Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2009/09/04/review_media_player_samsung_q2_sony_e444/

Samsung YP-Q2 v. Sony E-series deathmatch

Sounding out two top 8GB media players

By Alun Taylor

Posted in Personal Tech, 4th September 2009 11:02 GMT

Head-to-head With the market for mid-range MP3 players never having been more competitive, seeing Sony and Samsung fight it our for advantage is like watching two wannabe WAGs scrap over a premiership footballer who is rumoured to be hung like a horse and has a Manchester City transfer cheque in his pocket.

Sony Walkman E444

Sony's Walkman E444: the better looking of the two

So with both Sony and Sammy releasing new media players with similar specifications at the same time and at virtually the same price Register Hardware thought it would be a good idea to review them together. Another reason for doing so is that both devices are direct replacements for media players that we reviewed towards the end of 2008: the Samsung Q1 and the Sony NWZ-E436F.

Sammy's Q1 was a player that didn't really impress us. The controls where a horrible example of design taking precedence over function and, try as we might, we couldn't get the thing to show up on the desktop of either a Linux box or a Mac. On the plus side, it sounded good.

Thankfully, this time round, Samsung has reconsidered the controls. We're still not convinced a wholly flat, smooth and solid touchpad is the best way to control a media player. Still, the Q2 does what you expect it to when you touch any of the seven controls.

Of course, being touch-sensitive, the slightest inadvertent knock or tap can interrupt playback. This can become annoying if you keep forgetting to lock the player's controls before slipping into your pocket.

There has never been much wrong with the controls on Sony's media players. OK, they may be a bit, what's the word? Oh yes, ‘ugly’. However, they are very well laid out and largely idiot-proof. Indeed, the E444's controls are even more idiot-proof than usual.

Samsung YP-Q2

Samsung's YP-Q2: the one that supports the most media formats

Sony has increased the size of the circular navigation rocker by about 50 per cent over the previous E-class models. This has been achieved by the simple and visually rather satisfying ploy of letting the Back/Home and Option/Power buttons take a chunk out of the navpad.

Improved controls aside, both devices show clear signs of their lineage. Both have 3.5mm headphones jacks at the bottom alongside proprietary USB-compatible dock connectors, and both also have lock sliders on the right side. Yet, only the Sony has an external volume control, in this case just above the lock.

Sony Walkman E444

Idiot-proof controls

The screen graphics on the E444 are identical to those on Sony players past but, while Samsung has kept the basic design and layout, it has replaced the black and while icons of the Q1 with colour ones swiped from the P3.

Physically, the Sony measures up at 86.8 x 44 x 9.3mm, while the Samsung enters the ring at 100 x 48 x 9.2mm, making it slimmer than its forebear. The Sony is a bit more rotund than the old E.

The Sony is the more pocketable of the two, but has the smaller screen: a 2in, 240 x 320 panel rather than the 2.4in display of the same resolution used by Samsung. It’s also the lighter – though not by much – at 54g versus the Sammy's 58g.

As well as playing music and video, both devices will let you record either your voice or off-air FM transmissions as MP3 files. Here the Sony ekes out a slight advantage by letting you record at 160kb/s rather than the Samsung's maximum of 128kb/s, and by producing voice recordings that are far less reverberant than those made with the Samsung, which captures more of the room ambiance.

Samsung YP-Q2

Touch-sensitive control panels are not the best

File support is a matter of plus ça change, the Sony being good for MP3, DRM-free AAC and WMA audio, along with WMV and H.264 video. The Q2 will happily play back MP3, Ogg Vorbis, Flac and WMA audio files, plus WMV and MPEG 4 video. Although MPEG 4 in this case means files converted to Samsung's proprietary .SVI format using its Emodio media suite.

However, the two players are very finicky about what video files they will play and, in both cases, unless you want to spend a lot of time looking at a screen that reads "Format Not Supported", you are best advised to convert and load video files using each manufacturer’s own media management software or Windows Media Player.

Sony Walkman E444

The Sony's the only player here with external volume controls

With screens this small, any video playback ability is of questionable value but, since Samsung claims the Q2 “works with BBC iPlayer”, we downloaded an episode of Wainwright Walks to check out some scenery and Julia Bradbury's bottom.

Or rather we did with the Sony Walkman, which accepted the DRM file without any fuss and played it back in a manner both crisp and colourful. When we tried to repeat the process on the Samsung, a Windows pop-up appeared telling us there was a problem with the device's licence.

Try as we did, we couldn't get around this, so we asked Samsung for its take on the problem and were told us it was probably a firmware issue. When we looked for an update, we discovered that version 1.19, the one in our player, was the most up-to-date available. So if it is a firmware issue, it’s something Samsung needs to get fixed pronto.

Resorting to a non-DRM WMV file, the Samsung proved every bit as competent a video player as the Sony. Not something you would want to watch a feature film on, perhaps, but fine for the odd music video or film trailer.

Samsung YP-Q2

Not as nice as Julia Bradbury's rear...

When playing music, the Samsung displays the relevant album art at full screen, so it’s a shame it proved far less reliable than the Sony at actually reading embedded artwork.

Sadly, one thing Samsung hasn't done is attended to is the Q1's inability to read identification tags in Flac and Ogg files. They still end up lumped together as "Unknown" in the album view, forcing you to access them using the folder view in order to make sense of things.

Sony Walkman E444

You can load up the Walkman using iTunes

Some DRM-issues aside, at least you can actually get files on and off the Q2 using a Linux or Mac machine – not a trick the Q1 could perform – as long as you have the player's PC Connection setting switched to MSC. The Sony just worked no matter what we plugged it into, and with no rummaging about in the settings menu, either.

