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The Samsung T10 MP3 player is a very small personal MP3 player that comes in 2GB and 4GB models that looks to compete against the iPod Nano. It has a few additional features that tries to take the edge away from the prestige of the iPod.
I recently signed up for a survey made by the fine people at Matchstick. They called me, and I got hooked up with a black 2GB version of the Samsung T10 MP3 Player along with a set of matching Samsung Bluetooth Stereo Headphones (review soon to come).
To start it off, obviously, the Samsung T10 is going after the iPod Nano market by offering an MP3 player with similar size but more features. Is it better? In some cases yes.
The Samsung T10 comes in four different colors - white, black, red, and lime green, and as stated above, comes with 2GB and 4GB capacities
In The Box
The box comes in a nice clear plastic box with the MP3 player, headphones, foam ear covers, USB Cable (for charging and synching your media library), Software CD, and a quick guide manual.
The Look
The design of the Samsung T10 is pretty minimal. The Black version I got has a glossy black finish on the front, like an iPod, but the back is plastic, so it doesn't get as scratched up and covered in finger prints like first generation iPod Nanos. However since the front is glossy, it will get covered in finger prints, even more so than a black iPod. This is due to the controls being under the glossy black finish. The iPod has non-glossy area for his controls with its scroll wheel.
The screen is a big 2 inches, which can be rotated to landscape when watching videos or looking at pictures. Theres a switch on the right side of the T10 that controls the power, and also used to lock the unit. When you power up the T10, the control buttons light up. You just have to place your finger on top of the buttons to control it. Theres no moving of your finger in a circle, you just press the arrows. Be careful though, the Back button to go to previous menus is a little close to the up arrow, which usually controls volume, and I find myself hitting the up button instead of the menu a lot of times. I don't very fat fingers. Of course there is port on the bottom to plug in to your USB, and the headphone port.
The Interface
The menu system has 3 different themes.
- Sammy the Dog theme
- Pendant theme
- "My Theme".
The last two themes allow you to change the color tone, and the font as well. For some reason when you switch themes, the sound will stop for a bit.
At first I didn't like the themes, but you can change the colors to one that suits you. With the high resolution and quality of the screen, you can make the menus look pretty slick and clean.
The main menu consists of Music, Videos, Pictures, FM Radio, Datacasts (Podcasts), Prime Pack, File Browser, Bluetooth, and Settings.
Music
Obviously allows you to browse your library for the music you want to listen to. You can browse by artists, albums, songs, genres, playlists, or view the browser. You can even listen to your Recorded Files from here. Its easy to search through. As said before, the system can play MP3s and WMA music formats.
Videos
It just lists all the videos you have on your player. It comes with 3 preloaded just to show off the high quality of their screen. I think it looks better than iPods LCD screen. I'm very impressed. The resolution is very good and very bright. It can play WMVs and also MP4 video formats.
Pictures
Displays thumbnails of your pictures, and you can view them in full screen. This also shows the quality of the LCD. It can display JPGs.
FM Radio
This item is basically just a horizontal bar, that you can change the tuning of. As long as you know your local radio stations, you can listen to them by scrolling to the appropriate station. The quality was reasonably good. I like this feature a lot.
Datacasts
Datacasts are there way of saying Podcasts, which are basically MP3 audio blogs, interviews, or news that you can listen to whenever you want. Many websites include these. I've never listened to one, so I don't care.
Prime Pack
This section has a text viewer so you can read your Ebooks, and also a voice recorder so you can record yourself, professor, or interview. Useful for those who need it.
File Browser
This displays all of the data on your Samsung T10, and you can play or view the files automatically from here. Its a little strange that you can't delete from here.
Bluetooth
Go here to setup your bluetooth devices or turn bluetooth on and off. It was very easy to setup Samsung Bluetooth Stereo headset.
Settings
You can change your menu style, sound, display, language, date and time in this section.
Ease of Use
Honestly it took me a while to finally get this thing up and running with my music. First of all, for some reason, I had a difficult time trying to connect the T10 with my Windows XP machine. Another writer on this site had the same problems. However, it worked fine on some other computers. I'd recommend just sticking to using Windows Media Player, instead of installing anymore software. If you are a Mac user, you're shit out of luck. It will not work on it.
One annoying feature was that it would always go to the now playing screen after a few seconds of not touching the player. I would rather it continue playing in the background but leave me at the menu. If I want to view the current song, I'll hit the now playing button myself.
One cool feature is that you can create your own playlist on the spot. Just go to the song and click the top right button and add song to playlist.
Pros
- Very high quality LCD
- Lighter than the iPod Nano
- Cheap! The 4GB model can be bought on sale for $80.
- Built in FM Player
- Works readily with Windows Media Player. You don't have to install the included Software.
- Built-in Voice Recorder
- Can play WMVs and WMA also.
- Long lasting battery.
- Bluetooth for wireless headsets.
- Very good battery life
Cons
- Does not work on Apple computers.
- Limited to only 2GB or 4GB. iPod nano has 8GB
- Not many accessories to choose from
- Finger prints are more visible on the front than on a black iPod
Final Thoughts
If you don't have to be like everyone else and own an iPod, you have a Windows computer, and you want to save yourself some money, I definitely recommend the Samsung T10. Its size and light weight makes it very good to use while working out. The 2" screen is big for the unit and takes up more than half the MP3 player, but who really wants to watch a full movie on such a small screen anyway. The 4GB is plenty, unless you want to include your entire music library in this. I don't, and I'm happy with it. Now if I could get some accessories for it...
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