Today, Slacker announced the G2 personal radio player, which is 10x better than the first gen device. The 4GB model handles 25 stations while the 8GB model stores up to 40 are available for $200 and $250, respectively. The Wi-Fi has also been beefed up and battery life is up around 15 hours. The G2 is 40 percent smaller than the first gen model and you can side load your own music to the device, but it’s limited to the PC. There is still no support for Mac users. It supports MP3, WMA and AAC.
That’s all the updated info and if you’re interested then keep reading for a full-on review.
Hardware
The G2 is super, tiny and easily portable. The exact dimensions are as follows: 87×53x13.5mm and weighs only 2.5 ounces. The screen may look small (320×240), but it’s big enough to show album art, an artist picture, biography and album review. All of this can be accessed with the old BlackBerry-like scroll wheel. You can “favorite” or “block” tracks via the top two buttons. The rest of button scheme is simple with a play/pause, forward and rewind button located on the bottom half. Volume controls are found on the top of the player next to the 3.5mm headphone jack. A “back” button is located just below the scroll wheel that is mainly used when navigating the menu system.
You can charge and sideload tracks over USB. Depending on which model you choose to purchase, your stations will sync over USB or Wi-Fi. Syncing over Wi-Fi takes a long time, like, hours depending on how many stations you choose. I’m unsure about it over USB since I’m on a Mac, though. However, you can have Slacker pre-load your stations and everything else when you purchase through them. Even though it takes a while to sync you’re getting a ton of music, so I can live with that. I synced before going to bed and you don’t necessarily have to sync all that often.
The hardware is easy to use and much improved over the previous model. There’s a 30-pin connector located on the bottom that will work with upcoming power adapters, FM transmitter and speaker docks. Also included in this model is a custom EQ and volume normalization options. You can purchase through Slacker or Amazon now, but it will ship to Best Buy stores this month. The G2 includes a case with removable clip, USB cable, USB-compatible power supply, and premium-ears. Admittedly I did not try these out since I’ve been testing out Shure’s new SE 110 in-ears, but I’ll update shortly.
Service
This is the bread and butter for Slacker. There are over two million tracks available and they’re CD quality, which is a very good thing considering all you audiophiles will want to know about that. When you rate, fave or ban tracks on the player itself it syncs with your online account and vice versa.
Experts maintain the 100+ stations and the variety is quite good. I rarely found myself skipping tracks. The free service limits you to six track skips within one hour whereas the paid service costs $7.50 a month. The free service also subjects you to about one advertisement per hour, but you won’t find that with the paid subscription. Paying for the service gives the ability to save songs to your library and access them whenever you want with the paid service. This also gives the ability to go back to the previous song you were listening to. You can also request an unlimited number of songs to the most kickass custom stations as possible, but this, too, requires the paid service.
Depending on the model you choose, the number of stations you pick will vary the depth of songs you get in each station. So the less you have the more variety you get. You can sync over Wi-Fi whenever you have access and keys are also stored.
Overall, I’d recommend the G2 if you’re heavily invested in Slacker’s online service and even if you’re not, then you should get one anyway. It’s free music that’s constantly changing and, for someone like me, that’s a good thing. I get stuck listening to the same stuff over and over again.
Cool looking device….
The Slacker G2 reminded me of older cell phone technologies from the late 90’s. Lots of nice packaging and marketing but not much actual money spent on what makes the product work. The Interface is beyond sluggish. Earphones lack bass and make the sound muddy. Refreshing the stations is either a daily process or a day long process. What I mean is that if you don’t update the songs daily it will take you hours to do a refresh (which must be done at least once a month). Also, don’t even bother contacting customer service. They are not only helpless but will lie to you to keep you “happy” with the product. All in all, I wish I’d waited for technology to catch up to the idea of the product. The Slacker G2 is an inspired piece of consumer electronics…too bad it doesn’t work.
it wroks great i love it
I agree. I’ve been through two models. I bought the 4GB from Best Buy and the screen froze twice in the first week. I ended up taking it back because the Slacker website had a deal on the 8GB and dock for $30 more. That one came “dead” as in no power after sitting on the charger for four hours. The unit finally powered up and worked great for three days. Now it’s doing the same thing again. Customer service was slow and non-productive. The song service is perfect. The hardware needs help. First generation products always have bugs but two in a row?!?
