When Samsung’s P2 was announced a few months back, there was plenty of buzz over this thin, touch-screen-based player with Bluetooth 2.0 capabilities. Anyone who craved an iPhone sans phone wanted to check it out. In the interim, the iPod touch was released, and the P2 lost a bit of its luster. Part of the problem is Samsung’s lack of planning:
The P2’s full Bluetooth capabilities, as well as some seemingly simple options like FM recording, are not yet available. Early P2 owners won’t have the firmware upgrades to answer phone calls through the player (arguably the P2’s coolest feature) for at least a month, and the FM recording upgrade won’t arrive until January 2008. Still, the P2 is a devilishly handsome gadget that plays video on a sharp 3-inch screen and boasts the typical array of Samsung’s excellent user controls (like a seven-band EQ).
Prices of $200 (4GB) and $250 (8GB) make the P2 a less expensive option than the Apple iPod touch but a pricier one than SanDisk’s new Sansa View or the Creative ZEN. I was surprised to learn that the P2 doesn’t offer a 16GB capacity model, since both Creative and SanDisk offer 16GB players at prices rivaling the P2’s 8GB model.
Like the iPod touch and the iriver clix gen 2, the P2 (which comes in black, dark red, and white) is an eye-catching device. Because of its touch screen, there are very few actual buttons—just volume controls, power, and hold switches on the sides of the 3.9- by 2.1- 0.4-inch body. An LED below the display looks like a button but exists only to flash a particular color when the device is in each of its different modes (blue, for instance, when it’s paired in Bluetooth mode). The display looks crisp, with a high resolution of 480 by 272 pixels spread across a large 3-inch surface.
Some of the P2’s buttons or scroll bars were a bit too small for my stubby fingers to select easily—the iPod touch is definitely easier to navigate. Apart from that, navigation of the typically excellent Samsung user interface is fast, and mistakes are simply and quickly undone. The various menus are intuitive, and like the iPod touch, controls appear over video or a Now Playing screen when the display is tapped. The Now Playing screen also offers several viewing options—from a real-time moving graphic EQ that pumps along with the music to displaying song info and album art.
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Audio file support is average (MP3, OGG, and WMA—AAC will be added with the next firmware upgrade), but the customizable EQ has seven bands of controls (you usually see a max of five), allowing users to focus even more specifically on frequencies they wish to boost or cut. There is, of course, the usual selection of EQ presets, special effects, and DNSe settings that I always recommend leaving off. Tweaking the EQ on your own to get a little more bump out of the average bundled earbuds isn’t a bad idea, but stay away from the 3D bass settings. If you want the most audio performance out of your P2, upgrade the earbuds to a pair of Shure SE210 earphones or similar quality sets from Etymotic or Ultimate Ears.
The P2’s video support isn’t mind-blowing (only MPEG-4 and WMV), but Samsung Media Studio (on the bundled software CD) comes with a file conversion tool. Video clips look fantastic on the horizontal 16:9 screen. However, since the majority of the controls are onscreen, they shift to a horizontal orientation when in viewing mode (though there’s no nifty accelerometer that automatically switches viewing modes based on player position like there is on the iPod touch or the iPhone. This is my runner-up for best display on a PMP: It dwarfs the screens of the Creative ZEN and the SanDisk Sansa View (not surprisingly, the touch takes the top spot).
Photos look fine on the display, though the widescreen can make for a lot of dead-space with conventional 4:3 pictures. This is a JPEG-only party, but again, you can convert different file formats. One lament: My JPEG images took a while to load to a full-screen view after I tapped them in the thumbnail menu.
The P2 works well with the Rhapsody digital music service. The integration is almost seamless and rivals that of the iriver clix Rhapsody. If you have Rhapsody To Go, you can load custom channels and individual tunes onto the player, as well as any photos you may have in your Rhapsody gallery. I was impressed with how simple this process is, and transfer speed was quick. There is also a Cinema Now tie-in. Users can go to samsung.cinemanow.com and access pay-per-download content. The selection is decent, and the website downloads the video straight to your P2, provided, of course, that it’s connected via the proprietary-to-USB cable.
My greatest disappointment with the P2 is, hopefully, a temporary one. When I tried the product months ago, I was able to answer a cell-phone call through the player, which has a built-in mic (but, oddly enough, no voice recording). The process was simple: Pair the P2 with your Bluetooth phone. Once paired, when your phone receives calls, the music on your P2 mutes and the screen offers you the chance to take the call through the player. This is a handy feature: Not only will you never miss calls when music is blaring in your earphones, but you won’t have to fish your cell out of your bag to answer the call. The bad news: Currently, the P2 can pair with other devices but can’t perform this or any other Bluetooth tricks. The firmware upgrades (supposedly coming in December) should change this, but for now, the Bluetooth feature is useless. Samsung also loaded the P2 with a capable FM tuner that’s a snap to operate, but the FM recorder won’t be available until January 2008.
Samsung rates the battery life at 35 hours for music and 5 hours for video playback. In our tests audio battery life came up short at 15 hours, 57 minutes; our video playback tests are still in progress.
Along with its strong eye-candy factor, the P2 has the second-best video display on the market, along with touch-screen control, excellent graphics, and easy navigation. While I wish there was a 16GB version, the P2 is still a four-star product—on paper, that is. Until the exciting Bluetooth capability and the fairly standard FM recorder, are available, I see the P2 as an incomplete device, rushed to store shelves in time for the holidays. Assuming Samsung follows through and the promised features work well, we’ll adjust the rating accordingly. Even now, however, the P2 is a high-quality, head-turner of a player.
