Samsung Yepp Hip-Hop 64MB Digital Audio Player (Blue)

Yepp is one of smallest and lightest MP3 players on the market. You can connect it to your belt with its handy belt clip or you can carry it in your pocket and barely notice itå«s there. Yeppå«s 3-line LCD display lets you see the titles of the songs stored on your MP3 player. This feature will come in handy, since the Real Jukebox PC software that is provided with yepp lets you put together custom play lists of your choosing. Yepp can be used to access a phone directory of hundreds of personal contacts. The information is entered on your PC and is downloaded in the same way that you would download an MP3 music file from your PC. You can record up to two hours of voice using yepp's voice recording function. Record your early morning history class or use it to store messages that will remind you of things you need to do. You can then e-mail your voice messages to anyone you want!MP3 audio playback 64MB built-in flash memory SDMI-compliant ready SmartMedia

The Samsung Yepp Hip Hop is easily one of the coolest-looking digital audio players around, and we found ourselves offering it up like an excited kid at show and tell. The player's small size and its groovy translucent blue color never failed to impress coworkers and friends, while its excellent sound also produced raves.

The most outstanding feature of the Yepp Hip Hop is its size--only 3.2 by 2.4 by 0.97 inches and 1.7 ounces. It's the size a deck of cards (and just a bit lighter), and it fits neatly into a plastic pouch for wearing around the neck. We were a little dubious about how comfortable the neck cord would be, but a trip to the laundromat with the Hip Hop went off without a hitch. The player was barely noticeable, and so light it didn't get in the way of fluffing and folding. Yet the controls were easily reached and the great sound made the hours of drudgery fly by. Better yet, it never skipped a beat even when it was inadvertently slammed against a dryer a few times.

Samsung has packed 64 MB of onboard memory into the Hip Hop, enough for 60 minutes of music without fiddling with cards or paying for more memory. But if you want more playback, the player's SmartMedia slot has room for flash memory cards for another 64 MB, enough for another hour of music and an impressive capacity for an MP3 player at this price. Sound quality was very good even with the included cheapo earphones--the dynamic range was crisp and had clean tones at both high and low ends.

To download music to the Hip Hop, use the included USB cable to access the player's flash memory, format it, and transfer songs. You will need a USB port on your PC and Windows 98 or 2000 (Windows 95 and NT are not USB-compatible); it is also compatible with Mac OS 7.0 and above. Follow the directions in the manual for adding a USB driver to your system.

The Yepp Hip Hop comes with RealJukebox software for ripping CDs, which took quite a bit of tinkering to get it to work right. (Make sure to check security and encoding settings.) The Hip Hop's manual didn't help much and unless you log on to the Internet, you won't have access to RealJukebox help. But once the software was all set up, it took us only about 30 seconds to encode a track into MP3 format, and then another minute or two to move it to the Hip Hop. Figure on 45 minutes to fill up the full 64 MB memory.

Controls on the Hip Hop are basic. The buttons are the size of BBs, which were sometimes difficult to operate. The included remote control with backlit LCD adds a few more features, like reverse, hold, and four equalizer settings, but search functions are primitive.

Ultimately, its software and hardware limitations might not make it the best MP3 player deal on the market. But with its cool design, sound quality, and portability, the Yepp Hip Hop more than holds its own as an entry-level MP3 player. --L.E. Klein

Pros:

Tiny and light--can be worn around the neck
Good sound quality
Comes with remote and earphones

Cons:

Basic search functions
Software is a pain

Listen to Internet music anytime and anywhere by downloading MP3 music files from your PC to the Samsung Yepp Hip Hop digital audio player. This compact, light player (just 1.7 ounces) comes with 64 MB of internal flash memory and has a slot for SmartMedia memory cards. It has a four-mode equalizer (classic, jazz, rock, and normal) and a backlit LCD screen, and it runs on two AAA batteries for approximately 8 hours of playing time.

It connects to your PC via a USB cable, which is compatible with PCs running Windows 98 or 2000 with a USB port. The Hip Hop plays MP3 files and is SDMI compliant. It comes with a USB cable, 2 AAA batteries, and a CD-ROM with file management, CD ripping, and MP3 playing software for the PC.

