Philips HDD1630 6 GB MP3 Player

• 6 GB hard drive digital audio player with 1.5-inch color LCD
• Compatible with MP3 and WMA files (including DRM protected Plays For Sure WMA)
• Display JPEG image slide shows on LCD
• Voice recorder, FM tuner (with recording function), 5-band equalizer
• Compatible with Windows PCs only

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.

Buy Philips HDD1630 6 GB MP3 Player Now

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."

Read Best Reviews of Philips HDD1630 6 GB MP3 Player Here

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.

Want Philips HDD1630 6 GB MP3 Player Discount?

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.