Philips GoGear SA1355 1 GB

I bought the Philips GoGear SA1356 (which is pretty much the same as SA1355) earlier today. I’ve spent enough time with it to write this honest review.

Product description - http://mail.google.com/mail/?ik=1b4801817d&view=att&th=115292a781446d1f&att id=0.6

Design - 8/10

The player is designed much like a smooth candy bar. When I say smooth, I mean ultra-smooth. It slips from the fabric that you ...
...6/10

Philips goes an extra mile into its motto on simplicity. The interface is oversimplified and it isn’t very informative to the user. For instance, while you’re playing a song, the only things that you can see in the screen is the no. of the song out of the total songs in that folder, time elapsed, name of the song as a marquee and the battery life. That’s simply that. You don’t see the total length, bit-rate, ... more

I bought the Philips GoGear SA1356 (which is pretty much the same as SA1355) earlier today. I’ve spent enough time with it to write this honest review.

Product description - http://mail.google.com/mail/?ik=1b4801817d&view=att&th=115292a781446d1f&att id=0.6

Design - 8/10

The player is designed much like a smooth candy bar. When I say smooth, I mean ultra-smooth. It slips from the fabric that you put it on. It’s got a smooth black front surface that tends to retain visible finger impressions on it that are nonetheless, easily removable (all you have to do is wipe it with a cloth).

One handy thing is that the player has the USB connecter inside the player. You just have to slide it out to use it.

The player’s dimensions are not very large and with smooth edges, the player is quite cool in looks and so, scores 8 out of 10.

Audio performance - 7/10

The audio performance is nothing extraordinary. It’s very modest but still smooth. It hasn’t got good bass effect, not with the earphones that it comes with. Some of the reviews said that the audio isn’t loud enough but I didn’t face this issue (probably it was addressed in the SA1356).

If you’re looking for surround sound effect, thump effect or if you’re an audio geek and expecting something unique, or if you’re excited to compare it with Samsung YP (U3), the player might just not please you.

Perhaps after buying a costly noise-cancelling ear phones, the performance might become extraordinary. Just to give you a realistic idea, the audio quality is much like that of your PC (if it comes with an Intel extreme soundcard). So, perhaps the ordinariness arises due to the poor earphones. But, still, expecting surround sound in a player of this caliber is not advisable.

If you just like to listen to plain and smooth music or listen to some lectures/audio books or listen to music while you’re jogging, then this player will be a pretty good partner for you. So, with a smooth and clear audio, the SA1355 scores 7 out of 10.

User interface - 6/10

Philips goes an extra mile into its motto on simplicity. The interface is oversimplified and it isn’t very informative to the user. For instance, while you’re playing a song, the only things that you can see in the screen is the no. of the song out of the total songs in that folder, time elapsed, name of the song as a marquee and the battery life. That’s simply that. You don’t see the total length, bit-rate, format of the clip or anything of that sort. The oversimplified interface gets a 6.

Interface Speed - 7/10

Although the player is a little teeny weensy bit slow, it outdoes a lot of other players in this segment. Its quite fast and successfully does things without annoying the user.

Inter-screen mobility - 3/10

There are certain things about the interface that are plain annoying (especially, if you’re used to the luxuries of iPod). The interface mobility is almost negligible, which means that you can’t move from one screen to another while you’re playing a song. You just have to keep staring at the oversimplified screen or browse through the menu; which has things like playmodes (repeat, shuffle, repeat folder etc.), equalizer, scroll speed, delete, and general settings. You can BROWSE, but not change them because, when you do, the song stops! How annoying is that? That’s not all, if you’re playing a song and would like to see which one is up next; you can’t do that without stopping the one that you’re playing now. Plus, the song stops when you even change from no equalizer to custom equalizer. The annoying interface mobility gets a 3.

Battery - 9/10

4Hrs for charging and 10Hrs of stand-by, what else do you need for an mp3 player at this cost? It gets a 9.

Extra features - 8/10

When you’re buying a cheap mp3 player, you just don’t expect extra features, but this one does give a couple of features that may not be found in other players in this segment. First one is the screensaver which isn’t of much use. The second feature, however, is something that some of the people may find of great use. That is the loop play or A->B i.e. you can press this button in one of the sides of the player and after some time interval, press it again to make whatever music that was playing in that time interval to keep on playing in loop. I didn’t find this feature especially useful. But, some say that this helps if you’re a singer and want to rehearse for certain parts of the song.
But, the best feature is the Drag n’ Drop facility. This lets you to store data files and you don’t have to comply with DRM. No additional software required for the player’s functioning.

It also comes with FM recording and voice recording. The features get a 7.

Value for money - 10/10

Yup, it’s that good. For daily usage, it might just be the right choice. For the money you pay, it gives everything you might expect. It also comes with one year warranty (battery and earphones not included in warranty).

Package:-

The package contains the following:-

Player
Earphones
Two extra coverings for the naked USB connecting port in the player
No extension cable
Firmware and manual in a CD
User manual (in lots of languages)
Safety/warranty booklet

Recommendation:-

I recommend you to buy it if you have a tight budget and want to listen to some good music without distractingly poor audio quality. Buy this player if you want it to double up as a data storage device otherwise, you can consider the Samsung YP (U3) for a lot better sound quality (though you have to shell out some extra money). 

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