After having waited long enough to buy the ubiquitous iPod in its land of origin, I finally succumbed to get a “temporary” mp3 player closer home – the Philips GoGear SA1355 - 1 GB flash music player. And yes, it is made in China!
The overall design
This tiny product is a stunning looking device. It’s about the size of a large thumb. A rectangular body with rounded edges and all black! One of the faces is finished with a mirror like coat that cleverly disguises the organic LED display when not in use. Two of the edges have steel finish while the rest of the body is in polished black plastic.
Almost featherweight and very pocket(or necklace) friendly, carry it the way you want! The unit ships with a meter long earphone which is quite decent in quality and is made of matt-finish rubber. The earphones have no soft covers.
The mirrored side sports the Philips logo(text only) on one end while the other has a square 4-way navigation keys with a central select button made of steel. This unit has closely etched concentric circles making it very nice to touch(no slippages and neither do they appear smudged.)
The central select key is used to turn the device ON/OFF(press & hold) and also to’Play’ and’Pause’. The keys to the left and right are the typical’Rewind’ and’Fast-Forward’ keys(press & hold) and also double up as’Previous’ and’Next’ track jump. The up and down keys increase or decrease the volume. Another set of three buttons are housed on one edge as: Record(Rec), Repeat/Shuffle(A-B) and Menu while the other has the sliding’Hold’ switch. The side opposite to the mirrored face has a retractable slide to push out the standard USB connector. This is really neat as the USB connecter is perfectly flushed with the surface and isn’t obtrusive at all! The opening is covered with a silica cap. Philips gives your two extra caps just in case you lose the one already put on the device – very considerate, really appreciate these little details.
The package also consists of a tiny USB cable extension, one CD with software you’d not really need to install and the user manual(a large sheet folded neatly.)
The OLED is four lines and displays two colors – Yellow and Cyan. Very neatly organized, I’d give it 9/10 for the layout and design, simply beautiful. The only drawback, well you just can’t see the info under natural light. I say natural as even an overcast sky can make reading the information next to impossible.
What can it do?
Moving on to what this device can play/do, they are:
1. Plays MP3, WMA and WAV files(Variable Bit-Rate supported, but no DRM support.) Drag and drop files and it’ll play, no software needed. Create your own folders and the device can still fetch the tracks and play. Is able to read embedded ID3 tag data(Artist and Track Name only.)
2. Tune to FM stations with 20 presets.
3. Record voice(this is a fantastic addition but recording quality is average to poor.)
4. Double up as a USB Flash Drive(but cannot display contents other then music files on its screen.)
You get preset equalizers and one that allows for custom settings as well(five levels). The usual Repeat/Shuffle features are there as well. What I probably miss is a date and time feature. This isn’t a major feature, but can be a decent value add.
The embedded software is fairly fast but can’t match the smoothness of, say, the iPod. It take about 5~7 seconds for the device to boot up and show the menu. Button response is sluggish. There’s also a setting that allows the unit to remember the last accessed level even after a power cycle. Some more pluses are:
1. You can record an FM station as it plays! Also, folders are created only when you use the recorder(Voice or FM.)
2. Shows all folders stored in the device(similar to explorer like navigation.)
3. Allows for easy firmware update(I’d like to caution you here – do NOT update manually; let the firmware updater determine the appropriate update. Otherwise you’ll end up with a non-bootable device.)
Allows you to delete songs from the device itself. This is a great feature which I guess even iPod doesn’t have!
Charges completely in about an hours time. And playback/standby time is about a week if you play on an average for 30 mins each day.
While in use, a screensaver plays all the time(cannot put the sceen into a standby mode.) What’s nice is pressing any button causes the screensaver to stop and display the now playing screen. The volume is just sufficient, not at all close to the booming loudness that the iPod can generate. If you set the voluem to 100% and then reboot the device, it’ll always scale it back to about 75% volume. Some might find it annoying, but I like it as I don’t want to be pinched in my ears by some loud noise! If the device jams up for some reason, then there’s a tiny reset button(like CD drives.) So far, I have never had to use it.
What this device cannot do are.
Play or create playlists(including anything like My Favorites.)
Play licensed(or DRM protected) music.
Overall, a great product that won’t remain "temporary". I am always going to have it with me even if I own an iPod simply as this one doubles up as a neat(and discreet) USB drive.