Features
Considering its price, the Aria scores decent marks when it comes to features. All the standards are here, such as music, video, photo, radio, voice, and text. The features that distinguish the Aria, however, are the 2-inch color screen (220 x 176 resolution), Rhapsody subscription music DNA, and a quality pair of in-ear headphones.
Users of Rhapsody's subscription music service will be happy to see features such as a Rhapsody Channels menu and a renewal indicator, but otherwise, nonsubscribers will have to content themselves with the Aria's relatively basic music player. Compared with an MP3 player like the SanDisk Sansa Fuze, which supports formats such as FLAC, Ogg, and WAV, the Aria is quite limited, supporting just MP3 and WMA. If you've been ripping and downloading your music as AAC files using a program like iTunes, you're not going to be able to transfer those songs to the Aria without converting them first.
The Aria's video player is similarly limited, playing only SMV files encoded at a 200 x 176 resolution. Expect that any video you'll want to play on the Aria will need to get shoehorned onto the player using the included software and a dash of patience.
Performance
Philips rates the Aria's battery life at 30 hours of music playback and 6 hours of video, which is a little better than you'd get from an Apple iPod Nano, and right in line with budget-priced competitor the Sansa Fuze. Battery testing in CNET Labs found the Aria averaging 26 hours of continuous audio playback and a surprising 9 hours of video. Unfortunately, video picture quality is pretty crummy, but from an audio perspective, the Aria's combination of EQ, Full Sound audio enhancement, and above-average earbuds offers some of the best out-of-the-box fidelity you'll get in this price range.
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Philips GoGear Aria (8GB, black):
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