Samsung's YP-K5 audio player with integrated speakers

Samsung's gettin' busy in Korea this morn with the launch of their new YP-K5 portable audio player with integrated speakers. This DAP ships in 1/2/4GB capacities for storing digital audio in MP3, WMA, ASF, or OGG supported formats. DNSe audio processing or not, that tiny speaker(s?) won't likely be delivering quality sound, so let's hope it's removable for sake of portability -- but go ahead Sammy, we'll be happy for you to prove us wrong. No price yet or even real details at the mo' but we'll keep digging.

[Alex @ Aug 15th 2006 9:26AM]

Speakers removable?
I thought this was a picture of two of them, one facing forward and one from the back, and that the speakers were integrated into the backside of the player... Otherwise, I agree, removing the speakers would be a top priority.

[z @ Aug 15th 2006 9:32AM]

Nice alarm clock even if not removable.

[green tea fan @ Aug 15th 2006 9:39AM]

The design is creative..may be about 200 dollar.

[morty salt @ Aug 15th 2006 9:41AM]

Is the speaker just on the back part of the DAP? or is that like a fold out speaker? The trim around the speaker back looks terrible. If the speaker where simply integrate into the back of the unit that would be awesome, nice looking form factor. I love my ipod and have been asking apple to do this for 4 years now!!! it's like a portable mini boom box. The reason this will take off is that people love to be branded, we love to show off what we got, and to show off our music with out having to plug in headphones will be an ipod killer, just watch. I wish they had a magnetic speaker that could attach to the back of my ipod. I couldn't care if it was crappy sounding you want the world to know what you are listening to.

[Jon Doe @ Aug 15th 2006 9:51AM]

Mmmm fingerprinty.

[PeteC @ Aug 15th 2006 10:10AM]

mmmm amgnetic speakers that plug onto the back of the ipod. That'll make the HD happy, better be a nano only idea!

I like it! My Z5 is still the best mp3 player I've owned by far. GUI is lovely, control system is ok and fairly intuitative compared to the H340 and others I'ved had. Plays OGG, long battery life, drag and drop, scratch resistant screen, small form factor. I'm certainly interested to what they come up with next and this looks fun and a bit different at least with those folding out speakers but yes, they better ditatch so you can go for a smaller form factor if you wish or at leas still be damn thin with them.

[Tree @ Aug 15th 2006 10:18AM]

Morty, I belive the trim of the speaker has a line of plastic on it so it can slide into the back of the unit, to keep it protected etc. The speaker would probably make it pretty fat...

[mrscribble @ Aug 15th 2006 10:18AM]

@ morty salt

No, please no... it's bad enough in the UK already with kids playing their bangin choons through their mobile phone's speaker on the bus / train. Last thing we need is an antisocial ipod too.

[kitten @ Aug 15th 2006 10:30AM]

I agree 100% with mrscribble. People in London (UK, where I live) have been killed for asking kids to turn down the music on their mobile phones. About once a week I get into a situation where some kids on a bus are listening to some obnoxious music but I don't feel safe asking them to shut it. This says plenty about the state of our society, but it's not helped by these devices.

[kitten @ Aug 15th 2006 10:31AM]

PS. It looks lovely though.

[Nick @ Aug 15th 2006 11:31AM]

I love to have drive failures.. nothings more fun then
having to reformat a drive and re-transfer my 25 GB of music when i choose to attach those new magnetic speakes.

@ Morty
Secondly, i dont want to hear the music you are listening to. So plug your headphones/earbuds in and get over the urge to force others to listen to your music.

[Trevor @ Aug 15th 2006 12:03PM]

"I love to have drive failures.. nothings more fun then
having to reformat a drive and re-transfer my 25 GB of music when i choose to attach those new magnetic speakes." -Nick

Speaker magnets of that size are no where near strong enough to erase a hard drive.

[konovo @ Aug 15th 2006 12:36PM]

I like the built-in speaker for the sake of not having to deal with headphone or earbuds. But I didn't know that the UK and the USA had the same problem with annoying people playing their music through their cellphone speakers! That's something I totally disagree with. Play it to yourself ..

[john tran @ Aug 15th 2006 5:36PM]

looks like one of those olympus m:robe 5GB players.

[Ian @ Aug 15th 2006 7:42PM]

Cool design..... wonder how powerful the speaker is but more important thing is the quality of the sound, not the volume. It looks a bit fatty but I think people can manage it if smaller than original iPod. Surely it's not intended to work during exercise.

