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July 15, 2009
Limited Format Support, Great Performance
By Luis Anthony G. Oliveros
Published in the July 2009 print edition of PC World Philippines
Philips GoGear Aria (4GB)
www.philips.com
Philips recently rolled out their latest line of multimedia players under the GoGear banner, mostly carrying the series’ signature black and gray hard plastic bodies and good audio outputs. One minor but notable change in this new lineup is that they now have actual names that are easy to recall instead of the previous batches that employ what may seem to consumers as a series of random model numbers.
In the middle of this new lineup is the Philips GoGear Aria. We received a 4GB unit in the mail for testing and we took it around the Metro to do so. Additionally, it also comes in 8- and 16GB variants.
This midrange player is nowhere near being an eye candy because, as mentioned, it has a monochromatic physical orientation. It does, however, have its own brand of polished sense of chic with glossy black exteriors, rounded corners and contrasting matte gray sides. Its 84×47x10.7mm profile makes it easy to store and slip into any pocket although you may want to get some sort of protective case since it’s definitely a fingerprint/smudge/scratch magnet.
The Aria features a straightforward text-based graphic user interface via its two-inch LCD display with a 220×176 resolution which displays texts, photos in JPEG and BMP formats and videos at 24fps. Navigations comes by way of the using a somewhat re-imagining of the five-way direction pad. First, you get a four way button pad that only handles the Left and Right functions as well as the Back and the Options keys. It frames a chrome-plate vertical rocker for handling Up and Down; and nestled right in the center is the Play/Pause/Enter button. This configuration could get a little confusing at times and may take some getting used to especially if you’re new to the Philips MP3 player terrain. For instance, when viewing photos, you have to use the Up and Down buttons, despite the fact that instinct would naturally instruct you to hit either the Left and Right keys. Doing so would rotate the photo you’re viewing.
One downside you’d find on the Aria is the limited format support. While video playback here only supports the SMV format, audios can only play MP3s and WMAs, foregoing the other standards like OGG, AAC, AAC+ and FLAC. Though the packed disc may offer some semblance of convenience by including an audio/video converter, it’s still one step more that may cost a bit of both your patience and time. Needless to say, you’d first have to convert contents previously ripped in other formats before loading them onto the player.
Despite the limited format support, we found the audio output to be pretty impressive. We loaded our standard test playlist that consists of audios from a variety of genres, audiobooks, podcasts and TV episodes.
There are over seven EQ presets here to give you enough leg room to modify your listening experience. Aside from these, Philips incorporates their own sound enhancing technology called FullSound which restores the sonic details lost during sound compression minus the distortions.
As such, sound quality was very good during our tests, with squeaky clean high tones and well defined mid-tones. The low-end sounded full-bodied and boldly thumped prominently in the background. This was especially evident in the tracks from the shoegazer/New Wave inspired band Taken By Cars where the Aria served up a full roller coaster of audios from the sound spectrum without compromising the sound details, which also proved to be good. In tracks like “Logistical Nightmare,” “Stereolove” and “The Blackout,” we really enjoyed the soaring guitars with the mono-sounding backing vocals adding a sound dimension and the great bass depth.
The sound details were also worth mentioning, as we’ve come to notice when we played Love Me Butch’s “Barricade” where the band’s excellent instrumentation was deftly churned out. We easily heard the textured layers each of the instruments contributed, even vocalist Syarul Reza’s range and parts of the playful lead guitar-bass interplay we hardly notice when playing the same track with other players.
However, if you’ve gotten tired of your playlists, you can always turn on the Aria’s FM radio tuner which allows room for 20 radio stations. It also has a recording feature that lets you record songs and radio talk show discussions to MP3 for playback. This recording features also works with the built-in microphone located on the unit’s right side panel next to the lanyard eyelet. The mic records sounds at around seven feet away though it can pick up less than discernable sounds approximately past a12-foot mark. The test recordings came out relatively good and clear though a bit tinny and it had some humming sound in the background.
Included with the Aria is a decent pair of sound isolating earphones and two extra pairs of rubber earbuds. This particular pair feels very comfortable and produced above average results in keeping some of the outside noises off your eardrums and funneling in hi-def audios. As you can imagine, we took the player out to the streets and along our daily commutes and the earphones worked well blocking out most of the engine noises while we were on a public transportation and while walking along crowded streets. This apparently isn’t such a good idea because you should be aware of your surroundings whenever you’re out and about.
Aside from listening to music, we also played John Hodgman’s “Areas of My Expertise” audiobook as well as Distorted View, Buzz Out Loud and The 404 podcasts. Here, the voices, music backdrops and sound effects sounded nice and natural.
| Not exactly the prettiest kid in the multimedia playground, the Philips GoGear Aria is easily one of the better performing multimedia players in the market today. The good audio quality it produces nevertheless outweighs its limited format support. |
| Storage | 4GB |
| File Formats |
SMV (videos), MP3 / WMA (audios), JPEG / BMP (photos), TXT (text) |
| Display | 2-inch LCD screen, 176×220pixels |
| Dimensions / Weight |
84×47x10.7mm / 47g |
