Customer Reviews

Philips HDD1630 6 GB MP3 Player

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(26)

 

 

I have been using this little mp3 player now for a while and I feel I can give it an accurate assessment. I'm going to compare it with the ever popular Ipod Nano just in case you find yourself like I did, stuck between two heavyweight champs.

-Appearance: I found myself taken right away with the gogear. It's about the same height of the nano but definitely thicker. The entire player is a reflective midnight black with silver plating on the sides. It fits nicely in the hand and looks stunning. It shows fingerprints, but those wipe away easily. It doesn't seem to scratch too easily, unlike its opponent which scratches at the lightest of touches. I knew someone that kept his nano in a cloth case and it still found a way to show scratches. Albeit, the Ipod nano is incredibly small and aesthetically pleasing, but the darn thing just can't take its punches. The screen is prone to cracking and I've never seen an Ipod nano that didn't have a million battle scars on it. Which one you like better is a personal choice, but in my books, this round goes to the GoGear if only because it doesn't scratch so easily.

-Functionality, Playback and Features: Let me start by saying duh! Who would buy an mp3 player that only has a capacity of 2gb when they could get a different one at the same price that has 6gb of storage. I call this a nobrainer but whatever floats your boat. You could shell out an extra 50 to get the superior nano, but it still falls short of the GoGear by 2gb. The GoGear is extremely straightforward in its design. My computer had no trouble detecting it. I quickly and easily synched my music library to the GoGear using Windows Media Player. The main menu has 5 options to chose from: music, radio, pictures, recordings and settings. Everything is pretty easy to find. The touch navigation is pretty good. I sometimes have a problem with it going two clicks instead of one, but that's a small annoyance. The playback on this player is good. It has a couple of different equalizer settings to chose from. Hip Hop is my personal favorite. It has dedicated volume, power and menu buttons on the side. I do wish there was a button that took you directly back to the main menu. As it is designed, you kinda have to backtrack through to find the main menu. Again, this isn't really a big deal. One thing I really do like about this player is the fact that it has an Am/Fm tuner. The nano lacks this in its feature set, and it is sorely missed. The navigation on the GoGear is pretty comparable to the nano, though I feel the GoGear is a little more easy to navigate in. Again this is a personal choice, but I feel the GoGear won this round as well. My main complaint with the nano is that it doesn't have a radio tuner. Who dropped the ball on that one?

-Battery Life: I haven't had enough experience with the Nano to really declare one better than the other, but I'll tell you what I know. The battery on the Philips seems to last a while. I would call its 17 hour rating a pretty accurate statement, give or take a little bit. I do know that the Nano is infamous for its suspectable battery life. Most users complain that it just doesn't have the endurance to make it through the day. I'm going to call this round a draw because of the simple fact that I just don't have enough experience with the Nano. Though from other reviews, I would say the GoGear has again bested the Nano.

-What I didn't like about the GoGear: My main complaints about the GoGear were about the accessories. The rubber case that comes with it is more like a rubber sleeve that outlines the edges. It does nothing to protect the front of the player, but I guess Philips didn't have to supply a case at all. I also couldn't stand the headphones supplied with it. They just wouldn't fit comfortably in my ear. Again though, Philips didn't have to supply earphones at all, so I guess I shouldn't complain. These are minor complaints and they don't impact my music experience with the GoGear.

-The Verdict: In the end, the GoGear is the clear winner. It looks good, it works and plays well, and it has 6gb of storage 6gb as opposed to 2gb the equally priced nano gives you. This amounts to about a 1000 more songs, more or less. There are only two reason why anyone would chose the nano over the GoGear: 1) they are ill-informed consumers that just wanted to buy the popular mp3 player instead of researching the issue or 2) they just really couldn't get over the size of the nano. The Nano may win on the coolness factor by a slight margin, but it just can't compete with the features of the GoGear. Do yourself a favor, and put your money on the ultra sleek GoGear.

