Customer Reviews

Slacker 8 GB Portable Radio with 40 Stations (Black)

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

The Slacker portables bring a new dimension to music listening.
Without the hassle of ripping your own MP3s, the service allows you to create your own customized radio stations and then, by WiFi or USB, load them onto the player for your enjoyment at any time.

Many reviews have discussed the player in depth, so let me address a couple of issues in regards to the older player, the G1, versus the new player, the G2.

The G1 player is obviously bigger, and while one advantage is an easier to read screen, it is a bigger package to carry around.

The G1 player also has not had any further firmware updates since March '08, while the G2 player has had frequent updates. Therefore, some important features such as improved battery life, and better USB connectivity have not (yet) been updated for the G1. Please check the slacker forums if you're thinking about buying a G1 to see if any updates have occurred since this was posted.

The G1 player lacks an equalizer control setting, while this was incorporated into the G2 player. I can't say that the G2's equalizer is worth much, as they don't have any user adjustable settings.

The G2 player has a setting to manage the WiFi settings, whereas this has not (yet) been implemented in the G1 player. This again reflects the lack of any further apparent support for this first generation player.

As the price of the 8Gb G1 player has not dropped substantially (although for a time it was selling for less than [...] from Amazon), the G2 unit appears to be the primary hardware that is receiving support from the company.

The G1 player has had an annoying habit of occasionally having a break in audio at the beginning of a song. This has not been a problem with the G2 units. It is unknown what creates the problem, but there has not been a fix issued for the G1 unit to address this issue.

Remember, if you use the web based player at [...] ..... not all the songs that can be heard on the web player are licensed to be downloaded onto the portable players. The company says that there are they are continually gaining more licensing rights, but it is unclear what percentage of music that you hear on the webplayer can be transferred to the portable player. Even with this limitation, you can create a wide variety of stations and enjoy them on the units.

However, for your money, you will probably find the G2 unit less buggy, and better supported by the company with updates.

The Slacker Portable Radio is a very usable and enjoyable device. Although I enjoy staying current, I am not usually an "early adopter" of new technology, but the stars were aligned for me on this one and I took the risk. I have not regretted it.

The best thing about the Slacker Portable is the hassle-free way a variety of music is delivered to the player. The whole concept of having music delivered to a portable player "automatically" and in a radio station format without the endless chatter of an actual radio station is appealing. In practice, the Slacker Portable works quite well, with a couple of quirks. I love the large album cover art with artist information and album reviews. Obviously, these things are not useful in the car, but when I am using the player at my desk, they work great. The music selection is good and Slacker gives the user some freedom in programming the stations.

I continue to have some very small problems with the player: music sometimes cuts out briefly at the beginning of tracks & player responds slowly to button pushes, at times. These keep me from rating the device a perfect 5 stars. I remain hopeful that these issues will be addressed, as the previous firmware updates solved some other small problems with my player. Firmware updates could not be easier since they are performed automatically when the player is updated with new music.

The best endorsement I can give is that I would buy another Slacker Portable if I had to do it over.

Well, I have had my 8GB 40-station Slacker Portable for almost a month now, and I must agree with "Patent Guy", the Slacker experience is quite amazing! I use my Slacker Portable everyday, especially during my driving commute each day.

I also have Sirius Satellite radio along with the Sirius Stiletto 100 Portable radio, I use both the Slacker and the Stiletto, but they are two different devices and services which complement each other. Also have iPods, but the music selection gets stale on them quickly. Sirius is great obviously for custom content like Howard Stern and Vin Scelsa. The Slacker service is a whole new concept in personalized radio.

I am a Mac guy, so I don't use the Slacker Player for Windows, but the Slacker Portable connected to my Apple Airport Extreme immediately via WiFi at blazing speed with no problem.

Mine came pre-loaded with ten stations of my choice selected from the Slacker Web Player, and I quickly added over twenty more to the Portable. I opted to upgrade my Slacker service to "premium", which allows for much more control of the Slacker experience.

The Slacker Portable unit itself is very sleek, a little cumbersome for my hand, but once you use it for awhile, it's all right. It does fit in a shirt or jacket pocket, I use it in my shirt pocket with ear buds and it works great.

The actual hardware takes some getting used to, and the button placement and design could be better, I keep hitting unintended buttons to perform tasks and it does the opposite of what I want. The large screen is gorgeous and brilliant, and the copious information screens for each song/artist that you can toggle through are great. I wish there was another screen for lyrics for each song, that would be awesome! It has a battery compartment which in theory you can open and replace the battery if needed, not sure if Slacker will offer the option to buy replacement batteries in the future. Other accessories in the works include a home and car dock, not available yet.

I have numerous stations on both the Web Player and the Portable, and the customization level of each station is phenomenal! You can control the amount of "new artists" discovered for each station, and turn off the "DJ" feature (this control is premium service only), This "DJ" feature is annoying to me, as it inserts Slacker promos, DJ comments derived from the radio station's genre, and also paid commercial ads.

