Without going on too much, heres why Im returning it:

1) The FM transmitter is very poor. Its not just that the range is short (which it is), it also has crackling static all the time, regardless of which station I selected, and regardless of how close I put the unit to my receiver/antenna. This was the case both in my car and on my 2 home radios. I could hear my music well only if I turned the radio way up and had the unit within 1 foot of the receiver. Even then there was an annoying static noise going all the time.

2) I had to reformat it -- twice -- and I only had this thing for about 36 hours. When I downloaded my MP3s to it, everything seemed fine, but then when I would try to disconnect the device I kept getting "Cannot disconnect right now" messages. The software said it was finished transferring -- I waited another hour, nothing happened -- so I shut down my PC & disconnected. None of my files were on the unit. I could see them in Win Explorer, but they wouldnt play on the unit. Reformatting fixed this, but wiped the drive clean & I had to start over. Second time worked with a transfer of 100 songs. Then when I tried to transfer the rest -- another reformat.

3) You can only load music (even your own MP3s that you ripped from your own CDs) through the Napster software, and the Napster software sucks. It froze on me several times, wrote corrupted files to the MP3 device, and is generally slow. I did upgrade the software which improved the speed & stability a bit. But now that Im returning the player, you can bet that Ill be removing Napster from my PC.

Anyway, thats it. Im really disappointed -- all I was looking for was an MP3 player with a (decent) FM transmitter. If I was just a little geekier I could probably make this at home. I hate that the only player on the market with a transmitter is so unreliable & has such poor sound on the transmitter.

The Napster software that accompanies the player is user-friendly and the user manual is very clear and informative. My only complaint is the FM transmitter function. The sound quality is good, but not great, and there is static between tracks. You will need to find the best EQ setting for the music youre listening to or else get way too much bass pumping through your car speakers.

Not being able to change playlists on the go could be a hang up for some people, but if youre using it to commute, its perfect!

If youre a windows guy/girl, I recommend this player for you!

Right.

If you are buying an MP3 player to be stylish, you are kind of weird anyway and form over function is a poor choice in technology.

If you want to play games, get a cell phone with games or something.

IF, however, you want an MP3 player that plays MP3s and WMAs, has massive storage capacity, is lightweight, offer easy control of functions, and at least for me has so far worked flawlessly, look here.

iPods are overpriced. Simple fact. Plunk down the money for an iPod and you get a pretty little piece of mp3 player that cant play WMAs, gets annoyed if you try to circumvent iTunes, and has a battery that will most likely die on you in a few months (look it up, its true). Oh, but thats ok - its backed up by Apples legendary customer service. By which I mean atrocious and feared customer "service."

Get the Samsung. Its a good player. I admit that the FM transmitter is wimpy, but I didnt buy it to play mp3s in my car - and even if I want to, I have a tape adaptor from my satellite radio that works fine with the headphone-out jack on the YEPP. FM reception is great and you can record directly from another digital source with the line-in jack...and they include the cable! (something iPods do not), along with a (albeit meagre) carrying case, FM transmitter antenna, surprisingly decent earbuds, and the USB cable.

Go ahead and get it - I highly recommend.

Cons
1. FM transmitter (not radio receiver)is too weak, sometimes the sound quality is worse than AM radio (6 foot range between car antenna and unit if you are lucky)
2. The FM transmitter is especially degraded while charging in vehicle

3. I have been unsuccessful in attempts to remove music from the unit.
4. No ability to creat playlists without hooking unit back up to computer.

Impression: I dont care for Apple products much my friends IPOD seems to work much better for my purposes

The software really sucks. For $300 and with 20GB of space they should have made it so you can load software and edit the data more easily. Software hangs very easily and if anything happens while youre loading it, guess what; you get to start all, over!
It takes forever and a day to load too and you have to be careful because the little green bars that are supposed to be showing your songs being loaded are not always accurate. Watch the % reading over on the left in the tree.

Manual is lame and there is no support on-line at Samsung.com.

Id give this one a no-go. I suspect many of the 4 and 5 star reviews out there may not be the real thing.

The Napster player, once they solved that freeze-up glitch -- and the new models have fixed it completely -- works like a charm.

