Customer Reviews

Philips GoGear 16 GB Aria MP3 Video Player with 2-Inch Color Screen

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The Philips GoGear 16 GB Aria MP3 Video Player offers a lot of features for its price: 14.8GB storage, 25-hour battery life, high quality earphones, FM radio, voice recorder, etc. However, it seems to be poorly received by most reviewers so far. Frankly, my first impression was not entirely positive. But after most initial problems and confusions were resolved, this device turns out to be a very good value as a MP3 player.

Some problems and how to resolve them:

1. Documentation:
The enclosed "Quick Start Guide" is quite useless. It is very brief, and printed in tiny fonts. Luckily, there is an "User Manual" found on the mini-CD, which is a lot more comprehensive. You can also go to Philips web site support section, and download the latest documentation/software for "GoGear Aria 16GB" (SA1ARA16K/17)

2. User Interface:
Initially, I was having difficulty with navigation and control. In particular, the PLAY/Confirm button often requires several clicks to register. Finally, I pressed the 'RESET" button to restart the whole device (it does not delete my files, by the way). From that point onward, I never have any problems with button clicks any more.

3. PC Connection:
By default, the device connects to PC in MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) mode. This is required if you want to use the Rhapsody music channel. I changed it to MSC (Mass Storage Class) mode, so that the device behaves exactly like an USB flash drive. This way, I can simply 'drag-and-drop' MP3 files into the player, instead of going through Windows Media Player. File transfer speed from PC to the player is about 3MB/S.

There is one problem I have not yet resolved. I prefer to organize my MP3 files in sub-directories, one for each album. This player allows me to use "Folder View" to navigate and play MP3 files in any directory. Unfortunately, it will not continue to play into the next directory. So after listening to each album, I have to manually navigate to a new album and restart playing.

Other observations:

- The sound quality of included earphones is reasonable, but they need to be inserted deep into ear canals to work correctly. I prefer my old Bose QC1 headphones, since they cover over my ears and are more comfortable over extended period.

- The video player mode is mostly a gimmick. A small screen with resolution of 220x176 is barely acceptable for playing short animations. All video files must be converted into SMV (Streaming Mobile Video) format using the included software. The conversion is slow and inefficient. It takes about 6 minutes just to convert a 90-second anime video, and the resulted file size is even larger than the original (higher resolution) version!

- The GoGear Aria is highly similar to the SanDisk Sansa Fuze in terms of physical size (see my Customer Image), battery life, and features. The Fuze is available up to 8GB only, but its capacity can be expanded using Micro-SDHC card.

In summary: The Philips GoGear Aria is hardly an iPod-killer. But considering its low cost and rich feature set, it makes a decent MP3 player for my money.

[Update on Nov 22, 2009]:
Exactly three weeks after purchase, my player suffered a crash from no appearant reasons. Pressing RESET button doesn't do the trick now. I have to use the 'Repair" option form the Philips Device Manager to revive the player, and all media files were erased in the process. Luckily, the crash seems to be an one-time event, and the device has been working correctly since then.

This is a really nice player. The sound quality is very good (even using the standard earphones, (although the first reviewer was correct about having to insert them somewhat deeply to get the best sound); and the 16 gigs of memory leaves plenty of room for all the music I want.

The control buttons are easy to maneuver, and they work pretty intuitively. Overall, I love the smooth, sleek, shiny design EXCEPT for the placement of the headphone jack. Why on earth did they decide to put it on the bottom right side of the unit, directly underneath the control buttons? Because of where it's located, my thumb rubs against the jack when trying to use the control buttons. I often end up accidentally interrupting a song when I'm actually trying to adjust the volume (because you can't put your thumb under the unit--the headphone jack is in the way!). It's so annoying! If you ask me, the headphone jack should be on the LEFT side of the unit. Then it wouldn't be in the way of any controls, and you could put it in your jacket pocket and still be able to maneuver the buttons.

I'm still getting used to the "sideways" design. While it IS nice to have the 2" display screen for the purposes of navigating, so far I could care less about the video player or picture features. Ditto about voice.

Regarding the lack of a "genre" playlist feature: I find that pretty useless anymore, since there are so many genres and sub-genres nowdays (pop-infused funk, new traditional country, etc.). Creating your own playlists seems to work better IMO.

I bought this at a membership store a few days ago. The store offered a $10 off coupon. This is my first MP3 player, so I can't compare it to others, but I find the sound excellent, and I haven't upgraded the headphones. In fact, I didn't think I'd like them, but so far, they're fine. I've been able to read everything on the screen with my old eyes, also a plus. The last review mentioned the instruction manual, and he's right, it's useless. It seems to be meant for someone who already is familiar with the product. I discovered on my own, out of sheer frustration, that sometimes a double click of the select button works. I also haven't been able to find a case for it. The best I could find so far is a cell phone case from Radio Shack. It has a gap in the right place for the headphone jack and has a belt clip, but I still have to take the player out to access any buttons. Everything else I looked at is too small or too large.

