Review: Philips GoGear Ariaz Portable Player

At first glance, you wouldn’t think that the Philips GoGear Ariaz was much to look at. However, this compact and light device has a 2-inch full colour screen where you can view your videos, album art and information while playing your mp3s. Measuring at 66 x 43x 12 mm, you are sure to enjoy the power of music on the Ariaz.

The GoGear Ariaz’ control system is a mixture of touch screen buttons and a rocker key for scrolling through the menus. If your playlist consists of a variety of file formats, rest assured that the GoGear Ariaz supports most of the popular ones – mp3s, WMA and MPEG4 videos can be played by this device. There is also an option to convert other file formats to one that is compatible to the GoGear.

The GoGear Ariaz features FullSound technology. With this technology, you enjoy greater dynamics on the audio and you will find that there is a clearer sound and contrast on the bass, treble and stereo imaging of highly compressed mp3 files. The Ariaz comes with a pair of high definition headphones which allows you to enjoy your songs without any external disturbances.

One great feature about the GoGear Ariaz is that it allows users to download files directly from the internet using a PC without having to worry about the sizing. Once downloaded, you can choose an option which will shrink the video to fit the Ariaz’s 2-inch screen without compromising on quality. Cool, no?

The Ariaz is not just for playback audio files but you can also access the radio and make voice recordings. Available with 4, 8 or 16 GB of storage space, this is definitely a keeper if you are into players which produce great sound quality.

If you are looking for something that lasts longer than normal, then the GoGear Ariaz surely fits the bill. This player has the ability to last up to 30 hours of music and up to 6 hours of video playback – and that is just on a single charge. Therefore you don’t really have to worry about your player suddenly running out of battery because it seems to last forever. As for charging the battery, you can easily do it from your PC. Just plug in your player to your computer and wait for it to finish charging before the next use. Easy, right?

With a FolderView feature that allows you to organize all your files, and a user interface that is alarmingly simple to navigate around, the GoGear Ariaz is definitely the way to go in audio devices.