Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)The Philips GoGear 8 GB Aria MP3 Video Player offers a lot of features for its price: large 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.
(*)Note: The device I bought is the 16GB version, which I feel is a better value given the minor difference in prices.
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 8GB" (SA1ARA08K/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, 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.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Philips GoGear 8 GB Aria MP3 Video Player with 2-Inch Color Screen
This Philips SA1ARA08K/17 GoGear MP3 Video Player features FullSound technology that faithfully restores sonic details to compressed MP3 music, dramatically enriching and enhancing it, so you can experience CD music without any distortion. 2-inch high resolution display on your GoGear player offers excellent video quality and crisp, vivid images. Voice recording converts your GoGear player into a handy dictation machine. Folder view to organize and view media files like on your PC. FM radio with RDS and 20 presets for more music options. Your music and videos on the go - everyday Playback MP3, WMA or DRM music from subscription services.
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