Just as actors fear to speak the word 'Macbeth' outside of Shakespeare's play itself, worrying that it will bring bad fortune on their production, so MP3 player manufacturers should fear to speak the words 'iPod killer'.
But Samsung has unleashed the familiar battle cry with the YP-Z5 all the same. The company is billing this player as an iPod nano killer, and it has taken things a step further than before. Not only does the YP-Z5 pay homage to the familiar nano chassis shape, but the company also recruited software designer Paul Mercer, who worked on the original iPod software, to design the YP-Z5's menu interface. We exclusively interviewed Mercer at CES earlier in the year.
Design books could be written on the problems that manufacturers face when coming up with a viable alternative to the iPod. At the core of the problem are two things that the iPod does well: the on-screen menu interface, and the Click Wheel. The iPod makes it easy to navigate through tracks (using the Click Wheel) and it's easy to find the song you want (using the simple menu structure). These are two important design principles, and we're often left scratching our heads when we find them overlooked.
So, has Samsung finally nailed it with the YP-Z5? And could this be Apple's most aggressive competitor in the five years since the launch of the first iPod?
Design
The Samsung YP-Z5 is available in 2GB (£139) and 4GB (£179) versions, and both use the same 42 by 90 by 11mm chassis. It's noticeably thicker than the 7mm iPod nano, and this may be down to a larger battery (see Performance). Despite the extra thickness, you can still slot the YP-Z5 into the 'iPod pocket' (formerly the 'cigarette-lighter pocket') on your jeans. The YP-Z5 distinguishes itself from the nano with a more modular look -- the two halves of the player are joined by a metal collar that wraps around the circumference of the unit.
Screw holes are clearly visible on both sides of the YP-Z5. These are very tiny crosshead screws that can be removed if the rechargeable battery needs replacing at some point. Much criticism was levelled at Apple for not making the iPod battery user-serviceable. Judging from the construction of the YP-Z5, the replacement process on this player should be easier. Having said that, the majority of consumers will not want to undertake such a repair on either player themselves.
There's a dedicated volume control on the YP-Z5, a long, thin rocker on the right-hand side of the player. Headphones plug into the top of the player, and there's a hold button to keep you from jogging through tracks accidentally while on the move. The LCD on the YP-Z5 is much larger than the one on the nano, making the process of viewing photographs a much less strained experience.
The control interface on the YP-Z5 matches the layout of the iPod. Play, skip and menu buttons are exactly where an iPod user would expect to find them. However, instead of a Click Wheel interface, the YP-Z5 uses a directional control pad that relies on varying degrees of touch to scroll through menu items. A light touch makes the YP-Z5 scroll through menu items, and a firm touch selects them.
This isn't always easy to deal with. Everyone we handed the YP-Z5 to had a problem getting to grips with the control system. The problem is that there's no real-world parallel to the variable-touch interface. Although you will get used to the process, you always feel slightly tentative when scrolling though options, and it requires some dexterity to get it right. There's also no way to vary the speed with which you scroll through menu items. For instance, you can't rapidly get to the 'H' section of your albums, then slow down and pick a specific album. Often you'll find yourself skipping past the track you wanted to select, then scrolling back.
The YP-Z5 gets some design features right (the screen size and dedicated volume control) and others wrong (the occasionally fiddly control interface and logo-splattered chassis). The revamped interface demonstrates Samsung has made great progress from earlier efforts such as the YP-T8, but the way you scroll through tracks remains problematic.
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User reviews4
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Phil Hazelton 27 March 2007
Good: Styling, audio quality, format support
Bad: Critically flawed battery, lack of support from Samsung
Comment: This has the potential to be a fantastic product, but beware: it does have its flaws.
The battery life is advertised at ~40 hours, and playing continuously I have managed to eke around 30 out of it. But the problem is, this is not how most people use their MP3 players. Usually, you would listen to it for a few hours (I use mine on the journey to/from college every day) and the rest of the time it's turned off. Or is it?
See, Samsung put in a very handy "standby" mode, which means that the player boots lightning fast. Lovely. The problem comes with the power consumption of this mode. It seems to suck almost as much power out of the device as it does when it's turned on. The device only turns itself off properly after 24 hours; the user has absolutely no say in this.
The upshot is that if you use your player once or twice a day, as I do, it's very likely that it will be sat in standby mode pretty much all the time. As a result, I can only expect to get around 3-4 hours of actual usage, before I'm told that the battery is too low, and the device refuses to turn on.
The other pain is the horrendously inaccurate power display. It has four settings: 'full', 'almost full', 'almost empty', and 'off'. Of the three working settings, it seems to stay on full for around 75% of the time. This means that you can switch off the device one afternoon, whilst it's still reading 'full', pick it up the next morning, and it won't turn on because it's out of juice.
And the worst thing of all is: this isn't a fault, it's just a really, really poor design. It's a shame that Samsung invested so much in the looks of this device (and it does look fantastic) and so little in the actual usability.
The interface is well layed-out, with the only issue for me being a lack of support for looping playlists. By this, I mean you cannot scroll 'up' from 'A' to 'Z', instead you are forced to go through your entire list. It can also become laggy when you load album art onto the device. I would recommend leaving it off: song changes can take up to half a second when the device has to load a new image.
It still gets a 6 despite these issues, but be warned that if your usage pattern is similar to mine, you will not be able to use this device to its full potential.
Kyus Agu-Lionel 14 January 2007
Good: Sounds great. Looks great, intuitive menu trees, doesn't scratch easily, straightforward music transfer, lovely screen, almost as small as a nano
Bad: Almost as small as a nano, touchpad easy to use but not as fast as a clickwheel, no games, no PDA aplications, no radio, no in line recording
Comment: I have the 4GB version and I am infatuated with it. It is small and lightweight. I do have a few minor niggles with it though. Samsung are the main supplier of flash drives for the nano and so I am thinking, why not use the same drives for the YP-Z5? It is almost twice as thick as the iPod and this, I know, is partly due to a bigger battery, but Apple still manages to get 24 hours out of its new nano so why couldn't Samsung have done the same? The touchpad is easy to use but, when traversing my 4GB of music, I wish for the speed of the clickwheel or the Creative Vision m's touch strip. This player was pitched as an 'iPod killer' so if it is such then where are the organiser aplications? Where is the FM tuner? Where are the games? Where is the line in recording and voice recording? Where is the video playback support? But the place where it really excels is in music playback. The provided earphones are excellent quallity and the player sounds great and gets plenty loud!
Lyn Denny 27 December 2006
Good: Ease of use
Bad: Touchpad is fiddly, instructions are useless
Comment: Good, easy to deal with and looks nice too.
See all 4 user reviews