Digital Trends

Slacker G2 (4GB) November 3rd, 2008 | by Nick Mokey

Sound Quality

Don’t be fooled by the silicon-earpiece design and “premium” label on the G2’s earbuds. Though they look classier than the cheap headphones we’ve found packaged with other players, Slacker didn’t quite carry the same illusion of quality over to sound reproduction, where bass was so lacking at to be practically nonexistent. Granted, bass is typically a sore spot for ear buds, but Slacker’s headphones were even put to shame in bass reproduction by the pair that came packaged with a $20 SanDisk SlotMusic Player. The good news: Despite their lackluster aural qualities, they’re extraordinarily comfortable and stay fitted into tightly the ear, sealing out sound in the process. Slacker includes three interchangeable silicon earpieces with the player, so even owners with different sized and shaped ears should be able to find a pair that fits them spot on. We just wish that the quality of the drivers matched the outside.

Slacker does include an equalizer built into the G2 to compensate, ever so slightly, for the poor quality of its bundled headphones. Unfortunately, it only includes ten profiles and an “off” setting, which we found to be exceptionally weak for a $200 player, which should offer a multi-band equalizer. 

Moving Music

After installing Slacker’s Station Refresher software, the player will automatically connect to Slacker and refresh itself when connected to a computer via USB cable, or via Wi-Fi if you configure the player to connect to a home network. In general, both methods worked seamlessly, pulling down content transparently without bothering us with the nitty gritty details: The player just shows a blue progress bar as each station gets refreshed, and the whole process took less than five minutes after a whole day’s worth of on-and-off listening.

Though Slacker obviously intends for most users to stick with its radio stations, the G2 can also store songs permanently like an ordinary MP3 player through its library function. After pressing a button the player to activate the right mode when connected, it will appear as drive to drag and drop MP3s onto. While loading it with files was easy, we weren’t fond of the integrated library browser, which requires a lot of effort to switch between browsing views (by artist, by album, etc.) and suffered from the pitiful scroll wheel.

Conclusion

As an MP3 player, the G2 is a rather unremarkable piece of hardware, but when coupled with Slacker’s valuable online radio service, it truly offers a unique solution for owners who don’t want to be bothered by constantly refreshing their music manually. Slacker has largely fixed the problems of its earlier player, but a laggy interface with a slow, clunky input device remains an issue. The G2’s price tag of $200 for only a 4GB player puts it far, far above the competition though (the same cash could buy a 16GB iPod Nano) so buyers should definitely test drive Slacker’s service online before deciding the premium is worth it for the player. If you’re in love, it’s a solid way to bring the benefits of the Web on the road. Otherwise, we would recommend passing.

Pros:
 
• Endless free content
• Lightweight
• Useful accessories

Cons:
 
• Sluggish interface
• Ultra pricy
• Poor interface for non-Slacker files
• Earphones lack any bass