I have owned a Philips PSA 615 for nearly three years and in that time it has provided me with excellent service. For those readers whom just want a general idea this player is utterly reliable, sturdy for sports use and general everyday rigour while having a generous capacity of 6GB. It is ... Read review
Advantages: Small but Strong, 6GB capacity, Cheap, Reliable Disadvantages: File Organisation - Minor Fault in a Great Product
I have owned a Philips PSA 615 for nearly three years and in that time it has provided me with excellent service. For those readers whom just want a general idea this player is utterly reliable, sturdy for sports use and general everyday rigour while having a generous capacity of 6GB. It is 7cm across but strong and feels well made. Entirely recommended especially at £79 which I bought it for via amazon marketplace.
Please read on ... ...
GENERAL USE
During my ownership I have used this player arguably nearly everyday. While at the gym or running I use it. While at work I use it. During my commute by car I have it plugged in through my car tape stereo with a tape convertor I purchased from Currys for £10. Such a convertor is available for car CD players from places such as Halfords but is more expensive.
I have owned a Philips PSA 615 for nearly three years and in that time it has provided me with excellent service. For those readers whom just want a general idea this player is utterly reliable, sturdy for sports use and general everyday rigour while having a generous capacity of 6GB. It is 7cm across but strong and feels well made. Entirely recommended especially at £79 which I bought it for via amazon marketplace.
Please read on if you wish to know more about my experience
GENERAL USE
During my ownership I have used this player arguably nearly everyday. While at the gym or running I use it. While at work I use it. During my commute by car I have it plugged in through my car tape stereo with a tape convertor I purchased from Currys for £10. Such a convertor is available for car CD players from places such as Halfords but is more expensive.
CAPACITY and FEATURES
The PSA 615 was designed as a sports utility MP3 player and has certain characteristics unique to its design. You have a storage capacity of 6GB for music files of any format eg .wma or .mp3 which to my understanding is superior to the restricted format (.mp4) the iPod accepts. While I have a music collection that far exceeds 6GB i find this allowance enough for on the go. Depending on file quality as an .mp3 file takes up more space than a .wma file you can store an estimated minimum of 1750 mp3 files to a maximum of 3500 wma files or use a mixture or mp3 and wma and get a figure in between.
However when you do want a change the transfer of music is extremely quick via the USB cable provided upon purchase i.e about 30 seconds for a 15 track album.
The player has an internal battery that after full charge provides enough battery power for about 5-6 days use. In terms of hours this would work out to an estimated 22-24 hours between charges.
Regarding sports provisions the player provides a stop watch and a logged history of the length in time of 5 previous workouts. This is fairly simple so does not take up any of the 6GB. You also have a voice over feature which is more useful. During a long run while you are listening to your music a voice over at periodic intervals (every 15 minutes I believe) will announce the time passed. This feature can be deactivated.
Regarding settings the player boasts DBB which is bass and can be deactivated, a blue backlight which can also be deactivated, various equalizer settings such as jazz, rock, hip hop, classical, and the usual repeat or shuffle facilities.
DURABILITY and RELIABILTY
Exceptional. I have never had a problem with this product even though it has been dropped numerous times, accidentally stepped on and even thown at me once! I believe it comes down to the sports puropse it was designed for. The player is circular in design which I believe gives it added strength while the back is made entirely of rubber.
A word for the accessories that come with it upon purchase. The charger has been in use since purhcase and still works perfectly well. It similar to a nokia phone charger but hasn't died like my phone charger.
You also get a strap that goes around your upper arm and has a clip upon which the player can be attached. This is for use during sports when you have no pockets available. This remains fit for purpose even after all sorts of mistreatment.
NAVIGATION and FILE ORGANISATION
Navigation is extremely simple. The black face of the player (as seen in the product picture) acts as your buttons eg up, down, left and right. This not only gives it a neat smooth look but also is very simple to use.
However my major gripe with this player and the reason I did not give it 5 stars is the file organisation. The file list is presented in much the same way as an iPod with options to scroll through files via Artists, Playlists, Albums, Genre or All Songs.
The Genre option presents some arguable choices such as placing 2pac in rock. I never use the genre option. The Album option is useful but you have to know your music to locate the album you want. Playlists is redundant as I havent made any. All Songs is interesting if you want to listen to you whole music collection but with 6GB available this could take a long time. All Songs will display all you music with tracks in alphabetical order.
Finally the important one is the Artist option. I use this 99% of the time however I do have some criticism. Taking 2pac for example the Artist list will display the following seperately i.e. 2pac , 2Pac, tupac etc. This is extremely annoying as all my music is organised perfectly on my computer with the file names matching. Some internal coding of the file must tell the player that they are seperate Artists. This means some music is scattered under different spellings.
MINOR ANNOYANCES
Very rarely the MP3 player will freeze (i.e. three/four times in two years). It will continue to play the album you was listening to but the screen will remain frozen. This is simple to resolve. Simply just hold down the UP button with the On/Off button simultaneously for 5 seconds and the player will reboot.
I discovered this technique through the excellent customer services webpages on the Philip's European product website which are great.
Also the volume of the player is loud but I would like it to go a bit higher. For example in the gym if I am on the machines under the in house music system speakers I can hear muffled noise over my headphones or if on the London underground I can hear a minor rumble. This is a minor problem fault and shouldn't put you off purchase.
CONCLUSION
Quite simply a great bit of kit that is worth every penny. Far superior than the iPod. It may not have any flash adverts or street cred but it is a great bit of technology.
