The Philips GoGear Connect 3, like Samsung's Galaxy Players , is an
Android-based competitor to Apple’s iPod Touch. But while the
Samsung models are best
described as Android phones
minus the phone, the Philips
GoGear ($ 180 for 8GB and
$219 for 16GB, prices as of
January 4, 2012) feels more
like an MP3 player with
Android tacked on as an
afterthought.
Design
Measuring 2.28 by 0.44 by 4.44 inches, the GoGear is smaller than either of the Galaxy Players. Though the GoGear has
the same footprint as the fourth-generation iPod Touch, it's nearly twice as thick. The GoGear is built primarily of plastic,
which helps the player achieve its light 3.7 -ounce weight but also makes the device feel cheap.
The overall design of the GoGear is simplistic: The volume and power buttons are located on the right edge of the
device, and are colored a vibrant orange that makes them stand out. The front face is dominated by the 3.2 -inch, 480-
by-320 -resolution HVGA display. Beneath the screen are three large Android navigation buttons--Back , Home, and
Menu--that feel excessively spongy and rather flimsy. The Micro-USB port and the 3.5 mm headphone jack both sit at the
bottom of the device.
Unlike the Galaxy Players, the GoGear lacks a removable battery. It also lacks a MicroSD card slot, so whatever capacity
you buy is what you're stuck with for the duration.
Performance and Specs
The GoGear runs on Android 2.3. 3 (Gingerbread)
and uses a custom launcher for its home screens
and app drawer. While the device's software looks
slightly different from stock Android, the custom
launcher is not as pervasive as Samsung' s TouchWiz
is on the Galaxy Players.
Don’t expect to get killer performance out of the
GoGear. Powered by an 800MHz single-core
processor and just 400MB of RAM, the GoGear can
barely run Angry Birds let alone more graphically
intensive titles like Minecraft: Pocket Edition (that app
wouldn't run at all in my tests). The meager memory
also limits the player's ability to multitask: I found
that running more than two or three apps at once
caused the GoGear to slow down dramatically. Due
to those limitations, chances are slim that the
GoGear will ever be updated past Gingerbread,
though the device may continue to receive firmware
updates for better stability.
The GoGear has Wi-Fi , so you can access the Android Market to download additional content. Much like the Samsung
Galaxy Players, the GoGear is an Android-compatible device, something that is still a rarity among Android-based media
players. If you have a Bluetooth headset or headphones, you can connect to the GoGear using the built-in Bluetooth.
Philips rates the battery life at up to 25 hours for audio or 4 hours for video playback. Judging from my experience, those
stated times are close to what you can expect if you use the player only offline and if you don’t use any other apps. With
Wi-Fi on and with multiple applications running, you can expect about 6 hours of battery life depending on the types of
apps that are active. In my tests, using the Browser didn’t drain the battery as much as running Angry Birds did.
Software and Extras
As mentioned earlier, the GoGear is an Android-compatible device, so it can take advantage of Google-licensed apps
such as the Android Market and Maps. Aside from a custom launcher, Philips has preloaded several music-centric apps
onto the device. MOG and Rhapsody apps are present, along with a radio tuner. Both MOG and Rhapsody need an
active connection, while the tuner requires that you have headphones plugged in. The 7digital music store and the
Viewster video store are also available, should you wish to buy media from a source other than the Android Market.
The Android Market sells music, in addition to renting movies. But it lacks both TV shows and download-to- own options,
as you get with Apple's iTunes. Also, you'll have to download Google Music to enjoy songs you buy at the Market.
On the GoGear, the stock Google Music app has been replaced by a Philips-branded Songbird application. If you have
Songbird installed on your computer, you can use it to sync your music, videos, and photos onto the GoGear in a
manner similar to how iTunes syncs content to iOS devices. Using Songbird is entirely optional, and you can elect to just
drag your media onto the GoGear’s internal memory instead. Songbird will not recognize any music you buy from the
Android Market, but it will recognize music purchased from other stores like Amazon.
Unfortunately, I found that Android on the GoGear was often unstable. Apps would crash for no reason, scrolling
would cause the screen to distort, and the basic action of putting the GoGear to sleep would cause the screen to fill with
static briefly before shutting off. One quirk that I found particularly amusing was the remnant phone option to share
“your device’s mobile data connection” through USB tethering (err, not quite).
Media
Since the GoGear has access to the full Android
Market, you can download a wide variety of content,
including apps, music, movies, and books. In my
experience, games were barely playable on the
GoGear; but other, less processor-heavy applications
ran smoothly.
Should you choose to not purchase content through
the Android Market, the 7digital music store carries
most big-name artists, though the selection is not as
extensive as on iTunes, Amazon, or even the
Android Market. The Viewster app allows you to
purchase or rent movies, but its library was
extremely limited when I checked it: You’ll find
mainly documentaries, horror B movies, and public
domain films. If you want more-recent releases, you
are better off renting movies from the Android
Market.
If you choose to load your own content onto your
device, the provided Songbird app for use with a PC or Mac can help make the process painless by providing
synchronization options not available through, say, drag-and-drop in Windows Explorer. The GoGear supports all the
standard file formats that Android supports, like MP3 , AAC, and H. 264, as well as extras such as WMV9 and WMA.
Compared with the TouchWiz music player on the Galaxy Players, the Songbird app on the GoGear is nowhere near as
elegant. The drab gray and white interface features tiny thumbnails for album art. Once you select the song or album
you wish to play, you can slide the tab at the bottom of the screen to reveal the Now Playing screen; there you see a
larger version of the album art, as well as basic playback controls. Songbird includes a few intriguing social options,
among them the ability to “Like” a song on Facebook and the option to "scrobble " songs to your Last.fm account
automatically.
Also unlike the Galaxy Players, the EQ options in the Songbird app are extremely limited. You can either use the default
Philips “Full Sound” (which overplays the bass to an obnoxious extent) or turn to the Sound Personalization menu to do
some extremely basic EQ adjustments. Of course, you can always download another music app should you be
dissatisfied with the option in Songbird.
One strength of the GoGear is its sound quality, but I discovered that only after I disabled the Philips Full Sound setting.
With Full Sound turned on, the bass completely overpowered the vocals in my 320- kbps AAC track, and instruments such
as trumpets sounded screechy. With Full Sound turned off, the audio-playback quality was about on a par with what the
fourth-generation iPod Touch offers.
In spite of its low- resolution screen, the GoGear is capable of playing back 720p video. You can view video in either the
Android Gallery app or the Songbird app; I recommend using the latter for video, since the Gallery is not great for
managing and playing video. The Songbird video- playback interface is only slightly better than the one in the Gallery,
offering the ability to skip chapters. My test videos played without any issue on the 3.2- inch screen, but the small display
is hardly an optimal environment in which to watch feature-length movies.
The GoGear is better at playing audio than either of the two Galaxy Players, but the Galaxy Players have the upper hand
in video playback thanks to their larger screens. The iPod Touch and the GoGear are similar in audio quality, though the
Songbird app that the GoGear uses by default is not nearly as slick as the Music app on the iPod Touch.
Bottom Line
Though it boasts superior audio playback over the Galaxy Players, the Philips GoGear Connect 3 falls flat in everyday
performance. The low-end specs will severely limit the GoGear's flexibility as well as the types of apps you can
download, and the omission of expandable storage is regrettable. Priced at only $20 less than an entry-level fourth-
generation iPod Touch, the GoGear just doesn’t offer enough for shoppers to choose it over Apple’s media player.
Rudz
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