CES '09: Upcoming Media Players From Samsung

12:30 PM - January 9, 2009 - By Steve Seguin - Source : Tom's Guide US

Samsung had a few new and upcoming portable multimedia players on display at CES, including the Pulse P3 full touch player, the Diamond Q1 video MP3 player, the DoReMi U5 USB-type player and the Voice Pix VP1 voice recorder.

First up, we have the Pulse P3 player that features a 3-inch wide WQVGA LCD screen and comes with a storage capacity of 8 GB, 16 GB or 32 GB. The player supports MP3, WMA, AAC and FLAC audio formats, as well as AVI, WMV, MPEG4 and H.264 video formats. The device is also equipped with a photo viewer, FM radio with recording features, mini widgets, a built-in speaker and haptic feedback. The expected release date is spring 2009, with pricing not yet disclosed.

Also on display was the Diamond Q1 player, which features a 2.4-inch TFT LCD screen and comes with a storage capacity of 4 GB, 8 GB or 16 GB. The player supports WMA and MP3 audio formats, video playback, FM radio, FM recording, voice recording, pictures viewing, text viewing and TTS. The device has a battery life rating of 30-hours for audio playback and 4-hours for video playback. The Diamond Q1 was recently released, although prices were not available.

Next up, we have the DoReMi U5 player that features a 4-line greyscale OLED display and comes in capacities of 2 GB, 4GB and 8 GB. The device comes with an integrated USB plug, a sports play mode, a FM radio and a FM/Voice recorder. The player has a battery life rating of 18-hours and as for a release date, spring 2009 seems likely.

Lastly, we have Voice Pix VP1 voice recorder, which features a directional microphone and comes in capacities of 1 GB and 2 GB. The VP1 supports MP3 and WMA audio formats and includes an FM radio and a file search by photos feature. Supported bit rates range from 8 Kbps to 192 Kbps, with battery life rated at 50-hours for playback and 30-hours for recording. A release date was quoted as spring 2009.

There was also mention of a Q2 media player by a Samsung representative at CES 2009, which was expected to be on display, but for some reason or another it was a no show.