That was the main reason I upgraded to the Slacker premium service, to be able to eliminate this "DJ/Promos/Ads" feature is well worth it to me! What's the point of this new "personalized' radio if it contains the same pesky promos, commentary and ads I am trying to avoid from terrestrial radio? Also, the premium service allows you to "Save" almost any song (provided the rights to save that song have been purchased by Slacker). You can "save" songs to the Web Player OR the Portable, sometimes certain songs can be saved to one and not the other, for licensing reasons.

Premium service also allows song requests and unlimited song "skips", which is useful for rapidly bypassing ("banning") songs I don't like to reach songs I can designate as a "favorite" and save. This process applies to each Slacker station. Slacker has tons of pre-configured stations, or you can create your own with just the artists you like, or stations can be shared from other users on the Slacker Forums.

I am amazed at the depth of music and range of great songs I can now access with my customized stations. I am constantly hearing favorite songs I love from all genres that I haven't heard played on any radio platform for years! Of course, I can immediately save these to my Web Player or Portable library to play anytime. The library can be set to "shuffle-play" like a huge playlist.

The killer feature of the Slacker Portable is that the music selection for each station is updated, expanded and refreshed every time you connect via WiFi (auto-connect occurs each time you plug in the AC charger). This is where the "surprise" element comes in, when you play each station again, there is a new roster of songs/artists to discover! Wifi connections also allow the Portable to update its own firmware automatically.

You can also create custom playlists, and "ban" & "favorite" songs or even artists, and if you change your mind and decide you want to hear a previously banned song, you can "un-ban" it via the Software Player.

Overall, for me the Slacker Portable is unique and satisfying experience, I am very pleased with it in general. It has a few quirks to resolve, but these can be addressed with future firmware updates. Slacker tech support is very responsive to user comments and suggestions.

I love my Slacker Portable. Downloading songs to my other mp3 player is such a hassle that I never use it. I listen to my Slacker Portable all the time! With the Slacker Portable, it is just like listening to my favorite radio station, but without the annoying commercials and DJ breaks. Nothing but music. Because of music licensing issues, the mix of songs played on the Portable is slightly different than those played on Slacker Radio streamed through the Internet. If you like listening to Slacker Radio, you will enjoy listening to the Portable.

The music on the Portable is refreshed from www.Slacker.com by either a USB connection or a WiFi connection. My USB connection does not work, yet, but the WiFi connection is great. I can even refresh my music when I am eating at a restaurant that has free WiFi!

I have the 8GB version and I can listen for days (I listen about 16 hours a day) without having to refresh. I haven't run the battery down, but I often listen for over 4 hours at a time on the battery. And that is using the display a lot to check out the artist and album information, which is pretty much the same as on the Slacker Internet radio player when streaming music. I connect my Portable to my stereo and to my car radio through a headphone amp and the sound is good.

Slacker is a startup company and the Portable was just released in February 2008. There are some problems with the first units being shipped. They have released one firmware update and are working on another to be coming soon. The current features are limited and they do not all work. I love my Slacker Portable, imperfections and all, and I am sure it will only get better as the problems are resolved.

If you do not mind being an early adopter and feel comfortable using something that is a work in progress, then by all means get one. But, if you just want something that works flawlessly the first time and every time, then you would be better off waiting until all the bugs are worked out.

Related products:
Slacker Portable 40 Station WiFi Radio Player
Slacker Portable 25 Station WiFi Radio Player
Slacker Portable 15 Station WiFi Radio Player

I think this is the best gadget out there right now. Reason is I have an iTouch which is great if you want to listen to the same songs over and over. I also love Sirius, but can only get in my car when I am home. Issue is I travel on planes a ton, and want to listen to new music (vs same old songs).

This is a great idea, because you load what 'channels' you like (can even create your own) and it loads fresh songs (via wi-fi or USB) when you are connected automatically. It so cool because they are artists I like and it's alway new music (vs my iTouch which has same old songs). Oh the best part, the songs are free.

I can't believe this is not more popular--I am buying as gifts for family and friends to spread the word. I bought 25 channel version, 15 is the most one will ever need, so moving forward I will just purchase that model as gifts.

Funny, because in my backpack traveling weekly, this has replaced my iPod (still good for movies). So now I have Bose headets and Slacker for hours and hours of fresh music. Can use on one charge for 6 hour round trip flights.

Must have for those that travel or those on the go...get one, you won't regret it!

I have been very happy with this product so far. I love music, but found myself not even turning on my car radio. This has renewed my enjoyment of music. I purchased mine with an FM transmitter for my car and also use it when I walk and bike ride. I have experienced the same very minor quirks that others have mentioned (occasional song skips, getting used to the buttons), but they do not alter my enjoyment of this product. The 15 station version has been great, but with the variety of available music, I almost wish I had sprung for one of the higher priced versions. The number of potential stations is almost unlimited.