I bought one of these for my 77 year old mother back in October and I am now buying one for my girlfriend. My mother has no problems working it at all.
I did NOT install the software (I didn't want the Rhapsody feature), so mine showed up just like a flash drive, instead of having to fiddle with transfer software (something I hate about my Zune or Ipods).
I would like to see 2 things;
1) an external charger, I usually have my mp3 player at work or hooked to my stereo where I don't always have a USB port available
2) And as previously mentioned, the abilty to choose and play by genre.

I don't care about videos, and the voice recorder & FM tuner come in handy.
Overall I think it is the one of the best deals out there for an MP3 player.

I bought this player for my teenage son and he loves it. We listen to the music in the car and the sound quality is fantastic! It has a radio that sounds great also. I need to get this product for myself just for the radio! I've purchased many MP3 players for my children and this one is the best!

It's a nice little portable player. The sound is reasonable, once loaded the menus are easy to navigate. The Rhapsody interface is great for making changes to your playlists. It's also nice that I don't have to worry about where I get the mp3s from-which I've heard can be an issue with Ipods.
After you mess around with it for few minutes odds are you'll love this thing.

However, the manual is worthless and learning to use it is far from intuitive if you have never owned a device like this.
It also really needs accessories like a case or screen protector. I am concerned that just placing it in my pocket will result in breakage or loss. And comparable player cases aren't compatible as the headphone jack is not in an accessible location.

I wanted an MP3 player to be able to select and play from my CDs and audiobooks without the high price of the more expensive name brands. I have an Ipod shuffle but I cannot choose what I want to listen to. Although I cannot compare this product to the more expensive Ipod models I found that the installation was easy enough, downloads not a problem, transfer of files from CD to PC to MP3 player was mostly intuitive. Having the Audiobooks filed in with the music is a bit of a problem -- can't really shuffle, and the screen is impossible to read out in the sunlight (when walking on the beach), but other than that I find the unit is a good value. The earphones are awesome compared with those that came with my old Ipod shuffle.

I purchased this mp3 player to replace a 5-yr-old 2-gig Cowon player. I was looking for something big enough to hold all of my music, with room to spare to make use of my Rhapsody subscription. The 16-gig GoGear Aria is plenty big and is very easy to use with Rhapsody. I thought the menus were a little confusing at first, but after a few minutes of playing around with it I figured them out fairly easily. The controls are pretty straight forward and simple to use, sound quality is plenty good for my taste, and the included ear buds are pretty awesome, too. It can take a few minutes to start up sometimes just after loading new music onto it, but other than that it starts up in a few seconds so that's not a huge deal to me. All in all, I think it's a pretty great mp3 player at a reasonable price, and it's an awesome choice if you're looking for something to use with Rhapsody!

I've been using this for a few months now and I think I can make a pretty good review.

First, let's discuss transferring files. Regardless of what the description says, it WILL NOT transfer iTunes songs, not even the unprotected ones. So if your music comes entirely from iTunes, get a different MP3 player. This will allow you to use monthly music rental services like Rhapsody, though. The file transferring is a little rough so you'll probably end up having to use another type of software instead of the one that comes with it. if you value your sanity, that is.

The earphones are pretty good quality. Not the best, but you rarely get that with an MP3 player. It does give you two types of rubber tips so you can switch if you have smaller ear holes.

The sound quality for most songs is pretty good. Probably better than you get on an iPod. It's clear and doesn't have that static quality that some MP3 players have.

The FM tuner works well. I get every channel with this that I would get with a full sized radio. The sound comes in clearly, for the most part, unless it's a low powered channel from far away.

The voice recorder also works and it's very clear.

As for video, I have yet to find a single file type that works with this.

I would certainly recommend this with some reservations. If you have predominantly iTunes music, skip this one.

I do not why every site I go to check this MP3 player makes it sound huge. 6.6 x6.4 x1.7. Initially I did not buy it for that reason. But when I saw it at Costco, it was that tiny wonderful gadget with a magnificent sound and ear buds. IT IS 3 X 1.7 X 0.3 INCHES. The only one disadvantage (which is importnat for me) is that the music menu does not include GENRE where you can shuffle in differnet Genre, so either the whole MP3 player has one Genre or you have to play each album or Artist separatly (boring) and if you shuffle though all the songs you will go from Led Zeplin to Mozart, Ozzi Osborn to Frank Sinatra to Sarah Brightman to Ting Tings to Christams songs i.e.Chaotic. So, Philips Programers, Please make this product perfect by adding Genre and random play in each Genre just like ZEN and itouch