This little 20-gig number can be had for about $270 from some sites, so shop around. But if you buy it, youll get a very nice package indeed. Great sound, better than Ipod to my ears, with the same good set of phones. Easy, basic navigation, for those of us who are not interested in programming our little jukeboxes (we just want to listen to em). Excellent little holster for wearing while walking or working out, with all the key controls easy to get to without looking...especially nice large volume control on the side, for when your shuffle mix seques from Bach to bass n drums.

This is my 10th mp3 portable...and by far the best of the hard drive players Ive used. The seamless integration with the great Napster site is just a big plus.

That FM transmitter??? What were they thinking? Almost completly non functional. If you want to listen in your car, buy a better transmitter. Or, better yet, run a little patch cord from the headphone jack to a female auxiliary on your autos head unit. If you dont have one, your friendly local car stereo expert can install one for about $50 max.

Otherwise, the Napster Player is highly recommended...and available at a big bargain right now if you shop. Especially if youll be buying tunes online, this one makes a great deal of sense.

Neway in conclusion get an iPod 20gb as an alternative with FM transmitter, so you can listen to your ipod in your car without cables! or anywhere else you have an fm transmitter with no input slot.

SKS

It was no challenge at all to set up and get the 20 free Napster songs - in fact the biggest challenge has been finding 20 songs I really wanted that I didnt already have on CD.

If you want to read more Ive written a bit about my experiences with this device on my technology blog at http://schorrtech.blogspot.com.

-B-

But when I took it out of the package I was quickly disappointed. No DC adapter available. FM Receiver only picks up a couple of strong stations in our city. As terribly as the FM Transmittter works they might as well have left it out. The unit appears as a hard drive in Windows, but you cant drag music onto it or it wont be able to play it. You have to use the included Napster 2.0 software to put music onto it, and that crashed horribly under XP every time I tried to load new tracks. You have to make your playlists in Napster 2.0, also, and when you copy that to your player it re-copies every track (and often crashes in the middle). The buttons all worked ok once I figured out that where one intuitively would assume the volume and track selectors were located had actually been implemented in reverse. The final blow, however, was the browsing interface. You cant browse by either filename or by genre.

Im returning this as soon as possible and getting an iRiver iHP-120.

1.)The napster samsung player is fully compatible with the napster online service. Napster is, by far, the best, and most user friendly music store on the web, and, you can organize your entire music collection directly from it.
2.) Most mp3 players have a similar setup, and Napster is no exception. Its as easy to use, and find songs on as anything.
3.) The Napster player comes with more stuff!! It has an fm reciever, recorder and transmitter all in one. I havent tried to use the transmitter, but the reciever and recorder are just great! You may have a little trouble finding radio stations though. But this is explainable. Any radio needs an antenna, or something to recieve radio waves. The player is really small. I found that the earphone wires serve as an excellent reciever, and now get perfect reception. Also, with any other mp3 player (cough, cough, Ipod!) fm recievers cost a lot more money!
4.) The last thing is the price. Its not hard to find deals that save you about 100 dollars more than other twenty GB players.

The basic needs of an mp3 player are all here, plus extra goodies, that come with the player, and yet you can still save lots of money! From my own experiance with this player, its easily recommendable!

The overall interface and design of the player seemed very intuitive to me, I had no trouble picking it up and using it at all. The Ipod, though, still has a certain aesthetic that is superior to the Napster player.

Of my complaints, the only thing Ive had a problem with is the FM Transmitter, since on the frequencies that are available, there is only one that is unused in my area. I can get pretty clear transmissions about half the time, other half of the time, not so clear.

The built-in transmitter is worthless. I returned my first one because I just assumed it had to work better than it did. I was wrong - the second one is just as weak. Its like Im trying to pick up a radio station 100 miles away.

I couldnt find any documentation in the package to enable me to redeem the free songs. Another review in Amazon provides that information - but nothing in the package does.

My last gripe is about the software. This is an MP3 player that doesnt come with any software to transfer my own CDs into MP3s. It comes with the Napster software (free download anyway) and the Windows Media Player 9 (free download anyway). If you want MP3 format, you have to buy a plug-in for the media player - that expense offsets the free songs.

The player itself works just fine so far - but given my frustrations with the FM transmitter, poor documentation, and the lack of software - I cant give this product high marks.

To redeem your 20 free songs:
Sign in to Napster with your member name and password.

