If you're looking for a little black MP3 player from Samsung, you can choose from small and sleek or small and crammed with features. The YP-K3 is a shiny black slice of style that makes the iPod nano look drab, and it even has an FM radio. The YP-T9 looks less striking but it crams in far more features: video playback, text reader, games, voice and radio recording. It even has A2DP stereo Bluetooth, so you don't have to untangle wires or even take the player out of your pocket. So which should you slip in your pocket in the first place?

Samsung YP-K3

The K3 is just a little longer and wider than an iPod nano, but the shiny black case and silver trim make it look even more sleek and stylish. The front is completely smooth, but when you touch it, the electroluminescent controls light up: four arrows and a button in the middle plus menu and back. Left and right take you from one option to another in the animated menu - music, radio, photos and settings, with icons made of blue and white dots that match the controls - or to the next track, radio frequency or image; press and hold to fast forward and rewind. The up and down buttons scroll through lists of tracks or options and change the volume, and pressing and holding moves you faster than just tapping. The center button selects items or plays and pauses tracks, and if you pull out your headphones, the music pauses automatically. The only physical button is the power and hold slider on the side.

The buttons fade to black when you're not using them to save power but light up again quickly when needed. They're well spaced and responsive, with a quiet chirp to let you know that you've pressed a button (which you can turn off once you have the hang of the controls). It's a simple but effective interface that proves you don't have to have a wheel to be elegant.

There aren't as many ways to choose music as on some players: you can pick by artist, album, genre or playlist, or scroll through the alphabetical listing of all tracks. The play options are simple shuffle and repeat settings. Given that the unit has only 2 GB or 4 GB of storage, those options are probably enough to find the track you want quickly. You can build AutoAlbum playlists in the Samsung Media Studio software (like Auto Playlists in Windows Media Player and smart playlists in iTunes) to pick favourite songs or new music. There's also the FM tuner, which has a simple and intuitive interface, although the autoscan found some faint stations even when we told it to only look for a strong signal.

For MP3 and WMA files, sound quality is good: high, low and mid-range frequencies all come across well, with clean, clear treble, powerful, clear bass and warm, clear mid-range notes. It sounds very similar to the YP-U2, and as with that model the 3D sound processing is worth turning on because it gives a richer, cleaner sound than the standard playback. The other three sound effects degrade the sound - especially the concert hall setting - and there's no option to create a custom EQ.

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