Two unique buttons on the G2 are the heart and ban buttons. The heart button tells Slacker that you like that song and want to hear it more frequently. Ban tells Slacker not to play that track on your stations. Using these buttons allows you to fine-tune your customized stations to your preference; however I found myself rarely using them.
When playing Slacker stations, you get full-screen cover art, plus a detailed artist bio. In fact I found the bio info so thorough that often the track was over before I’d finished reading about the band. With the free subscription, you’re permitted to skip tracks only six times per hour. A paid subscription offers you unlimited skips.
As distinctive as this player is, it doesn’t distinguish itself in sound quality. As is typical with Internet radio, the music is heavily compressed, and thus suffers from a shortfall in bass and fullness. Replacing the stock earbuds helps a lot. The included earbuds, while more comfortable than what usually come with MP3 players, don’t have the audio range of upgrade buds from Shure, Bose or Audio-Technica.
A basic Slacker account is free, and for most people that will be sufficient. It includes a very minimal number of commercials (much less than a paid satellite radio subscription). A $3.99 per month subscription gives you more control over your stations, artist selections and eliminates the ads, but I’ve been perfectly happy with the quality of the free service. While $200 these days is a lot for a 4 GB MP3 player, when you take into account the vast quantity of free music, the ease of finding artists and the Wi-Fi connectivity, the Slacker G2 is probably the best digital music deal available. Slacker is also available on iPhones and Blackberry phones as a free download.
Slacker G2 Portable Music Player
$200
4 GB
Wi-Fi sync
Up to 25 Slacker stations
Album art
Artist bio
www.slacker.com
Electronics. Entertainment. Gadgets.
Page 1 | 2