1 BATTERY DOOR/COVER... BAD CONCEPT!
THIS MP3 PLAYER IS NOT REALLY THAT BAD. ALTHOUGH THE DOWNLOADS ARE PRETTY SLOW AND GRUELING.

MY BEEF? HERE IT IS... I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW THE GOOFBALL WHO DESIGNED THE BATTER DOOR THAT KEEPS THE BATTERY IN PLACE. TOTALLY BAD CONCEPT AND DESIGN. FUNNY THING IS, THEY GIVE YOU AN EXTRA BATTER DOOR BUT THIS IS NOT WHERE THE PROBLEM OCCURS.
THE SMALL "TOOTH" THAT THE BATTER DOOR CLOSED ONTO, BROKE OFF AND A NEW DOOR MEANS NOTHING WITHOUT THAT SMALL "TOOTH" TO CLING TO. I REALLY DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO... I FEEL LIKE I HAVE WASTED A LOT OF MONEY HERE!...

2 Poor design and service overshadows decent features
This is a small, lightweight unit that has all the requisite features expected in an mp3 player. It does not, however have some of the niceties found in other players such as song title display, voice recording, rechargeable batteries, or song playlists. It also plays ONLY mp3 files, not any other formats.

The player comes with:
-Unit
-Wired remote
-Earbud headphones
-CD with Real Jukebox software for ripping/uploading songs
-Extra battery door
-Belt clip
-USB to mini USB cable

Here are the key points to know about this player:
-Functions: The unit itself has volume up/down buttons, stop (power off), play/pause (power on), ff/scan, rew/scan, and a handy hold switch to lock the player in either play/off to prevent accidental bumping of buttons. The headphone port also works as the remote control port (when using remote, headphones attach to remote itself), but can be used with just headphones. There are also 3 EQ settings, but these can only be accessed via the remote. There is no LCD display on the unit itself, only a green/red LED that indicates status.
-Sound quality: While I haven't listened to scores of players, the sound rates as good or better than the other players such as Rio's, Nomad's, and Sony's I've tried. Works with low (32kbps) and high (128 ) bitrate mp3's.
-Remote: The remote is a small cylinder (about size of roll of 35mm film) with a small LCD display that indicates song number (not name), time, volume, EQ, and battery status. The display is also backlit for a few seconds upon each button press. It has the same controls as the main unit, including another hold button(each are independent) and the EQ button. This is a handy feature for those who want the unit stashed away in a pocket and just the remote handy. It has a nice spring clip to attach it somewhere on your clothing or bag strap. The headphones attach to the remote itself, which explains why the included headphones have such a short cord (does not reach from my hip to my ears without remote!)
-Uploading software: Included is the RealJukebox software to burn mp3's (up to 128kbps), manage files, and upload mp3's to the player via USB cable. Personally, I like the Jukebox software, but it can be a pain unless you are meticulous about making sure the file info is accurate (genre, artist, title, etc). Another option is to go to the Samsung website and download the YEPP explorer which just lets you drag and drop. Also, the Yepp explorer is the only way to rearrange song order on your player. Jukebox will not let you do this. I use the Yepp explorer now. The upload times seem hideously long for a USB player. Not sure if this is inherent in the SmartCard flash memory architecture, but when compared to a compact flash card I use for my digital camera, it's like molasses. To upload 64MB of songs, takes about 8 minutes. Not much faster than a serial connection I used for an older Nomad player. If you like changing songs frequently, keep this in mind.
-Battery life: Decent, about 8-10 hours without the remote. About 6-8 with the remote, as it has a display and backlight.
-Poor design throughout: My main beef with this player is that there are some real shoddy design elements such as the battery latch and the belt clip. First off, the battery door design is so poor, they acknowledge it by including an extra battery door! Well, what happens if, as in my case, it's the latch on the unit itself that breaks? Here is the direct quote from Samsung customer support:
"Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts. Broken component are considered out of warranty conditions. I'm sorry our player did not perform to your expectations." That's it? I knew the latch was doomed, because it's so small and narrow and would fatigue over repeated battery replacements. So now I am sadly relegated to utilizing masking tape to keep the batteries in place because it's one of those designs where the battery door acts as the contact and counters the battery springs on the other end as opposed to a more sensible design that houses all contacts within the unit itself, with the door only acting as an access cover. This of course means every time I need to change batteries (since this has no rechargeable ones), I must break out the masking tape. ...! Then there's the belt clip, glorified strips of plastic that criss cross all over the unit, covering half the buttons. The last time I saw a clip like this, it was on my cousin's original Sony walkman from 1980! Functionally, it works, and you can still press the buttons through the plastic. I have run with it and worked out with it frequently, though the cheesy plastic holster makes me cringe in public. These poorly designed elements reflect the gap between Samsung's vision of quality with that of other brands like Sony. This unit was denied a proper QA review before heading to production, and just before shipping, someone said "hey how about a belt clip? oh and throw in an extra battery door".

