4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
Great while it lasted!
Date of Review: May 22, 2005
The Bottom Line: If the unit didnt fail so many times, i'd have liked it. I think there are better options for less money such as the philips pet1000 at Best Buy.
I originally Purchased this unit from Best Buy in June of 2004. I went through about 3 of them til i got one without a dead pixel. When i finally got one that wasn't defective i was very happy with it. The screen quality is pretty good for a 10" portable. But the black level is pretty poor. Solid black backgrounds look dark grey so you never get a feeling watching a scary movie at night that you are "there" because of this. The Unit is lightweight and the battery life is about average. i'd get close to 3 hours. Heres where owning this unit really paid off for me. IT BROKE!!! thats right, normally when something brakes, it's not cool. But i was fortunate to have Best Buy's PERFORMANCE SERVICE PLAN or "PSP" on the unit. I had only ever used this DVD player 3 times and i explained this to the manager when i went in. The power didnt come on anymore, it wouldn't charge or anything. I had all the box and packaging still (i always keep this stuff thankfully) and the manager at first said they would have to send it off for service. He then explained that it was still under Manufacturers warranty and he would take care of me. Gestured for me to "go pick out a similar unit"
Well when i got to the dvd counter there wasn't much to choose from, upon talking with an associate in the hometheatre unit he explained they had seen alot of samsung portable dvd units fail. He said samsung was a good company and made many great products but that he fealt i should give another brand a try. Unfortunately the only thing they had was a house brand "INSIGNIA" that was similar to what i had. But he did say, i have a Philips in the back we haven't even put out yet thats similar to yours. I said, well i guess i could take a look at it. (normally i only buy panasonic, sony or samsung) but i was limited on choices so i said what the heck. Well i got up to the counter and the Manager began to process the return reminding me that they typically can't do this. But as a customer centric store he was going to take care of me. I was pleased and thanked him again. He then says...okay well the new unit is $180 dollars less than your samsung but i cant give you any money back. I was like Ahhh Mannn...
He then says...well you can go get something if you want. So i grabbed a 4gb ipod.
Moral of the story is this...The samsung was a great player while it lasted. But it ended up crappin out on me. And since i went through now 4 of these units, i'd have a hard time reccomending it. The philips pet1000 i got in place has more features, better picture, is smaller and has a better overall look and design, Better battery, plus it's $180 cheaper.
