Cry to me

A very well built player and one that exudes sex appeal in spades. We applaud Samsung’s decision to stick to white – this player has a beautiful satin finish and the touch controls below the display have neat blue and light red backlighting that are just unobtrusive enough to be termed tasteful. The design is full of contours and tapered edges – no sharp corners. The footprint is really compact and the Q2 will sit unobtrusively in your pocket. Menu navigation is good. The screen is pretty clear and crisp with good colours.

The Q2 isn’t very powerful and the Grado SR 225 wasn’t driven beyond a medium volume and there was noticeable sibilance. Once amped, the headphones were more civil. There is a noticeable hollow ring to the bass in No More Tears and this was disappointing to be sure. We found this deep sounding, but hollow bass to be present in nearly every track, and quite honestly, the guitar also sounds disappointing, especially when listening to the Samsung P3 – there’s a world of difference between the siblings in terms of their sound quality. As expected there’s a world of difference in their pricing as well, at Rs. 5,800 the YP-Q2 is much cheaper than its touch-based sibling, understandably so. It’s a lovely looking player and one that we wished was better at music – it’s definitely a good deal, but purists will keep their distance.

Pros:

• Sexy looks
• Built well
• Neat controls

Cons:

• Screen quality should be better
• Audio quality not as good as the P3
• Issue with hollow, ringing bass

Click here for a list of all PMPs reviewed

	Apacer AU824
	Compact and affordable
	Apple iPod Classic
	Size matters
	Apple iPod Nano
	Diminutive powerhouse
	Cowon D2 Plus
	The chunky wonder
	Cowon iAudio 7
	Pocketful of sound
	Cowon S9
	Jack of all trades
	iPod Touch
	The apple of our eye
	Philips GoGear Aria
	No use hanging around this aria
	Philips GoGear Opus
	Not major league material
	Samsung YP-P3
	Oh boy! Was our reaction
	Samsung YP-Q2
	Affordable for sure, but we expected more