I bought this player back in January, at the last minute choosing the Philips over the Zen Micro I'd had my eye on for a while. The Philips player looks better, and most of the reviews I had read were positive. The player worked well enough for a while: I had no problem loading songs onto it and the sound was good enough for my purposes. The buttons are a little touchy, and so navigating was sometimes a little frustrating, but that was only ever a minor annoyance. Then, two days ago, the player froze up on me. It had done this before, and I reset it as I had done in the past, but when it powered up again, it was giving me an error message, telling me to connect it to my PC. When I got home I connected it, but neither the device manager nor WMP would recognize the device, so I wasn't able to repair it. I also noticed a soft clicking sound coming from the device as it was starting up--kind of like a small harddrive trying to spin up and failing. I did a bunch of uninstalling and reinstalling, just to be sure, but at this point I'm pretty sure that I'm dealing with a hardware problem.

The real problem, however, is that I can't seem to get Philips to recognize this. I called them once, waiting on hold for over 20 minutes, and tried to explain the problem, but I was told to reinstall the device manager from the website. When this didn't work, I tried using the online chat function on the support site, hoping to avoid long hold times, but apparently hold times at Philips are not to be avoided. So I tried emailing them, explaining what I'd done to fix the problem and why I think the unit needs to be repaired or exchanged, only to receive a reply saying, "Your concern with the unit needs further technical assistance" (my concern needs further assistance...?) and giving me instructions for doing everything I had already done to try to fix the problem. At this point, I'm resigned to fighting with Philips until they replace the unit, if only because I don't like the idea of being out $200, but I suspect that it is going to be a long fight. As far as I'm concerned, it's Philips' tech support that "needs further technical assistance."

I have no idea why some other reviewers don't like this player. I've had no problems at all.... so here's my complete review.

I've done a lot of research while searching for my next Digital Audio Player. I had a Creative Muvo 256 mb player (my first DAP) which I was looking to upgrade because I wanted A LOT more space. When searching for a new one I knew I wanted these features: Color screen, at least 5 GB of space, FM, jpeg display, album art display, and voice recording capabilities. Looks were at the bottom of my list, but I admit, this is a great looking player.

I knew the ipods were going to be WAY out of my price range and they don't have all the features I wanted anyway. Originally, I ran into what I thought was a deal on a $95 5GB DAP, the japanese NHJ VHD-5100. That was the crappiest player to ever exist. It locked up on me literally hours after taking it out of the box so I returned it. (Do NOT buy that one if you happen to find it somewhere). You get what you pay for, so my search began for better one.

I decided on the Philips GoGear HDD1630 because it had all the features I wanted so I decided to fork out the extra $80 bucks after returning the VHD-5100. MONEY WELL SPENT.

WHAT I LIKE:
- Plenty of space for my music (currently have about 800 songs with lots of room to spare)
- Looks sleek, I like the black color, has the neat blue touch-sensitive lighted controls
- The sound is MUCH better than my Creative Muvo
- I LOVE the headphones supplied with the player. I have smaller ears and they fit perfectly and sound great
- Album art displays with each song (kind of small but there nonetheless)
- FM radio, w/ FM recording feature
- Voice recording (I like to record my husband snoring and let him hear how ANNOYING he is - LOL)
- Slide show jpeg display... I like to show off my kids every once in a while :-)
- Great battery life
- The price (you get A LOT for your money)

WHAT I DON'T LIKE (very little):
- The front of the player smudges a lot (not a big deal to me)
- The sound settings are a little strange, some of them sound muffled. I've had the best luck with the SRS WOW setting.
- No case w/ belt clip supplied with the player. But you can buy a leather Philips one at Wal-Mart for $9.88.

LOADING SONGS ONTO THE PLAYER:
VERY EASY. Despite what others have said, the player was CAKE to load with my 800 songs. Windows Media Player is NOT that hard to use. A monkey could do it. I have no idea what kind of person could not figure this out. And even if you don't like WMP, you can also drag & drop through Windows Explorer.

ALBUM ART TIP:
Some of my album art did not display initially. A quick visit to the FAQ on the Philips site solved the issue. All you need to do is place the album art jpeg file in the album folder using windows explorer, and name it "Album Art.jpg". That simple. It works best if you make sure your jpeg file is less than 4k, that way it displays on the player quicker.

