Philips GoGear 4 GB Mix MP3 Player with Sport Headphones

Bought it a few hours ago, here's the first thoughts:

Had no idea what to expect, but was attracted by the price and storage capacity. 4G for ~ $46 seemed like a reasonable deal. Needed something for the gym and running. My vintage '04 iPod died a few weeks ago and I wanted a less-expensive device that would do the basics, that was small, and would work well during exercise.

Setting it up: realized this operates in most ways like a USB data / flash drive. A small USB contact slides out to make the connection with your PC. Kind of cool. The installation software is on the device already, which was quickly recognized by my Vista machine. Needed to download a firmware update and was good to go.

You copy and paste files on to the device, again like you would with a flash drive. Easy process if you've done it before. I noticed there were .wma files already in the music directory, on the device. I added mp3 files which of course were read and worked...Read more

Two important things to get out of the way up front: the picture is WRONG. The headphones included with this player have the ear hooks, and the player itself has a clip on the back so you can affix it to your clothing.

With that said, this beats the ipod shuffle in almost every respect. The earbuds that come with the player were, to my pleasant surprise, great! The battery life is ridiculous at 25 hours, and adding music to the player is a snap if you're used to using USB drives. You don't have to fool with a silly cable--you just plug the player right into the PC and you're off to the races. It charges very quickly as well--about three hours is all you need for a full charge, but even a 15-minute charge will last you through any workout.

When you get the player, you'll want to go through and delete some unnecessary files that take up a lot of space. After you install the software, you might as well delete it off the player because you can always download it...Read more

Physically, the device is very solid, and the design looks styley for a small player with a silver trim. The buttons and switches are all solid and surprising quality. Having the headphone jack on the side seems slightly odd, but it's not a problem. Of note is the fact that you can slide a switch, and the USB connector pokes out at one end. Fantastic! No more worrying about yet another pc-to-device cable. This also means you can plug it in wherever you're around a PC, and use it as a normal flash drive if you want (the flash memory seems to be very fast).

Plugging it in to a computer gets the device charging, and you can also choose to play music or transfer files while it is charging.

The screen is great. It's small, but the excellent interface ensures everything is clear and easy to read. The menus are well laid out and intuitive to navigate, and it has a couple of "theme" settings (dark, blue, or pink). The device is very easy to use.

In...Read more