Samsung shows off P3 portable media player

Samsung has been pretty tight-lipped about the inevitable successor to its popular P2 (or YP-P2) PMP, but the company has taken the wraps off of it in a big way today, with it not only announcing its new P3 handheld, but letting a few sites actually get their hands on it. As rumored way back in May, the device's touchscreen gets a haptic upgrade, but the size and resolution stay the same at 3-inches and 480 x 272. Otherwise, you can expect capacities ranging from 4GB to 32GB, built-in Bluetooth with A2DP support, an FM tuner, a mono speaker, support for all the usual audio and video formats and, of particular note, an all new interface complete with customizable widgets. No word on a price or launch date just yet, but Samsung will apparently have more to say about that when it gets even more official about the device at CES in January. Until then, you can hit up the links below for some more pics, including an ample supply of comparison shots.

Read - Generation MP3
Read - Le Journal du Geek

[Upp @ Nov 12th 2008 4:05PM]

I realy hope these take off soon, but with the new iPod Touch who can beat it?

http://www.upp.me

[Metkis @ Nov 12th 2008 5:48PM]

Now you know the errors of your ways: Mentioning the iPod Touch AND linking to a crappy "me too" Digg-esque site.

For shame.

[J-Rad @ Nov 12th 2008 8:18PM]

So low ranked that i had to adjust my CRT monitor's contrast!

[kingu @ Nov 13th 2008 10:56AM]

Made it hard to find the minus-button

[electron @ Nov 12th 2008 4:05PM]

WOOTNESSS! (not only that, but you actually posted an article that I recomended :D )

[OneLove @ Nov 12th 2008 4:09PM]

"support for all the usual audio and video formats"..like xvid, divx?

[broli @ Nov 12th 2008 4:09PM]

Kind of funny that an addition of a GSM chip, antenna and some software the price can quadruple.

[KillaChaos @ Nov 12th 2008 4:10PM]

Anyone read PS3 portable media player?

[KRIS_C_123 @ Nov 12th 2008 4:19PM]

nope

[iEye @ Nov 12th 2008 4:13PM]

So these jack arses still did not put a mic on the bottom and a speaker at the top? Enabling the user to pair this with a cheap cell phone through BT and make calls... or at least calls over wifi...

Even at $79 I did not get the 4GB...

[jtizzlefurizzle21 @ Nov 12th 2008 4:27PM]

congrats on not being a total apple fanboy for once!

[electron @ Nov 12th 2008 4:50PM]

as an owner of a P2, I know that u have NO IDEA what u r talking about... -.-

but yes, congrats for not being a total apple fanboy... (although I do have a mac....)

[Dubb @ Nov 12th 2008 5:08PM]

@iEye

It's simple really, you just buy a decent set of BT Stereo headphones. I recommend the DR-BT21G which is made by Sony. Then you pair that with the P2 (via BT A2DP, which certain PMP's seem to lack...). After that you pair your cheap cellphone (Samsung M300 in my case) with the headphones. If you receive a call, your headphones will pause the music on the player and receive the call when you hit the answer button on the right side headphone. Then it will switch back to the music when you hang up on that call using the same button.

The more you know. ™

[iEye @ Nov 12th 2008 8:22PM]

Why in the world would I want to pair a BT headset with my P2 through my cell phone? why not admit that the P2 is shite and just use a cell phone that has A2DP? leave the P2 out of the equation...

[Yuri @ Nov 12th 2008 8:33PM]

...The P2 has a mic at the bottom, and bluetooth.... =\ I pair it with my phone all the time so I can keep my phone in my bag when I listen to music in order to reduce clutter. It lets me answer calls, hang up, dial, use my phone book, and the sound quality is great on both ends with my P2.

I'd probably still not upgrade for a while, my P2 serves me just fine, but the P3 does look nice =3

[htd @ Nov 12th 2008 4:13PM]

so old school, compare to ainol v3000...

[Chris @ Nov 12th 2008 4:16PM]

480 x 272 again and like always. Keep continuing the PSP screen!

[KRIS_C_123 @ Nov 12th 2008 4:18PM]

my p2 just broke last week. so it is being sent away to be fixed


i really dont know what my point is. but this is a pretty decent upgrade.

[Syndrical @ Nov 12th 2008 4:23PM]

I hope this will be a huge upgrade to the P2
Altho I love my P2 (using it as I type this), I still felt there were a few things good ol' Sammy could've put in this.
Hopefully this will be the big one!

And I hope they FINALLY release a SDK.
We've been begging for it so just give it to us Samsung!

