Digital Trends

Samsung YP-T9 2GB January 30th, 2007 | by Brandon King

Features and Design

The nano is dead; long live the nano. The Samsung YP-T9 is everything the iconic Apple MP3 player is, plus much, much more. In fact, we would go so far as to say that unless you are married to a library full of music from iTunes, there is no reason to consider a nano if the T9 is any indication of where Windows Media Player compatible devices are headed.

The T9 is Samsung’s latest nano competitor, and as such sports impressively small dimensions – approximately 1.5”x3”x.5”. Clocking in at smaller than the nano, the T9 is available in capacities from 2GB up to 8GB. But size isn’t everything - or so they say. The T9 supports video playback, picture slideshows, text file reading, music playback, and even comes with a couple, albeit poor, games. Additionally, the T9 sports voice recording, an FM tuner (with support for recording), and a file browser application. Aside from Zune-like WiFi capabilities and an FM transmitter, we can’t think of anything else you could put in a media player close to this size!

Included with the T9, is the sync cable, ear buds, and software CD. The T9 is available in black and purple colors, though the purple version is limited to 2GB. The front surface is home to the clearest small screen we’ve seen on an MP3 player, and a five directional pad. The bottom edge of the player has only enough room for the proprietary sync cable connector. Along the left side is the hold button, which is essential for this player. The top surface includes the headphone connector, lanyard loop, and built in microphone, while the right side includes the record, back, menu and play/pause buttons. The placements of the side buttons make them easy to accidentally bump, which is why the hold switch is something we found ourselves using more than with other players. The player is turned on by pressing the play button, and off by holding it down for 2 seconds. The booting process is slightly sluggish, taking approximately 9 seconds to turn on and 5 seconds to turn off.

The T9 syncs with Windows Media Player 10 and 11, the included Samsung Media Studio 5 application, or it can be mounted as a mass storage device and manually updated. Unlike the iPod, the T9 does not need an external application to update the player’s database; in other words, the nifty meta-information that you use to navigate the iPod (genre, artist, album, etc.) is generated by iTunes and uploaded onto the iPod with each sync. The Samsung player itself actually takes care of database management, which means the user is free to manipulate files with any number of programs and the player will sort out the specifics. When the device is disconnected from the PC, using the proprietary USB 2.0 connector, the player will update the database, which takes a few seconds.

The Samsung YP-T9