Samsung YP-T10 review

In addition to a canine interface there's an integrated FM radio, stereo Bluetooth, a handy voice recorder for use with the built-in microphone, and a text file viewer that preserves formatting. There's also a bunch of EQ settings that can be accessed from the attractive and easily accessible context menus found throughout the player's interface.

On a PC, the interface of Samsung's supplied software is comparatively attractive and, amongst file transfer functionality, will let you sync podcast RSS feeds with your player. It'll update and download any show you subscribe to and automatically transfer them into the 'Datacast' section of the T10. You can manage your media library with the same software, use Windows Media Player or simply drag and drop files through Windows Explorer.

Performance
After immediately switching off the utterly pointless -- and annoying -- sound effects that accompany button presses, it was time to get to some music. It's a really easy player to use: menus are laid out well, navigation is intuitive and text is easy to read.

Within the first few minutes of testing we were pretty convinced sound quality was excellent. Dream Theater -- a favourite, regular readers will know -- sounded full, crisp and well driven. In fact, it's quite a loud player and capable of driving our Denon AH-D5000 reference headphones to higher volumes than Apple's iPod classic.

Some prime cuts of drum 'n' bass, hard trance and powerful electronica sounded equally impressive. It's ironic seeing a cute two-dimensional dog dance around the screen of a player capable of powering headphones to this level -- a stonking great shire horse would've been more appropriate.

But speaking of screens, the T10's really is superb. Images and videos are exceptionally crisp and detailed thanks to 320x240 pixels being squished into a two-inch display. That's no mean feat, and the results impressed us all here. The only negative aspect of the LCD display is that it doesn't produce brilliant blacks, and what it does produce is somewhat impacted by the reflective gloss applied to the screen's face. Not the end of the world, but important to bear in mind.

Conclusion
There's no doubt in our mind that the YP-T10 is not only great to look at, but it sounds and functions brilliantly and it's good value to boot. If you consider yourself too grown-up for the quaint dancing dog interface, you've got the option to use one of the other more professional themes -- there's no one this player wouldn't particularly suit, bar perhaps gym users who need tactile feedback from their players.

If you you like the features of the T10 but fancy something with physical buttons, consider Sony's terrific A810 series.

Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Shannon Doubleday