Samsung Galaxy Player 5

Anyone who wants to stick with the Android operating system for using applications, playing video and listening to music will see the Samsung Galaxy Player 5 as a very attractive device. It is targeted at people who don’t want the mobile phone contract that comes with the mobile phone from a network provider.

This new player from Samsung is clearly targeted to be in the same market as the iPod Touch but unfortunately the audio quality lets it down somewhat. Samsung’s player is heavier and larger than the latest iPod Touch but it has the feeling of a very high build quality. The bezel on the back of the device has a silver tone and unfortunately it does scratch quite easily, a problem that has been seen on previous players by Samsung.

The screen measures five inches across, hence why it has been named the Samsung Galaxy Player 5. This is quite a bit larger than the 3.5 inch display that is seen on the iPod Touch. Unlike its iPod counterpart the Samsung device has an expansion slot for Micro SD cards.

This is located on the top of the device which makes it very convenient to access. Unfortunately, the device does not have a removable battery which was seen on previous players by the company.

When you navigate the device you can see that it operates in a very similar way to any phone running the Android operating system. In order to use the device you must login with your Gmail account and this will allow your information to be synced with the device as long as it is connected to a wireless network.

It is running the Gingerbread version of Android which was the latest version before Ice Cream Sandwich. Samsung have not commented about whether they are intending to update the phone to run the new operating system.

The system has a single core processor with 1GHz of power. This is supplemented by half a gigabyte of RAM which allows for a very good response time.Unfortunately, as with many single core devices, when it comes to playing video you might experience a minor lag very occasionally.

Some apps might take a couple of seconds to load but this is only usually when you are running many applications at the same time. As long as you don’t overuse the processing power everything keeps running very smoothly.

As this device does not have a connection to a mobile network, users will have to bear in mind that some applications won’t work. Fortunately most applications do run fine without an internet connection but some of them require it. The device also does not have a GPS chip so if you are using facility with preloaded maps then you are not going to be able to use it for navigation on a turn by turn basis.

The device has been rated as doing eight hours of video on one charge or 60 hours of audio playback. Independent testing has shown that these figures are accurate but the device does take a long time to charge, expect this to take four or five hours.

The device comes with several pre-installed applications including an office document manager called ThinkFreeOffice which generally gets very positive reviews. It is also capable of acting as a file browser on the device and allows you to install applications that are not found in the Android Market.

The device is overlaid with software from Samsung so users who are familiar with Samsung devices will feel very comfortable with the interface they are presented with and it will feel very natural to use.