BOTTOM LINE:
This player far exceeded my expectations. It was simple to use and very easy to load songs on. If you're not an idiot and do it correctly in the first place, IT IS VERY USER-FRIENDLY. I would definitely recommend this player to anyone.

I have been wanting an mp3 player for 3 years, but due to a lack of a job or cash, I was unable to get one worth its salt. I started working at Kroger a few weeks ago(from the time I wrote this), so I finally have an income. Thus, the search for an mp3 player began.

I looked at the iPod video, and was set on getting that one for awhile. I mean how cool would it be to carry around videos, music, photos, and anything else you could think of, in one pocket-sized gadget? Apple at that point had another willing customer. But then, after more research, I realized just how lame it would be to have to really take care of it, as it does indeed, scratch ultra-easy, and before long, your screen will look like a cat attacked it after a few trips in your pocket. It would get so burdensome, I think, to have to deal with that.

I went to Wal Mart a couple of weeks back, and my eyes caught a small black mp3 player in the display case...This was the Philips GoGear 6 GB. I was instantly attracted to its sleek design and just how wicked cool it looked. I also noticed that it was a little over $100 cheaper than the iPod. Sure, it didn't have near as much space, or video capability, but it still had a nice variety of features. I'll describe them now:

FM Radio: You can listen to the radio on the GoGear, and for such a small item, it picks up a NICE signal. I have 2 rock-station presets on mine(the only rock stations in my area) that both come in crystal-clear. When tuning for a station, you slide your thumb up or down on the touchpad, and a little indicator shows where you're at, much like an alarm clock or small radio's tuning device.

FM Radio Recording: I haven't fiddled with this feature yet, but you can record what you are listening to on the radio, and it's quite easy to do so.

Protective Rubber Case: Included in the package is a rubber case that does actually protect the player, and has a nice feel to it. You might want to cut a small hole in the center of the top of it, because it blocks the headphone jack. A minor, easily fixable flaw.

Earbuds: The included earbuds are a bit new to me, feel-wise, but they look awesome, and sound great! They could compare to the seemingly-perfect sounding white iPod earbuds. These things put out some killer sound.

Voice Recording: This to me, is a really fun and useful feature. You can record messages to yourself(when you have nothing better to do...lol), record your friends' saying things, or even take them to class and record a lecture. I have roughly 3.5 gigs of space taken up on my GoGear, and there is still 3 hours of voice recording available.

Pictures: It took me a while to figure out how to get pictures to show up on the GoGear. They would transfer with ease, (you must use Windows Media Player, you cannot use Windows Explorer)but would not be detected in the player itself. Also, the picture files must be in JPEG format. My pictures were in that format, but still would not show up in the player. I then came up with this seemingly bogus idea of just transferring my pictures to My Documents, to see what that would do. Low and behold, it worked! So remember, when you want to transfer pictures, transfer them from My Documents, not My Pictures. If I'm the only one that had this problem....Forgive me, lol.

Charging Time: Somehow, when I plugged it into the wall for the first time(to charge it, obviously), it was already charged! Every book and site I've seen about this player says to charge it first, before you do anything, and that when it is charging, there will be a battery charging animation on the screen, and it will stop when it is fully charged. I plugged it in, no animation started, and the battery indicated FULL! I still have no idea how that happened, but I've been listening to it for 3 hours now, and it has not failed on me. Perhaps it really is charged...lol. But initially, it takes 4 hours to charge it fully, or there is a 1 hour(70%) fast charge. For a first time use, a full 4 hour charge is highly recommended, unless you are like me, and get one that is fully charged in the package....I still have no idea how that happened.

I hope this narrative of a review has helped you make your decision, and I say this player is indeed, worth every penny. You won't think twice.

I was lured into purchasing the GoGear because of its good looks. I'll admit it; it looks absolutely awesome. The scroller lights up when you use it, and it's quite small (though not as small as a nano, but at least it won't break the second you drop it).