In conclusion, while this player does everything it needs to, it does absolutely nothing more. Also beware of some shoddy design and a battery cover that will require masking tape within a year. If you can live with that, and you can find this unit cheap enough to justify these hassles, go for it. Otherwise, look elsewhere because Samsung's customer service will only tell you sorry it didn't live up to your expectations.

3 Exceeded Expectation
I bought the Yepp for my wife last Christmas, who has used it daily without issue. Due to it's light weight and small size, she comfortably wears it at the gym and while running on the track. Loading music has been simple and trouble free, and the sound is excellent. Battery life has been longer than anticipated - averaging about 20 hours of playtime between changes.

4 Buggy software, lousy support
This is a great player in and of itself, but God help you if you have problems with the player. For reasons no one at Samsung can identify, my laptop no longer recognizes my MP3 player. I spent an hour on tech support with Samsung, and the end result was the tech throwing his hands up in exasperation, mailing me a new driver disk, and telling me to try that. I received the disk and tried to reinstall the drivers, but the computer still does not recognize the device. I tried installing the player on two other machines and had the same problem.

A follow-up call to Samsung resulted with the basic response that I should just buy a new player.

If you like truly awful support, I highly recommend Samsung's products. :)

5 Buggy
I used this player for approximately 30 hours. To get those 30 hours of music, it required at least 12-16 hours of maintenance, research on the web and re-adding files to the player.
Though, never mentioned in any documentation I found, the player's software is extrememly sensitive to the order in which you disconnect the player from your USB port and close the desktop software. This problem eventually locked the player into a mode I can not break it out of. When powered on, the red light never goes off and the player responds to nothing.
I've purchased a new Rio player and love it. I didn't have the patience to make any more of a time investment into a player with minimal funtionality and a limited storage capacity. Sorry, Samsung.
PS - I made the mistake of buying this from a retail store instead of Amazon, and they won't help me at all! Amazon is more reliable for purchase support and rectification of disgruntlement than any other large-scale vendor I've dealt with.

6 Worked for what I wanted...
I was looking for a lightweight MP3 player that I could use while jogging, but that had some actual capacity. The sound is great, it's light, battery longevity is great, and the cheap plastic belt clip that came with it actually works. The "hold" button helps keep the device from turning on accidentally (easy to do with that big play button)... okay now the gripes: that belt clip doesn't fit very well, especially over the display connector. That whole separate LCD display thing doesn't work for me either... I'd rather have it on the device itself. I never use it. And I'd like it to display song names, not just numbers. It came with Real Jukebox, which is no longer supported by Real Networks(and the new "RealOne" doesn't support the Yepp either). And, I'm worried about the batter cover... I have a feeling it will break soon. But so far, I love it!

7 Newer version much better
When I bought my Yepp, I absolutely loved it. Then newer models were released and I lost my attention span (plus I lost my usb cable to my laptop).

