Reviews Written by Jeff

Absolutely love it

Pros: Small, easy to use, intuitive

Cons: Had to reload it's firmware twice, but that was my fault.

I bought this for work and to load podcasts on the night prior. It works really well and I have no complaints.

One review comments about the volume resetting. That's a feature designed to protect your ears. You set a default volume as the highest volume it allows when turned on. If you turn it off lower than that volume, it keeps the old volume. Turn it off higher than that volume and it lowers itself to a default. Read the manual -- it's amazing what you can learn.

You will need Vista or Win Media 10 to use it. It contains drivers REQUIRED to run this device. You can use other programs to load the thing, but you need to install Win Media 10 .

I had problems twice and that was related to the firmware. If it dies, you may need to reload the firmware (which is on Samsungs website). Do that and all is good. Not a big deal. It died because I tried to sync up with my computer at work and my office has that machine so locked down that it caused problems. I wouldn't buy this if you plan on using like a USB drive all the time -- it'll work, but it's better suited as a media player.

You can't listen to it while it's plugged into the USB port. I'd like to see that changed, but it's not a reason to pass on it.

Easy to read, good button lay-out, feels well-built, FM tuner built in, random (shuffle) play mode, repeat and repeat loops, supports playlists, genre/artist/album/track selection, great sound, user definable EQ, bass enhancement, stereo enhancement, auto-off if you pause (adjusted from No Auto-off during pause to 3 minutes auto-off during pause), voice recorder, comes with decent earbuds, good battery life (I listen around 10 to 12 on the volume 6 to 8 hours and it doesn't even register a loss on the battery indicator.)

It's hard to beat for the price. I wouldn't write it off based on the top negative reviews posted here. If you read the manual, you'll learn it does everything the others say it won't do.

Recommended if you need a small audio media player. ...