However, I really regretted buying the GoGear; when I tried to sync my music to it with WMP, I spent an hour waiting for the process to finish (I have lots of music). Then, when I unplugged it and looked at the player, there was no music on it. After trying to load the songs onto it three or four times (spending an hour or more each time), the music finally worked. Then, I decided to load my photos onto it. It didn't work. I called tech support. I spent a very long time on hold. Finally, I spoke to someone. He had NO CLUE what to do... he put me on hold, and by the time he got back, I had managed to load a couple of photos onto it. Then, I went to spend the night at my sister's house. On the way there, it froze and there was no way for me to reset it. I ended up having to leave it on until the battery life went out (and lucky me, the battery life is INCREDIBLY long.)

I ended up returning it the next day, because simply getting it to work was more stress than I needed. At first I thought the one I purchased was just defective, but after reading some of these reviews, all GoGears are just poorly manufactured.

Seriously, don't buy this.

I just got my hands on a Philips GoGear HDD1630 music player, and I have to say this is the best portable music player for you if youre interested in subscription based music (Napster, AOL MusicNow, Yahoo Music Unlimited etc).

The player does not require installation of any additional software on Windows XP (contrary to what the manual says). Just plug it into your XP SP2 computer, and XP should recognize the device, and you should be ready to go. I did not have to install any software to get this to work with Napster To Go or Windows Media player.

What I like:

1. Its looks
The player itself is glossy black plastic, and feels very solid (like a slab of black granite). Unfortunately, it is VERY fingerprint prone - just dont let the FBI get their hands on it if youre in the run ;-)
The player is very light, and will easily fight in your pocket or on an armband.

The backlight for the controls is blue in color, and looks very sexy.

2. The controls:
The controls are very easy to use, and very sensitive. Navigation is very easy, just slide your finger up and down the strip.

3. Album art
The player automatically syncs album art from Windows Media Player if the art is present on your computer. Thats a nice touch.

4. View pictures
You can sync JPEG images to the player, and view them on the go.

5. Battery life
The player lasts an average of 16-17 hours per charge - pretty cool!

What I dont like:

1. Since this is a relatively new player, accessories arent available.

2. Long-term support from Philips is questionable.


Overall, this is the best portable music player if youre interested in PlaysForSure (subsciption music). It poses some serious competition to the Ipod Nano, and is highly recommended.

First off iPod is by no means a bad product, it just didn't have what I wanted. An FM tuner and the ability to obtain my music from somewhere other than iTunes.
This is the sweetest little player I've ever seen or played with. I also tried a creative Zen touch, the software was a nightmare. The software for the GoGear is easy and fun. I would suggest doing a manual sync or you might get tunes you don't want.
The FM tuner is awesome and I have no trouble picking up and adding all my favorite stations. The screen allows you to choose between two background skins and you can run a photo slideshow while you listen. It automatically finds album art which comes up when the song is playing, if you're not using the photo slide show. Philips offers a great case as well as a docking station for the GoGear.
With the exception that it is not compatible with [...] and hopefully it will be eventually, the Philips 6GB GoGear is an incredible, overlooked player. Did I mention you can record both voice and FM with it? What more is there to say, a great player for those looking for an alternative to the iPod and other well known brands. Give it a try I promise you won't be sorry!

I've have done quite a bit of research and now have pretty good experience with several of the latest MP3 players. This is by far the best looking MP3 player in our ipod dominated world. I have used SanDisk Sansa M240 1gb, IRiver 1gb U10, the Creative Labs Micro Photo 8gb and this player.

PRO:
1) Looks. Sleek and shiny with a good screen. Nice blue lighted effects with the slider.
2) Good battery life.
3) Price.
4) Fairly decent headphones included.
5) SRS WOW - 3D sound, great on surround systems.
6) Touch Slider - All that I've tried seemed to be pretty tricky to get used to. This is probally the best one I've used that comes close to the ipod.

