14 DAY TRIAL // We dare say it was about time someone released a nice, small multimedia player that would give Apple's iPod touch a run for its money, or at least wise the masses up to the existence of alternatives.
Samsung has formally introduced the Galaxy Player 3.6 and 4.2 small form factor, portable multimedia players.
They really are pretty much identical except for their screen sizes: 3.6 inches and 4.2 inches, respectively.
In that order, their prices are of $149.99 and $199.99, which may come across as a bit steep, until people learn that they have no monthly data fees.
Then again, it's not like there is 3G or GSM for monthly data plans to make sense anyway.
Europeans should know that they won't find these two up for order on their continent, not under these names. Samsung chose the Galaxy S Wi-Fi moniker there. The prices will probably be 150 Euro and 200 Euro, respectively, instead of what exchange rates would have one believe (114.21 Euro and 152 Euro, respectively).
Queer pricing trends aside, the new Galaxy Players pack the same single-core 1 GHz processor, as well as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, an FM radio and 8 GB of storage space, plus a memory card slot (up to 32 GB more).
Of course, MP4/DivX/XviD/WMV/H.264/H.263 video can be played too, but don't expect overly high quality films to play smoothly.
Moving on, the Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS means that Google apps can be downloaded in case owners want to get inventive with these things.
All in all, Samsung's new Galaxy Players are nice enough, but we can't really see why they cost as much as a an Amazon Kindle Fire tablet.
“These new Galaxy Tab 2 and Galaxy Player devices deliver what consumers have come to expect from all Samsung products – exceptional design, impressive connectivity options and a selection of choices for each type of person and user scenario,” said Tim Baxter, president, Samsung Electronics America. “A one size fits all solution is just not sufficient.”
