Samsung Yepp YP-T7X (512 Mb) is a thing

IF ANY DEVICE illustrates perfectly why people are prepared to shell out hundreds of extra dollars on an Apple iPod, rather than an ordinary MP3 player, then it must be the YP-T7. It's brimming with technical features but is almost impossible to use.

Unlike many alternative MP3 players, for example, the YP-T7 has a built in FM radio. Plus it has a dinky little colour screen so you can create your own 'wallpaper' just like a mobile phone. Samsung even provides software which can 'freeze' a video clip and lets you utilise the resulting 'still' image as a background. Conceivably it's also possible to store loads of digital pictures on this device.

On top of this, the YP-T7 can actually record files in MP3 format. So you can utilise it as a digital memo taker, or bootleg your old vinyl via a stereo input. It will even record a track playing on the radio. So it's incredibly versatile.

Added to that this device is able to accept music files in a wide variety of digital formats. The list includes both MP3 and WMA (Windows Media Audio) plus Audi ASF and something called Ogg. For more details on Ogg see (a href=http://www.vorbis.com>Vorbis. It even comes with the requisite software to convert your existing music CDs into digital format.

So what's the catch? The harsh reality is that most of these features will go totally unused because the user interface will defeat you. The UI shouldn't be that bad because the YP-T7 boasts a tiny joystick which acts very much like a mouse. Except that when you're trying to change menus, the joystick will annoyingly revert back to its normal function of being a volume control.

As an illustration of its poor interface, the INQ captured a track playing on the FM radio back to memory. Could we repeat this trick? Nope.

It's puzzling why the YP should be so bad when Samsung can make perfectly good mobile phones. Bizarrely it was quite easy to transfer MP3 files from a PC to the YP-T7. Although you soon notice you only have 512 Mb instead of Gigabytes to play with.

So it's a thumbs up for its facilities but a big thumbs done for lack of usability. µ