Philips GoGear SA1VBE (4 GB) Digital Media Player
- Number of Songs: 1000
- Usage: Music Video Recording Photo Viewing
- Interface: USB 2.0
- Screen Size: 1.5 inch
- Main Storage Type: Built-in Memory
- Storage Capacity: 4 GB
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Incredible bargain that's not without fault
Pros
Low cost, good sound, excellent battery life
Cons
Small screen makes little sense for videos, lousy FM radio
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
Not a perfect player, but its shortcomings are more than made up for by its low price.
I really had a hard time deciding how many stars to rate the GoGear Vibe. On the one hand, it's far more device than you have any right to expect for $40. On the other, it has some features that aren't very useful because of shortcomings of the device.
As a music player, it's excellent. I bought it to use in the car (instead of running down my Blackberry) with a cassette adaptor (remember those?), and it sounds excellent when plugged up this way. It will play MP3, WMA, and some DRM formats like Rhapsody (I wish it were as versatile as my Rio Karma, but that player is especially versatile with audio formats). It outputs a far more powerful signal that way than my Blackberry does without clipping, and I've set the volume on it where its volume level matches that of radio stations when I switch back. The Blackberry couldn't do that. It's tiny and very light weight, and I've velcroed it to the console. I have no reason to think that is insufficient. I have used it now for several hours and the battery is still 75% full. The battery is an internal Lithium-polymer battery that recharges through USB. My only complaint about it in the car is that it's a little difficult to use the 4-way control with it on the console. When held in the hand, you work this control by squeezing the player and that works well. When it's softly supported from behind by the velcro, the button presses sometimes don't register correctly.
I also used it for a couple of hours with headphones to familiarize myself with it before putting it in the car. I found it to have an excellent sound and the controls are responsive. The screen is very small, low resolution, and does not have strong contrast. Only the very shortest of song titles fit onscreen without scrolling. This is not too big a deal for most music playing use. Unlike when playing with the cassette adaptor, it did not seem to have a stronger signal when playing through headphones. This is probably due to a difference in impedance between the headphones and adaptor, and how each headphone amp handles that. I won't often use it with headphones, but I'm pleased with how good it sounds. It has several EQ presets and a manual 5-band EQ which all worked well. It is easy to search the music several different ways, and it has a shuffle function. Files of all types can be easily deleted without hooking up to a computer.
It is also a video player, but I wouldn't consider it a very good one. The 1.5" screen is just not good enough for this to be a huge deal to me. The framerate is fine, but the lack of contrast and resolution make it generally pointless to play video this way. It can also display pictures, and the same complaints apply. The included software converts videos to the player's format fairly slowly, too. The only big deal to this device video wise is that you can download videos from YouTube with the included software and convert them to play on the Vibe. For some people, that could be a huge selling point if the screen were sharper and more contrasty. Fitting a better screen would add cost, so it's probably better that the screen is small.
This device also includes an FM radio that was a bit disappointing as well. The memory slots for the tuner can only be programmed automatically, which means that the only stations that can be set to memory are the ones which are strong enough to reach the auto scan threshold. Tuning can be done manually, but can't then be stored to memory even if it sounds ok. Some stations sounded fine even if they weren't strong enough to tune automatically, but it wasn't a very sensitive tuner. It is a stereo tuner, but does not have an indicator to show when it's getting a stereo signal. The manual and webpage show it as having RDS features that I've not seen in action, but it's entirely possible that none of the stations around here use RDS and the out of town stations that do don't come in strong enough to let the RDS work.
The included USB cord is just 2" long, but I have several other cords that work properly with this device. It's small and light enough that it can be used hanging from the included USB cord. It came with a pair of cheap earbud headphones of the kind that I just don't use because they're uncomfortable.
For $40, it's an excellent 4GB rechargeable music player. I feel like it was a bargain even if the other features aren't that great. The battery life seems excellent so far, it sounds good, and it's certainly small and handy enough. Don't be swayed to purchase this over another because of its video or FM radio, though. They aren't good enough for that to be a big deal.
As a music player, it's excellent. I bought it to use in the car (instead of running down my Blackberry) with a cassette adaptor (remember those?), and it sounds excellent when plugged up this way. It will play MP3, WMA, and some DRM formats like Rhapsody (I wish it were as versatile as my Rio Karma, but that player is especially versatile with audio formats). It outputs a far more powerful signal that way than my Blackberry does without clipping, and I've set the volume on it where its volume level matches that of radio stations when I switch back. The Blackberry couldn't do that. It's tiny and very light weight, and I've velcroed it to the console. I have no reason to think that is insufficient. I have used it now for several hours and the battery is still 75% full. The battery is an internal Lithium-polymer battery that recharges through USB. My only complaint about it in the car is that it's a little difficult to use the 4-way control with it on the console. When held in the hand, you work this control by squeezing the player and that works well. When it's softly supported from behind by the velcro, the button presses sometimes don't register correctly.
I also used it for a couple of hours with headphones to familiarize myself with it before putting it in the car. I found it to have an excellent sound and the controls are responsive. The screen is very small, low resolution, and does not have strong contrast. Only the very shortest of song titles fit onscreen without scrolling. This is not too big a deal for most music playing use. Unlike when playing with the cassette adaptor, it did not seem to have a stronger signal when playing through headphones. This is probably due to a difference in impedance between the headphones and adaptor, and how each headphone amp handles that. I won't often use it with headphones, but I'm pleased with how good it sounds. It has several EQ presets and a manual 5-band EQ which all worked well. It is easy to search the music several different ways, and it has a shuffle function. Files of all types can be easily deleted without hooking up to a computer.
It is also a video player, but I wouldn't consider it a very good one. The 1.5" screen is just not good enough for this to be a huge deal to me. The framerate is fine, but the lack of contrast and resolution make it generally pointless to play video this way. It can also display pictures, and the same complaints apply. The included software converts videos to the player's format fairly slowly, too. The only big deal to this device video wise is that you can download videos from YouTube with the included software and convert them to play on the Vibe. For some people, that could be a huge selling point if the screen were sharper and more contrasty. Fitting a better screen would add cost, so it's probably better that the screen is small.
This device also includes an FM radio that was a bit disappointing as well. The memory slots for the tuner can only be programmed automatically, which means that the only stations that can be set to memory are the ones which are strong enough to reach the auto scan threshold. Tuning can be done manually, but can't then be stored to memory even if it sounds ok. Some stations sounded fine even if they weren't strong enough to tune automatically, but it wasn't a very sensitive tuner. It is a stereo tuner, but does not have an indicator to show when it's getting a stereo signal. The manual and webpage show it as having RDS features that I've not seen in action, but it's entirely possible that none of the stations around here use RDS and the out of town stations that do don't come in strong enough to let the RDS work.
The included USB cord is just 2" long, but I have several other cords that work properly with this device. It's small and light enough that it can be used hanging from the included USB cord. It came with a pair of cheap earbud headphones of the kind that I just don't use because they're uncomfortable.
For $40, it's an excellent 4GB rechargeable music player. I feel like it was a bargain even if the other features aren't that great. The battery life seems excellent so far, it sounds good, and it's certainly small and handy enough. Don't be swayed to purchase this over another because of its video or FM radio, though. They aren't good enough for that to be a big deal.
