Philips-Nike MP3Run PSA260 user reviews (256MB)

Pros Great for runners, decent quality, weather proof, strobe light

Cons philips dmm software, slow menu system

Summary I really hoped this player would be great because, as a runner it's the only product I need to listen to music and time my runs accurately. Unfortunately the software for this product really leaves something to be desired. Transferring mp3s is slow and if your mp3s are named correctly(ID tag info) it is nearly impossible to sift through. I will say this though, after you get everything working and get your mp3s set up, this player has some nifty features for runners that you just can't get in any other single unit.

Pros MP3 player and timer in one unit

Cons Bad measurements, pricey, crappy software

Summary I bought this player mostly because I read it was really accurate in it's measurements. Well. That wasn't true. I run the same route every time, and the faster I run, the shorter the distance gets according to the player. I've had it give me from 5.3 miles (at a slow run) to 4.8 miles (on a fast day). Needless to say, as a result, I don't trust the speed meter or distance meter very much. The timer seems to be right though. It's convenient to have a timer and an mp3 player in one package, but it's not really worth the $249 I paid for it...

I'm a software engineer, and I'd be embarassed if I had written the software that comes with this player. MusicMatch is alright, I suppose, but I made the mistake of trying to use the Philips/Nike software that comes as well. Slow and crash-prone, and just badly implemented.

In two years this might be a great product. As of now... Nah. A timer, a cheap mp3 player, a map and a ruler does a better job.

Pros It has a good design and the armband is comfortable. The distance monitor is great and you can track your progress over time. The earphones also stay in place, even for long runs over 10 miles and if you sweat a lot.

Cons The software is terrible. I've never seen the "blue screen of death" on my XP machine until I installed this. Also, it does not support WMAs from MusicMatch's download service which is a major deterrent.

Pros great features - simple to use (once you get it working) - easy to track progress - decent sound

Cons terrible, terrible software. just horrible. abysmal.

Summary When I got it out of the box, it took me about two days to get the software working. Ultimately, I needed to uninstall and then reinstall the Java Runtime 2 environment - then it worked fine. As fine as it can - the software sucks. Using a "sync" function to upload music to an MP3 player is okay, but it's much easier when you can batch the files, press "transfer" and walk away rather than moving the files one at a time, each one taking 15 seconds to transfer. (Doesn't sound like much, but wait until you've done it five times.)

Now that I've got my music uploaded, however, it's great. I just use it for workout, so 256 mb is just fine. I saw some other comments complaining abou the volume level being too low, but when I have it cranked all the way, it's far too loud for me, so I have no idea what they're talking about.

Overall, it takes a little bit of patience to get it really working, but once it's going, it's heaps of fun. If Philips had spent a little more time making it user-friendly, they'd have a goldmine on their hands.