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Philips GoGear Opus reviewed: solid audio, but painfully boring
When we had the downright magnificent opportunity to toy with Philips' latest PMP line here in the States, we immediately noticed that the GoGear Opus stood out among the rest. The crew over at TrustedReviews recently spent some quality time with the 8GB version of that very unit, and while they found the audio quality to be "excellent," they seemed rather disappointed -- if not irked -- by everything else in the package. For starters, the whole solution just felt boring, with critics noting that its biggest problem was a lack of "excitement." Granted, none of this would matter at a rock-bottom price point, but for $100, there's an awful lot of competition. As we found during our short time with the player, these folks also noticed that the user interface was simply "old-fashioned," and that video playback was nothing to write home about. The bottom line? Unless you score some kind of spectacular deal, your PMP dollars are probably best spent elsewhere.
Philips debuts GoGear Ariaz, Opus PMPs
Philips has been keeping things relatively simple with its GoGear line as of late, but it looks to be getting back to full-on PMPs with its latest pair: the GoGear Ariaz and GoGear Opus. The GoGear Ariaz is the slightly smaller of the two, with it packing a 2-inch display, along with 4GB, 8GB, or 16GB of storage, an FM tuner, a built-in mic for voice recording, and a somewhat unique interface that includes a combination of "touchscreen buttons" and a large rocker key. The Opus, on the other hand, appears to be an updated version of one of Philips' original GoGear players, and packs a larger 2.8-inch QVGA display, your choice of 8GB, 16GB, or 32GB capacities, built-in Bluetooth, and integrated support for the BBC's iPlayer. No word on a release 'round here just yet, but both will apparently be available in Europe in April for between €79 and €179, or roughly $100 to $230.Read - Pocket-lint, "Philips unveils GoGear Ariaz media player"Read - Pocket-lint, "Philips launches GoGear Opus"
