Review: Catching Samsung Galaxy Player 5.0 in all its glory

Samsung has finally uncovered its Apple iPod touch killer mobile music player Galaxy Player 5.0. Debuted in September 2010 at IFA in Berlin and put on display at CES 2011 in January, Galaxy Player 5.0 has now come out of covers. Samsung has unveiled the Android based music player with no media hype-up.

Samsung Galaxy Player 5.0

What is it?

Galaxy Player 5.0 is one of two Android music players Samsung announced to confront with Apple iPod touch in the portable music industry. The next one is Galaxy Player 4.0, a 4-inch version. The South Korean company has now rolled out the 5-inch model. Most probably, Galaxy Player 5.0 will be a big threat to iPod touch that has been dominating the portable music market since its arrival.

Key features:

5-inch display: Galaxy Player 5.0 will feature a 5-inch TFT LCD display with a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels. The multi-touch screen certainly augurs bad for iPod touch. You will be able to surf the web, search the music and download apps quite wonderfully on the large display.

Play on-the-go with Wi-Fi: Galaxy Player 5.0 can be connected with the Internet via Wi-Fi. You can enjoy music on the gadget and surf the web on the device while on-the-go. 3G connectivity is not there; because it is just a music player, not a cellphone.

Android 2.3.5: Galaxy Player 5.0 is powered by Google’s Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread. Thanks to Android, you have access to Android Market, where you can find apps for the device. Some of highest-quality apps will not run on the device, however.

Extensive file supportability: Being a comprehensive music player, Galaxy Player 5.0 supports all major audio files like AAC, MP3, Ogg, WMA, FLAC and many others. The device runs video files like WMV, MPEG4, DivX, Xvid, H.264 and much more.

What’s innovative?

Galaxy Player 5.0 is itself an innovative product. Samsung has designed the music player with an aim to beat the domination of iPod touch. Samsung and Apple have been in battle for domination in smartphone, tablet and laptop markets. Samsung has now jumped on to the music player industry with the hope that the device will be warmly welcomed by customers.

Price and availability:

Samsung sells Galaxy Player 5.0 for $269.99. You can purchase the device from Samsung.

Accessories:

Samsung provides no accessories with Galaxy Player 5.0 at this point of time. The company web site requests users to check for accessories in a later stage.

The up side:

Galaxy Player 5.0 is a brilliant phone-like product without a contract with a carrier. You can connect the device with the Internet using Wi-Fi. It works on a single-core 1GHz Hummingbird processor and 512MB of RAM. With 3.2-megapixel rear camera, Android 2.3 Gingerbread, moderate price tag and many other features, Galaxy Player 5.0 is a wonderful music player, indeed.

The down side:

Reviewers have noted that a single core processor is not enough for a music player like Galaxy Player 5.0. It could either have a dual core processor or a more powerful single core processor for better performance. Moreover, the device is not with a front facing camera. Its potential rival Apple iPod touch has front facing FaceTime camera for video calls.

The bottomline:

Galaxy Player 5.0 is actually a great music player on Android OS. Samsung has designed the music player with a goal to smash the domination iPod touch has over the portable music player industry. Going through the tech specs and features of Galaxy Player 5.0, it is certain that the device is highly capable to affect the sales of iPod touch. Running on Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread, Galaxy Player 5.0 supports Android Market apps. The gadget has many similar outstanding features that make it a player of better quality music. We can wait and see whether the device can do something really serious against iPod, a device that certainly changed the away we listened to music over the years.