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Entered CNET Catalog: 03/23/2004
SKU: 0037849945179
Manufacturer: Philips Consumer Electronics
Manufacturer description
Designed with athlete insights and technology innovations the product can be worn securely on the arm. Pure solid-state means no moving parts for 100% skip free sport audio. Automatic tuning with 10 station presets onboard, you'll never run out of new music to inspire your daily workouts. Essential for walk/run training programs, the stop watch can be used to increase your performance. State-of-the-art illumination technology strobe light that enhances being seen in low light conditions. The product's design is compact and features a soft touch keypad, co-molded rubber and high-impact plastic housing and electro-plated shell for sport-tested protection and durability. PRODUCT FEATURES: 512MB built-in memory; Plays MP3, Windows media formatted content and future formats; FM radio with 10 presets; Remote control waist belt; Dedicated stopwatch; Strobe light for low light conditions; Backlit LCD display; 4 EQ presets and Dynamic Bass Boost; Up to 12 hours of playback time; 1-hour rapid [4 hours full] battery recharging time; Audio manager software included.CNET editors' review
- Editors' Choice: No
- Reviewed on: 04/01/2004
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.
User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 User Rating: 
9/10
Great Design
Pros: Design, Light features
Cons: Strap and Software
Nike needs to make this player that is more windows native.
User Rating: 
2/10
Buyer Beware!
Pros: Design and the models on the package
Cons: Software, headphones, navigation
User Rating: 
1/10
Don't buy it.
Pros: Lots of nice features, if only it would have worked.
Cons: Small display. Difficult to set up. Didn't work in the end.
The reason the player would not play WMA's is that it cannot play the encrypted or copy write protected wma's that we buy from various online sources (WallMart, Puretracs, etc.) even though they say it will. You must burn the WMA's to a disc, and then rip them back to the computer. This removes the copy protection. Then they can be installed and played on the player.
I learned this after buying a RIO player. I now believe that the Phillips player is superior to the RIO player we ended up with. The RIO is plastic and junky. The Phillips player is substantial and the included accesories are superior.
User Rating: 9/10
Small Workaround for the Software
Pros: Robust and compact; Well suited for gym and travel.
Cons: Software partnership Jukebox is poor - workaround with Windows Media and minimize Jukebox usage for pure uploading
One quick, but important addendum: the new firmware (2.9) allows you to play songs downloaded from the Internet. This was a big complaint leveled at the earlier firmware version 2.5.
User Rating: 1/10
Nike teamed up with the wrong manufacturer, dont leave the store w/o the insurance plan
Pros: The look of the player is what drew me in. It looks sturdy, but I don't know how sturdy it is seeing that I only used it one time before I had to take it back to the store.
Cons: The sound is lousy. Why would you design an mp3 player with horrible sound? The software is garbage. You're not able to simply drag and drop music files directly onto the player using windows. You're not able to use windows media player to compress the m
User Rating: 
5/10
I WANTED to love it...
Pros: I loved the design, the concept, the various arm/waistband configurations, the screen, the 1/2 GB...
Cons: but the software sucks, the whole MusicMatch thing was unbelieveable!(useless b/c it doesnt support downloaded music), it was not recognized, then it was recognized, then it wasnt recognized by my computer...so I returned it very disappointed
User Rating: 
7/10
A great flash MP3 player.
Pros: The size is great. philips quality is always good. the overall sound is great if you replace the headphones. That usually goes for any MP3 player.
Cons: Radio is not user friendly. Armband design is horrible. They put the player sideways so now my headphone cord gets continnually snagged in the armband.
User Rating: 5/10
works with my mac
Pros: cheaper than anything apple has put out and works with my mac (even has mac software included)
Cons: could be smaller
User Rating: 
6/10
Get it cheaper online
Pros: Compact design. Very solidly built...rubber cover feels like it can handle a bashing pretty well. 512 MB is pretty ample. FM radio is a plus...most IPODs don't. Oh and definitely buy it online; you'll get ripped off in a store.
Cons: You need to get noise cancelling headphones to enjoy music on a plane....noisy airport etc,but most gyms aren't that noisy anyway.
User Rating: 
8/10
great equip for joggers
Pros: Seems Philips leads the way in innovative products and this product seems to be a testimony that more great things are in the stock... Keep going philips , we are with u..
Cons: Nothing noteworthy
