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Philips digital audio line show
By James Kim
(September 1, 2005)
Philips today announced two new hard drive-based MP3 players: the $299 30GB GoGear HDD6330 and the $199 6GB GoGear HDD1630. Both players are sleekly designed with glossy black bodies, photo-friendly color screens, and blue-backlit touch-sensitive interfaces. They are fully decked out with features, including an FM tuner, voice recording, JPEG viewing with thumbnail previews, and compatibility with MP3 as well as both purchased and subscription-based WMA files. The 30GB HDD6330 also boasts line-in recording, up to 196Kbps WAV. The overall packages look solid, especially with Philips's aggressive pricing scheme, but we'll have to wait and see if the company's past interface and performance problems have been addressed with these new entries.
In addition to the GoGear series, Philips will ship two exercise-friendly MP3 players in September: the 512MB Active Range PSA232 and the 4GB microdrive-based Active Range PSA612. The players have an identical circular form factor with silver accents and either red (512MB) or blue (4GB) trim. Gorgeously minimal with space-age design cues, the players are rugged and, in lieu of buttons, controlled by "rocking" the face of the player to navigate; they'll both ship with an armband. The players are MP3 and WMA DRM 9.0 compatible, include an FM tuner, and feature an integrated stopwatch that allows users to measure their progress and receive on-demand voice feedback via the headphones. Priced at $199 and $119 for, respectively, the 4GB and 512MB versions, the new line of Nike-less players should rock the fitness world.
| Model name |
Pricing and availability |
Specifications |
What's cool about it? |
Philips GoGear HDD6330 Audio Jukebox (30GB)
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$299
October 2005
 Check prices |
4.1 by 2.5 by 0.7 inches; 5.3 ounces; 2-inch, eight-line, 65,000-color screen at 220x176 pixels; 82dB signal-to-noise ratio; SRS Wow and five-band EQ; compatible with WMA, MP3, and WAV; FM tuner/recorder; line-in and voice recorder; JPEG viewing with music slide shows; USB 2.0; USB on the go for digital camera transfer; 15 hours of rated battery life; ships with in-ear headphones |
Glossy minimal design with a glowing blue touch-sensitive interface; feature-packed; good value on paper |
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Philips GoGear HDD1630 Audio Jukebox (6GB)
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$199
October 2005
Check prices |
3.4 by 2.2 by 0.6 inches; 3.1 ounces; 1.5-inch, seven-line, 65,000-color LCD at 128x128 pixels; 82dB signal-to-noise ratio; SRS Wow and five-band EQ; compatible with WMA, MP3, and WAV; FM tuner/recorder; voice recorder; JPEG viewing with music slide shows; USB 2.0; 18 hours of rated battery life; ships with in-ear headphones |
Good price for all the features; glowing blue touch-sensitive interface |
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Philips Active Range PSA612 (4GB)
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$199
September 2005
Check prices |
2.8 by 1.2 inches; 3.25 ounces; MP3 and WMA playback; FM tuner; integrated stopwatch |
Talking stopwatch; rocking lens navigation; ShockLock feature buffers about 24MB of data into flash to protect hard drive |
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Philips Active Range PSA232 (512MB)
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$119
September 2005
Check prices |
2.5 by 1.0 inches; 2.65 ounces; MP3 and WMA playback; FM tuner; integrated stopwatch |
Talking stopwatch; rocking lens navigation; cool round design |
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