Philips MP3 Players - Not all that they are made out to be

Summary: Read on to find out whether Philips, a company with a long track record in the consumer electronics field, is not living upto its potential in the mp3 players arena. Related Articles     Apple Ipod Shuffle    Sandisk Mp3 players    Apple Ipod

Philips has a long track record in the consumer electronics field. Even though they've been making electronics since the word was invented, however, they've had plenty of ill-fated products such as the Digital Compact Cassette and CD-i (interactive CDs that never achieved market acceptance).

Their line of MP3 players also seems to be ill-fated – attractive but just a little 'off'. The HDD082/17 Micro jukebox, for example, is a 2 GB hard drive MP3 player. In these days of 6 GB flash players, why would anyone buy a small capacity hard drive MP3 player? This is definitely a product that shouldn't have been born.

After all, hard drive players exist because of their larger storage capacity. People put up with their drawbacks (greater fragility and tendency to skip) only because they can store gazillions of songs on them. A 2 GB hard drive MP3 player is combining the worst of both worlds.

Moving up to the GoGear HDD6330, we have a player that better suits consumer needs. This is a 30 GB hard drive player that supports MP3 and WMA and also has a FM tuner. The 2” color screen can be used to view photos as well as browse through your record collection.

Unfortunately, the HDD6330 has trouble with its operating system. When the music is playing the controls are frustratingly sluggish, so if you like to browse your music collection while listening to songs this unit is not for you. Sound quality is adequate, but when compared side-by-side with the top players there is a noticeable difference.

When it comes to flash players, Philips still seems a bit behind the times. Most of their flash MP3 players are 512 MB, with just one (the PSA242/37 Sport audio player) having 1 GB of memory.

Most other manufacturers offer flash players up to 2 GB, and the tendency is for larger capacity memory as flash players have the advantage of greater durability over hard drive players.

Flash players also guarantee skip-free playback, and this feature is emphasized with the PSA242/37 since it is aimed at the sports crowd. It also has a talking stop-watch and is equipped with a sports armband and headphones. The SD memory slot is a nice touch, but this player is a bit overpriced to make much of an impact.

External speakers are available as an accessory for most MP3 players, but Philips is one of the few companies that offers a MP3 player with integrated speakers. 

The Shoqbox is available in either 256 MB or 512 MB memory configurations. At just over 7 inches in length, it is too big to fit in your pocket, but small enough to easily fit in a suitcase. With the built-in alarm clock and FM radio, Philips seems to be aiming this model at the traveler. The LCD display is attractive and functional, allowing you to access all the functions and browse through your music collection.

The Shoqbox speakers are tiny, but produce a surprisingly big sound. 'Big' as in 'loud' and relatively undistorted, but certainly not high fidelity. This is a cute MP3 player, but seems to belong to the novelty section. It makes a good travel alarm but it's just too big for a MP3 player.