So I've used the player and the headphones some more over the past couple of weeks and the experience has been mixed.
I still like the fact that it's so slim and light, light enough in fact that I'm afraid I'll break it with a flick of my fingers the next time I get it out of my pocket.
I especially LOVE the Bluetooth headphones. I even use them sometimes as a handsfree kit for my phone and occasionally to watch videos on my computer.
What I'm irritated about, however, is that every once in a while, when I'm listening to something on the player, the playback has strange breaks and skips. Which is weird, given that this isn't a CD. What's weirder still is that when it's done skipping, the song often shifts to a slightly higher key! Ummm? It usually reverts very slowly to the original key but the overall effect is quite irritating.
I've tried diagnosing this and have half an idea that this might be related to some sort of interference from my phone and/or Blackberry. I only use the player when I'm out of the house and I always have my phone and Blackberry with me. But I'm not completely sure about this because it's not like the player completely shuts down when it's placed next to my phone. It just skips every once in a while and sometimes when my phone is nowhere close to it.
I also thought it could be something to do with me waving the thing around, which, theoretically, makes no sense because the player doesn't have any moving parts. Sure enough, I've found that skips often occur when the player is completely still too.
The third possibility is that this isn't a player problem at all: it's a headphones problem. Now this isn't something I've tested. I could test it by plugging in standard wired headphones. Even so, why would this be a headphones problem? I mean, afaik, the headphones are just dumb hardware. They receive a radio signal and convert it to audio. Why the skips and especially why changes in key?
A curious conundrum.
The other gripe I have about the player is something Samsung has set themselves up for, ironically by providing a good feature. The player plays video and it's surprisingly good quality for such a tiny screen. Definitely good enough to watch silly sitcoms and suchlike. But they've missed out one key feature in my opinion -- there's no rewind button.
Is this really such a biggie? Yes!
Think about it -- one would only watch videos on the player casually when on the go. But does Samsung really think I would watch an entire TV show in one session during a commute? I found myself constantly wondering why they didn't build in a rewind button so I could quickly look back a few seconds and refresh my memory when watching something in stop-and-go fashion. For that matter, I think I'd even like a rewind button for music.
Ok, so overall, would I spend S$200 to buy the player? Perhaps.
Would I spend S$200 to buy the headphones? Quite likely, mostly because I can use them with my other Bluetooth-enabled devices as well not just the music player (of course, I'd compare prices to other comparable products first).
So, T10 or iPod? The T10 certainly looks nicer, but is it better? Who knows. I don't own an iPod!
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