First things first, my stance on having speakers on anything portable, is such: They suck! Speakers on portable devices were not meant to impress, because you’re supposed to use headphones to truly enjoy your portable listening device. With that said, I’m eating crow now because I will admit, the speaker on the K5 kick all ass! When the K5 arrived and I loaded the songs, the very first thing I did was jump right to the speaker. With just a flick the speakers slide from the under the main MP3 piece, sometimes it’s a bit hesitant so you need a bit of patience. That means you bobo with the short temper, just because it doesn’t immediately slide out doesn’t mean you have to toss it out the window. Just relax, find your inner Zen and it will slide. The sound was amazing! I was examining the K5 like some trogolodyte cave man who just found a funny rock. Checking it out up, down, side to side, just how the hell did Samsung pack so much power in such a small speaker? And what impressed me even more was that in wide open areas, the K5 still rocked. I took it with me to the airport just to see how it worked and to show it off to some friends and soon I found myself in a room full of cavemen. Big ups to the speaker.

As a portable MP3 player, the K5 can definitely hold its own against the Apples and the Creatives. Loading the songs is a snap. Just use Windows media player to sync em over and you’re done. No additional software is needed. Battery life is also impressive. By accident I left the K5 running in my jacket pocket for 6 hours and when I checked the battery bar, I only lost one. Now that’s damn impressive. Plug in your headphones and you’re sucked into your music as it sounds great! And navigating through all the menus is a snap. You have your back, menu, enter, up/down and left/right buttons.

My only negative for the K5 is the same that I gave to the Z5 in that once you turn off the player and then turn it on, it returns to a default volume. I guess its ok if someone else were to pick up the K5 and they don’t get their ear drums busted, but it sucks that you have to always set the volume just the way you like it every time you turn it on.

With a retail value of $149.99, you’re getting quite a bargain for a truly special piece of MP3 fare. Just for the speaker alone, it’s worth the cost of admission. With impressive sound, ease of use, and no more software to install, the K5 is a must have for anyone who likes their music on the go. The K5 has been Valkor tested and TOV approved.