I am not that technically advanced, but I have not had any problems performing any of its functions. It does not seem to take very long to refresh the stations with new music, although it depends on how many stations you have and how often you refresh. I have only done it a couple of times so far. I would recommend familiarizing yourself with the web version first so you can fine tune your stations and get a feel for it. Slacker reportedly will begin airing a few commercials in the future, but not likely to be anywhere near the amount of current AM/FM radio (this can also be circumvented with a premium account for about $7.50 per month, which also allows unlimited song skips and storing favorite songs). I considered buying a Sirius Stiletto, but was worried about the reception (although I have heard and read many good things about it). I suppose if I wanted more than just music, that would have been a potentially good option, but Slacker gives you much more control over the music (skipping songs, fine tuning the stations, banning certain artists, etc.). I did not want an ipod because I want variety and don't feel like downloading music that I have already heard many times over or that I will soon tire of. However, any of these options are far superior to traditional radio.

I am not that fussy about sound quality, but the Slacker's audio has easily been good enough for me. I also appreciate the screen that gives me background information about the artist. This is a great product for anyone who loves all varieties of music.

I love my Slacker Radio! It's so much better than satellite radio, where I never find anything to listen to, even though the stations are supposed to be very diverse and programmed for specific genres. With Slacker you can create stations and set all the artists you want to play on that station. And it's free after you buy the player! I have a wide variety of stations on mine, from one for my toddler daughter to a Britrock station. I never have the time to sit around making up playlists for a regular mp3 player, so slacker beats them too, because all you have to do is connect to a wireless network, or if you don't have a wireless network around, plug the player into a computer with an internet connection. It's Awesome!

Its about time SOMETHING is FREE. Purchase the Slaker radio and listen to FREE internet radio, YES i said FREE. Pick and choose your radio stations and music you enjoy. The Slacker will Refresh when ever a internet connection is found no matter where you are. This radio can be used ANYWHERE and anytime. Does NOT need internet connection to use it. Once the stations are loaded into your radio. play it anywhere. The radio has built in Wi-Fi to do your internet connections or can be plugged into any laptop or PC. You can also listen to radio on your PC or Laptop once you set up your FREE account. For a small monthly fee you can ADD unlimited Skip songs,(6 skips a month are included) and NON commercials and unlimited song requests for about 3.50 amonth. Say GOOD BYE to XM and Sirius Monthly fees. Ive had mine about 6 months and enjoy using it every where i have gone so far

I've had my Slacker player for about a month now and use it almost every day. It's a great device if you like listening to music and don't want to buy (or steal) thousands of dollars worth of MP3's. Even if you do own a huge MP3 library, Slacker is still interesting if you don't want to have to constantly manage the content of your iPod and your playlists.

Slacker sound quality is way better than XM/Sirius or FM radio. I use the free Slacker service and commercials are minimal; maybe once every couple of hours I get a 5 second "this is Slacker radio" announcement.

The pre-programmed Slacker music channels are very good, but the real nice feature is being able to design your own music stream by selecting musicians that you like and asking the player to play only those or (your choice) to discover similar bands. Slacker does not have access to every song ever recorded, but neither does any iPod owner's personal MP3 collection.

Setting up your player does take a bit of work, but it is not rocket science. If you use the wi-fi connection, you do need to know how to set up a wi-fi connection (usually by looking up and entering your MAC address and wi-fi password). You can also download by USB cable, which may be faster. The documentation included in the box is a little sparse, but you can download a more detailed user manual at the [...] web site.

Programming a music stream is as easy or as hard as you want it to be. Easiest is selecting one of the many pre-programmed stream. Second easiest is to select one band by name and asking Slacker to create a stream of similar music. I entered 40 bands and asked Slacker to expand on that by discovering similar music. Then you just connect the Slacker player to your wi-fi and let it download your music. The first download will take a while since it has to download all 8GB. After that, it only downloads enough new music to replace the songs that you have listened to. Do a refresh as often as you want (but 8GB of music should last you for at least several days).

I only have 2 complaints. First the device is kind of big (mostly wide). It does come with a free case, but the case does not have a belt loop. At least the big screen does make it easy to see the album art and read the artist bios and album descriptions. The Slacker G2 devices are smaller, but also much more expensive. Second, the off switch is kind of finicky. Sometimes I have to press it a few times or even try it from different modes to get it to switch off. Other than that, I think the 8GB Slacker for [...] is a great value.

If you're still unsure about Slacker, go to the Slacker web site and try the free on-line music player. Create your free own station, and listen to it for a few hours. If you like what you hear and want to listen to it while you are away from the Internet, then this device is for you. When you get the device, you can download the music stream you created on the web site to your Slacker player.

this thing is incredible. i've found so many new artists it's amazing how much i've been missing. everytime someone sees my slacker, and i tell them about it and what it can do, they're out trying to find one. if you love your music but hate to search for it, slacker is for you. i have the G1 against all the reviews from a lot of people, and couldn't be happier!! sure some of the buttons are quirky to find and use, but at 43 i love the huge 4" screen. look, nothings perfect, but the slacker comes as close as you can get. don't even bother getting the paid subscription. there's only two or three commercials at best in an hour and no longer than 10 seconds, most are less than five. if you want to download into your favorites then get an mp3 player. the six skips in an hour is no big deal either, after all it's the music you want to listen to so skipping isn't something you'll do a lot. hope this helps some of you out, slacker really is original and truly awesome.