Samsung YP-R1 MP3 player review

Has Samsung finally nailed the small music player?

Reviews
By
published
Samsung YP-R1
The Samsung YP-R1 is a touchscreen MP3 player running the Touch Wiz user interface

TechRadar Verdict

Pros

  • +

    Incredible sound

  • +

    Jaw-dropping video

  • +

    Nice earphones

  • +

    Lovely interface

  • +

    Small but tough

Cons

  • -

    No WiFi

  • -

    Unresponsive touchscreen

  • -

    No speaker

  • -

    A touch fiddly

Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

Samsung has always occupied a grey area in the tech world. With neither the establishment of Sony, nor the consumer-friendliness of Apple, the South Korean company's products have nevertheless garnered impressive reviews from us.

In spite of its amazing netbooks and televisions, one area Samsung has lacked in is MP3 players.

It's never quite cracked the lucrative market, although its MP3-playing phones have shown some headway recently.

Samsung's range of MP3 players - known as Yepp to Apple's iPod and Sony's Walkman - have shown some fairly hefty improvements, though. 2006's Z5F's interface was reportedly designed by Paul Mercer - he of iPod user interface fame - and it went on to sell over 1 million units.

yp-r1

Samsung's latest, the YP-R1, is competing directly with the likes of Creative's new Zen X-Fi 2 and Apple's most recent iteration of the iPod Nano.

yp-r1

yp-r1

Like the Creative player, Samsung's includes a touch screen, and, like Apple's, it's got an FM radio. But is it enough to keep Samsung in the MP3 player game?

Henry Winchester