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Samsung takes on Apple’s iPod Touch – the P2 works its way to functionality

Posted by Kathleen Maher on June 30th 2008 | Discuss
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Samsung YP-P2JAB P2, 4 GB media player

The P2 has several interface options for its touch screen. The screen, as you can see, is very reflective but one I figured out the brightness controls all was well.

Right out of the box the Samsung P2 is a thrill—it’s sleek, it has a whizzy interface, and it promises to do anything for you. Reality sets in later duing the experimental phase. There’s a media store, but it’s not active in the U.S. yet. There’s Bluetooth but it doesn’t have anyone to talk to. Why in the world does the USB connector have to have a proprietary connector to the device? And so it goes.

But still, it’s a nice little music player with a leisurely battery life beyond 30 hours for music, and home videos and photos are easy to send over and play. The touch interface, once you get the hang of it, is nice. It’s easy to use but it’s not too sensitive. The thing is, the P2 has been evolving to the point that early disappointments are fading fast.

Just a babe when introduced a year ago, Samsung has gradually been upgrading the firmware and services so that its line of Bluetooth-enabled devices are gradually living up to their promise. The player was compatible with the major subscription services Napster, Rhapsody, etc. early on. With firmware upgrades, Samsung added support for CinemaNow so there’s now plenty of access to content. Upgrades have also enabled the ability to pair the player with Bluetooth devices including “supported” phones, headphones, etc.

In order to test the Bluetooth feature, I looked around the house for likely devices. Oh, hey there’s the iPhone. After considerable fooling around I got the iPhone and P2 to deign to talk to each other. It wasn’t easy but it was considerably easier to figure out the iPhone than a couple of other phones I tried. Now, I can be happily listening to my music and if someone calls me I can answer using the P2 and talk into the P2’s mike.

We’re in the stone ages of wireless and so these early attempts at connectivity are somewhat stunted. There are not enough Bluetooth devices yet and some of the scenarios are a tad strained. I just can’t see that I’d want to answer my phone with my music player but perhaps it’s my imagination that’s challenged.

I know what I’d like. I’d like to encounter a Bluetooth TV or stereo system and be able to play a movie or music that’s stored on my player. Maybe I would get into a car and I could play my tunes through its stereo. (I can do that now using the radio frequency and a dongle but the sound quality is not exactly the greatest.) Alternatively, the Creative Zen Vision that I have has video out, so I can play videos on TVs around the house or even around the neighbors’ house.

Samsung understands this model even as video out seems to be going away for media players. Samsung has been building in networking holes into its TVs, phones, media players, etc. Right now, in fact, the problem is that there are plenty of holes—you might get USB, a flash memory slot, RJ45, video out, but the connectors on one device never seem to match up with the connectors on another.

In fact, one of the drawbacks of the P2 might just turn out to be an advantage some day. That proprietary USB connector might well turn out to be a point of connection with other Samsung devices but I’ll be darned if I could find anyone to talk to about that as deadline looms on this article.

As for the movie features, as I say, the device accepts my home movies easily enough. CinemaNow and Samsung have created a direct connection for the P2. However, there is considerable trial and error involved in getting it to work—or maybe it’s just me. I found a TV show I wanted, I downloaded it, I somehow got it on the P2, it wouldn’t play. It was in the wrong format. Swell, I thought, I’ll have to watch the TV show on the computer in the comfort of my office. As it turned out, another try revealed that there is a special Samsung/CinemaNow site and a whole different world opened up. Everything worked Media Studio comes up automatically and the transfer is pretty seamless. Better yet, because CinemaNow keeps track of purchases, I could re-download the movie I tried at first, and transfer it to the player again, and this time it worked. Samsung has also added support for Amazon Unbox.

Okay so here’s another drawback, or at least I thought so. I happily curled up in a chair on a rainy day and tried to watch an episode of “The Loop” on the P2. It’s not a particularly dark show, right? I had a terrible time turning it this way and that and I still had trouble seeing it—it was so dark and the screen was very reflective. I had my “well duh” moment looking around on the web to see if others had had the same trouble. No one mentioned it, but in a discussion of battery life I saw mention of a brightness control. Brightness? I can turn it up? What’s a little tricky with the P2 is that it lets you set different brightness settings for different features. For music play you might not need a really bright screen and for video you do. It’s a great idea but it definitely threw me. Dang, I hate it when I have to read the manual.

Samsung Media Central

As with all media players Samsung has introduced its own Media Player software to accompany its players. It’s getting plenty of complaints online but the fact of the matter is proprietary software for devices gives you a lot more control once you figure it out. The Samsung Media Central provides access to some Datacasts, otherwise known as Podcasts but nowhere near the richness of those available through iTunes. However, a free podcast is a free podcast is a free podcast even if Samsung insists on calling them Datacasts. There are some podcasts already loaded but it’s easy to add more. You just have to hunt down the material and copy the URL into Media Central just like you would with any other media player. It’ll eat up an afternoon, easily.

In general, the Media Studio player does its job just fine. The integration with Cinema Now is a time saver. The Datacast feature is a bit of a disappointment but can be wrestled into submission and other features such as creating playlists, transferring songs, etc. work as expected. The software promises to transcode video to the appropriate format for the P2 but don’t count on it. You might find yourself fussing with it a bit, but it gets there.

The competition

Samsung is definitely taking on the iPod Touch with this player. Are they crazy? Maybe, but the time is right to take on Apple...again. Apple has run the field and for the company willing to spend the bucks, the iPod is finally vulnerable. iPod sales are flat. However, the iPod Touch, a phoneless iPhone is popular and has raised the expectations consumers now have for a media player. It’s got WiFi and a whole slew of features that can also be found on the iPhone.

In contrast, the P2 is relatively inexpensive and it has quite a few features including a surprise or two. It comes with several cute little games that take advantage of the touch screen. The games are simple things but they’re enough to keep you from screaming when you’re stuck waiting for no good reason somewhere.

As with all devices, it depends on your lifestyle. Phones are becoming very competent media players and, in many cases, getting media to the phone is becoming easier (and cheaper). However, I still would rather listen to music or watch movies on a dedicated player so that my phone has enough battery life for calls. It’s not going to be an either or equation.

The iPod Touch will remain a tough act to follow given all the features so casually included via the Apple SDK such as Maps, GPS, Internet, Messaging and on and on. Apple has a volunteer army of developers. Competitors like Creative, Archos, and Samsung, have much more of a challenge tapping into communities of developers. It’s a matter of resources and willingness. Microsoft and the Zune are the dark horse contender.

The other variable here is Samsung’s commitment. Clearly the P2 stands to be part of an integrated system of devices from phones, headphones, and speakers to maybe TVs. The Media Studio has a store component in some geographies. It all looks very similar to Sony’s misfire for its MP3 players the Connect Store and client. Sony wound up generally reviled for its restrictive copy protection. The company gave up and it’s promising to revamp and come back.

Will Samsung have the fortitude to stick with the its media players, store, and connectivity options. We think so, the company stood by its Yepp and MP3 players in the face of Apple’s fierce competition and Samsung is blessed with a loyal home market in Korea.