For the Napster standalone program:
Go to Account Status from the My Account menu.
Click on the link provided for Samsung Napster Track Redemption.
Provide the serial number from the back of your Samsung Napster Player.

For the Windows Media Player Plugin:
Click the Options button and then the Account Status link.
Click on the link provided for Samsung Napster Track Redemption.
Provide the serial number from the back of your Samsung Napster Player.

Reliability in use: 5/5 -so far... (absolutely no glitches)

Feel and look: 4/5 (I dont like the white carrying case and wish it came with an armband. The aluminum/plastic hardcase of the player is a good protection against "accidents".)

Battery life: 5/5 -I get at least 10 hrs. (never waited to drain it completely-maybe you get more)

Built-in controls: 4/5 -solid feel, they do their job, but not a perfect layout

Sound: 5/5 but after using a set of good earphones. The ones that come with it are average quality.

"Remote" control: 3/5. I wish it had more features and Im afraid the plastic might break in time. I havent used it much, though.

Charger and USB cable: no problems here. A charging cradle would have been nice....

Audio formats: MP3 and WMA. Two formats are better than one....

Napster interface for music transfer: 4/5 - Registration required, but free; interface similar to Windows Explorer. I use it to download to the player either music from my CDs (ripped to WMA or MP3 first) or the tracks I buy from Napster. When you download music to the player, the interface tends to "freeze" a bit and then comes back when its done. The download speed is about 2 sec/track or so with the old USB 1.1 I have. The player is recognized as a hard disc drive in Internet Explorer and you can also transfer files directly to it in IE and use it as a portable HDD. Note: ALWAYS click "disconnect USB device" before unplugging it from the PC....I suspect many users forget that and then they blame somebody else.

FM radio receiver: 3/5 - but depends how close you are to the FM stations and RFI sources

FM transmission: 1/5 -you have to be within 10 in. radius from the receiving radio antenna...I am not using this feature in my car, but instead I plug the car audio jack in the player and the music played is flawless. I wish they had also a holder for use in the car and a car adapter kit for those who dont have one. Would have been much more useful than the FM transmitter...

MP3 encoder: 4/5 -works well with the line-in cable supplied to record from a CD player (I suspect it works with an external mike, too, if it has the right jack size - that would make it a voice recorder)

MP3 recording from built-in FM radio: 5/5 --good for its purpose, but I dont find it useful at all when the radio reception is far from crystal clear

Equalizer: 3/5 - only five settings...

Overall: 4/5 --many features, price under $300 for 20GB, everything works as expected (except for radio transmitter), robust and 100% reliable if you use it properly, could use some design tweaks here and there and some extra accesories. Good value for the price.

Dont hesitate to buy it and PLEASE check out the Napster site.

I harken back to the day when Walkmans were all the rage and I went to Target and got a Mura FM radio. It was small, and did the job, but it just wasnt good enough to use very often, and thus wound up sitting in a drawer for years. My current iPod (10 gig) is an important part of my life. Just like my cell phone and the watch on my wrist, I never want to go anywhere without it. I think if you try them both side by side, youll see this difference and learn, as I did when trying to decide whether to upgrade or switch to the Samsung, to choose the iPod. My new 20 Gig iPod has some features the Samsung doesnt (addresses, games, contacts), lacks some features the Samsung has (FM transmitter, etc.), but for listening to music and audio-books every single day, I just dont think theres any comparison. If you do buy the Samsung, just dont ever look the other way...

I decided to give the Samsung/Napster a try because of its many features and Napsters vast music library.

At first the sound was rather mediocre, very hollow, and none of the equalizer settings could remedy that. It turns out that a pair Sony Fontopia earbuds makes all the difference, sound quality after spending another $49 was actually pretty good.

Unlike a lot of other reviewers I did like the players controls and solid feel. The remote however is indeed not very user-friendly; and yes it feels cheap and flimsy..

I decided to dump my entire CD collection onto the player. At my first attempt I uploaded some 1000 songs to the player, which went pretty smooth, but slower than expected.

So whats wrong with it? It turns out that the Napster/Samsung combo doesnt handle bulk deletes very well; I decided I wanted to remove all songs since I didnt like the way they were showing on the players display. Removing the songs took many, many hours. Somehow it left 15 `ghost tracks behind in the players track list. Samsung support blames Napster, Napster support blames Samsung.. I managed to remove them after I uploaded the same files and re-removed them.

