When on the main player screen of the YP-T8 it closely resembles that of any software media player you may use on your computer. There is a visualization strip on the top half, yes you heard me right, full colour and full moving visualizations. You get 3 to chose from as well as the option of none. Below that the artist name, album name and song name are all given in full. The other major item is the scroll bar showing your current position in the song. There is also other information shown such as battery level, music format, volume level, time, etc.

Another huge plus on the YP-T8 is the built-in FM radio. Finding an MP3 player with an FM radio is beginning to be extremely difficult to do these days, but Samsung has built in a fully functioning FM radio with up to 30 presets!

This player features all the recording methods I personally look for in an MP3 player. That is line-in, radio recording and mic recording. Line-in is probably the least common recording method I see on players out there, but a good majority of Samsung models we have reviewed in the past all have this ability. I personally find the uses for this feature endless. Being a musician I connect my MP3 player into my mixer and I can easily record myself or my band directly onto the player without the need to carry around a full computer.

Now I said that music was only a part of what the YP-T8 can do, right? Well, it can also display text files, full colour JPEG's and full colour videos! With videos however, you must use the included Samsung media software to convert them to the format recognized by the player. Making a handheld player with all the CODEC's built-in that video files use today would be near impossible. Now that I can not only play my music on the YP-T8, but also be able to bring pictures, videos and text with me, memory becomes a bit of a concern. When you start getting a lot of music and videos on here, 1gb can fill up before you know it. As a suggestion for a future product, maybe Samsung could take the general look and all the features from this player and simply copy them into a slightly larger Hard Drive based player. I think this would create a very serious competitor into the HDD based market. The features of this player are far superior to any other HDD or flash based MP3 player on the market.

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When you're bored, the YP-T8 also has built in games. Not just any games, but games that sense the movement of the device itself and get you very involved with game play. For example, the one game included is a dart throwing game. In this game you are presented with a full screen dart board and a moving crosshair. To line this crosshair up with the area you want to throw the dart to, you have to physically tip and turn the player until it gets to that spot. When the crosshairs are aligned, a quick forward movement on the player will throw the dart. Did I mention that all the games included are full colour, and many have tons of play modes and levels as well as their own sounds!

The YP-T8 also has a USB Host function ability to easily transfer files while "on the go". For those who aren't familiar with USB Host, it allows you to plug in a variety of items such as a digital camera and copy files directly into the MP3 player. This eliminates the need to have a computer with you if you're taking pictures and fill up your camera's memory. You can easily put pictures onto your YP-T8 and continue shooting. With it's ability to display JPEG files it also serves as a good device to use to show people your pictures. The cable required to do the USB Host is also included. It is a male connector that goes into the data and charge plug on the bottom of the YP-T8 and the other end of the short cable has a female USB port.

The YP-T8 uses an internal Li-Ion battery which gets it's charge from the included AC adapter. Samsung rates it's battery life at 20 hours between charges, but depending on the features you use that could be greatly increased or even decreased. Personally, internal batteries aren't always my favourite because all batteries can only be charged "X" number of times before they have to be replaced. I tend to keep products for a longer time than maybe the average consumer does so I don't look forward to having the extra expense of replacing an internal battery. I still prefer having the ability to use regular batteries, such as NiMH, and replacing them myself.

Installation:
The basic installation of the YP-T8 is just like most MP3 players on the market, plug it in, turn it on and it shows up as a removable drive on your computer. However, if you want to use videos on the player you'll have to install the included Samsung Multimedia Studio to convert your video files into the format recognized by the MP3 player. As well, the Multimedia Studio will also help you export your JPEG images into a size recognized by the player for optimal display.

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Testing:
To test the YP-T8 I put all of it's features through their paces, music, video, picture and radio.

Listening to music was great, everything sounded very crisp and clear. When playing around with the sound modes I was really able to add more depth to my music and it sounded much better. Navigating around the music was also very easy to do and the large sized screen made everything easy to see.

The ability to playing videos was a great feature also. At first I wasn't sure what to expect of my MP3 player being able to show full colour videos as well, but I was very impressed. The videos looked the same quality as on my computer, but obviously a little smaller on the YP-T8 screen. The same was true with my pictures when displayed on the YP-T8's screen.

The radio was also very easy to use and had a great full screen interface for easy navigation. I personally like the option of up to 30 presets because not many players allow for that many. An MP3 player radio can usually only receive a few local stations anyway, so filling those 30 presets may be hard depending on how many stations you have near you.