The iPod's competitors have wasted years of opportunity by assuming that they can beat the iPod on features and price alone. They're wrong.
In fact, at least six factors make the iPod such a hit: cool-looking hardware; a fun-to-use, variable-speed scroll wheel; an ultrasimple software menu; effortless song synchronization with Mac or Windows; seamless, rock-solid integration with an online music store (iTunes); and a universe of accessories. Mess up any aspect of the formula, and your iPod killer is doomed to market-share crumbs.
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The result is the easiest-to-navigate software since the iPod. Here's the familiar main menu (Music, Pictures, Playlists and so on); here's the center Select button; here's the button at the top that backtracks toward the main menu. If you've ever used an iPod, you'll feel instantly at home. (In fact, at first, I caught myself tracing circles on the Z5's face with my thumb, turning a scroll wheel that wasn't there a reflex that Samsung acknowledged isn't uncommon among first-time users of the Z5.)
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INSTEAD of a wheel, the Z5 has a big square button surrounded by a clickable frame. The frame's four edges precisely replicate the clicky edges of the iPod scroll wheel: Menu at the top, Play/Pause at the bottom, Next Track and Previous Track on the sides.
Inside the frame is a touch pad. You step through lists by lightly tapping the pad; you hold down to scroll quickly. The best part is that your thumb doesn't have to move between scrolling and clicking; after scrolling by touching, pushing harder to click in exactly the same spot does the trick.
Samsung has even improved on the iPod's design in several important ways. For example, you can adjust the playback volume even when you're not on the Now Playing screen (such as when you're adjusting the settings or perusing your music list), thanks to dedicated volume buttons. The name of the current song appears at the bottom of every screen, too.
More thoughtful touches: Whenever you highlight a song or album name, a thumbnail image of the CD cover appears right there in the list a handy visual aid. Holding down the Menu button takes you all the way back to the main menu, so you don't have to tap it repeatedly.
And you know that iPod moment of befuddlement when the buttons don't seem to be working and then you realize it's because you've engaged the Hold switch? On the Z5, pressing any button makes a tiny padlock icon glow on the screen to help clue you in.
Finally, the Z5 plays music for a staggering 35 hours between charges, according to Samsung, which is 2.5 times the duration with the iPod. Unfortunately, that beefier battery means that the Z5 is no Nanoesque wafer. At just under half an inch thick, it's two-thirds thicker than the Nano.
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s the Z5, then, the fabled iPod Killer? Let's review the checklist.
LOOKS Not quite. It's sleek and nice-looking, but thicker than the Nano. The metal case conceals fingerprints, unlike the mirrored chrome of the Nano. But it doesn't look as classy and doesn't feel as nice in your palm. SCROLL WHEEL No. The Z5's controls are thoughtfully designed. But the touch scroller is finicky; perhaps to screen out accidental taps, it registers a tap only if your finger sits on the surface longer than a quarter-second but less than half a second (after which fast scrolling begins). You need the reflexes of a frog's tongue.
Worse, you can't control the speed of the scrolling; you can't slow down as you approach one part of the alphabet. How could Samsung have missed this one?
SOFTWARE MENU Ultrasimple. Samsung nailed this aspect.
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MUSIC STORE INTEGRATION No. At Samsung's suggestion, I tested the Z5 with Rhapsody's store, which is available directly from the copy of Windows Media Player provided by the Z5's installer. After banging my head on the keyboard for an hour, unable to get it to work, a Rhapsody rep finally let me know that, in fact, Rhapsody's subscription store doesn't work in Media Player only with Rhapsody's own software jukebox. (So much for the Microsoft "Plays for Sure" logo. Try "Plays for Some People.")
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The Z5, then, will not cause any discernible dip in iPod market share.
It does, however, deserve to be a hit for Samsung. For someone who wants a Nano that's not a Nano, it's a close enough match in looks, sleekness, capacity and crystal-clear software design. In fact, if iPod didn't loom over every conversation as the screamingly obvious point of comparison, the Z5 could be the next little thing.