Since I dont plan on deleting my tunes very often I decided I could live with that. (I really tried very hard to like the player.) Next I uploaded all my 3500 songs. Looks like it doesnt like bulk uploads either; it took all night to upload! Given that its a USB2 connection that is plain crazy. The Napster Client seemed the culprit; it was eating up my systems entire CPU capacity, and way to much of my memory.

It gets worse: After the upload finally completed my player refused to boot. All I got was the Napster cat staring at me. Resets didnt help, so again I called Samsung support; Same story.. Its a Napster problem... Called Napster: Its a Samsung problem..

End of story, I returned my player.

I can record mp3 files from fm,streaming music, my voice, lps, old cassetes and cds.

The set up is easy and the transfer of music from Napster and from prior mp3 files on your computer is fast.

I was up and running in less than an hour after transfering some 500 cds and a few hundred Napster files to the player.

The player plays both the mp3 (from my cd collection) and wma (from napster and music match)and you cant tell the difference.

The napster client however IDs them for you seperating your files into mp3, and wma that you paid for, wma that you downloaded as part of the premium service and those that are available to you to stream because you selected them to be listed on your computer as part of a play list (or downloaded on another one of your computers but chose when you synched the service not to download them on to the current computer).

Cons
The fm transmitter is a nice feature but you;ll want to get a more powerful one, ditto for the ear pods that come with the player. The remote is of little use too.

All in all you get for $299 you get 20gb, recording, fm, and Napster, musicmatch, dell, buymusic compatibility.

A great choice.

if you download from Napster you can buy another Napster player or any of the 400 other players that play the Napster format.
(from Gateway, iriver, Rio, Dell HP etc)

Also while you own the Napster player you can buy a small cheap 128 mp3 player that will work with the files you download from Napster. With Itunes you are stuck with the large ipod.

For recording, compatibility and price the Napster player is a far wiser choice than the ipod.

I bought one only to returned TWICE and finally to get my money back.

AFTER SPENDING 3 HOURS ON THE PHONE WITH CUSTOMER SERVICE AT SAMSUNG WITH NO RESULTS, I DECIDED TO EXCHANGE THE UNIT THINKING IT WAS A HARDWARE PROBLEM. THE NEW UNIT HAD THE EXACT SAME ISSUE, IT WORKED LIKE A CHARM OUT OF THE BOX, BUT AS SOON AS I IMPORTED SOME MP3 SONGS INTO THE UNIT, IT STOPPED WORKING!. IM A COMPUTER EXPERT SO I KNOW I DID NOTHING WRONG. I RECOMMEND TO BUY A PROFESIONAL PRODUCT (SUCH AS THE iPOD) AND DONT WASTE YOUR MONEY OR ENERGY ON A BAD PRODUCT WITH IMPRESSIVE SPECS.

will someone please just tell me what is good about this player and what is bad? And please for my sanity dont mention the iPod.

If you have bought the WMA files they are untethered and do not require any authentication from Napster or any other service.

The Napster Samsung player is far superior to the ipod and for the price you get far more features (fm tramsmitter and recording capabilities)
The Ipod is a closed system that does not function with WMA.

The only thing the iRiver doesnt have is a FM Transmitter but I dont need it, since I will get a AUX IN for my car, and I can Always buy a FM Transmitter.

The iRiver has a Better looking interface, a lot more options, and lot more cool stuff. You can still use Napster and iTunes to buy music, it dont make a difference.

Before using this player for Napster songs, please learn more about Napster and WMA/DRM at Napsters "Terms An Conditions" Site. http://www.napster.com/terms.html

Be sure to read and understand the portions about "Napster may at any time lose the right to make certain Tracks and/or Materials available. In such event, you will no longer be able to obtain these Tracks and/or Materials or to utilize the "Sync/Restore" function for Purchased Tracks."

and

"Any security technology that is provided with a Purchased Track is an inseparable part of it."

Learn more about iTunes DRM at http://www.apple.com/itunes/store/

Digital Rights Management is new to many people, so it pays to learn about it before spending alot of money on anybodys player.

I do like the 10+ hours of battery life on this player, the iPod is only 8+ hours.