Let's keep watching and see how the sould quality goes.

[Ian @ Aug 15th 2006 8:06PM]

Good design, and I believe it addressed the issue of sharing music. People hate the iPod-identical MP3 players that mandate them to use in a same way since Sony introduced the Walkman half century ago.

The key would be the form factor and sound quality. Sould should be pleasing, not distorting. Form factor should be at least as small as original iPod. I don't think tiny nano-like form factor is not necessary in essence, if it's not for exercise.

[kenyue @ Aug 16th 2006 11:50PM]

beautiful!!!how much???how about he battery???

[elijah kim @ Aug 20th 2006 10:05PM]

I met the R&D people working at Samsung AV(I work at samsung my self) I saw a prototype of this badboy...and it is pretty slick. The speakers arent that bad..they dont get that loud but its a kick ass alarm clock. the thing is badass...with or without the speaker its small enough. I personally like Cowon Iaudio...but this black beauty is giving me secone thoughts...

[SC @ Sep 3rd 2006 8:32PM]

I just saw it displayed at Best Buy, and I think the sound quality is excellent. I'm really tempted to get one for myself. It is a bit bigger than the iPod Nano, but I think the speakers more than make up for it.

[equipmentandstuff @ Sep 10th 2006 7:24AM]

I bought a Sandisk E250 and returned it the same day as it crashed after charging the battery. I bought the K5 1GB and it's almost finished charging...I can't wait!!!

[FDG @ Sep 10th 2006 5:13PM]

yeah i saw it at best buy today and im tempted to buy one even though i already have the nano.
and the built in speaker is excellent to, and the touch screen interface is really nice. don't forget the FM Tuner.
I might buy one tomorrow. :]

[Rick @ Sep 11th 2006 12:40AM]

Bought one today. Love it. Now looking for accessories is a hassle.

[Rynth @ Sep 15th 2006 9:03AM]

Excellent player this, its brilliant. The speakers dont need to be removed for it to be portable, its really small, and fits happily in my already over-crowded pockets, the speakers are also great, I wasnt expecting great things, but they're sexual, no distortion, even at full blast! Loving this player, id reckomend it, 10/10.

[L337g4m3r @ Sep 21st 2006 12:05AM]

Cool gadget, I like the hardware. The speakers are decent for what you can expect and the build quality is nice.

The downfall is the software. It is the most un-intuitive maze of steps just to make albums and directories the way you want. You can use Windows media as well but that is not much better. I want to structure the songs and albums the way *I* want to not the way *they* want me to. I put some songs by the same artist in the same directory and the player INSISTS to throw them all in a big pile in "unknown" VERY annoying. It tries to be smart (just ends up being a pain) realizing that the song may not be in the actual album so it won't let you put it there even if you want it there. Gone are the simple days of drag and drop where you want. Now it is a battle royal just to fight the software to get things the way YOU want them, AAAArrrgh!!

Hardware: 4.5 out of 5 stars.
Software and OS: -25 out of 5 stars because it is so damn stubborn and frustrating.

[ewa @ Nov 17th 2006 12:59PM]

I bought this mp3 player about a month ago. I costed (for a 2 gb) abou $250. it was a realy god frice for a really good qality product. everything's great- the voice quality, volume, and the battery is fantastic (it lasts about day on maximum volume on speakers), plus u can charge it through usb so u dont have to run up o the store everytime the batteries are dead. The only think that is a minus is that sometimeswhen u drop it,the thing juzt dies abnd u cant turn it on, but when u slide out the speakers theres a "reset" hole in which u press with somethin and the thins is all good and u didnt loose and music.
Oh and by the way,u can put and viev pictures on it too:)

[Still saving @ Dec 4th 2006 1:34PM]

i first saw the K5 in a cosmogirl magazine. And i fell in love with it the 1 st time i saw it!!!! So i got a job just i could buy one

[Ben @ Jan 6th 2007 6:50AM]

Hi all, this might have been discussed previously but i just got a k5 and when the speakers are folded out the pivot area is rather slack and moves v. easily from side to side. Was wondering if this was typical of the player or mine is a bit crap!????

[Toni @ Aug 23rd 2007 7:55AM]

How do you put albums onto the k5 so that they dont all go into an unknown file?

[Benjamin @ Aug 30th 2007 9:46PM]

Hey ben, it does move like that because the mp3 player has to slide out. For everyone who dont know what i'm talking about, the mp3 player will rock from side to side thinking its broken. I had this for over a year and nothing has gone wrong yet. (5/5)