Samsung’s K5 comes with the interesting addition of a slide-out speaker built behind the main player.

The idea is to allow you to listen to music from a short distance without headphones, but although the quality here is relatively good you won’t be holding any house parties with the twin 0.7W speakers.

It’s a smooth and very stylish design though, finished with an attractive chrome grill that contributes well to the overall ‘wow’ factor of the menu and controls.

In a similar way to the Sony A1200 the K5 has a fade-to-black screen that illuminates with cool blue lights when you brush the touchpad. Both these and the LCD display look stunning; you’ll find it easy to navigate around the vibrant animated menus to access the mp3 player, FM Radio, Photo viewer or alarm features on offer.

Part of the reason the minimal controls are so usable though is that there aren’t a lot of options for managing your music. You’ll find simple graphic equalizer presets and playback control but this is about it. You can’t create playlists on the K5 either, although it does support those imported from the Media Studio software supplied.

You’ll need to use this iTunes clone to transfer content since you can’t drag and drop music directly. We are firm believers that this is the only way to go with portable players but thankfully Media Studio doesn’t make a meal of handling and managing tracks and photos.

Sound quality is pretty good, as is the 30-hour battery life. A pair of what are perhaps the most bizarre set of headphones we’ve seen do well to channel deep bass and clean treble to your ear but the equalizer would really benefit from a manual adjustment setting for fine tuning.

There are also some minor issues with the interface. It’s too easy to hit the wrong button by accident when the controls fade out for instance, and you’re paying quite a lot extra for the built-in speaker considering alternatives for the same money.

Despite these points Samsung has produced a great-looking player that does what’s it’s meant to do well. We’re not sure if the innovations hold enough appeal for a mainstream market but this is certainly a very capable addition.

Also consider:
Apple iPod nano
A modest cosmetic upgrade, but the competitive pricing should guarantee success for the new iPod nano

Sony A1200 portable audio player
The Sony A1200 is a good value, great-looking player for those serious about their music

Netac A200 portable media player
The Netac A200 is an excellent mp3 player in its own right, but the FM transmitter gives it an edge over just about every other Flash player in this price range

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