A handy player with plenty of facilities

I reckon that 1Gb is quite enough for my needs and so this one fits the bill. The sound quality I rate as Good with the supplied phones, but it becomes Very Good with a pair of more up market phones. Loading music files is very quick and easy to do using Windows Media Player 11, but I find the loading of pictures and video a bit more complicated although once in the machine they look OK on the small screen.
The FM radio allows for pre set stations. There is a built in mic to make recordings, but no direct recording of radio programmes.
There is an easily understood Quick Start Guide provided with a new player, and if you register it you have access to an online manual which is much more comprehensive. Battery charging, using USB lead from the PC, time is acceptable at about 5 hours for the first charge and I keep mine topped up with a half hour or so charge each morning.
Good value for money and serves my purposes very well.
The software was installed easily enough and checking with the website regularly will access free upgrades.

Philips flash audio review

This is an excellent mp3 player. It is extremely easy to navigate, no delayed using the menu. It plays with good sound quality with the ear phones supplied. It also looks quite cool. Ok, it isnt an ipod in looks, but it does what it is supposed to very well. The software it comes with needs to be installed, but is easy to do, and it runs off windows media player, which is easier to use than itunes(for the ipod). Philips have done a 30gb version some time back, and I hope they will bring out another similar device again with higher memory as I for one will buy it. It is AAA battery operate, so I have invested in some rechargable AAA batteries. My only gripe is there is no place to hook or clip onto yourself. All in all great competition for Apple ipod, and far cheaper.

Disappointed

Of course this review will be based on the one player I have and been using for months, it may be a dodgy one or it may not. All I wanted was a basic small player, reasonable size memory and AAA battery driven, and this one fitted the bill and initially I was happy, however........
The"faults" I have observed:
1) When you power off and on, it does not always remember what album and track you were listening to, sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't and on restart will plop you in the middle of a track,in the middle of a completely different album.
2) Randomly I am finding songs that have clicks and squawks on play back that are most certainly not on the file I uploaded, and no the squawks were not because it was a Mariah Carey song!) (I have uploaded from different PC's and different files with the same result)
3) Similar to 2) except occasionally there are tracks that play with crackling noise throughout, typically one track in every 20.
4) I upload talking Podcasts & find that in middle of some of these the player decides to start a song from a different file for a few minutes then goes back to the Podcast where it left off.

It's a shame because other than these problems I like the player, but the irritation factor is proving too much and I'm consigning it to a drawer as an emergency back up only, and will buy another - Not a Philips GoGear in any description obviously!!

NOT THAT GREAT!

I don't quite understand what everyone here is raving about! Yes, alright it does have superb sound, although the headphones are cheap, big and make the insides of the ear ache.
Transferring music onto the player is straight forward (if you have loads of time to spend on it), but the manual is extremely poor in explaining how to name your folders and songs so that you can access them once you're off. Despite trying, I have repeatedly ended up with just my songs...no names, no folders...nothing. So I have to go through each song to find the one I want...annoying considering you should be able to transfer 100s of songs.
The player is also sooooo tiny, that I have resorted to using my pinkie to press on the key pad, otherwise, my fingers are hitting at least two keys at the same time (no, I actually have small hands!).
It is however sleek and trendy and has a long listening life so you don't have to charge often.
The cons outweigh the pros to be honest. In hind site, I would have gone for one that came recommended (won't mention any names, but you know the one I mean!) and ones which allows you to download music from websites. Two weeks after I've been using it, about 4 times a week at the gym, I'm bored....and transferring music can take a while (up to about 20 minutes if I want to transfer two or three CDs).
The catalogue suggests that you use Windows Media Player to transfer your songs...absolutely didn't work for me and I've had to download another player to allow me to transfer songs.
The manual is poor for someone who has buys an MP3 player for the first time. It is NOT helpful, lacks information and doesn't offer step by step guidance. My advice: Invest in something a little more expensive, but which doesn't annoy you every time you come to use it....it really isn't worth the hassel!

Excellent, my best MP3 player yet

Mine arrived yesterday, from Cheapest Electrical (currently first seller under Used and New). It worked as soon as I plugged it into my computer, it connects as a Mass Storage Device (basically like a flash drive) so it works without drivers on Windows, Mac OS and Linux (I tried it on all three). You'll need to use Windows if you want to put videos on it or update the firmware, however, as the supplied conversion software is only available for Windows. It's pleasing to hold, with the controls laid out nicely. The interface is quick to respond and very easy to use, took me no more than a couple of minutes to get going and I'm by no means an expert.

