Samsung's YM-P1 20GB PMP available for pre-order

It's hitting our shores a little later than expected, but you can finally queue up for the US version of Samsung's hot little YM-PD1 personal media player (pictured), the YM-P1 (the absence of the "D" refers to the lack of a DMB over-the-air DTV receiver). Since we've been following this model for some time, you'll no doubt recall that it features a 4-inch widescreen TFT display, sports in-line recording to a 20GB hard drive, and supports a gaggle of formats including MP3, WMA, OGG, AC3, MPEG-4, DivX, XviD, AVI, WMV, JPEG, and BMP. You can also jack up the memory a bit via the SDIO slot, listen to and record FM radio, and even play some videogames (although the controls don't look all that well-suited for serious gaming). SamsungHQ spotted the P1 available for pre-order on Datavision's website at $370 (where "Our prices are too low to advertise!"), although there is no mention of when the devices will actually be shipping, so don't toss your Archos aside just yet.

[7of7 @ Apr 5th 2006 10:26PM]

How long until Apple "innovates" their own copy of this.

[pablious @ Apr 6th 2006 12:01AM]

What do you get when you cross an ipod with a psp? Minus the games and UMD, of course. Oh wait, the psp doesnt have those anyway...

This thing does look pretty sexy though. If I wasnt a broke college student, I'd consider getting it.

[James @ Apr 6th 2006 12:59AM]

psp has plenty of games you idiot

[sr @ Apr 6th 2006 1:10AM]

Wow, what is that? A Tablet PC?!!!

[will @ Apr 6th 2006 1:35AM]

nice unwitty comments guys. looks like a good nice looking pmp though...i like the 4" screen (16M colors?! woo) and the price and supposed battery life but 20 gb ain't so hot. how's the interface and its thickness?

[Camperton @ Apr 6th 2006 1:47AM]

I like it.

[Robert @ Apr 6th 2006 1:53AM]

@#3
but not good games

[Aikiwoce @ Apr 6th 2006 4:10AM]

I hate how people consider this innovation. It's not innovative if someones done it before, and better. The Cowon A2 beats this unit in almost every respect (SD-Slot, and LCD color depth are the exceptions). It also runs a modified version of linux, and has almost 10 hours of run-time playing movies.

That's not to say that the A2 is perfect, but it's closer than this one is. The A2 really needs an ID3 based mp3/ogg/wma browser, wider format support(but it still does all the ones the Ym-P1 does), and larger hard drive availability(30GB is the max currently).

The iPod while extremely popular is not the pinnacle of portable audio players. Anyone who thinks it is, is kidding themselves. Steve Jobs could go take a flying leap for all I care. But, he did do a couple of things right. He sold not just the player, but the whole package. While I may not like the iPod's aesthetics, many people go crazy for it. He also introduced a pretty fair pricing system for audio downloads, but the DRM kills it for me.

[mike @ Apr 6th 2006 5:35AM]

But, he did do a couple of things right. He sold not just the player, but the whole package

--

uh.. yea.. and who else has done that. Note the similarities.. the Mac is vertically integrated, and those who actually use one swear by it.

who else makes hardware and software for music players?

[PS @ Apr 6th 2006 6:10AM]

480 x 272 sucks. Still just 1/2 of the PAL resolution (vertical). I think I'd stick to my VGA PDA for movie watching.

[AutoDas @ Apr 6th 2006 6:31AM]

Aikiwoce the YM-P1 has a user replaceable battery and I would take that over 4 hours of extra video that will degrade. I fail to see where the Cowon A2 beats this, it just ties it in most places. And for the countires that support DMB, the antenna is built in and hidden.

[Jeffler @ Apr 6th 2006 7:20AM]

A GP2X with a hard drive that will be buggy and horrid just like every other samsung pap/pmp (I have a YH-820 that's horrible, so don't say i'm not justified)

[diulei @ Apr 6th 2006 11:44AM]

Amazingly, you people can always turn an irrelevant post about some sort of DAP or PVP into an "Apple sucks" or "Sony sucks" debate. Geez.

[Blademonkey @ Apr 6th 2006 1:17PM]

How does this compare to the Archos AV 500?
I have the archos myself (the 30 GB version) and I've been pretty happy with it. I love the fact that they really firmware updates for it, but i wish they would support more codecs. it's a little on the heavy side, but does have a 5 inch screen.

they are about the same price, but the archos does not sport a sd slot, instead it sports usb A and usb B ports so you can connect other usb devices directly to it. which is one way of getting your SD content on the product.

if anyone is interested in a review, let me know i'll post one up on my site and send a link to them.