Samsung S2 Pebble

So I managed to finally destroy my old Sansa c250. I could only get audio out of one side. So for about a week now, I've been happily enjoying its successor: the 1 GB Samsung S2 Pebble.

DESIGN

Before I get into the actual results section, I'm going to break down the aesthetics a bit.

This thing is gorgeous. I know the benchmark for electronics design these days seems to be Apple, but I really think Samsung did a great job with this one. It's small, unobtrusive, but it looks great when it hangs around your neck (using the included necklace earbuds). The interface is simple enough. In fact, when you plug the earphones in, it orients the player perfectly so that the volume up button is on the upper side of the player. The back is a tad too shiny, making it a fingerprint magnet, but the idea was to make it resemble a polished pebble, so that's pretty unavoidable. It has no screen, putting it in the same class as the Shuffle, but this does have a convenient LED indicator on the back that will signal the status of the player (e.g. flashing red for low battery). It makes it pretty intuitive, overall.

FUNCTION

Ah yes, the meat and potatoes. The sound on this thing is quite decent for a player that won't cost north of $30 (Note that I got the 1 GB model. I believe there is a 2 GB model, but that one costs more). I opted to use my own earphones, because the necklace earphones provided seem to cut out some lows. Volume runs a very acceptable range, and I was able to drown out a very crowded train pretty easily.

One feature on the Pebble, however, has me sold: the ability to create a playlist on the fly. There is a fifth "smart button" on the player, which will allow you to switch modes. Holding the volume button will add the current song to a playlist (max. 30 songs) which can then be accessed by holding down the smart button. For someone who enjoys different groups of songs on different days, this feature really is a selling point.

ACTUAL RESULTS

Time to test the box claims. Samsung says the Pebble will get 13 hours of playback, which I unfortunately didn't manage to pull off, but just barely. I kept the player playing more or less constantly during four 3-hour train rides I took, and only about an hour into the last one did it conk out. That's a decent 10 hours of playback, before a charge is needed. Samsung's keeping it pretty honest here.

Final Rating: 4.5/5 - It's a solid low-cost player that's great for trips to the gym or places you wouldn't want to bring your main MP3 player.

iPod Touch!

image courtesy GadgetReview

So work's finally done for the summer, and I decided to treat myself a bit. So, here's a look at the 16 GB iPod Touch.

DESIGN

Oh man, I never thought myself an Apple person, but I was sold from the moment I booted this thing up. The interface really is just as slick as everyone's been saying, and the screen is magnificent (it makes the engineer in me very happy). Seems sturdy, with it's metal back, and it fits nicely in the hand. The power button's easily accessible, though I feel like having the headphone jack next to the dock connector's a bit awkward. I had been using a 30 GB iPod Video until now, and had gotten quite used to having the headphone jack on the top of the unit. Small gripe, but it's a different feel.

FUNCTION

This thing functions exactly the way I expected it to: nearly perfectly. The OS seems to encounter slowdowns every now and then, and it does occassionally hang, requiring a hard reset. This isn't a common occurrance, but it is annoying.

Sound quality is top notch, though as usual, I ditched the standard earbuds the minute I looked at them. No offense to Apple, but while I think the branding and all is great, the functionality of the standard earbuds just isn't that astounding.

The App Store is great. I proceeded to download a few "lite" versions of games, as well as a level (which helped me hang some blinds!) Downloads over WiFi are very quick, and there were only a few times when the downloads hung.

Now to talk about the more fun features: the accelerometer! This thing makes the device pretty interesting. I love hopping into Safari, and flipping the screen sideways to make everything landscaped. I just wish I could do the same thing in the Mail app. The keyboard feels way too tiny when the iPod's in a portrait orientation.

Speaking of keyboards, this thing takes some getting used to, but I can tell that once you get the hang of the capacitive screen, you'd really be able to fly. Annoyances: predictive text can't be shut off quickly, meaning I constantly have to tell the iPod that I am not misspelling "Pen" as "Penn." Overall, very nice.

ACTUAL RESULTS

So Apple claimed I'd get 22 hours of playback from this thing. Granted, I have not exhaustively tested this by solely playing music, but I managed about 12 hours of uptime. Not too bad, but I can see people running into problems on long flights. Also, WiFi utterly destroys the battery. I was discharging at a rate of about 1% every 5 to 10 minutes. It seems the WiFi is more of a value add than a core feature. With screen brightness at the lowest setting, I bumped uptime with normal usage to about 15 hours. Just make sure you're able to charge this thing once every day or three, and you should be fine.

Final Rating: 4.5/5 - A solid media device with all of the Apple upsides, but a few nagging downsides with the OS.