Call me a cheapskate. Although I would have to admit that I have ogled at these fancy –looking devices, I just couldn’t bring myself to shell out my already-scarce resources for something that I don’t think I need.

Call me a sour grape. More and more of my family and friends have bought and are currently enjoying these devices. Some may have more use for them than others but none has regretted the purchase. In spite of this, I continue to resist and dismiss the frenzy as mere fad.

I have already conditioned myself to ignore the latest developments in this area of technology. But as fate would have it, my editor asked me to review Samsung’s latest addition to the already crowded portable audio player arena.

I have to admit that I was a bit excited when I received the Samsung YH-J70 Digital Audio Player. I understand that it comes in black or white. Since I got the white one, I smirked when I noticed that it resembled a more popular brand that starts with an “i” and ends with a “Pod”. The package also included the earphones, docking cradle, USB cable, USB host cable, charger, and a Samsung multimedia software cd.

Slightly smaller and lighter than an iPod, the YH-J70 will hardly make a bulge in your pant pocket. With the standard menu and navigation buttons in front and the earphone, line in, and USB connectors on the top and sides, it looked pretty standard. Before I got bored with its appearance, I decided to load it up with some songs.

Connecting the YH-J70 to the pc is done via USB. The package includes a docking cradle for easy charging or synchronization. Unfortunately, you can only either charge or transfer data when connected to the pc. To switch between the two, you have to reconfigure your settings.

I was pleasantly surprised that I didn’t have to make the complex decision of which songs I would include and leave out of the YH-J70. I just included everything. Did I say that this baby could hold 30Gb worth of data? (For the technically challenged, that’s 7,500 songs.)

The sound quality was excellent! The YH-J70 comes with the SRS WOW HD 3D sound system developed and released by the U.S.-based SRS Laboratories. Depending on which setting I chose, I was able to enjoy stronger bass and clearer treble at the same time. The “fade in” feature is also cool to protect your ears by gradually increasing the volume as each song starts. You can further tweak audio settings with preset and manual equalizer settings.

Browsing thru the YH-J70 menu (I confess, I only read the manual when I have to), I noticed that it is also capable of showing photo and video. It can also handle documents in txt format. Suddenly, this gadget has evolved into a Portable Media Player. Exciting!

The YH-J70 recognizes MP3 / WMA / ASF / OGG Vorbis for audio, JPEG for photo, and MPEG4 for video. If you still have problems with compatibility, Samsung provides two bundled programs to edit, convert, transfer, and organize your multi-media files.

Since my digital music collection only amounted to 11Gb, I eagerly uploaded my favorite digital pictures, some Black-Eyed Peas music videos, a Josh Groban concert, and a few full-length movies that I got from Bit Torrent. I may have included a few celebrity-scandal videos for show.

The 1.8-inch TFT Color LCD screen was bright and the pictures displayed were crisp and detailed. Viewing music videos and short video clips was also a delight. Although not exactly a portable video solution, the YH-J70 trumps my mobile phone in this department.

Viewing videos longer than two minutes on the YH-J70 is not advisable. Aside from the fact that the screen can only be viewed clearly from a unique angle, the 1.8-inch screen was just too small. Come on! If you have the time and resources to download a 4.3Gb movie file from the Internet, spend it by going to the moviehouse, instead. Don’t strain your eyes on the tiny screen.

Should you get tired of your favorite songs, or you just want to listen to your favorite DJ, the YH-J70 also has an FM radio which you can preset to up to 30 of your favorite radio stations.

If you think you’ve heard it all, the YH-J70 also has a recorder. It records like a usual tape-recorder but it conveniently saves the recordings on MP3 format. How about that! What’s more is aside from voice, it can also record from the FM radio or through an external source such as another MP3 player thru the line-in jack.

Already versatile because of its multi-media capabilities, the YH-J70 can also connect as host to another USB device such as a flash disk, a digital camera, or another MP3 player without the aid of a pc. This means that you can transfer files to and from the YH-J70 while on the road. It also means that you can use the YH-J70 as a storage device – a 30Gb portable storage device!

If you are familiar with storage devices, you would know that they are highly susceptible to physical shock. With the YH-J70, you can set your mind at ease. It comes with a gravity-sensing protection system utilizing the G-sensor which makes up for the physical weakness of the hard disk. It means that your data is protected even if you accidentally drop the unit. Trust me. It works!

To cap-off its features, the YH-J70 also has built-in games, memo, calendar, and sleep functions. All these features you can enjoy all-day long. If 24 hours of music isn’t enough for you, according to Samsung the incredibly long-life lithium (li-ion) battery let’s you enjoy up to 25hours of music! To be honest, I have not tested this claim fully because I always forget to count the hours I’ve used it but even with just a short period of charging each night, the battery still pumps out enough juice to last the whole day.

All in all, the Samsung YH-J70, with its excellent sound quality, is a very worthy addition to the otherwise saturated portable audio player arena because it offers a lot of innovative (not necessarily new) concepts not found in ordinary MP3 players. I am a fan of the iPod’s click wheel but theYH-J70’s navigation buttons are intuitive enough to get a passing mark. The 262k-color LCD screen is too tiny for watching long videos but it is, otherwise, excellent for viewing photos and display.

Value-for-value, the YH-J70 definitely has more features than the iPod Photo and could prove to be a wise alternative to the iPod Video.