This is a fun gizmo to have and to carry around with you when you want a small MP3 player. It's downfall is that the thing eats batteries like I eat my cereal - one set a day (okay, it's actually around 5-8 hours of playing time). However, with an expansion card, this thing can carry about a CD on it, and the funky colours really are eye-appealing. So the pros are: cute, fun, perky colour, and sturdy design, but the cons are: eats batteries, no wall plug, and limited storage capacity.

8 I thought it was exactly what I wanted
I had the same problem others have - I upgraded to RealOne without realizing that it wouldn't support the player. When I uninstalled RealOne and tried to put RealJukebox back, it won't install properly, so I can't change the music on my machine. Very frustrating. If someone has a solution, let me know.

9 Excellent product
After much deliberation I bought this player last summer to use while running and working out, and so far I absolutely love it. I ditched the headphones that came with it because I didn't like the earbud style, and I never use the remote because I don't really see the point. Other than that, the sound quality is superb, and it is light enough that I can't feel it clipped on when I run. I think the software is very easy to use, but for a computer novice I can see where it might be a little confusing at first. I have friends and family who have purchased other brands and comparing this one to theirs, I highly recommend this player.

10 Beware XP user!!
I bought this product last year and was very happy with it. Sure the Real Jukebox software was clumsy and the USB transfer rate is slow, but anyone can overcome that. What you can't overcome is using this product after upgrading your OS to XP. I reloaded the Jukebox software that came with the unit and couldn't get the thing to read out the song list or re-format to change out the songs. After upgrading to RealOne, I discovered there is no support for the Samsung Yepp Hip-Hop 64. Now I have to listing to the same 20 songs over and over and over again.

11 Samsung Yepp really is Hip-Hop!
I purchased the Samsung Yepp 64MB player for my 15 year old daughter in December. She had very little problems following instructions and downloading her favorite songs. She is a runner and enjoys listening to music. It has been excellant! We did purchase a different head set, but other than that, I would highly recommend it to anyone! The best part for me was Amazons great price.

12 Maybe it's pretty, but you can do better.
I've had my Yepp for about a year now, and the headphone jack is just about worn out (you have to constantly manipulate the headphones to make it sound normal) and the battery case needs to be held on with a rubber band because an important piece of plastic snapped off. I don't know if this reflects on product quality or my treatment of it, but either way, it's no good.
Transfer times are painfully slow, and even worse when transferring to the Smart Media card (which you must buy separately, I paid about 100 bucks for mine). The Yepp comes with a version of RealJukebox you can't get anywhere else, and mine is constantly crashing and needing to be re-installed. Searching through tracks can be tedious, especially when you've got two hours of music to go through. On the upside, battery life isn't too bad, and the Yepp is very compact, lightweight and portable. But it's expensive, and for [a little more] more, you can get an MP3 player with a capacity in gigabytes, not megabytes.

13 No XP Drivers
I bought this as an X-mas gift for family. Found out that there were no XP drivers available. Customer service told my bro that they had no intention of developing any.

14 I Love my Hip Hop Yepp
I received a 64mb Yepp Hip Hop player as a Christmas gift. It's got a great look. People are always stopping me at the gym to ask about it. It is so small and light. I don't know how I ever bothered with the portable CD player I used to use. The sound is amazing. When I have shown it to other people, they are just blown away by how great it sounds. Being able to hold 2 hours worth of music in such a small space is fantastic.

My only beef with it is that the instructions are weak and the manual doesn't help with the setup much. The realjukebox software is not great and I had to fiddle with it to figure out how to download songs to the player. But, once I figured it out, it works perfectly. Oh, and I haven't yet had to change the battery, which is amazing...I was going through batteries every week with the CD player.

Overall, a great buy!

15 Samsung should stick to toasters
Received this item as a Christmas gift. When I tried to install it (on a current, clean Compaq running Windows Me)I ran into the biggest driver problems I have EVER seen setting up ANY hardware. I followed not only the information that came with the Yepp (which when it comes to set-up leaves a lot to be desired) but also the supposed "fixes" for driver problems that are on the Samsung Yepp web page.

No luck.

