From there, we get into the more unusual -- and perhaps more fun -- extras. Foremost is A2DP Bluetooth support, which lets you listen to music via compatible Bluetooth headphones, as well as pair the player with your mobile phone for taking and receiving calls.
Then, of course, you have the multitude of widgets. One is a light bulb that you tap to adjust the brightness of the screen; another is a globe you can spin to see the time in various cities around the world; yet another is a 'sleep cat' that you can tap to set a sleep timer (it miaows as you do so). There's also a calculator, as well as support for several games, such as Bubble Bang, World Car Puzzle and Sudoku Champ.
As with the P2, the P3 offers a customisable interface with various fonts and themes to choose from, plus the ability to set any image as wallpaper. The player is also fully updatable via firmware updates, so you never know what games and widgets may be added in the future. Samsung was fairly consistent with firmware releases last time around, so we suspect the company will make good on them this time too.
Performance
Given the Samsung P2's impressive performance, we had our hopes set high for the P3. We weren't disappointed. During preliminary testing, the P3 excelled in every area. Foremost, audio quality is nothing short of stellar -- it wouldn't be a stretch to call this an audiophile's MP3 player, especially given the FLAC support. Everything from hip-hop to blues to classical to electronica shines. It does help that we tested the player with a pair of Shure SE530 earphones.
Hilary Hahn's violin in her renditions of Bach is truly haunting, and the busier highs in The Bangles' Hazy Shade of Winter couldn't be more individually clear. Mids across genres are warm and enveloping, with the rich, buttery tone we crave in this range. Low-end representation is similarly striking -- the bass is exceptionally tight and present without being overly forceful. Plus, the P3 gets extraordinarily loud, so it wouldn't be a stretch to hook this MP3 player up to your home audio set-up.
Video and photo display is also exceptional. Colour saturation is excellent, viewing angles are great, and fine detail is very clear -- no blurred edges here. We only experienced pixellation with low-quality video files, and that can't be blamed on the player. Conversion of video files is a fairly quick and simple process through Windows Media Player.
Similarly, rated battery life is admirable, clocking in at 40 hours for audio and 6 for video. We still have to test this out for ourselves, but things are looking good thus far. Our one minor gripe is that the processor seems to lag slightly when switching among certain functions.
Conclusion
The Samsung YP-P3 is no iPod touch killer, but then we're not sure it's meant to be. Pitted against other flash players and touchscreen portable media players, the P3 holds its own and then some. If you like the idea of massive screen real estate, a heap of extras and superb performance, this device should be at the top of your list.
Additional editing by Charles Kloet
iPhone App 
Newsletters 
RSS Feeds 
Send Us Tips
User reviews1
Add your review
technobear 9 April 2010
Good: Sound quality when playing FLAC files.
Bad: No FLAC tag support. Installs malware on your PC.
Comment: The P3 plays FLAC files and sounds very good... BUT it does NOT support FLAC tags so you will not be able to select your tunes by Album, Artist, Genre, Track Title or even Track Number and you will see no album art. All you will get is a very long list of file names. Absolute pants!
Further, the included Emodio software will silently install a windows component called 'contentSAFER for Winmax'. This piece of malware does not play nice with iTunes and completely trashed my Squeezebox Server installation. What's worse, it cannot be uninstalled in the usual way. You have to find and delete its files and then find and delete its registry entries (not for the fainthearted). Apparently this malware is also installed with Samsung phones. Thanks Samsung. You are now on my blacklist.
I am returning my P3.
See all user reviews