Portable Media Player Reviews

A review of the Philips Portable Multimedia Player has been posted on CNET 'The Philips PMC has a truly lovely design--it reminds us quite a bit of the now-defunct Samsung YEPP YH-999 PMC, only with better controls. Like the Samsung, it's more square than rectangular--measuring 3.7 x 4.2 x 0.8 inches--so it looks more like a little TV than some other PVPs do. The screen is large (3.5 inches diagonal), and the viewing angles are great; two or three people could easily watch it at the same time.

Laptop Magazine have published their review of the Philips PMC7230 portable media player. 'The PMC7230 is not exactly svelte. At 4.2 x 3.7 x 0.8 inches, the boxy case departs from the increasingly popular widescreen designs of competing players. On the plus side, this orientation allowed Philips to place two five-way switches beneath the screen, keeping all controls on the face of the unit. You won't have to hunt for the volume keys or anything else.

IT Reviews have posted a concise review of the the Philips GoGear SA9200 music player. 'The latest company to offer a healthy alternative to the Apple Nano is Philips, whose 2GB GoGear 9200 almost exactly apes the weight and dimensions of the industry fave. It's obviously a pretty stylish device, then, while build quality seems extremely good and the brushed black aluminium finish is sure to appeal. The biggest impact on the looks front comes from the luminous blue controls that fade in on the touch-sensitive display in a similar way to the recently reviewed Maxfield Max-Ivy.'

A review of the Philips GoGear SA6045/02 (4GB) digital media player has been posted over at Trusted Reviews. ‘The GoGear comes in 1GB, 2GB and 4GB capacities and, with its extremely reasonably price of £96 for the 4GB player, has Sandisk's Sansa e260 and iRiver's Clix 2 firmly in its sights. It's certainly got a fair few things going for it, not least its large colour screen. At 2.2in it's considerably bigger than the 1.8in screen on the Sansa and is nearly double the size of the eyeball-straining 1.3in number on the iAudio7. The GoGear comes in 1GB, 2GB and 4GB capacities and, with its extremely reasonably price of £96 for the 4GB player, has Sandisk's Sansa e260 and iRiver's Clix 2 firmly in its sights. It's certainly got a fair few things going for it, not least its large colour screen. At 2.2in it's considerably bigger than the 1.8in screen on the Sansa and is nearly double the size of the eyeball-straining 1.3in number on the iAudio7.’

A review of the Philips GoGear SA6025 (2GB) MP3 player has been posted over at CNET. 'In addition to digital music playback, the GoGear SA6045 offers an FM radio with an autoscan function and 10 preset slots. The player also supports JPEG photos and slide shows, which you can view while listening to music. Sadly, though, there is no album art display on the device, which we think is a waste of the lovely screen. You do get support for WMV videos, which can be automatically converted through Windows Media Player. Despite some noticeable pixilation, photos and videos look quite good when played back on the device. Unfortunately, the placement of the headphone jack makes it pretty much impossible to prop the player up for viewing, but for short clips (when you don't mind holding it up), it works out nicely.'

Pocket-Lint have published a review of the Philips GoGear SA6025 MP3 Player. ‘The black and silver device has a smooth finish and a high-sheen plastic cover that helps enhance images. Controlled by a large scroll wheel, navigation is easy but the software layer is a little clumsy, as you'll need to scroll through a number of screens to access most functions. The main selling point of this latest player is its video capabilities. With a 2.2-inch screen, which sits lengthways so you'll need to turn the player to watch movies in landscape mode, it offers a standard 320 x 234-pixel resolution.’

A review of the Philips GoGear SA2825 (2GB) MP3 player has been posted over at CNET. 'Measuring 1.5 inches square and a slender 0.5 inch thick, the GoGear SA2825 is not just pocket-friendly--it's designed to be worn. Unlike the iPod Shuffle or Sansa Clip, the GoGear SA2825's design does not have a built-in clip; however, an included neck strap can be threaded through a loophole on the corner of the player.

A review of the Philips GoGear SA5245 Bluetooth-compatible MP3 player has been posted over at ZDNet. 'At first glance, the GoGear SA5245BT looks just like the rest of Philips' GoGear lineup--thick, glossy, and a bit generic. The GoGear SA5245BT's 2.8-inch screen is larger than the 2.2-inch display found on the similar-looking GoGear SA6045 and offers a maximum resolution of 320x240. A functional but uninspired four-direction navigation pad takes up the right side of the GoGear SA5245BT and makes it a poor choice for lefties. The GoGear SA5245BT's 2.3-inch x 0.4-inch x 4.2-inch dimensions closely match the size of the iPod Classic, while its screen and button layout could be mistaken for a Creative Zen.'

Trusted Reviews have published a review of the compact Philips GoGear SA2840 MP3 player. 'Though a small device from the front at 41 x 41mm, the SA2840 feels chunkier in the hand than its rivals; SanDisk's Sansa Clip, Creative's Zen Stone Plus or Apple's iPod Shuffle (especially when you remove the Sansa's clip attachment). There's also no built-in clip attachment for using while exercising, though you do get a neck strap thrown in. And though it looks as if it stretches right out to the edges, the screen actually occupies a very small space in the middle of the player's square frontage - it's just four lines long - a similar size in terms of screen real estate to the Clip's. Its monochrome colour scheme isn't as legible as the Clip's either.'

PC Advisor have published their review of the Philips GoGear SA2845 MP3 Player. 'The Philips GoGear SA2845 is just 40mm high, 40mm tall and 18mm deep. Its controls are minimalist too: viewed face on, you’d be hard pushed to work out how it operates as no controls are immediately obvious. In fact, the on/off switch is a very small hardware button on the top edge nestling next to the 3.5mm headphone jack.

Pocket-Lint have published a review of the Philips GoGear SA2820 2GB MP3 player. 'The GoGear SA2820 is the entry-point of the range from Philips, coming in 2GB (about 450 songs) and 4GB versions (under the moniker of SA2840 for the larger version) – size-wise – is certainly small, about half the size of a matchbox, measuring only 41 x 41 x 15mm. The front of the device houses a small 128 x 64 OLED screen which shines through a translucent plastic cover. This cover is also a four-way controller, more of which later.

Trusted Reviews have published their review of the Philips GoGear SA5285/02 8GB digital player. 'Could Philips' latest dual-purpose music/video player buck the trend? It's clearly aimed at people wanting a decent video-watching experience, and there's certainly plenty of storage space for video - 8GB. The screen is a spacious 2.8in, 320 x 240 resolution one and watching footage on it is a generally comfortable experience, too. It's not the brightest screen I've ever come across, and viewing angles are pretty poor, but it will play back video at a smooth 30fps, and the sheer size of it means that you won't go cross-eyed watching it for more than ten or 20 minutes at a time.'

Trusted Reviews have published a review of the Philips GoGear SA3225/02 digital player. 'The first thing to point out is that this isn't just an audio player; the SA3225/02 also plays video. It has a 1.8in, 220 x 176 pixel colour screen and will play back footage at a reasonably smooth maximum of 24 frames per second - that's better than on the cheap but not so cheerful Trekstor i.Beat Motion I looked at recently. Video playback is a nice extra to have, and for short clips, it's quite watchable on this device. But don't expect to watch hour long TV shows or movies on it without going all squinty-eyed - it's just too small for that. Format support is limited, too, to the rather awkward .smv file type. That means you can forget using your favourite conversion tool to transcode video to the SA3225/02 - you'll almost certainly have to stick with Philips' bundled converter tool.'