodCast. The other complaint is that the file sorting seems a bit limited. The only way I can get it to sort correctly is if I have the track number as the first two digits of the file name. If the track number follows the artist or album name, it does not sort correctly. Hopefully these will be fixed in future firmware upgrades. All-in-all, however, I am very satisfied.
As a follow up: I have been using my player primarily with OGG files. However, I have had frequent "lock-ups" that can only be cleared by removing the battery. Some OGG files will just not play on it, some will just cause it to turn off. After I convert the OGG's to MP3's things seem to work fine. Again, this is probably something that they can fix in the firmware.
15 Best MP3 Player to date!
Pros: Ok, so this has got to be the best MP3 player on the market right now! MICRO size - not much bigger than the AA battery that powers it! 1 gig of space, can fit like 8-10 albums of music, more than you can listen to in any one sitting. The sound quality with WOW sound is phenomenal and if you find that distracting, you can always change to a different equalizer setting or create your own. I'd recommend trying some different headphones (The Sony ED21LP sound GREAT!), since the headphones are just as important as the player itself if not more, and the stock ones aren't too great. It has 42 hours, count em, 42 hours of battery life - almost TRIPLE what most of the others have. It also apparently has decent radio features such as good reception and direct mp3 encoding, although I haven't really used them as of yet. Lastly, it is very sturdy and well made compared to the Sandisk flash players I've tried. If a small-sized, amazing sound, feature-rich audio player is what you are looking for, then I would say the Samsung MT6Z is for you.
Cons: Value. I paid $157 total for 1 gig which is $157/gig while the IPOD 20GB can be had for $270 so it is $13.5/gig. Clearly a difference, but if you don't need so much music with you all the time, then that shouldn't be such a big deal considering the size. BUY IT!
16 Buy it now
This MP3 player is awesome. You will love how small it is and the sound is very, very good. Battery life of 42 hours kills the competition and 1 GB memory is enough for most people's needs. It takes about 15-20 minutes to explore all the features, but after that, it is very easy to all the features. I really love the built in FM tuner and you can record your favorite hit songs off the radio and transfer them to your PC if needed. I could not part from this now. I am very thrilled with it. Another thing I like is that you can copy mp3's in directories onto it and play single directories or the entire collection with shuffle or according to playlist. The only thing I wish it had was a built in clip for the gym. Currently, it comes with a necklace to wear, but I would love a clip in addition. You will be thrilled, I promise. Buy it.
17 Best Flash Based MP3 Player!!!
I am very pleased with this product. The MT6Z is amazing with its compact design and stellar battery life. Additionally, the MT6Z also has FM radio, voice recorder(I use it to record my classes), and the ability to record radio or from an external audio source. But the thing that blew me away is the quality of the sound especially with WOW. I have 3 MP3 players (IPOD Mini, Sony NW-HD3, Samsung MT6Z) and I use this the most due to its portability and phenomenal battery life. Why Samsung doesn't advertise this more aggressively is beyond me. They have a great product on their hands. IMHO this is a much better MP3 player than the IPOD Shuffle. If you are looking for a flash based MP3 player look no further. You will not be disappointed. Although you might get a better deal with hard drive based MP3 players, they will not be as portable as flash based ones. But thats comparing apples and oranges.
Pros:
1. 42 Hour Battery Life (with one AA battery)
2. FM Radio, Voice Recorder (Very audible)
3. Small size (size of a lipstick case)
4. Ease of use
5. USB 2.0 connection (also functions as a UMD)
6. LCD Display (IPOD Shuffle doesn't have one)
7. Overall a good value for a multi-purpose flash based MP3 player
Cons: Slightly more expensive than IPOD Shuffle and Sandisk but worth the extra cost in my opinion