Best features (in my opinion):
- Ability to browse music by artist, album, genre or title, all of which info is automatically extracted when you copy the files onto it.
- Lets you create your own playlists on the player, one button press to add the current tune.
- View pictures as a slide show, no need to resize them for the player.
- Decent radio with 10 presets.

Criticisms:
- SMV Video format doesn't appear to be very widely used, so you'll need to convert most videos you put on it.
- Radio could be a bit more straightforward (although I've not read the manual yet so mainly my fault).

Altogether a really nice little player, definitely for the price. One final tip - if you've got a charger for one of the Motorola mobiles that uses a standard mini-USB port, it'll happily charge from that when you're away from a computer.

GOOD AS A MP3 PLAYER

AGREE WITH THE OTHER REVIEW AS A MP3 PLAYER LOOKS GOOD AND HAS GOOD SOUND WITH SUPPLIED EARPHONES,SCREEN AND MENUS GOOD BUT SUPPLIED SOFTWARE WILL NOT CONVERT ANY OF MY DIFFERENT VIDEO FILES TO SMV FORMAT WHICH IS NEEDED TO PLAY

Great portable camera

When i got this camera i was very pleased with it and would sugest it to anyone after a good portable camera/camcorder for going on holiday etc... It's size and weight means that you can just slip it into a pocket and almost forget that your carrying it and hence you dont have to lug it around as you have to with most cameras. the LCD screen is great and its very good that you can play back your pictures and videos with sound aswell. The MP3 playback is OK but because of the memory size, i tend to use mine for taking pictures and videos and store only a few tracks on it. But i higly recommmend this to anyone looking for a useful portable camera/camcorder/MP3 for going on holiday/travelling etc....

No PC needed to charge it... But the noise!

As a flash drive this player does everything you would expect: creating folders, dragging-and-dropping, moving and deleting files, etc. It is also one of the few MP3 players around that uses an AAA battery, so no dependence on being near a PC to charge it up, or having to buy a dual-voltage mains charger for travelling. Regrettably, these are traded off against its poor sound quality and inadequate volume level. It sounds fine with the supplied demo pop tracks, but when faced with the challenge of a few classical pieces it doesn't measure up. In quiet passages there is noticeable canary-like noise, and loud passages just weren't, well, loud.

Sorry, Philips, but this is no match for the Sony B105 for around the same price, albeit with its PC-tethered charging.

Love It- Hate It

I have had a love hate relationship with this player ever since I bought 2 by mistake from Amazon a couple of years ago. It has chic look, good sound, the original ear-phones are ok (get better ones, will hear the difference straight away), But the touch-screen controls at times are very annoying, the player is pretty fragile (My back-up has had it's screen cracked for a few months now, still works but can't see anything of note now.) And originally both units didn't support any picture format and refused to load any I had at all (Even tho it says on the box it is a photo-music player and fully supports Jpegs and the like.) It plays music fine generally, and it has a useful feature to player fav tunes on a playlist. Unfortunately, I have lost confidence in it now and have decided to buy a Creative 30gb. It would have caused me less stress to get that and use it I'm sure, but maybe not as striking looking or fustrating. RIP Philips 6230, annoyed the hell out of me at times, but you will be sadly missed. :'-(

GOGEAR is the works

The only problem I had was with the installation of the software,ie. the Philips Device Manager software and Windows Media 10. I had Media 11 installed so had to go back to version 10. Why do you have to use version 10a
and not 11? In the end I had to transfer my Music files to the Music folder on the GoGear by using Windows Explorer. Once done however I was amazed at the quality and power of the sound. Tracks I have been listening to for years on my hifi suddenly produced extra parts in the background. One gripe-the scrolling menu system is far too sensitive so a very delicate touch on the touchpad is needed. However once mastered it is easy and intuative. The earphones won't stay n my ears and so sound leaks out - I know I have small ears tho`! I'll have to get some others.

DO NOT BUY

This is the worst mp3 player I have ever used.
Sometimes it decides it can't transfer files, occasionally it won't even delete files. Resetting the unit doesn't help.
Then follows a game of unplug/plug back in, unplug/plug back in, unplug/plug back in until the unit remembers what it's there for.
It doesn't work with Windows Media Player 11.
I have the volume at maximum and it's still too quiet to hear above regular traffic noise.
Don't believe me? Google it and hear what people are saying about it on forums all over the internet. I wish I'd done that before buying it.
Amazon's rating system means I have to give this at least one star, it does not deserve it.
Complete rubbish. Not worth the meagre price.
DO NOT BUY.