Then called the Yepp 800 number for support three times, which resulted in three different people giving me three completely different sets of directions ("it's your Windows, uh...no, it's your hard drive...uh, no, it's the set up CD...). When one of these so-called "engineers" told me "well, we get at least 8 phone calls a day with this problem" I knew I was dealing with a product that was NOT finalized when it was thrown out onto the market. Bottom line: the Yepp was returned to the store. Want a user friendly Digital Audio player? Look elsewhere!

16 Samsung yepp-Nearly Perfect
This MP3 player is great! Excellent Sound, VERY light weight decent storage(also easily upgradeable), portable and just all around good. i wanted an MP3 player that i could take on the go and listen to music, for instance a bus or airplane, with the Yepp hip hop you get all that it has a remote too thta you can select your song from. the only downside is no on player LCD screen and no playlist option. I dont care though it is a greatplayer, I hope this is helpful

17 Excellent Mp3 Player, Worth Every Penny
First off, I just wanted to say that you do NOT need the included software to upload songs to the player. As it is very cumbersome, it isn't required. If you go to samsungyepp.com and go to support, you can download the program for it. But aside the horrible software included, it's absolutley the best mp3 player out on the market. Sporting a funky, hip looking blue case, it makes it seem like nothing on the competition can beat it in that division. The sound quality on the unit is very good, especially with the equalizer funcitons. The included remote is another plus in that it has a backlight and easy to read. Only one complaint for the remote is that it's sorta hard to navigate, considering the diminutive size of the buttons. Samsung's main focus on this player is clearley implied that they wanted to keep it simple but still with power. Your truly getting your money's worth for 64mb for mem. Also, If you hurry up and buy it before 12/31/01, you can get a free smart media card. Don't pass up on this one, get it while's its still available.

Positives:

+ Small, funky Design
+ Great sound
+ Useful, remote
+ Great Price
+ Good Quality

Negatives:

- Earphones uncomfortable
- Buttons on remote and unit small

18 Nice Features, awkward record/transfer
I really like the weight/size. It is great for exercising, especially running. The set up using Real JukeBox was very frustrating (and I am a programmer). I'm not sure if there is an alternate way of loading the files, but RealJukebox is a nightmare. Expect to spend about 2 hours minimum to record and load your music.

19 thinking about buying from samsung? think again!
I've been through THREE Samsung players in the past year. Each time there's been a problem, Samsung has been reasonable about exchanging the unit for a new one, that is until the warranty ran out last month! Now I'm on my own! The battery latch is not designed well at all, and mine broke after a 1 foot fall. Also, the headphone jack isn't well soddered so the stereo sound keeps kicking in and out. And don't think you can get your YEPP player fixed if something does go wrong after your warranty expires, their "service" department simply replaces defective units under warranty and recommends that you buy another one if anything goes wrong afterwards! Talk about a company that won't stand behind its products!

20 Definitely the best mp3 player
I've had a rio 600, and it was good at first until it broke. The Yepp is awesome. It has a ton of great features, and only a couple bad ones that arent a big deal, but you just wish it had them. The sound is awesome and is WAY loud, it looks cool(the 1st day I had it 6 people asked what it was), it's very durable, and the software that comes with it is really good.(It comes with an -mp3,rmx- extractor/"ripper"<---for all the posers). Whoever says to transfer songs, it takes about 2 hours is wrong(unless they are running 90mhz processors or something), because I filled up the whole 64mb and my 32mb smartmedia card(which the software detected without a problem) in about 10-15 minutes. One of my favorite things is that when you are playing the YEPP, a green light flashes and looks cool.(its red when the USB cable is hooked up)
The only reason I give the YEPP a 4 is for a couple reasons. 1) the buttons are pretty small(no big deal) 2) I'm left-handed and the remote is backwards when i look at it(no big deal) 3) The software is sort of a pain to get going(just read the instructions), but this is partially due to the fact that I run Windows 2000.

21 High Quality Sound, Small, Really Slow Data Transfer
The Yepp Hip-Hop is everything you read. Small, light, great sound quality (especially if you buy better headphones, the ones that come with it I dislike), and best MP3 price/performance/memory ratio to date IMHO (Aug, 17, 2001).

