Update for samsung p2

Samsung's latest portable media player, the P2, may feature a slick, touchscreen GUI, a thin, slab-like design, and two available capacities 4GB and 8GB , but don't call it an iPod touch ripoff. Its robust sound, excellent 3-inch display, and innovative Bluetooth capabilities give it more than enough credibility to stand outside of Apple's shadow. Sporting an all-black body highlighted by a 3-inch widescreen display, the 3-ounce P2 isn't as sleek as the iPod touch, but it has a smaller footprint 3.

It's also available in red and white. There are more physical keys for volume, hold, and power than the near-buttonless iPod touch, but we appreciated the dedicated volume controls. The P2's touchscreen was intuitive when making menu selections, but scrolling using the slim bar on the right side of the display was awkward. Also, the display smudged up with fingerprints quickly. A helpful back arrow lets you exit applications easily, and pressing and holding it returns you to the main menu.

We also like the contextual menu options. For example, when listening to tunes, pressing the Menu button on the bottom of the screen lets you tweak sound effects, select tracks as an alarm, and more. The main menu by default has three icons Videos, Music, Pictures , and swiping your finger down reveals more options. We prefer the Matrix view, which lets you see all of these options at once. Our photos looked sharp and bright on this player's x resolution widescreen, but we discovered that images larger than K took 10 to 20 seconds to load when we cycled through the picture library smaller photos booted almost instantaneously.

In fact, Samsung and CinemaNow have their own microsite samsung. The movie selection, which included recent titles like A Mighty Heart , Ocean's Thirteen , and Spider-Man 3 , was more timely and robust than the TV lineup 24 , Arrested Development , and Friends being among the highlights.

Bundled with the P2 is Samsung's multimedia software that lets you transcode videos on your PC to ensure that your flicks play smoothly on the device. We loaded the P2 with some of our ripped MP3 and WMA files, as well as purchased Napster tracks unprotected AAC support is set to come before the end of the year , and found the audio quality superb.

Not only was the volume exceptionally loud, but Samsung's proprietary DNSe 2. Even better, when you tweak your tracks using the P2's genre-specific equalizer settings, the effects are immediate and discernable.

Unlike on many other players that offer subtle changes, if you switch settings from jazz to rock on the P2, you'll instantly recognize the difference in bass, treble, and overall audio textures. The P2 features tight integration with the Rhapsody To Go subscription service. If you're a podcast fan, you can easily subscribe to your favorite shows using the Samsung Media Manager.

It automatically downloads fresh content that you can then sync with the player. The included FM radio with 30 presets didn't fare nearly as well as the other audio features of the P2; while walking around midtown Manhattan, we experienced static-filled audio.

Fast forward 10 months later, and Samsung finally has a complete P2 on its hands. The company issued update after update in the form of multiple Blue Wave firmware releases, and the tide has finally stopped coming in, giving me a chance to sit down with the player and test it with all features up and running.

Included after the jump is a comprehensive list of all the updates provided throughout the Blue Wave firmware releases. For more detailed information on several of the new features and my experience with them, check out our slide show. There was simply too much information to include in the already lengthy review, although it is worth noting that the feature additions and price drops garnered the Samsung P2 a score raise, from 7.

Be respectful, keep it civil and stay on topic. We delete comments that violate our policy , which we encourage you to read. Discussion threads can be closed at any time at our discretion. Blue Wave updates complete the Samsung P2 Samsung is relaunching its P2 MP3 player as a complete package--with all firmware preloaded--at a lower-price point.