Very neat product. Needs Mac support though. I’d perhaps buy one if it supported the Mac.
Chad, like the first Slacker Portable, stations can be changed/updated, whatever on any browser on any computer. Mac or PC doesn’t matter.
Awesome review - but how about a link to the player or where you can purchase it?
Why would anyone buy this $200 thing? Who wants to carry around a second gizmo for music? All the new smart phones can play Internet radio and you can get all the radio you want free from Pandora, LASTFM. FlyCast even has talk radio, NPR, BBC - stuff you’ll never get with Slacker.
I don’t get it.
Ray
Smartphone apps are neat, but they require a constant connection, kill battery and aren’t always a ’solid’ listening experience.
the Slacker player loads your stations allowing you to listen when not connected -even for days/weeks - subways, planes, caves.. whatever
Because not everyone can get connectivity where they would use the player. Besides, streaming music through the iphone has a lag. The player gives you the best of XM/Sirius & Ipod.
Ray, I don’t know about you but I don’t want to take my Smartphone with me on a jog, to the gym or even a bike ride, for that matter.
Plus, as randall pointed out, I don’t want to crush my phone battery life listening to music. I use my phone for calls, email and surfing the web. Music is played on a music player.
Also, you can’t customize those streams on the phone. I have the first generation Slacker player and am a big fan. This new one looks even better!
Sorry guys. Here’s the link, http://www.slacker.com/
it is cool
I think I’ve found my christmas gift! I never thought I’d really care about truly customizable radio…until I tried it. I’ve found the online version to be a GREAT selector. Most of my stations are just artists I like and slacker is great at only playing songs that sound like that artist. I can’t wait to carry it around with me. I’m also excited about the 1gb for storing your own files. I can’t see putting more music on this thing lol (I repeat, it’s a great selector for your tastes), but I’ve already got plans to load up a couple of audio books to have in the mix with the music. Can’t wait! My ONLY gripe? It’d be great if they utilized that cool screen for at least music videos. Oh well, maybe the next gen player.
Ordered one from Slacker. It arrived and when I try to sign on it won’t accept my portable number…says that it expired 35 days ago. So, we get to the support issue…good luck. I’ve emailed and emailed with no response. There’s no phone number to call. If you need support, Slacker is useless.
Mike,
I definitely think your case is one in a million. I’ve e-mailed/live chat-ed with a slacker representitive almost a half a dozen times (for various reasons). Your best bet, if you want an immediate response, is to use their live chat. They have always been friendly, and have always been helpful!
JD
I just got mine yesterday! I had a hard time getting it to load music so I used live chat. The guy was great. As we speak my G2 is loading and I can’t wait to use it! Anyone know where to get accessories other than Slacker directly?
Love it! Blows my ipod out the water! Im terrible at making playlist- and its time consuming. Now i just throw in a few artist I love and get hours of music and an introduction to new artist which fuels my love for music. My only gripe- there’s always something- is that I do not have all the features for premium radio and as helpful as customer service may be I can never get live chat. Once that issue is taken care of- i will be complaint free.
One more thing because I cant resist- it does take forever to upload but its adding thousands of songs! Solution- when i charge it at night i also update it and im good to go in the morning! no boring wait.
I just purchased one a couple of days ago, OMG I am in LOVE! This thing is incredible! As for the update time, I am fairly certain this has A LOT to do with the upload speed of your net connection. I have superfast internet and it only took about 10 mins to refresh all the channels. So I am thinking its more connection speed than player. OVERALL SCORE: 10! I had a flight yesterday and it was a TON of fun with my new radio… GO BUY!
THANKS!
I recd my Slacker G2. Loved it for two days. Then it just went DEAD on me. Was plugged into the AC adapter that came with it. Besides dying rather quickly for a $249 product (my iPod cost that two years ago and it still works greate (knock on wood)), I was a little peeved that the downloads would not work thru the IP address (192.168.0.1)most popular with about 90% of the routers sold in the US….something people who already have a network set up and running would like to know ahead of time. Just my two cents.
Will wait until the bugs are worked out of the product before trying again - maybe G3.