Review: Philips Gogear SA9200 mp3 player

In the endless pursuit of perfection, the mp3 player market seems to have come to the conclusion that Apple knows best – or, perhaps, that the easiest way to convert an iPod fan is to provide a similar-looking alternative. We’ve seen a swathe of nano clones over the past few months and the latest is Philips’ 2GB Gogear SA9200.

Where other rivals focus on offering more features at a lower price, Philips has taken a different route by targeting style and usability. As a result you get a fantastic-looking player that apes the dimensions and weight of the nano, and is the closest we’ve seen yet to a like for like alternative.

The drawback is that it’s pretty low on features; an mp3 player and photo viewer is all you’ll find here, omitting many of the additional tools found on the various iPod players.

The Gogear SA9200’s effective design is backed up by attractive fade-to-black controls and a touch-sensitive slide. The latter is an alternative to Apple’s iPod wheel and works extremely well; we first saw it in action on the impressive Philips HDD6320 mp3 player.

The colour screen is sharp and vibrant, while audio quality is also very good. It is, however, worth nothing that even at maximum volume it isn’t particularly loud, which may be a problem in noisy environments.

You’re given a few options for configuring the colour display by changing the skin or adding album art to accompany tunes, and you also have good control over playlists, song ratings and equalizer settings. Battery life stands at around 14 hours.

Overall the Gogear SA9200 is very easy to use and has the potential to appeal to those who want a nano alternative without sacrificing style. But Philips hasn’t been at all competitive in terms of pricing - a 2GB model will currently set you back £170, which is about what you’d pay for an 8GB nano.

In this light, and despite the build quality and great looks, it’s impossible to recommend the Philips over nano, or indeed other rivals like the Sansa e280 from Sandisk, purely in terms of what you get for your money.

Also consider:
Sandisk Sansa e280
Sandisk squares up to the iPod nano with an 8GB powerhouse

Samsung K5
A stylish music player with a built in slide-out speaker

Apple iPod nano
A modest cosmetic upgrade, but the competitive pricing should guarantee success for the new iPod nano

All multimedia player reviews

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