But I have to add that the data transfer rate for this is not good, even though it uses USB, transfering 64MB to the player takes waaaaaaaay to long. This isn't a reason not to buy it, but you'll have to schedule your life around this fact.

22 Small but mighty
It took me a while before I was able to jump into the MP3 universe. My problem was that I am a dedicated Mac user and the universe is a smaller place when it comes to MP3 players. After looking at all of the models currently available, I found the Samsung Yepp to be a near-perfect match. I say near-perfect because it does take a bit of effort to get things up and running (the manual is a disappointment)--but only a bit. First off, the CD shipped by Samsung with the Yepp does have Mac-compatible software that allows you to download MP3 files to your Yepp but it does not include software to convert audio files to MP3s. Problem solved, though: just go to the Apple web site and download iTunes--for free! ... Once you get used to the process, downloading files to your Yepp is relatively painless. Once there, the unit performs very well. Sound quality is excellent, controls are easy to access and work well and the remote is full-featured and accessible. The SmartMedia card slot also works with no problems. I have read other reviews here which say that you must have a Samsung proprietary SmartMedia card--not true! I purchased a Sandisk 64mb card, formatted it (a snap!) loaded it up from my Yepp and it worked perfectly first time out! You do need to be careful to purchase a SmartMedia card that operates on a 3.3v format--this info is clearly stated on the SmartMedia packaging. Some folks have complained about only being able to load about an hour of music on the internal flash memory. I can't say that bothers me too much. I've considered an MP3 player which actually has a 6gb hard drive but it is subject to skipping despite its antishock system. Also, they're bigger and heavier. You put the Yepp in your pocket or clip it to your belt or backpack strap and forget it's there. I've also read complaints about the controls being difficult to access and use--again, not true, for me at least. The remote's digital read out does not carry the name of the song playing and that is a bit of a disappointment, but considering all of the Yepp's advantages and its excellent functional and aesthetic design, that disappointment is merely a gnat on the windshield. This MP3 player is well worth the bucks. If you have any questions--especially Mac users--please feel free to send them my way .... I'll try to help.

23 this is a great product!
i own a 64mb yepp player....my only problem is that 64mb (64 min.) is not enough time. but, if that's my only problem, then it's obvious that this is an excellent buy.

24 It's just about perfect.
Ignore the whole "Hip Hop" style thing, which is just a little bit of a gimmick. Really, this is an ultra-tiny, perfect working MP3 player. I listen to a lot of house and techno on it, usually with VBR encoding, and although I've run against the 64MB wall quite a bit, the addition of a smart media card in addition to the 64 MB on board is a huge help there. Rather than just limit you to one card at a time, you always have 64MB, and a card, available to you for storage.

The sound is clear at low and high volumes, with no distortion. The provided earbuds aren't terrible, but the device sounds great with better headphones. I listen to music with a LOT of bass, and response is always tight and powerful.

In addition, the dongle remote isn't covered here elsewhere, so I'll bring it up. It's a standard sit-in-between-the-headphone-and-the-machine remote, with all the buttons you'd ever want, and an LCD display to show track and time listings, and is the only way to actually modify the equilizer settings. Although I wish that the spring for the clip-on feature had a little more oomph, I love that I can just put the main unit on hold, stick it in my back pocket (where otherwise all the buttons would be pressed all the time) and still be able to change tracks and volume.

I think that my only gripe is with the software. I HATE RealJukebox, and won't use it. In fact, I had uninstalled it from my system in disgust previously. It's got too many horrid user interface "features" to really make me want to use it. But rather than just giving you a way to copy tracks to the yepp over windows explorer, you have to use RealJukebox. But as that seems like a pretty common way to interface with small solid-state MP3 players, I can't complain that much about that. But consider that THAT's my only complaint, I'd say I'm extremely satisfied with the Yepp.

If you're looking at a solid state device, I cannot recommend enough the Yepp.