CON:
1) Sound quality a little meager compared to what I've heard with other MP3 players better than the SanDisk but volume even on max setting is pretty low.
2) Buttons. I do agree its hard to make something look nice and be pretty functional. Because of being so sleek, with no tactile feedback, its can be hard navigate the player while doing other things such as driving or working out. I found this more as a little annoyance.
3) My biggest concern was the buggy interface on player itself. I believe it has problems with DRM windows media files, these are the files you download from the "All you can eat buffet" from subscription services. (Yahoo, Napster, & Real Rhapsody) This player would lockup or pause for an eternity several times and be unresponsive even to turn it off. I exchanged it for another one which came with exact same problems. My experience lockups occur more frequently while using playlists.

RECAP:
To me this was a love hate relationship. I loved how it looked and could see the potential of this player. But until they fix these bugs I would have a very hard time to recommend this product. I almost kept it in hopes that Phillips may make a better firmware upgrade. I eventually went with the Creative Labs Micro Photo that has performed awesome. It just does not have the shiny finish and it is couple clicks lower on the "I'm Cool!" scale. Before you decide to buy, try searching for "HDD1630 freeze" and you will see variety of comments of this model and it's larger cousin that shares the same firmware HDD6330. I believe comments left here and many other reviews have not used the product at all or fully, I had used it for 2 weeks.

WARNING!! This player only works with Windows Media Player 10, which has been replaced by WMP 11 6 months ago. Philips does not seem to be interested in updating this unit.

IT IS UNUSABLE IF YOUR COMPUTER IS NEW OR HAS BEEN UPDATED TO WMP 11 !!!

(before i get started, the begining of this article deals with little stuff that just makes you hate this player. for more serious problems that should drive you away from this useless piece of plastic, scroll down a wee bit until you see stuff in caps) this is definitely not the best player on the market. if it were maybe, 100 or even 120 it would be an okay deal for this thing, but the phillips gogear 6 gig mp3 player is pretty bad. i had a rio carbon, and it was sweet. i think rio is going out of buisness or something because suddenly all their stuff is unavailable. oh well. so i got this one because it was relatively cheap, which was a big mistake. the rio at least did its job, play my music, and it was super small and super portable, with the same amount of space (6 gb) and a great battery life. i have had the phillips gogear for 3 months and i am tired of it.
i dont like the touchpad controls because it has a weird delayed reaction that really goofs me up. it takes it about 4 seconds to register that i hit the frickin button. so i end up pressing it a couple of times, which makes it skip to the next song or whatever. it is awkward, counterintuitive, and just feels wrong and stupid. i am getting chills just thinking about it.

Te interface sucks. ill leave it at that. to many flaws to describe. (here is an example: i added songs to a play list, and it just replaced songs that were already there. barf.

also, the screen is miniscule. im barely exaggerating on this one. it cant be more that 2 inches. it has the option to show the album art, but is sucks horribly. i actually cant tell the difference between album covers. i have completely shunned the photo feature on this piece of [...] for that reason, you wont be able to see anything.

NOW HERE IS WHY I REALLY WANT TO GET RID OF THE GOGEAR:
2 major reasons-
#1 the battery life is absolutely pathetic. maybe mine is broken or bad, but its a big enough issue to put in here. i already forget what amazon said it was...12 hours? that sounds right.

i get 5 hours tops.

ill let that sink in. maybe you missed it. 5 hours. the gogear wont make it thru a road trip without recharging. its enought to make me want to pile drive it. i cant even talk about this anymore. except the worst is yet to come...

without a doubt the most annoying thing about this player is that when i hook it up to my computer to add music, which can some times be a pain in the [...] because it takes a couple tries for windows media player to recognize it, because it is a piece of [...] when i unplug the player, i find all my music gone. what the hell. it is so annoying to retransfer all my music, and when i hook it up to the computer again, it says all my music is there, and i just doubled all of my songs, taking up 90% of the space. aaaaagh. so then i have to delete everything and then reretransfer all my music. what i just describes has happened to me THREE times.

to be fair, i will give the gogear a few compliments.

it has fm radio
it comes with an ac adapter, which i guess some mp3 players dont.

yeah thats all the good things about it.

bottom line, stay far far away from gogear