For those familiar with Pandora, Slacker is very similar. Slacker is basically a form of customized internet radio. Slacker lets you select the custom stations you want to listen too, and when a track plays that you either like or don’t like you can rate it accordingly to your taste. Sick of hearing Chris Daughtry – click on the ‘Ban’ button and you’ll never hear one of his songs again! As wonderful, as Slacker is, we can’t carry our computers around with us all the time. So Slacker came out with a portable radio player. Unfortunately the first gen Slacker portable player had an assortment of bugs. But Slacker listened to user feedback and didn’t waste much time to come out with the Slacker G2. With the release of the Slacker G2, Slacker is looking to give its portable internet radio player a second chance.
Design:
The design of the Slacker G2 has certainly improved since its previous generation. Previously the 1st gen of Slacker’s portable radio player was a clunky looking box with frustrating touchscreen controls. Basically Slacker was jumping on the touchscreen bandwagon instead of concentrating on a decent player that does what it should do best – play music with simple controls in a body that is easy to take with you anywhere. That is exactly what the new G2 is all about. The design this time around is much more comfortable to hold instead of a brick in your hand. The controls are not touch, which is a welcome relief in this case. The G2 weighs just a bit over 2 and a half ounces and is made of a black high gloss case with a stainless steel backplate with the Slacker logo slapped on the back of it. Included in the box are earphones, a clip on carrying case, a USB cable, and a power adapter.
Features:
The Slacker G2’s uniqueness comes from the ability to retrieve online stations via Wi-Fi. Basically you can pick what stations you would like to hear via Slacker’s website and the next time you connect to Wi-Fi, the G2 will retrieve those stations for you to hear. That doesn’t mean you have to be connected to Wi-Fi to actually listen to these songs, but only to retrieve the stations which will save the tracks to your player for later playback. The only real competition to this device is of course the Pandora app for the iPhone and iPod Touch or other similar apps like AOL Radio. The main difference however is that with those apps you need to be connected to Wi-Fi in order to listen their music, which is not always convenient – and that is what makes the G2 so special.
Also, perhaps the best part of the G2 is that each station has hundreds of tracks for you to listen too. The G2’s hardware functions a lot like the actual Slacker web site. Don’t like a song? Hit the ‘Ban’ button on the top of you player. Love a song? Hit the heart shaped ‘Favorite’ button. Or if you are just not in the mood to listen to a particular song at all, then just press the skip button. The controls are very easy to use and really don’t require a manual to operate the device. The very top of the player has the volume controls. On the face of the player is the Ban and Favorite buttons. Lower on the face of the G2 are the skip back/forward buttons and Play/Pause Button. On the right side is a scroll wheel very reminiscent of the old Blackberry that gives you instant access to all the features of the G2. You can scroll and click your way through the menu system. The Home button takes you to the menu screen were you can access your stations and other settings. The Lock(hold) button will keep it from going on or off by itself while in your pocket.
On the left side is where you would charge the device. This is one area where I found a design flaw. Basically the USB port is covered with a piece of rubber that is so tiny that it can easily get lost since it isn’t attached to the G2. So if you misplace this cover you will have an exposed port forever. The same goes for the bottom of the G2 that has an accessory connector. It is also protected with a flimsy piece of rubber than can be easily misplaced.
The G2 comes in 2 different sizes – 4GB and 8GB. The 4GB version will give the ability to download 25 stations and it will allocate 1GB of personal storage for you to store your own MP3s. The 8GB version will allow 3GB of personal space and 40 stations can be downloaded to the player.
Interface:
The Menu features Stations, Library, Playlists, Settings, and Connect. The Menu system is pretty simple and explanatory. The Stations option features all your downloaded stations from Slacker. Library stores saved songs or MP3. Playlists is just that, a selection of songs you saved for playlists. Settings is where you would go to personalize your player. This is where you can go to optimize the sound quality with the equalizer. Connect is were you go to download new stations or refresh the ones you already have.
The display on the G2 is crisp and vibrant with a resolution of 320×240. The screen displays the album art along with the song that is playing. You also have the ability to view an album review or a biography of the artist. These are certainly not things you view on your ordinary MP3 player.
Sound Quality:
The music quality on the Slacker website is very impressive with the right headphones and the same can be said with the G2. Unfortunately the earphones that are included with the G2 are subpar. They hurt and are just not comfortable after you have them in your ears for awhile and they really don’t do the music justice. The Slacker G2 does come with some extra rubbery eartips, but it still makes no difference. Once you switch them out you will really begin to enjoy the G2. The quality of the music is excellent and impressive for internet radio. You can adjust the equalizer to your liking on the G2 but no matter what you do, you won’t be able to intensify the bass or treble within the songs. It will add a little punch here and there but nothing that will drastically change the quality of the song.
Conclusion:
Are you lazy and forget to update your iPod with new music? Or are you just sick of listening to the same songs over and over? Than the Slacker G2 is for you. Personally I haven’t been devoted to any player and I only purchased the previous generation Nano because it was so darn cute, but I have yet to update it with any new music for the past 3 months. So the Slacker G2 is perfect for me. The music stations that are available are great and offer lots of different genres from 80’s 90’s and Now to Jazz or Soundtracks. I can ban songs I don’t want to hear or favorite ones I love and hear similar ones to it. The sound quality is decent with the right pair of headphones/earphones. The best part is that you can get brand new music without having to pay for it. If you can deal with limited skipping and the occasional commercial than the service is free and all you have to do is pay for the player. The 4GB Slacker G2 is $199.99 and the 8GB is $249.99
The Good: Better design than the previous generation. Good sound quality. You only need to connect to Wi-Fi once to refresh stations and get new music. Lots of great station selections with a wide variety of artists.
The Bad: Rubber covers on the USB port and accessory port can easily be misplaced. Subpar earphones degrade the quality of the music and are uncomfortable. Equalizer settings don’t really do much to enhance or add to the quality of the music. No options for memory expansion via memory cards.