25 don't buy it !!!
this was the worst electronic gadget I've ever bought ! it's not as cool as it looks... first of all, the display. the screen is too small and only numeric (you aren't able to see the name of the song anymore) and it's located on the remote control wich is on the headphones cable ... this remote is too heayy and ugly by the way! software: mini-usb is cool but the songs are converted into a protected format wich make copying on drive from yepp impossible anymore ! so why does this option exist ? (it worked on the fist yepp) no more microphone to record some voice reminders, ... ... in fact the first YEPP (YP-E32) was a great buy. it wasn't as expensive as the new one and the options were great. I've heard they did a 64mb version of this model... 64 was the only positive point I've found for the new model so prefer the first yepp !!!

(I think samsung is laughing at me at the moment 'cause it's so incredible that a second model isn't better than a first... and so expensive for so little options)

DON'T BUY THIS YEPP (BUY THE FIRST ONE)

[at] samsung they say: "3-line LCD display" and they show a hiphop model !!! the 3 lines were on the fisrt yepp only YP-E32

sorry for my bad english ;)

26 A Superlatively Adequate Player
I've had my Yepp for a few months now, and I've found it to be wonderful, overall. It has good sound quality, it's small and light to the point you can have it in your pocket while jogging and not be annoyed by it, and it's got a sleek design. There are a few points where the Yepp could use some improvement, however. First, it's too dependant on the remote control: the shuffle and repeate functions, the battery life indicator, and the song indicator are all on the remote, the only display on the player itself is a green or red LED. That's not a problem if you plan to use the remote a lot, but for me it's just one more thing to carry. Second, it takes a lot of power to record files onto the player. If you plan on adding and removing songs often, plan to buy a lot of batteries. Additionally, be aware that you can't insert new songs between old songs in the memory card. Finally, the player doesn't have upgradeable firmware. There's a new file format that ought to be out this fall sometime that'll have files half the size of current MP3s, and this player won't be able to play them. Sure, you can get a converter if you want, but it'd be better to get an upgradeable player that'll be able to hold twice the music in a few months. Still, overall, it's a great player and I'm glad I bought mine. You could do far worse than the Yepp.

27 Good player, poor software
I like this player much, but I have to say that getting my songs on it has been a real pain.

The unit is translucent blue, very pleasant at touch. The buttons are small and difficult to differentiate, except the play button. There is no LCD on the player itself, only a small one on the remote that displays the track, the time, the battery remaining and the options. Some buttons are present only on the remote control. The unit and the remote can be hold independantly (very good). A pair of AAA batteries is included in the package, but I found they didn't last long. The batteries that I bought appear to have a much longer life. The purchase of a battery charger with batteries seems a good option, even more when you know that there is no power connector.

Transfer with the PC is done through an USB connection. Depending on your computer, it can be painfully slow or rather reasonable (I have seen 400Kbps and 1.2Mbps). The Yepp needs to be powered by batteries during the transfer. In my case, it did not work out of the box. I had to phone Samsung support to be sent by e-mail the Windows 2000 driver (BTW, Macintosh is not supported). ..

Then, the transfer program (yepp Explorer) is not very ergonomic, if simple. The most painful is that after each operation (moving, deleting, copying each file) it takes an awful long time refetching the listing of files. The documentation is almost inexistant.

Mp3 files are renamed with .sm3 extension on the Yepp to be played. You can generate them with the included RealJukebox. I for myself use CDex with gogo engine, that is very fast. The problem is that I cannot retrieve the mp3 files from the Yepp, because this necessitates SecuMAX algorithm (included in RealJukebox). All mp3 files can be played, though. The player can hold other data too.

The player uses SmartMedia cards for memory extension. It will not accept cards that don't have an ID (printed on the card). Also, the cards need to be specially formatted for the Yepp, and so they cannot be used with other devices than the player.

The sound quality is very good. I never had to push the sound to the maximum, but I guess that some will find the volume too limited. There are four predefined modes: Classic, Jazz, Rock and Normal.

Overall, I like the player a lot, it is really cool. On the other hand I loathe the software that comes with it.

