Philips SA2820 2GB MP3 Player Review
SA2820/02 - 2GB Portable, Flash MP3 Audio Player from Philips
Philips had been in the industry of audio products for a long time now. They have been decent performers being easy to use and good functions, all that they lacked was features. With fierce competitions from MP3 giants like Apple, creative and sandisk, the question, will they be good enough to find a space in your pocket? Let us find out from the following review.
Ultra-portable design:
The Philips GoGear SA2820 is an entry point range of MP3 player from Philips that are available in the 2GB and the 4GB (Philips SA2840) versions. It has a very glossy and highly reflective finish and hence, yes! A finger print attractor. Instead of being built out of plastic, if SA2820 had a metallic finish, it would have had a classy look. Yet, the built is robust and can withstand quite a few mishandling accidents. The SA2820 is very petite in size, about just half the size of a match box having dimensions as just 41 x 41 x 15mm and weighs a mere 27grams. There is a small 128 x 64 OLED screen in front of the device which is visible through a transparent plastic cover which also acts as a navigator that is, each of its edges acts as a navigator button. The screen will not be visible in bright sun light.
Buttons and ports:
The sides of the Philips SA2820/02 Flash MP3 Player has other controls such as, a multi functional power, play and pause selection button, back, volume, a dedicated voice record button and a hold slider. It sports an internal microphone for the recorder. There is a standard 3.5mm head phone jack on the top of the device. A mini USB connector is hidden under a cover which doubles as a charger and a connection to your PC.
The hold slider is very essential in a player like this as, the prominent four way controller tends to skip tracks back and forth while walking which is super-irritating. Another very very minor blot with the design is that, since the headphone jack of the player is on the top, the cable sticks out in the front when held in hand rather than towards you as is the case of the other players and even when you take it from your pocket, it stays up-side down always.
Simple Menu:
Some of the main menu options include music, recordings, folder view and settings. All the options are very simple and from a player of such small size you certainly cannot expect more. For each menu selection to be made, you will have to press on the play button in order to make each selection.
Supported formats:
Talking about the music formats, Philips SA2820 fails badly and makes us think, “is it really a dedicated MP3 player?”. It supports only MP3, WAV and unprotected WMA. Your Napster purchases or subscriptions will not be played by Philips SA2820 2GB Digital Media Player. This MP3 player has no support for FM radio too. In contrast, the Creative’s 2GB Zen Stone Plus, which is available roughly at the same cost, not only supports FM radio, it also has support for protected WMA music and Audible audio books.
A bad news for the Mac users is that, Philips SA2820 MP3 player is not compatible with Mac OS.
Voice recorder and volume limiter:
The built-in voice recorder allows you to record your own voice which will be recorded to a single channel WAV file, but you will not be able to plug in an external mic. A very useful feature with the recorder is that you will get a count-down in the display that will let you know how much more you will be able to record. It has a volume limiter that protects your ear drums.
The small, clear and informative display:
The display that is provided, though small, is crisp and clear. The display gives you just the enough amount of information that you will actually need to know but it suffers a lot in the bright conditions. The player provides a slow start and you will have to go through various screen, before you can actually listen to the music. The display usually scrolls the track information for you which is easy to read though the screen is petite and momochrome. The interface cannot be said as super good, but is not bad too. A neck strap has been provided, which is not going to be of great use for the joggers.
Good audio performance:
The audio performance is fabulous for this kind of a price. You will not have much complaints if you are using a good head phone. It plays heavy bass and with slightly warmer sound. The best setting would be off or hip-hop for general listening. The SanDisk’s Sansa Clip does a better job. Philips GoGear SA2820 2GB Pocket Sized MP3 Player still delivers an enjoyable experience for such a low cost player. Coming to the headphone, though it is not the worst performer, it does not give the best of what the player is actually capable of and so it will be wiser to invest in some other head phone that better suites your ears and listening requirements.
Speed of the player:
Uploading of around 100MB of music to this player will take around 50 seconds and some of the basic operations such as playing and skipping of the tracks are very straight forward.
Package
A software is bundled along with this MP3 player that has a device manager, a small application that becomes a part of your start-up program. This does very little other than updating your firmware. The instruction manual that comes with the player is well presented and is very informative too.
Awesome battery:
The battery life of the player is an absolute blast. It gives you a whooping 45 hours of audio playback in a single charge.
Verdict:
It is a very affordable player and if the question is between the Apple iPod Shuffle and Philips SA2820, you can easily pick up Philips SA2820 2GB Black Colour Flash MP3 Player. But if Philips SA2820 competes with Creative’s Zen Stone Plus or SanDisk’s Sansa Clip, SA2820’s blots are too much to justify itself as a better MP3 player. If you love heavy bass you can opt this, but if you are looking for an exercise friendly player, look for shuffle or something else. The price is too attractive for a player of this capacity and brand.
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Philips GoGear SA2820/02 2GB MP3 Player - Technical Specifications, Features
| Manufacturer | Philips |
| Model Name | Philips SA2820 |
| Type | MP3 and WMA Playback |
| Product type | Flash MP3 Player |
| Display | Monochrome OLED, 128×64 pixels |
| Dimensions(H x W x D) | 41×41x15 mm |
| Weight | 27 grams |
| Body material | Plastic |
| Colour | Black |
| Equaliser Settings | Classic; Funk; Hip Hop; Jazz; Rock |
| Memory capacity | 2GB |
| Supported audio formats | MP3, WAV, unprotected WMA |
| Supported image formats | None |
| Audio recording | Yes |
| Audio output | Ear phones |
| Interfaces | USB 2.0 High-Speed Device |
| Operating system | Microsoft windows 2000 ,XP, Vista |
| Convenience | Earphones; neck strap |
| Battery type | Lithium ion polymer |
| Battery life | Audio up to 45 hours |
| Package contents | MP3 Player with earphone USB 2.0 cable Installation CD |
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