P3 vs. R1 - Samsung experts, i need your help.
 

Hi everyone!

I've got a few questions, and these forums look like a great place for some advice.

So: My MP3 player recently broke, it was a Meizu M6. I really liked it, but the support was horrible, and it was impossible to get a new one. No more brand-adventures for me. So far, i really liked Samsungs products, especially their notebooks, and right now it's down to the R1 and the P3.

I got to know the P3 pretty well, 3 months ago i recommended it to my girlfriend. My plan was to get one for me, too, but prices seem high at the moment, and the R1 hit the stores. The P3 is 180€, while i coud get a R1 for 120€, which is quite a difference. I really like the look and feel of the P3, but 180€ is a lot of money and also dangerously close to M1 territory.

In the end, the aspect i care most about is the sound quality, so that would be my main question: Is the sound quality of the P3 superior to the one of the R1, or could i save a few bucks and just get the R1? I'm listening with AKG K518DJ headphones with a FiiO E3.

Thanks in advance for any input! :)

Sound quality is the same on every samsung mp3 player (I own all 2009 models).
Well the R1 is quite good but the battery life is a shame (12h max with DNSe enabled and looses battery life in standby mode) and the interface is not as smooth as on the P3.
The screen is smaller but brightness is a bit better ;)
The P3 has a 1,6W speaker whereas the R1 has a TV out (but poor composite quality)
Personaly I would buy the 16Gb P3 for 145€ on mp3-player.de

First hand information, great! Good to hear that from someone who got to know all models. Thank you!

As i mentioned, i checked out the P3 in september, but the interface didn't blow me away. Did the smoothness improve with the new firmware?

Thanks for the tip, too, i bought my M6 from mp3-player.de, and they weren't much help when i started to have problems with it - they're also the reason why i have no player at the moment. We're not the best friends ;)

The interface is more beautiful on the R1 but not smoother than on the P3.
And if you tested it in september, normaly you were already in 2.20, the latest firmware released in June or July.

mp3-player.de is a great website we use a lot in France.
Every mp3 player has a 1 year brand guarantee so mp3-player.de has nothing to do with that.
If you have a problem with your electronic device, whatever the website you bought it on, you have to contact directly the brand ;)

the problem was that the meizu wasn't officially available at that time in germany, it was a grey import from france (the dane-elec version), so there was no way to contact meizu directly about it. mp3-player.de then said there's no way to repair or exchange it, and i got paid 50€. "withdrawal from purchase contract", as german law calls it romantically. so i lost 70€ and my player... well, bad luck i guess, it's too late now. let's call it a "leasing rate" ;)

anyway, back to the topic: if the interface isn't smoother, i think i'll go with the P3, the R1 battery life isn't that great, you're right... maybe i'll take a look at the R1 tomorrow at an electronics store, but the P3 seemt to be a bit nicer by now. thanks again for your help, it's greatly appreciated!

between these 2, i personally prefer P3 over R1

I'm an owner of an 8GB P3, and I must say, I'm thoroughly impressed with it's quality in every aspect, from the physical build to the GUI and the sound quality, which just blows me away.

The P3 is a nice device but I've heard too many failed touchscreen stories to continue to recommend it to others. Mine works fine but there are more stories than what I think is 'normal' of partial screen failures.

R1 experience
 

I have used my R1 for 1 month after having had a yp-t7 for 2 years (it's still around btw) and a T10 for 1 year (broken display :(). I'm using firmware 3.03.
What I like:

• great price for the feature set:

• audio/video player
• OGG and UMS compatibility
• FM tuner (with RDS)
• recorder
• capacity

• good compromise of size vs screen size, thx to the touch display no space is required for buttons, allowing viewing movies while the device can fit in mostly any pocket. I said mostly, because for my footing I'd still prefer a smaller device like the T7.
• user interface is stylish and efficient.
• firmware is stable
• can actually display SD divx. I still reencode them so they take less space.
• flash compatibility, though I haven't tested it much

What I don't like:

• the power/lock button is too small, providing little feedback. I'd prefer a three-position toggle
• the interface is exclusively touch-driven, except for sound level setting. With the T7 I could change radio stations, go forward-backward and most importantly, pause the playback through a shirt or a pocket.
• the touch interface is sometimes not precise enough, eg the continuous "press" allows to go fwd/bck inside a track but sometimes the firmware only catches the finger release and understands a single touch, therefore going to the next/prev track.
• proprietary connector; hopefully I could re-use the two I had with the T10. However a standard mini-usb as on the T7 is obviously better.
• useless UI gadgets, which can hopefully be configured out
• being able to add native apps would be great, eg a calculator would be an obvious nice add-on, as well as HTML/PDF viewers