With its black-lacquer finish, this player is a real gem to look at. Released three months before the iPod, it offers the same choice among three file types - audio, photo and video. But be forewarned: Don't buy it because of the video. The 1.8" display is just too small to display it correctly. What's more, the player plays only the little-used SVI format. That means you'll have to convert all your WMV or AVI videos using Samsung's Multimedia Studio software. The procedure isn't very difficult, but it takes time (about 30% of the playing time of the video you're converting). And if you have movies in 16/9, forget them. The player won't handle the format. The movies are displayed in 4/3, and people's heads get elongated so that they look like extraterrestrials in a sitcom.

Other Than That...

In other areas, the player does much better. Displaying photos suffers a little from the small display size, but is still very nice. With the player's USB Host function, it's a very good place to store and browse your vacation photos until you can download them to a computer. The sound quality, while not exceptional, is very good. And it offers users a very wide choice. Samsung is one of the rare manufacturers whose players are capable of playing OGG Vorbis files along with the more traditional MP3, ASF and WMA files. And aside from 18 possible equalizer adjustments (including one customizable), the YH-J70 also gives you adjustable spatial effects (SRS) and a choice of listening modes (earphone, headphone, stereo or car radio). The earphones provided are just adequate. With its wide range of functions including radio, encoding, voice recording and games, this player is fairly easy to use, even if the navigation pad was a little imprecise during our tests. But that may have been due to the sensitivity adjustment. One little criticism is that the 13-hour battery life is short compared to the competition.

So this is a sexy, small, very light audio/video player. While it's stuffed with functions, the video player didn't convince. The ergonomics and sound quality are quite satisfactory. You'll do better to dump the earphones for a better pair. This player is best suited to do-it-yourselfers who want to be able to play a wide range of formats and personalize the sound to their hearts' content.