[iEye @ Nov 12th 2008 4:30PM]

"Altho I love my P2 (using it as I type this)"

if you had an iPod touch you could actually USE it TO type this...

another poor choice from an uninformed consumer...

[Juxterium @ Nov 12th 2008 4:40PM]

@ iEye

so I guess the term, consumer wants/needs means nothing to you? Because for me personally and a hell of a lot of other people WiFi in a PMP is useless. Everywhere I go where there is an internet connection there is already a computer with a nice big screen and keyboard there, so why take out a device which is much smaller and harder to type on?

This doesn't change the fact the Ipod Touch is overpriced though, seriously even if the 8GB is good value at £160, the 16GB version is identical in every way but capacity yet somehow costs £50 more when other manufacturers pull off the same capacity increases for less then half of that.

[Dubb @ Nov 12th 2008 4:57PM]

@iEye

And you're listening to Bluetooth A2DP stereo headphones while doing so, correct?

Another poor comment by an uninformed apple fanboy.

[inteller @ Nov 12th 2008 4:28PM]

wow, I'd love to see Zune firmware on that.

[electron @ Nov 12th 2008 4:55PM]

that would be interesting, but samsung's firmware unlocks some really cool bluetooth features....

[caz @ Nov 12th 2008 4:51PM]

16+ Meg, Wireless Headphones & FLAC - come to momma

[electron @ Nov 12th 2008 4:57PM]

here, here!

[ilh @ Nov 12th 2008 6:12PM]

What's weird is when I saw the HTC MAX post earlier the first thing I thought when I saw the picture was that it was the successor to the P2 (I read the title after), and now a few posts later the real successor is unveiled.

Was going to get a P2 last August but I was screwed around so much that I canceled my order annoyingly just as they had emailed me to say they were dispatching it. Couldn't be bothered after that. I'll have to see what happens with this but it's looking like an Cowon S9 for my next DAP.

[Troels C @ Nov 12th 2008 6:28PM]

Now thats a cool player.

[Gylman @ Nov 12th 2008 6:53PM]

Errrm - 480 x 272 is so 2007. And 3 inches? Meh.

As noted above - Ainol already trumps this (I have it, and although the interface is crummy, the superb high res 4.3" screen makes up for all).

[Al Bundy @ Nov 12th 2008 7:54PM]

does it still have issues with having to convert every video? any SDHC slot to increase capacity? has video playback hours increased? if these issues haven't been addressed, then i don't see whats really new here. kind of hard to beat the Cowon O2. ainol is really unavailable anyway so there is no point comparing it. all it really has going is the oled screen.

[CJ @ Nov 12th 2008 8:35PM]

Er... This is made by Samsung

[Gylman @ Nov 12th 2008 8:51PM]

CJ, we were comparing the Ainol V3000 with the Samsung.

Al - it cost me 140$ and 2 weeks waiting to get the Ainol from HK to Canada (via eBay). Obviously, no distributor channel here (*yet) but it was less trouble and quicker to get than any product I have ordered online from SonyStyle.

I had a little review of it here on Engadget in one of the previous topics on the V3000 (near the end). Bottom line is that it works fairly well and feels very good to hold. Extremely sexy gadget to show your friends. Once you get your content on it in a way that works smoothly, it's got to be a vastly more satisfying experience to use than this Samsung product. The Ainol screen trumps all.

[CJ @ Nov 16th 2008 6:51PM]

Ah, re-reading that post, I now understand.

[DssTrainer @ Nov 12th 2008 10:33PM]

Slap a phone radio in it and make it useful.

[John @ Nov 13th 2008 12:26AM]

I dont know about this whole 'converged cellphone and PMP' thing. I have a Dell Axim x50v which is essentially a PMP with a VGA screen, can store up to 64GB of storage, has bluetooth, wifi, opera browser, good media player, decent battery life... (it came out 2.5 years before the ipod touch btw) Its just not my thing though. If I want to view videos, or stream information online i will use my smartphone with 3G connection. If i want to listen to music i use my mp3 player. With battery life the way it is today, it just doesnt make sense to load up these devices with so many features you cant use because the battery sucks.

[Kris @ Nov 13th 2008 2:48AM]

That simple design is actually quite nice looking. I'll have that in phone flavour please :)

[drjay868 @ Nov 13th 2008 9:52AM]

I hope it don't drop it on my foot... those edges look sharp!

[karol @ Nov 13th 2008 7:30PM]

hmm... i just bought a p2. i wonder how much this one's going to cost