The Slacker G2 could probably more accurately be called the Slacker Internet radio. It is quite different from a standard MP3 Player. The general idea behind this quite unique device is that you choose several music genres on Slacker.com, which can be broad as “Smooth Jazz”, or as narrow as a few favorite artists. Then, when you listen to the Stations on the Slacker, you can “Favorite” a song, or “Ban” it or “Skip” it. This way the Stations are customized more to your music tastes.

Although other players supporting subscription music sites work in a similar fashion, the difference with the Slacker G2 is first of all the premium price for the players, which have little in the way of extras. At $199 for the 4GB/25-Station and $249 for the 8GB/40-station version they cost more than most other MP3 Players. What more than makes up for this is that the entry level subscription is totally free, and the Premium subscription only $7.50 per month, which is about half of what standard subscription music services (Rhapsody, Napster, ZunePass etc) charge.

The free subscription has limits to the number of skips and bans you can do per hour, and may have advertising (less than commercial radio – I have yet to hear and advertisement). The premium subscription allows you to save some of the songs you “favorite” depending on licensing agreements.

One neat thing is that if you don’t intend keeping any of your own music on the player (which is probably a good idea since there is not too much space available for you own use), the setup does not even involve connecting it up to a PC. Basically you open a slacker account online, choose stations, and link the portable player by entering a unique code in the “About” menu . Then, after connecting the player to your home wireless (or any Wi-Fi spot you have access to), the Slacker portable player starts downloading the Stations. I found this took a while. Once the stations are downloaded, you listen to the music wherever you are. Then every day or so you connect again and refresh the Stations. To change Stations you just do it on a web-browser via your Slacker account.