The Samsung Yepp is easily one of the coolest-looking digital audio players around. The most outstanding feature of the Yepp is its size--only 3.2 by 2.4 by 0.97 inches and 1.7 ounces; its the size a deck of cards (and just a bit lighter). The controls are easily reached and the player has great sound. Better still, it never skipped a beat during our testing even when it was inadvertently slammed around a few times. Of course, with its small size, youre paying a price in memory. This Yepp holds only 32 MB of music, or about 15 tracks at the lowest compression setting. Thats where the Yepps SmartMedia slot comes in, with room for flash memory cards for another 64 MB. Anything more than that and you have to turn to another type of player. Sound quality was very good even with the included budget earphones--the dynamic range was crisp and had clean tones at both high and low ends.
To download music to the Yepp, use the included USB cable to access the players flash memory, format it and transfer songs. You will need a USB port on your PC and Windows 98 or 2000 (Windows 95 and NT are not USB-compatible); it is also compatible with Mac OS 7.0 and above. Follow the directions in the manual for adding a USB driver to your system.
The Yepp comes with RealJukebox software for ripping CDs, which took quite a bit of tinkering to get it to work right. (Make sure to check security and encoding settings.) The Yepps manual didnt help much and unless you log on to the Internet, you wont have access to RealJukebox help. But once the software was all set up, it took us only about 30 seconds to encode a track into MP3 format, and then another minute or two to move it to the player.
Controls on the Yepp are basic. The buttons are small and sometimes difficult to operate. The included remote control with backlit LCD adds a few more features, like reverse, hold, and four equaliser settings, but search functions are primitive.
Ultimately, its software and hardware limitations might not make it the best MP3 player deal on the market. But with its cool design, sound quality and portability, the Yepp more than holds its own as an entry-level MP3 player. --LE Klein