Samsung YP-S2

Full Review

You won’t find a more petite portable music player than the Samsung YP-S2, also christened the ‘Pebble.’ The body is glossy black and curved like a stone with an LED display. The underside has a simple control wheel with play, pause, skip, volume and equalizer controls and looks similar to the one on the Creatives.

The player’s sole 3.5mm port is not only meant for plugging in earphones but, thanks to a USB to 3.5mm connector, also for charging the player and transferring data. The S2 comes with 2GB of flash memory and supports drag and drop. Samsung also bundles the Emodio software which serves as a media player and gives access to certain online features.

Samsung also bundles the Emodio software which serves as a media player and gives access to certain online features.

These include firmware updates, downloadable equalizers for Samsung’s DNSE (Digital natural Sound engine) and themes. The player’s interface mirrors the other players in the comparison by giving very simple controls. This means that the player has left out a number of control options including the important Folder Skip. After listening to music, we came to the conclusion that the S2 is decent for listening to bass friendly tracks, although it does not sound tight. Also, the player reproduced simple instrumentation or sparsely arranged tracks well but music that involved a lot of instrumentation in the mix became indistinct.

Further the S2 could not reproduce stereo separation well and the mids and highs were either lost thanks to an overpowering low end, or sounded too airy and muddled. Overall, the S2 is okay especially for listening to songs with more bass. The Samsung YP-S2 at Rs. 2,750 is a barebones player that knows what its strengths are. Its size and looks combined with its sound performance make it a good buy and it rounds up our comparison.

Bottom Line

The Samsung YP-S2 is easily the most petite player we've seen. It is ideal for people who like bass-friendly music.