28 It looks great, but does it work great...
First of all, this product looks good and feels good. It fits snuggly on your belt, or does not take up much room in your pocket. The hardware buttons, while small, are manageable. That said, this product has several problems. First of all, the software that is included for managing the MP3 collection on the unit, RealJukebox, is below par. The software is ugly, is hard to use, and is slow. The connections between your computer and the unit are slow: figure on about 15-20 minutes to delete 15 mp3s and install 15 mp3s. I am also having trouble with the software mysteriously cancelling transfers and giving me cryptic error messages.

Beyond the faults of the third-party software, the manual included with the device is not very good either. It comes folded up into a little roll. The troubleshooting it gives you is useless; the solutions they suggest could be figured out by anyone with a brain. Attempting to find some useful customer support, I went to the company's website. ... Again, it was rather poor. When I finally found the Yepp's page, no support links were given.

Overall, the customer support and software for this unit are bad, but the player itself is excellent. The sound quality is very good, and the battery time is sufficient. With better peripherals, this unit could be a best seller.

29 If you need tech support, forget this one....
Product is excellent in terms of delivery of recorded files. The recording process is broken. Doesn't accept all standard smart media cards such as Viking media. Have had "range errors" when recording some files and software crashes. I have sent three emails to samsung tech support and they haven't even acknowledge receipt let alone reply. Check out their support page on the web. They provide you with a pdf file of the manual they sent with the product. These guys are way out of touch.

If you feel like you need any tech support to get this running, this IS NOT the product or company for you. Otherwise, after a month of use, it has performed as manufactured.

30 I'd wait or pass.
Portability is the key feature of this nice little (about the size of a beeper) MP3 player with decent sound, reasonable sounding earbuds & adequate volume. Its controls are simple. The USB transfer is excellent with very good software to make the task painless. However, the price is still pretty steep, and to that you have to add the going price of another 64 meg card (about $100) to max this player out (128 megs will play about 2 hours of MP3s). That gets pretty close to the Creative Labs Nomad Jukebox price range, and this my friend is no Jukebox. I would either wait for the Yepp price to drop, or invest in the 'big unit' and carry 700 songs wherever you go.

31 Cable Problem
The player is great.......I bought this because I wanted good quality music and a compact player. There was only one thing wrong, the cable it came with was defective. My computer did not recognize the cable from the mp3 player. I switched the usb port and the scanner still worked, i installed the usb port manualy, it useually does it by itself, then i even downloaded help files from samsungs help page, finaly i talked to someone on tech support and he said it was just a rare problem, a defective cable. This is very rare, the guy at tech suport was amazed about how much I knew about mp3 players, and said I should be working there..So if you have any questions just email me at MytTy@aol.com And remember keep your invoice in a safe spot if something does go wrong, you can send it back easily to replace it.

32 Samsung Delivers a Winner
Versatile, quality MP3 device! The Samsung Yepp comes equipped with: 64MB's of embedded flash memory with a slot for additional memory card upgrades, a magnesium casing, and a sixteen character LCD screen capable of displaying a song or artist's info. The Yepp supports the popular MP3 file format in addition to files protected by Samsung's proprietary encryption system, SecuMAX. Samsung's portable digital audio player is shockproof, which makes it ideal for the sports enthusiast who wants to listen to tunes while exercising. The end user can download MP3 files from the Net and compile the songs they want to listen to. The Yepp's graphical LCD display indicates: the song title being played, the artist's name, and the track's playing time.

Different from other most MP3 players, the Yepp features a digital FM tuner and a voice recording function. The outer case is made of magnesium, which is light and strong resulting in a greater resistance to external shock than other portable audio products.

Another of the Yepp's distinguishing features is the adoption of a Smart Media slot rather than the traditional Compact Flash card slot. The Yepp's Smart Media cards are ultra slim and are compatible with the PC file format, thus allowing the Samsung Yepp to store graphics and text files as well as MP3 music files.

All-in-all, the Samsung Yepp delivers quality at an affordable price in what is becoming a crowded niche of the portable electronics market.