Samsung MP3 Player Adds Built-in Speaker

Transistor radios may seem prehistoric now, but they always had one feature I?ve always missed about most MP3 players: you could listen to the music without the damn headphones or ear buds.

Now you can do that again, thanks to Samsung?s newest MP3 player, the K5 Digital Audio Player, which has built-in slide-out speakers.(Read PC World's review of the K5.) And yeah, you can still use earbuds. The K5 is the slightly bulkier cousin of Samsung?s K3 Digital Audio Player. Both players were were named CES 2007 Innovations Award winners. Here's the K5:

The players each feature 1.8-inch OLED screens that light up in in icy blue and white to reveal a full navigational array. They also include a JPEG viewer to create personalized slideshows set to music and a built-in FM radio tuner. The K5 model also has an alarm clock function, a nice touch for travelers.

Both players support a variety of music subscription services including popular services such as Napster, Rhapsody and Yahoo! as well as MP3, WMA, DRM10 and JPEG formats. Here's the K3:

The company claims that the K3 player features up to 25 hours of battery life and comes in models with 2GB, 4GB or 8GB of flash memory while the K5 model offers up to 30 hours of battery life using the earphones, or six hours in speaker mode.

The K3 model, shown below, will be available in March 2007 in 2GB, 4GB and 8GB capacities. The K5 MP3 Player is available now at MSRPs of $149.99 (1GB) $179.99 (2GB) and $229.99 (4GB).

For more up-to-the-minute blogs, stories, photos, and video from the nation's largest consumer electronics show, visit PC World's CES 2007 Live Coverage Infocenter.

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