Hands on with Samsung's P2 Portable Media Payer

This afternoon Samsung held a press conference in honor of the new Samsung P2 portable media player. Available in several colors including white, black and maroon, the new P2 sports a touch sensitive interface which is definately on the way to becoming a new standard. At the conference, Samsung acknowledged the fact that they might not be No. 1 in the Mp3 player market but they believe that there is still plenty of room for innovation. The P2 is undoubtedly going to be compared to the iPod Touch, and while they are pretty similar devices, the P2 surprisingly has a lot to offer that the Touch doesn’t. For starters, aside from Video and Music playback features the P2 also features an FM tuner and recorder and support for WMA and WMA music subscription services like Rhapody and Napster.

Bluetooth 2.0 is another unique feature in the P2. That means that you can listen to your music wirelessly in stereo. We briefly tried out Samsung’s upcoming bluetooth headset and when connected to the sound was powerful and clear when connected to the P2. But the Bluetooth features don’t end there. An upcoming firmware update coming in December will allow you to connect the P2 to your cell phone, so when a phone call comes in your music will be automatically interrupted. There will also be an eventual update that will allow you to transfer files on and off the device wirelessly via bluetooth. Other cool features of the P2 include the ability to customize the interface, Samsung said that a future update will also enhance the customization features. (more…)