Samsung’s MP3 strike force
Samsung's taken the UK wrapping off a trio of new MP3 lovelies. But do they have what it takes to beat the likes of Apple, Creative and Sony?

After a disappointing no-show in MP3 land last year, it finally looks like Samsung’s getting serious about portable audio. Here’s our lowdown on its three new contenders:
YH-925 – the iPod Photo wannabe (left)
Sammie’s answer to the Photo is a 20GB player with support for MP3, Napster To Go WMA and Ogg. There’s no word on USB hosting, so we’re presuming the only way to get photos on there is via your PC. Pricing is well off the mark at £250, especially considering you can get a 30GB iPod Photo for the same figure. Worse still is the official battery life – 9 hours! It’s likely going back in time, back in time…
YH-820 – the iRiver H10 rival (centre)
This 5GB colour screen job looks more credible than the YH-925, mainly thanks to the cute design and the fact that it undercuts iRiver’s H10 by a tenner (£170 to the H10’s £180). It’s got line-in encoding and matches the H10 and Zen Micro with Napster To Go support. The screen also looks like it might be superior to the H10’s.
YP-T7 – the Shuffle slayer (right)
Brace yourself for more price inflation insanity: this 1GB neck hanger costs £160! Wowzers, as a certain Inspector Gadget would put it. Still, it’s got a colour screen for your jpegs and it’s pretty tiny, albeit bigger than Sony and Apple’s new flash players. Main drawback may be the battery life, which – again – is weak at 12 hours.
All three players are on sale now.