The line in/out feature allows you to digitize your entire audio library including CD, old cassettes and Lp s. It also plays FM and can transform the player into a car stereo with the FM transmitter. In short, the Napster Samsung player can act as you entire stereo system by just adding speakers.

Also the Napter service is great. Many people dont understand the benefits to the Napster premium service. They call it renting music (as if renting was a dirty word-people rent houses, cars videos!).

First of all on Napster you can buy individual tunes and albums just as you can on iTunes so you dont have to rent.

The Napster premium service allows you to listen to almost all songs in the Napster catalogue-the ENTIRE songs not just 30 second clips. You can make playlists of these songs or even download them for playing them off line. The radio stations are also customizable allowing you to skip, delete or add songs (from you own collection or the Napter library) to the 30 + pre set radio stations. All this for just $9.95 a month and you have access to the vast majority of all great songs available on line.

With the Samsung Napster player and the Napster premium srevice you have all you music needs met!

Its large and costs too much. So does the Napster player BUT, if you are going to shell out this kind of money you might as well get the S. Napster player as its sturdier, has fm, a car adaptor, voice recorder, fm recording capabilities and works with Mp3 and WMedia files instead of the iTunes format.

I got my Napster player as a gift so I am happy but I almost ended up asking for an iPod.

I would never spend this much just to listen to music. A Gateway or Samsung 256mb keyring player for around $100 is a fra smaller player and a better bet unless you are planning on using your device as your primary storage component, in which case the Samsung Napster player almost justifies the price while the Ipod is a blatant ripoff.

now to sum it up, im pretty sure ipod is good, if you want just a basic player. however if you know you way around electronics and want a extra features that youll grow on, choose sammy. it may be little pricey but hey when you are using it every single day, almost every hour, who cares!

The features are all great and the interaction with Napster is a plus.
You can download all your other music not bought on Napster onto the player as well.
The only downside to this player is the cheap earplugs and handheld remote.
The rest of the player is top shelf and in all regards a superior player than the iPod.

I like this device a lot. The battery life is way better than my iPod. The iPod just dies after a couple days sitting on the shelf.

The Napster player is the best way to take your tunes on path and on the road-it works really well in the car too!

Well, it is and no amount of Apple loyalty will make the Ipud a better player than the Samsung Napster. Go ahead and compare them both. The only thing I ever hear about Itunes is that it is "elegant"

Big Fnng deal.

The Napster service and the Napster players have far more features.
Go ahead try them side by side. If you have no preexisting loyalties,the obvious choice is Napster and this tremendous player.

BTW, the software that comes with it will crash your windows XP machine. I installed it on two XP machines and both were never the same until uninstallation!

You can record from the radio which is great for pre announced broadcasted live concerts.

You can use the Napsung player in your car without having to buy a special adaptor.
You can drag and drop from Napster.

All in all very pleased I got the Napsung player and NOT the clunky Ipod.

This player has every feature that the iPod has-I know because I own one- and more.
The price is the same but the difference is that the Samsung player ties in to the superior Napster service which has just launched.

The USB works fast, the player works well in the car. Sounds great A++++

The program refused to install properly on two Dell computers, and crashed them. Even when it did install properly on a third machine, it failed to import all of the songs I selected, and to transfer all the songs I wanted to the Napster portable player. The company promises to fix these problems by the services launch date, a week from Wednesday. Other limitations will persist, however. While Napster is a pretty good music store, its a lousy jukebox. It cant rip CDs to music files, and it has only rudimentary jukebox capabilities. It cant download music to any portable player but its own. It doesnt work with the iPod and, if you have other players, you have to launch Windows Media Player, a separate program, to transfer Napster downloads to them.

Breakdown: It has 20GB as does the iPOD. Price is $399 same as iPOD....and that is where the similarities end.

The case is all aluminum vs. iPODs that use plastic molds and faux aluminum. It has an FM tuner, which the iPOD does NOT. It has an FM encoder, which the iPOD does NOT. It has an FM TRANSMITTER, which the iPOD does NOT. It has in-line recording, which the iPOD does NOT. Plus, I was able to buy $20 in free music from Napster.

There really is no comparison. Dont fall prey to the iPOD Jedi marketing mind trick. Take it from a real user of both products.