30GB Internal Hard Drive - MPN: HDD6330
Strengths: Great Design, Easy to use, Solid feel and terrific sound
Weakness: Proprietary plug, see below..
I really wanted the Zen Vision M, but it was impossible to find, so I chose this one for a couple of reasons. The price was less than the IPOD, and the Zen, it had a 30gb drive, it is windows/WMP compatible, and it looked great. I have to say I am fond of the looks, the controls are terrific, and downloading songs and pics couldn't be easier. You can use Windows Media, Music Match, or simply drag and drop, although if you drag/drop, you may have a problem playing some types of files. The controls are terrific and easy to use, its sensitive but not overly so.
What I can't stand is the proprietary plug. Its not a standard USB 2.0, and its connected to the charger. That being the case, a few times when I plugged it in to charge, the screen says loading when its not connected to the computer. Well, it never changed, and I didn't notice it. Needless to say, I had to unplug it, and it still didn't change screens. I has to let the NEWLY CHARGED battery die out for it to shut down. It has done this twice, and believe me, the thing WILL run for 15 hours as advertised. Unfortunately, I didn't hear any music. Once it ran out of juice, it reset itself and ran flawlessly. Also, with the plug, I can't plug this into a car jack or XM Stereo port, or anything. The lack of standard ports is a serious limiter. Had I known this before I bought it, I would have never bought it.
Another down side is the battery. Its rechargeable, but not interchangable like the Zen Micro, which I had previously. The Zen Vision M is rechargeable also, but you can plug it into your computer, unlike the Philips. The Charger is bulky and awkward.
The software is somewhat slow I think, so there is a slight delay from when you press the button to when you get a reaction. I would say its maybe 2-4 seconds, but if your not paying attention, you may think it locked up and start pushing the buttons like crazy. It has locked on me before, so I thought maybe it was me. This necessitated letting the battery run down AGAIN, then letting it reset. Once I figured out what it was doing, it made it easy. The problem is that I never know what is going to happen when I plug it in.
I wish this thing would play video. 30gb is a lot, and the photo viewer, while nice, and easy to use, is only good if I had lots of photos or I needed something like that. The controls and menus are simple to use
The power switch feels cheap and really kind of sucks. Its in a strange place, and if you have a free fingernail, its easy to use. If you wear gloves, or you use your fingertip, you may not shut it off. Also, it takes like 5 seconds for it to turn off and on, so sometimes I wonder if its working at all.
There is very little in the way of accessories, and I can say there probably will not be any from 3rd party suppliers, since the proprietary plug limits its use. Thats a shame because this is a very nice player.
On the plus side, when I had problems with it, Philips responded within 6 hours to my email request for assistance, so I was rather inpressed. They were thoughtful and attentive, since I am stationed overseas and don't have phone access. The earbuds, with the interchangeable knobs, sound terrific, and stay in your ears comfortably.
I would love to rate this as a 4 star because when it works it rocks, but the cables, software, make this a real loser in my book.
Bottom line: Having to pay 260 dollars for something that may or may not work right is ridiculous. Go with something else.
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TopStrengths: Comes up as a drive on explorer, great earbuds, sleek handheld design, very lightweight and compact given the hard drive size
Weakness: Updating/organizing music is difficult and tedious through Windows Media Player software, case is not very functional
My first mp3 player. This has a very appealing design and the touch pad lights up blue when you touch it. Has a ton of features and great hard drive size. Browsing through the songs and playlists is somewhat slow, and changing songs can also be delayed--it seems to get worse as you put more music/pics on it. Also, the shuffle feature is not exactly "random" in a statistically significant way. No accessories available except a dock for an extra $50.
Can add/remove music through windows explorer. I was able to transfer music through the drive (which only appears after you run the Windows Media Player software CD it comes with) and through other media players such as Creative's software.
Earbuds are soft-tipped speakers and it comes with different sizes of the soft tips. Sound quality is great through the earbuds or my own Bose headphones. Overall a very intuitive design and a great buy.
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TopI've been trying for two weeks to get my device updated with the new updates. All I get is "Connect to PC". We'll I can't connect it to the pc and I've done all of the updates I can do. This is the second Philips MP3 player I've had and I'll never buy on again. I'll try the Apple I Pod next and maybe I'll have better luck with it.
I wouldn't reccomend this MP3 player if my life depended on it.
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TopStrengths: great desing, the touchpad is cool, the 30 gb hard drive size.
Weakness: tthe usb cable and the charging adapter is together, you cant seperate them.
My first mp3 player was a creative sleek photo 20 gb and when I bought is I returned it because it wasn't working well so I bougth this Philips 30 gb juke box and so far I liked it and the sensory touchpad was the best part and one of the bad things was that you cannot put pictures as wallpaper but so far everyting is good and I like this mp3 player.
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TopStrengths: Good player, easy to use.
Weakness: Can not find a car charger for this device.
I love this player the only thing about it is that I can not find a car charger for it anywhere. I got this player to hook up in my wife's Jeep Compass, it hooks up to an aux jack on the front of the radio but the only thing I do not like about this is that the music is not as loud as I would like it to be.
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Philips Gogear HDD6330 30GB receives an overall TopTenREVIEWS score of 2.83 out of 4.00. It is ranked the #20 hard drive MP3 player of all time. The overall rating represents an intelligent balance of features, value as a function of price to features, and a summary of reviews from a variety of sources. The TopTen REVIEWS' formula gives a picture of important consumer features, market value, and...
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Style and features are the Philips GoGear HDD6330's main strengths, but ease of use and audio quality could be improved.
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Phillips HDD6330/17
Strengths: Large Capacity - Easy speed touch control
Weakness: None notable
Purchased as a new MP3 player - I also have a Creative Zen 6 gig. Capacity massive compared to that. Great price compared to Zune & I-Pod with like capacity. Beautiful graphics. Great headphones included. Wonderful FM reception. Transfer of my music with MusicMatch JukeBox 10 was a snap. I recommend this item without reservation.
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