Gizmodo
Here it is. You might have seen some fuzzy flyby images of this MP3 player with speakers built into its backside. But we've got it in our hands. And we love it.
For a 4GB player, it's kinda chunky. The magnesium case is almost three times as thick as a nano, even though it has a slightly bigger footprint. But you would too if you had speakers built into your ass, mounted on sliding rails. I think I remember hearing that they're 1.5 watts, total. How loud are they? You know when there's some asshole talking on his cellphone in the library, and you just tell him to shut the hell up? It's about that loud, except it's not annoying. It's fucking great. Flipping on the EQ's 3D mode drew a soundscape I thought came from stereo speakers about a foot apart when I closed my eyes and gave a listen.
How does the rest of it hold up? We unbox, review from head to toe, drop the stat-smather, and even shoot some b-roll video of the speaker, after the jump.
When this machine is off, it looks like a black bar, with a glass face. When it's on, it boots into music mode, with a fancy 20+ band spectrum analyzer bouncing around. Mesmerizing...
...
Huh? Turn it off and you get this lame animation that looks like...I don't know what it looks like. Don't turn it on.
The music menus include the usual suspects: Artists, Albums, Tracks, Genres, playlists. Next topic!
Let me get this out of the way. The touch controls can't scroll through long song lists nearly as quickly as the iPod's wheel. But unlike the LG chocolate, they actually work really, really, really well. The menus are animated, which I found cute at first, but navigating through them got slightly annoying after a bit. I've got ultimate ADD, so your mileage may vary. It takes a special person to complain about split second menu delay.
The player does a decent job of showing off photos on its 1.7-inch OLED screen, but it's not the sharpest screen we've ever seen. Photos are a little dark. It's nice the music still plays while the photos are slideshowin'.
What other extras? There's an FM radio tuner that uses the headphone cable as an antenna. I wasn't impressed by the reception, to be honest.
The way I'll use this player the most? As an alarm clock. You can save a couple of alarms, each with individual settings. I'm talking about Mon-Friday for the daily grind, Mon-Saturday for the grind plus morning cartoons, and Mon-Sunday for masochists. You can choose from a few different alarms, but the best thing is ADJUSTABLE SNOOZE. I set my snooze at 10 minute intervals, but more morning-oriented people can choose 3- and 5-minute gaps, too. What's cool is the time is displayed in a flipclock style. What I didn't like is that no place in the regular menus is the time displayed. What time is it, Samsung? Time to put a clock somewhere where I can see it!
The player goes for 6 hours in speaker mode, and 30 hours with earbuds. And it'll charge in 5 hours by USB, or 3 hours through a wall charger. It comes in pink, but thank god, Samsung sent us the black one.
The verdict: Awesome mini boom box, innovative design, great alarm clock, but only if you can get over the chubby form factor. Gizmodo Hearts the K5.
Unboxing, Video, and Stats, below.
Stat-Smather:
File support: MP3, WMA, OGG, ASF, JPG
Dimensions 98 x 47.5 x 18.1mm
Syncs with Plays for Sure
USB 2.0
1GB/2GB/4GB
Samsung's K5 will be available on September 10th at $210 for 2 gigs and $260 for 4 gigs.
Samsung K5 [internal]
Comments
This is tight. Thanks for the unboxing writeup.
I really like the idea of always having speakers. you can set up a party anywhere. Having speakers is so much more social than everyone jacking into individual 'pods'.
Really cool but I'm not sure it's an 8.4
Wow this was great! It was worth staying up till 1:30 AM... sorta.
I like the design. I like the sleek black sexyness. I like the internal speakers. But like you said, it is quite chubby.
Im thinking of buying this, and taking off the internal speakers by hacking it. I know that defeats the point but with the mp3 player only, this would be a great iPod nano killer!
That thing is HUGE for a flash player!
I still prefer my iPod nano :-)
At least this has pretty good battery life.
That was Acually pretty cool but it seems there is no video support. Even with a speaker attached this just is a litte expensive for a last gen technology. If it had more memory and video it would be a 9.0. But without i give it a solid 7.
This wow's me more than the Zune... But if this is what Samsung has--and they've done some great stuff with their Ultra Edition phones--I can't wait to see what Apple has up its sleeve. ;)
that's one fat mama
Omigawd how delicious! It's quite sexy, I say death to Nanos... I want one of these babehs!
If only it came in 8 gigs... :(
Lame.
Making the speakers non-removable is a HUGE mistake. No one is going to want to carry that huge brick in their pocket. Everything else looks nice, but damn, that thing is huge.
Huge? I can't help but laugh at how quickly people have decided that something "about 3 times the thickness of a nano" is huge. Did you ever carry a Sony tape walkman around back in the day? People managed back then so I figure for this extra functionality I can cope with something this 'huge'.
My friends who own Nano's all have their players in cases anyway which doubles the thickness as otherwise the thing scratches instantly so 50% thicker again for some speakers doesn't seem too bad to me! I'll stick with my Z5 for day to day use but this would be great to take on holiday or to a conference to use in a hotel room.
Where would you use this? A cubicle par-tay?
Samsung will never be top dog in the states.
More like an 8.1, but much like the CCF (cali cutie factor), somewhat of a subjective metric. The dvie is at least aesthetically pleasing.
I agree it would be great for parties. if it's loud enough. It's definitely not a thing for carrying around. I think the word "Boombox" is a hint.
