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Upside: The Max ships with Philips's innovative belt accessory: its rear portion holds the unit in the small of your back, while the integrated remote up front gives you playback control. On the Max's chassis, an ultrabright LED flashes to make you more visible--handy for the night jogger. And the screen's backlight slowly fades on and off, so you won't have to press any buttons to view the display in the dark. The Max gives you the standard option of sorting songs by title, album, and artist, and you can create playlists on the fly. Built-in features include an FM radio tuner and a stopwatch. Finally, the fully adjustable over-the-ear headphones are a serious improvement over the previous models' larger than average earbuds.
Downside: Listed at $300, the MP3 Max costs $40 to $70 more than its 512MB competitors, and its memory is nonexpandable. Strapped to your back, the player will get in the way of gym activities such as sit-ups, so you might have to reserve it for jogging and biking.
Outlook: We like having a new way to tote an MP3 player, and we appreciate the Max's fitness-friendly design. However, since the device is about $50 more expensive than the popular Apple iPod Mini, we won't be surprised if the Philips doesn't fly off the shelves.
