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46 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A decent MP3 player - once you worked out the kinks, September 8, 2009
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.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good sound for the money, September 1, 2009
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.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Love it! Only one major complaint..., November 29, 2009
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.
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