Home > Consumer Reviews > Philips SA30 2 GB Flash Video MP3 Player with FM Radio and 1.5-Inch Color Screen (Black)

This mp3 player has one critical and stunning flaw ... it doesn't support playlists of any kind. If all you ever do is listen to an entire album, you might not mind. Everyone else will find this device almost worthless. I would add that no where in the documentation or manual is the issue of playlists ever mentioned. As if ignoring this tidbit will keep the customer happy. Buying this mp3 player is like buying a television that has 450 channels and can only go up or down one channel at a time.

Pros:
Cute Design
Good Video and Picture Quality
Great Price for 2GB of space
Great Radio Reception
User Friendly
Long Battery Life
Voice Recording Feature is cool
Very Compact

Cons:
Must Charge Battery through Computer
Poor Music File sorting

ok, first of all regarding the player lumping all of the songs into one long list without allowing you to keep them in files is NOT correct. I have several files I made with various artist for working out, or just relaxing. You can use a program such as Hellium ID 3 tag to rename your albums and song so they tag correctly and everything fits in its appropriate place. And, iTunes is an MP4 player, not an MP3...which can be converted...with the right program. You just have to know how to use your software. This player is great. Its simple and easy~ drag and drop your music and photos. I love mine, but then again, I know what I'm doing. I recommend this. It does just as much as a player twice the price. I have 21 albums on mine, 5 of which were created by me using songs from various CD's. I'm not really computer savy, but I find the Go Gear easy. I just wish they had a silicon skin for it.

I am not happy at all with this purchase. Most frustrating thing is you can't turn the darn thing off!! It is impossible. I have tried for minutes upon minutes. Customer support is worthless. Buy one with a separate on/off switch. I used to be able to get it off after several minutes but now can't turn off at all, just let it go dead and haven't used it since. I hate this thing.

Pros: Generally nice, very small, lightweight, good sound quality, when I used Sony headphones (not headphones supplied with this player) or in the car with cassette adapter. The sound frequency range feels even better then specified (80 - 18000). No problems with bass. Multilingual support.

Contras: Low battery life. It is specified up to 12 hours, but actually, only 1/4 capacity left after 4 hours. May be because of hot and humid weather. Also cannot create play lists or folders. The songs are searchable by album, artist or genre.

So I changed it to Sony, which allows search by play lists or folders, has 33 hours battery life (not tested yet), and sound frequency range 20hz-20000hz.
It is almost the same size, but march heavier, probably because it uses Li- ion battery, not Li- ion polymer, like Philips.