Philips GoGear SA6025

Launch price £90.00

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Stuff says

Good value and smartly designed, the SA6025 sadly falls down on audio and video performance

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There are a lot of decent MP3 players around, but they all suffer from one fundamental flaw: they’re not iPods. To go up against an iconic market-leader like the Apple, a product had better have one or two significant tricks up its sleeve if it’s not going to get completely overlooked.

The Philips GoGear SA6025 has two big plusses on its side: it’s very inexpensive considering its specification, and it looks really good. This glossy piano-black finish is likely to date as quickly as a reality show winner, but for now it looks the part.

Thanks for the memory
Memory is an adequate 2GB and, as well as MP3 files, the SA6025 can play WMV files via its big 2.2in screen and is also packing an FM radio tuner. Our preliminary investigations reveal more good news.

The PC-only software is a sight more intuitive than some of the Philips’ obvious rivals can manage, and the ergonomics are bang on too. Only the black finish’s enthusiasm for collecting greasy fingerprints like some crazed forensic scientist spoils the winning first impressions.

Lacklustre performer
In pure performance terms, though, the Philips loses ground. With 2GB of memory to play with, music is almost certainly going to be stored at 128kbps or less – and at that compression ratio, the sound comprehensively fails to impress.

Even with the help of headphones that feel like they’re burrowing into your head, the SA6025 can’t summon up more than vague, dull thumping where we’d hoped for a bassline. Low frequencies lack definition and character, giving the impression that tempos are plodding rather than sprinting.