Samsung has been discretely showing off its upcoming S2 and S3 MP3 players since March, but the company finally let full specs on the Zen Stone and iPod Nano competitors drop on Wednesday. Both players are being marketed as much for their stylish designs as for what’s inside.
With an obvious nod to the Creative Zen Stone, the S2 “Pebble” will come in the shape of a rounded-edge stone, available in black, white, red, green, and purple. Rather than an LCD screen, it uses a blinking LED hidden in the bottom to flash patterns representing which playback modes have been selected – a kind of Morse code for PMPs. It comes only in 1GB capacity, and Samsung claims the rechargeable lithium-polymer battery should last for a full 13 hours of playback, almost enough to listen to a full 1GB worth of music.
Samsung says the larger S3 is about as large a business card holder, measuring 0.4 inches thick, and includes a 1.8-inch LCD screen, making it like a bit like a chunkier iPod Nano. Like the S3, it will come in a host of colors to satisfy fashion-conscious buyers, including green, red, blue, black, and white. Besides playing both MP3 and WMA files, it displays JPEG photos, text, and plays FM radio. Both 4GB and 8GB versions will be available, and Samsung says the battery should be good for 25 hours of audio playback, or 4 hours of video.
While both the S2 and S3 are slated to arrive at retail stores in June, Samsung hasn’t yet announced what the players will cost.
