Philips Electronics' GoGear 6630 portable media player is possibly more gorgeous than an iPod. The 30GB hard-disk player has an attractive black-and-silver finish and a sharp, big LCD for viewing photos and album art. At $280 (as of 7/21/06), it's priced slightly cheaper than Apple's 30GB iPod and offers plenty of features. But the praise stops hard when it comes to convenience, as its navigation system can tire the most fit of fingers.
Philips HDD6330/17 30GB MP3 Player (30GB Internal Hard Drive)
- Spec Navigator
- Battery
- Display
- Disply
- Features
- General
- Included Hardware
- Included Software
- Interface Connections
- Music Subscription Service
- Software
- Storage Included
- Storage Media
- Supported Audio Formats
- Supported Image Formats
- Supported Video Formats
Features
| Equalizer Settings | 10 |
| FM Recording | Yes |
| Plays For Sure | Yes |
| Presets | 20 |
| Replaceable Battery | 0 |
| Video Output | No |
| Video Support | No |
| Voice Recording | Yes |
Included Hardware
| AC Adapter | Yes |
| Firewire cable | No |
| Included Hardware |
|
| Remote Control | No |
| USB cable | Yes |
Storage Media
| Compact Flash | No |
| Memory Stick | No |
| Memory Stick Micro | No |
| micro SD | No |
| mini SD | No |
| SD card | No |
| Smart Media | No |
| xD Picture Card | No |
- Lab Tested
- How We Test MP3 Players »
Pros
Lots of features
Attractive styling
Cons
Difficult to use
Below-average audio quality
Bottom Line
Style and features are the Philips GoGear HDD6330's main strengths, but ease of use and audio quality could be improved.
Philips GoGear HDD6330
HDD6330/17 30GB MP3 Player (30GB Internal Hard Drive) Review, by Narasu Rebbapragada August 15, 2006
The GoGear weighs 5.3 ounces and is about the size of, but slightly thicker than, an iPod. It plays WAV, WMA, and MP3 files and is compatible with major online music services. It shows photos (but not video) beautifully on its crisp 2-inch 220-by-176-pixel LCD. The FM radio has 20 presets, and the device supports voice-, FM radio-, and line-in recording. Bundled hardware includes a soft case and a proprietary Y-shaped USB charging cable and power adapter.
While the GoGear's features are impressive, accessing them is not always easy. The heavy, silver on/off slider requires a bit of finger pressure, and the device was slow to start up. The nearly 2-inch-wide scroll area is ample, but using it takes practice. You move your finger vertically to scroll and tap your finger to choose options and commands. For synching music, the GoGear includes--and is fully compatible with--Windows Media Player 10, which you can use to sync tracks from a PC to the device. Be forewarned, though, that the GoGear is not yet 100 percent compatible with the current beta version of Windows Media Player 11; using the beta software, I was unable to sync tracks, and had to manually copy them to the player.
In my informal tests, audio files sounded crisp on the comfortable earbuds included with the player. In our lab tests, the GoGear earned an overall Good audio quality rating, but it also had the highest level of total harmonic distortion when compared to competitors we tested in July 2006, and a significantly higher-than-average level of cross talk (which measures how distinct the left and right channels are). Vendor-specified battery life is a respectable 15 hours.
Overall, style and features are the Philips GoGear's main strengths, but ease of use is not.
Narasu Rebbapragada
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- Rating Breakdown
-
72
-
78
-
68
- See Complete Lab Results »
Performance Comparison with Similar MP3 Players
72
64
91
89
Performance
| Crosstalk, Average (dB) | -46 |
| Frequency Response Deviation, Average (dB) | 3.4 |
| Maximum Usable Output Level, Average (dBV) | -6.2 |
| Signal-to-Noise Ratio, Average (dB) | 79 |
| Total Harmonic Distortion and Noise, Average (%) | 0.14 |
Review Now! Already own it? Tell us What You Think
-
Reviewed by: DLHelling
Strengths: Large Capacity - Easy speed touch control
Weaknesses: None notable
Overall: 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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Reviewed by:
Strengths: Good player, easy to use.
Weaknesses: Can not find a car charger for this device.
Overall: 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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Reviewed by: djemison
Overall: I'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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Reviewed by: sinankocaman
Strengths: great desing, the touchpad is cool, the 30 gb hard drive size.
Weaknesses: tthe usb cable and the charging adapter is together, you cant seperate them.
Overall: 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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Reviewed by: milkdud32
Strengths: Great Design, Easy to use, Solid feel and terrific sound
Weaknesses: Proprietary plug, see below..
Overall: 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 useThe 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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