Fancy standing out in a crowd? Jørgen Sundgot checks out Samsung's YP-W3L pendant audio player, holding 1 GB of gold-plated, diamond-encrusted memory.
With the market for portable audio players literally being flooded these days and the iPod no longer being the exclusive domain of the connoiseur, where's a poor soul to turn to lay his -or her - hands on something that won't show up across from you on the tube next morning? Evidently, Samsung has seen itself fit to deliver just what you need: the gold-plated, diamond-studded YP-W3L.
Surprisingly, I find the YP-W3L to be rather stylish - and thank God Samsung didn't opt for yellow gold but had the wits about them to go for white instead. The possibility of having plebes mistake it for yet another generic aluminum finish aside, the player looks rather raff, and the diamonds encircling the circular display are small enough to avoid making it look tacky.
 | | Samsung YP-W3L |
Right now you're probably thinking that with such a focus on the showoff factor, there's not going to be a whole lot of features to be found under the hood - which fortunately couldn't be more wrong. Avoiding the common mistake of thinking fashionistas don't care about features, Samsung offers a nice mix of both in the YP-W3L - which is odd when you consider how this balance is skewed in other players recently unveiled by the company such as the YH-J70, YH-J50 and YP-T8 are.
First of all, for being a tiny pendant player, a maximum of 1 GB of Flash memory is entirely acceptable - and for those with a slightly more limited budget, there will also be 256 MB and 512 MB versions. This is backed up by support for MP3, WMA, Ogg Vorbis, ASF and WAV formats, and impressively Samsung has also managed to integrate an FM radio into the YP-W3L.
 | | Samsung YP-W3L |
Also present is a voice recorder, as well as support for SRS WOW virtual surround sound, and the 8-line, back-lit white LCD display concealed behind sapphire glass also doubles as a digital clock. According to Samsung, the YP-W3L will deliver 8 hours of playback from its Lithium Ion battery, but as per Samsung usual, there's no word on expected pricing or availability - which is starting to annoy me as much as it is you, I'm sure.
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