Reviewed by Jennifer – GEV.com
Just like the Samsung Galaxy Player Series, the GoGear Connect 3 from Philips is a MP3 running on Google’s Android operating system. While the Samsung Player is essentially an Mp3 player without the phone, the GoGear is primarily a MP3 player with Android chugged on it. The Mp3 player offers better sound quality compared to the Samsung Player, however it falls short in offering a good user experience due to frequent lags and slowdowns. The review will primarily focus on the design and specifications of the device.
The Philips GoGear Connect 3 is smaller in size as compared to the Samsung Player and measures the same as Apple iPod Touch; however, it is not as thin as the iPod. Built entirely from plastic, the GoGear also does not feel as solidly built as the iPod and often makes it feel a little cheap. The design is quite simple with volume rocker on the side and the ports at the bottom. The GoGear comes with a 3.2 inches touchscreen which offers the resolution of 480×320 pixels, less than either of the above mentioned competitive players.
The local Android navigational buttons are found under the screen, but mostly feel uncomfortable to due to design choice. The player also doesn’t have a removable battery and lacks the ability to insert a microSD card to increase storage. So before you buy, make sure you get the right capacity size because once you get it, there will be no way to increase it.
During the performance testing phase of the review, I figured out that the player actually sounds better than Samsung series; however, the interface is sluggish and is often surrounded by lag. The Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread is running on a single core processor clocked at 800MHZ and 400MB of RAM. These specifications make the device struggle with games. I tried running Angry Birds on the device and it could barely get the game to run. Limited RAM also means that there will be trouble when it comes to multitasking.
If you like Android operating system and sound quality is your primary concern, then the Philips GoGear Connect 3 is good for you, otherwise the Samsung Galaxy Player 4 is a much better choice.
Rating: 3.0