This thing is awesome if You like to listen to music in your office and work with people with music preferences matching yours! I work with few people, and everyone's got earbuds almost all the time. When we want to communicate it's easier to do it with IM then to talk /well.. to talk to someone You have to wave your hand ;) /. With this thing we could listen to some radio or some mp3s that everybody likes to listen ;]
When plugged in to USB the 6h play time with speaker is issue no more.
Enough about the use... it's just an excuse to buy such a cutie! So what it's a 'bit' large? My bag is so much larger....
it's a $200 portable alarm. and it's tight.
this looks like a great player for me. i bounce between two different offices a few times durring my work day and it would be nice to bring some music with me to keep sane. this seems like a practical music player that goes against the iPod mold.
I love the menu system, the bouncing dot is too neat
We have a winner here. The display is the best.
Meh...
Just another mp3 player. And a $200 alarm clock to boot? c'mon! Hardly 8.4.
I'd say it's closer to 3.2.
Good gadget for a traveler. It'll sell well in the Skymall catalog (Which is where I imagine it'll end up...)
Am I the only onen that noticed the lack of an ability to tune an FM station?
Other than that and the fact that I wouldn't really have a use for it, this is awesome.
Good stuff Samsung.
I dig the interface/display...but the fact that the speakers are attached kills it
I give it a 5.9
Mixed here. I love the display and the overall form factor, but the fact that you can't take the speakers off is a detractor for me. Put it in your (cargo) pocket and wipe out your credit cards? It would be real tight if you could take the speakers off and reduce it's thickness by 60% if you wanted to. As it is, it looks like a brick.
to be fair about the tuning ability, the headphone/antenna wasn't plugged in.
That thing is pretty neat. Too bad the speakers don't come off.
I don't think this is huge - it's actually smaller than the iPod original (of course much smaller in width/height). Nobody complained about the size at the time, and I don't understand why people compare this with Nano.
Samsung guys may have figured out that they can't simply compete with Apple guys by making similar products in similar attributes. This is for sharing the music with my friends - you can see so many young people around sharing music by having each side of the earbud.
How loud is it though? I need one hell of an alarm clock to wake me up!!!
pretty cool...but i'm not looking forward to a*holes on the T thinking they're hot shit and playing their crappy music that I don't care to hear.
Clean your apartment before you take photos next time. Your mother might see these pics.
Wouldn't porno for nerds be ... well ... porno?
I'm not sure, but I think my creative nomad 6gb jukebox was smaller than this thing.
Have to agree with the above poster 100% who said the speakers need to be removable. I don't care how nice the screen is, or how fancy-pantsy the menus are. It's pointless if it's the size of Zack Morris's cell phone.
Is Meatwad the new editor-in-chief?
"I'm gonna start droppin' F-bombs. Fart you motherfarter. ...Oh the fart it is, farter! fart all a' ya'll, you can go fart yourselves... yeah you heard 'em, bring it to the fartin' back!"
I think it's pretty cool. Small size with a built in speaker.
"This stuff is like porno for nerds."
Couldn't have said it better my self! Great review ther guys!
good thing is that samsung is slowly but surely de-uglifying their products.
More memory and the ability to play video would make this a serious iPod competitor.
It's abit expensive for it's features. Sure, it has a speaker and a good interface, but $260? Meh.
i think this might be good as on office stereo or somethin, its all-in-one, radio/MP3 player,
but ya, i agree on the removable speaker thing, if i could take it off, i might consider buying one of these! but as it stands, its an expensive mini boombox/alarm clock...
oh well, at least its a start for samsung!
Great article!
I don't know what the big deal (in the above comments) is about the non-removable speakers. Despite the form factor's size, I do like the fact that it's part of the whole. Having it be removeable would be an option, but I don't think that's the aim of this product. It would just be yet another piece of the gadget to keep track of.
I have to agree with the reviewer about it not having a clock face, though. It's a big missed opportunity to turn this into something that most (competing) MP3 players are not.
Battery life: w/speakers, 6 hours, but damn, THIRTY hours without?!? How the hell did they manage that?
Also how usable is the song management (ie loading/deleting songs, adding playlists, etc)?
It's sexy slick. I really like it.
When and MP3 player starts looking sexy, I'm jumpin'.
Why do you Apple brainwashed dicks see every thing as a direct competitor to the Apple stuff? Sure there is room for an mp3 player with built in speakers, and some ppl don't want freakin video on their player.
I think its pretty slick, it reminds me of the LG Chocolate Phone with that slick one piece look. I dont care that the speakers arent removable thats perfect so you dont misplace the speakers and its a stand as well...neat. The only thing I would have wanted in this MP3 player is video otherwise its a solid 8.5 on my nerd scale.
Drool. When can I get one?
Nobody is going to mention the poor use of space around the tiny 1.7" screen? Check out the incredibly bright, detailed (320x240), 2.2" screen on the iRiver clix if you want to see a good use of space.
Just bought the 4GB from Best Buy 9871 Waterstone Boulevard, Cincinnati, OH 45249 so check your local store.
Solid construction and not flimsy like the Clix - I think it's the best alternative to an iPod out today (Gigabeat was underwhelming).
Anyone know if I would be able to play DRM stripped iTunes Store .m4a files on this player. It's the only thing stopping me from buying it as soon as it comes out.
Hmmm....
Pay $250 for a nano and another $20+ for speakers...
or pay $210 with the speakers included. I think I'll save myself $40 and have the pleasure of not having to shove those earbuds in my ears. All in all, I think it's a great MP3 player for the money, and the alarm is just an added bonus.