Both players come equipped with FM radios, but the Q2's has RDS, which is handy as it lets you know what you are listening to and doesn't apply multiple auto pre-sets to stations transmitting on more than one frequency.

Another bit of day-to-day functionality that no MP3 player should be without is the ability to synchronize playlists from an MTP media player. Both the Q2 and E444 pass this test with flying colours. However, while the Q2 will also let you set up multiple on-board playlists, the E444 won't, and that's a major failing in our book.

One trick the Sony player does have up its sleeve, is the handy little Content Transfer tool that you will find squirrelled away in its internal storage. Once installed on a Windows machine, this lets you drag and drop content directly from iTunes, which is certainly something we did find useful.

Samsung YP-Q2

Samsung's Emodio app is essential for making your movies Q2 friendly

Sony also bundles an Apple-style dock adaptor, for use with devices like the Gigajuke we reviewed recently.

By way of peripheral goodies, Samsung also chucks in three games, a text reader, a datacast/podcast application, and the ability to display JPEG, PNG, BMP and GIF files. The Sony will only display JPEG images.

Sony Walkman E444

When it comes to music playback...

While the earphones supplied with the Q2 are superior to those bundled with the E444 – generating a far less sibilant sound with firmer bass – neither pair could be described as anything other than average. You would be well advised to chuck them in the bin and replace them with something along the lines of the pair of noise-isolation Sennheiser CX400 earphones we used to provide a level playing field in our test.

But first, a word or two – and some acronyms – about the sound modification options on offer from these two players. Rather than the DSEE sound enhancer and VT surround sound systems which are reserved for the top-of-the-line S- and X-series Walkmans, the E444 comes with Clear Stereo and Dynamic Normaliser, along with the usual seven-setting equaliser, two of which are customisable. That's a step forward from the old E Series, which only had an equaliser.

Samsung also gives you two sound effects settings – Street Mode and Audio Upscaler – and an altogether more encompassing equalizer with 13 pre-sets and three customisable settings called DNSe (Digital Natural Sound engine). The DNSe equalizer also has a handy Auto setting, which is were we left it during our test. Clear Stereo and Audio Upscaler are both designed to put the life back into music that file compression takes out and both do a decent job.

Samsung YP-Q2

...there's not much to separate these two players

Dynamic Normaliser balances the volume of different tracks and, again, works well. Street Mode emphasises the upper frequencies of a track and boosts the bass levels, presumably in order to make it easier to hear what's being played against a loud background. Frankly, all it does is make things sound too bright at the top end and muddy at the bottom, so is best left switched off. The Sony spec sheet also mentions Clear Bass, but our player had no evidence of such a thing installed, so we are not sure how that performs.

For those of you who like to fiddle with your music profiles, the Q2 lets you access all the settings directly from the Now Playing page, while Sony only allows access to the equaliser. To change the other settings, you need to get to them using the main Settings menu.

Sony Walkman E444

Also available in red

When it comes to sound reproduction, it’s tough to separate these two by more than a cigarette paper's thickness. Both produce a nicely balanced and detailed sound with plenty of warmth, depth and – equally as important for anyone planning on using it regularly on the Underground or aircraft – volume.

By way of detail, starting with the second movement of Bruckner's Ninth Symphony recorded live, the Sony revealed more detail and a more natural sense of space than the Q2 could manage. Change to the Foo Fighter's song The Pretender and the Samsung nosed ahead by delivering a more solid and energetic sound with a greater sense of coherence especially during loud and frantic passages.

Moving on to Christopher Warren-Green's recording of The Lark Ascending and Robyn's With Every Heartbeat we got similar results. More detail and space from the Sony when playing the Vaughan Williams, but more composure and impact from the Samsung when playing the Swedish lass.

Our tests revealed that making a recommendation on sound quality alone is not only impossible but also pointless, since both players are very good indeed. That's a no-change for the Q2, because the Q1 was a great sounding player too, but the E444 is major step forward over the E436, which often sounded a little too raucous for our liking.

Samsung YP-Q2

Also available in black

And good though they both are, neither displaces the Walkman S638/9F in our affections, which is, we still reckon, all round, just about the most musically competent media player on the market today.

A small but handy benefit if you who plan on listening to long audio files, is the Samsung's superior scan facility. Not only does it ramp up to a far higher speed than the Sony, but it is also far smoother while it is about it. That said, the Sony gives you an audible indication of scan progress while the Samsung is wholly silent.

Samsung reckons a fully charged Q2 will keep chewing through the tunes for 50 hours, while Sony say the E444 is good for 30. As always, we found those numbers just a little on the optimistic side, getting 43 and 26 hours, respectively. That's a big jump forward by Samsung – the best we got from the Q1 was 26 hours from a claimed 30 – but a step back by Sony which claimed 45 from the old E-class, three more than we managed to get in practice.

Sony Walkman E444

Sony and Sammy, side by side

Compared to Apple's ubiquitous iPod Nano, for which prices start on the wrong side of £100, both the Sony and Samsung look like excellent value. The 8GB Q2 is widely available at around the £65 mark, while the Sony has only recently arrived in the UK at around £89. Discounts will no doubt follow.

If cash is tight, both the players on test are available in cheaper, 4GB form, unlike the Apple device, which only comes in 8GB and 16GB flavours. If a 16GB player is what you are after, then both Sony and Samsung will happily oblige.

Verdict

If it was any closer when they crossed the line these two would have scrape marks down their sides, there really is that little to choose between them. Both sound great, the Sony has the better controls, the Samsung better format support. The Q2 has a bigger screen but the E444 is smaller and lighter. If it was our money – and being MP3 rather than Ogg or Flac users – we'd go for the Sony, but only because its smaller and the controls are easier to use. ®

Thanks to AdvancedMP3Players for the loan of the Samsung Q2.

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