Samsung YH-J70 (20GB)

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While Apple went out for minimal features in order to keep its iPods looking zen (no offence, Creative), Samsung, like most Korean companies, prefers to play it by the numbers (of features). Though it's a force to be reckoned with in the MP3 player market with its status as the largest flash memory manufacturer, as well as a stated resolve to unseat the iPod from top dog position, Samsung still has some way to go before it can emulate the universal appeal of the iPod.

Upside: Yet even without the aesthetics of the scroll-wheeled one, the YP-J70 packs in quite a full feature list that would impress most users. Besides the classic MP3 player basics, Samsung has taken pains to imbue the YP-J70 with extra goodies like video playback, USB hosting, a brilliant 1.8-inch display and a rated 25 hours of battery life which is pretty good given it's a hard drive player.

The smooth finish of the plastic outer body is very comfortable to the touch. However, that also means it is liable to scratches. Sounds rather like the iPod, doesn't it? Yet the resemblance in aesthetics ends there. Without a Click Wheel, the YP-J70 relies on three buttons located beneath the screen to handle most of the navigation; left, right and a up/down clickable scroll. The very audible clunk sound on the scroll key is certainly very satisfying, but we feel there's a distinct possibility it may turn flimsy in the long run.

There's a Menu and Play button which doubles as the power on/off switch. We like the Tool key as it opens contextually relevant functions for the mode that the unit is in (Equalizers, play mode, add to play list in Music mode). Sort of like a shortcut menu which beats digging into the main menu itself.

There is a nice mix of five different puzzle games, though unlike the YP-T8, none of them uses motion-detection controls.

Downside: Recently, Samsung seems to be fairly committed to motion-sensor controls with offerings such as the SGH-E760 mobile phone and the YP-T8 MP3 player. It's certainly a step in the right direction, but on the YH-J70, the implementation is still a little raw, confined mainly to scrolling with less than impressive accuracy.

Though the screen is pretty brilliant, our cursory inspection found that the LCD display warps the aspect ratio of the test video clip, which gave us a bit of a headache after 15 minutes or so. The backlight also tends to wash out the colors in the video. We also feel the large amount of empty real estate on the bottom of screen could have been put to better use with a larger screen.

Outlook: For someone looking for an all-in-one MP3 player, the YH-J70 stands out for its feature range, though for portability and video, it might be wiser to seek other alternatives.