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"Extremely cool!" on by mortgmaker
Pros: Small, light, sleek styling, nicer looking than iPod.
Cons: Protective pouch is a lint magnet.
Summary: This is my first experience with an mp3 player of any kind but I did my research on them and decided on the Philips Gogear HDD1630 because of it's seamless integration with Windows Media Player. I loaded a few CD's into WMP and was a bit frustrated at seeing the track but not the artist or title. Then I connected my computer to the internet and it automatically went through and named each song and artist. Call me simple, but I was so amazed by that. It loaded 135 songs into the mp3 player in a few short minutes and I have to tell you, this little thing is incredible. I looked at Apple iPod and the Creative Labs Zen Micro as well as the Olympus m:robe MR-100. After reading reviews here and elsewhere, I decided to steer clear of the Zen Micro and the Olympus. Ipod makes a great product, no doubt, but everybody has one and I wanted something different. In my opinion, the Philips is a better deal all the way around. It's priced right, it sounds awesome with very rich bass and the volume is definately loud enough. The earphones are great, much better than the stock earphones which are included with the others I mentioned. My only complaint so far is the protective pouch. It's a lint magnet and is impossible to keep clean. It even looks dirty. The unit itself is a glossy black plastic which shows fingerprints pretty badly but it wipes clean very easily. I hope that Philips comes out with a line of accessories so you can wear the mp3 player when working out at the gym. All in all, this player is a very solid choice if you're considering a purchase. I think it will give iPod a serious run for it's money.
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"Modest Price For The Product" on by mcindafizzy
Pros: Size, It has a screen, Great look and feel, Many options like voice recording, radio recording, and radio tuning, Also playlist on the go is a nice feature
Cons: Laggy menu, No accessories available, Smudges easily
Summary: The first thing to understand is that this Mp3 player is not an iPod, don't mistake it for one. The screen on this player is smaller, this player has more features, and is of a slightly different size.
However, unlike most people I am not in love with iPods, other companies can make good Mp3 players too and this is an example.
I bought this player because there is no way I was going to spend $300+ on a small computer that plays music and I personally cannot stand that iPods have cost the same amount for the past 5 years when technology costs halve every 18 months. This player however seemed worth the money.
First, this player is relatively cheap for today's market - in fact it is the same price as an iPod nano, the lowest priced iPod that is not just a USB drive with buttons. If you are comparing this to the nano allow me to make it simple for you. This player looks equally good, has either 3 or 6 times the hard drive space that a nano has and includes somewhere around 4 additional features as far as what the player does. The GoGear is absolutely the right choice there. The only real decision appears if you have enough for a normal iPod and are deciding between the normal iPod and this player. I can't tell you what to do there, but I'm kinda partial to saving $100.
This player is everything you need in a player, its small, elegant, multi-functional, and reliable as far as I can tell (I've had mine for a few weeks and listen to it for 8 hours straight when I'm at work).
The only thinigs I've noticed that work against this player are that it smudges easily which upsets me because I am a very ascetic person and the menu is laggy. First about the smudging, dont think you're escaping this problem with an iPod, I mean I've seen iPods come out of the package with scratchs on the back and my God if you set an iPod down on a table WATCH OUT, when you pick the iPod up its gonna look like brushed metal with all the scratches that just appear somehow.
The menu really is not justifiable and is my largest concern, it does not need to lag as badly as it does but since I usually throw on a playlist and let it go the menu lag isn't a problem. But if you are the person who searches through lists of songs alot or just play with the options, this menu is not for you.
The last thing to really consider is the lack of accessories. Obviously iPods have attachments, addons, carrying cases, well...they have their own night club available if you want it. So if you like to have a different outfit for your player every day then don't go with the GoGear. The same goes for portable speakers. Personally, though, I just listen with head phones at work so its not a big deal for me, plus I have recently purchased 2 cords that will allow me to plug the GoGear into my car radio so all of my bases are covered, nonetheless keep this in mind.
So in all I think I have found a great player for an acceptable price and so far I am very happy with my purchase. Just keep in mind that this thing is not iPod, was never meant to be an iPod, and should not be held to an iPod's standard but instead a standard of reliability and quality. -
"Impressed with my anti-iPod" on by JustinCollum
Pros: dedicated volume control, form factor is great, LEDs under display are cool, included headphones are very comfy, no requirement to partition data and music separately like some other players
Cons: firmware has locked up twice in the first 4 days of use, lack of peripherals, no armband that I know of
Summary: Great player. This is my first DAP and I really wasn't happy with an iPod for the price. I'm pretty happy with this one. It's small, has good (but not great) battery life and sounds good.
There really isn't any included software, you just sync with WMP. There is a util to update the firmware.
The included headphones are sooo much more comfortable than the iPod. They're almost a canal-style so they block a good amount of sound. That way you don't need to blare your music to hear it. Some people complain about the volume - I don't see any need to destroy my ability to listen to music while I'm listening to music, ya know? If external noise is a problem then you need some Shure's man.
The only downside is the laggy firmware. It really needs an update. When you turn off the player there's a 5-7 sec delay before the player actually turns off, which makes no sense. And when you go into some menus (playlists, photos) there's a bit of a delay before the menu will load. With playlists especially this seems absurd. A playlist isn't much more than a very small text file. Taking 1 or 2 seconds to read some text files is not cool!
Needs more skins too. There's only 2 included and they are just dark and light versions of the same thing. Skinnable is only good if you have more than 2 options!
All in all I'd buy it again. -
"AMAZING PLAYER...BY FAR THE BEST LOOKING!!" on by ryan_secord
Pros: Easy to setup, Easy to use, Great interface. Just looking at this player makes you want to use it. Extremely portable, smaller then the Creative Micro Zen by Far.
Cons: The touch screen is tricky at first but become very easy after your used to it
Summary: I have done my research on portable mp3 players, and I was stuck between the Creative Micro and this. After holding both this feels much more comfortable in your hand and POCKET. Both are relatively the same price (depending on which Creative color you choose). For the same money you get a color screen with picture abilities. Extrememly happy with this product. Wal-Mart had it for the cheepest price around at this time also..
DEFINITLEY WOULD RECOMMEND THIS PRODUCT TO SOMEONE THAT DOES NOT WANT AN IPOD... -
"Impressive despite minor problems" on by kcorson
Pros: Album art, photo viewing, color display
Cons: Needs more skins, terrible tech support, few support resources
Summary: Great player. Was very easy to get up and running with music.
Problems came when I tried to load pictures and when I wanted to get album covers to show up while playing music tracks. At first attempt to add photos, only photos with a small number of pixels would show up (not sure the total), even though all pictures were on the device if browsed through Windows Explorer. Called Philips support for this problem (and album art not displaying). All tech support could do was suggest troubleshooting solutions easily found in the manual or on their support site.
To make a long story a little shorter. The picture problem magically took care of itself. As for the album art problem, I found that you need to put the album art file in the folder of each album on the device with a name of 'Album Art.jpg' unless you rip your own cds with Windows Media Player 10 (in that case it is all done for you).
After working throught these issues (didn't take much time) I absolutely love it.
Philips GoGear Jukebox HDD1630 user reviews (6GB)
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