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(More customer reviews)Before I get to the scathing portion of my review, let me highlight the positive things this player has to offer.
***THE POSITIVES***
1) Excellent sound quality. When this player works, the sound it produces is amazing. Philip's Full-Sound Technology offers exactly that: full, three-dimensional sound that gives my music previously unknown depth and clarity.
2) Excellent headphones. In fact, I'm buying the first set that I find, now that I've returned my Philips in favor of Sony's far superior 8 gig player.
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--Please note, the first two negatives are persnickety. The last three are essential.--
***THE NEGATIVES***
1) Player is overly dependent upon the Rhapsody cd. Seriously, it won't work without it. This wouldn't be as problematic if the cd or the setup guide warned you about this, but such is not the case. Instead, the cd-related portion of the setup guide serves as an ad for Rhapsody. I find this practice unethical, as it usurps the user's needs in favor of making a sales pitch.
2) Deceptive drag-and-drop. When I finally installed the components on the cd, I noticed that Microsoft Explorer was suddenly able to see my Philips mp3 player as a device. Furthermore, it could see folders within the player. "Fantastic!" I thought. "I can drag and drop!" Wrong. While it's true that you can drag and drop folders into the player this way, once the information is copied to the player the organization they once had is lost. There are ways around this obstacal, but they all are painful to execute, painful to describe, and painful to read about.
3) Slow load times. There is a noticeable lag that occurs when turning the player on or browsing through music, videos, or pictures. If you're listening to music while you browse, this effect is compounded. Sometimes it even causes your song to skip.
4) Frequent freezing. The thing that really set me against this player is that it freezes. A lot. And by a lot I mean that it froze on me once per session for the last week that I had it.
5) Problematic updates. In an effort to resolve my player's freezing issues, I opted to update my player, but this just made things worse. After updating, the pause feature ceased to function. Whenever I tried to resume a song from a pause, the song would restart from the beginning. It was at this point that I decided "enough" and returned the player.
***CONCLUSION***
The Philips 8 gig mp3 player caused me one problem after another. As soon as I solved one issue, another would arise. I estimate that once all was said and done, I probably spent close to 10 hours trying to get this thing to work. What's more, I was unsuccessful. So unless you are seeking a thankless challenge, do not buy this device.
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Philips SA52 8 GB Flash Video MP3 Player with FM Radio and 2.8-Inch Color Screen (Black)Listen to music, watch your favorite videos, record messages or ideas--this 8 GB Philips Flash video and audio MP3 does what you need, and its ample, full-color screen ensures you enjoy every minute of it.
Find it Fast With 8 GB of memory, you can load hundreds of music and video files. Find what you're looking for in a flash using Philips' SuperScroll feature. Move through your playlist one song or video at a time, or press and hold to move swiftly through your catalog to the song you want next.
Hear it All Philips\' innovative FullSound technology restores sonic details to compressed music, so you hear it exactly as the artist intended, without any distortion. The included high-definition headphones enhance the experience even more, providing exceptional noise isolation and amazing comfort.
What's in the Box Philips 8 GB Flash Video MP3 Player with FM Radio, and 2.8-inch Color Screen; CD-ROM with IFU, device manager, media converter and Windows Media Player; high-definition headphones; quick-start guide; USB cable; storage pouch
Click here for more information about Philips SA52 8 GB Flash Video MP3 Player with FM Radio and 2.8-Inch Color Screen (Black)
