Philips SA3RGA04K/37 GoGear Raga 4 GB MP3 Player

• Soft and smooth finish for easy comfort and handling
• Full color display for intuitive and enjoyable navigation
• Up to 22-hour music playback
• FM radio with 20 presets for more music options

Disclosure: I received this product free of charge with an expectation that I would review it.

First off, I have no idea why any manufacturer would make an mp3 player that only has 2 gigs in it. That ship has sailed. 4GB is a minimum nowadays, with 8GB becoming the norm. Whatever product manager thought that was a good idea should probably move on, and out of the technology realm...

For sake of a fair evaluation, I'll be comparing this Philips Raga to my mp3 player of choice, the SanDisk Sansa Fuze . From a functionality standpoint, the Raga offers everything you'd want in an mp3 player: easy to navigate menus, options for playlists, shuffle vs linear vs repeat, drill down into directories (or genres/artists/whatever to find the song(s) you want to play.) Basically, all the basic functionality is here. (And quite frankly, it seems like the difference between the functionality between Sansa and Philips is nothing only the menus and how to traverse them are different.)

And the basic functionality is really what you're getting with the Raga. Personally, a couple of the features that may seem "blah" are awesome, and I wish my Fuze had them: (1) When plugging the Raga into your machine (USB, no software required), it asks if you want to "Charge and Transfer Songs" or "Charge and Listen To Music." (2) The power button is also the "hold" button. Pressing it once quickly makes it so all the other buttons don't do anything. Great if you stow the little thing into your pocket. (3) It actually came with an arm band and a perfect-fitting case.

The sound quality of the playback is arguably better than the Sansa, but it may come down to preference. (The Sansa has a EQ that you can customize, though.) Compared with the competitor, this Philips Raga has a much more full sound to it, most likely the result of a fuller/deeper bass. (Based on using the same headphones between units, and plugging it into my car stereo.) The headphones are very high quality.

It's a great little player, with a couple of things that I don't like but it comes down to personal preference. Again, 2GB is ridiculous. At time of this review, the 4GB unit is within one dollar of the 2GB unit; yesterday, the 4GB unit was four cents cheaper. Also, I'm used to a larger screen. This unit is more comparable to the SanDisk Sansa Clip+ in overall form factor and a screen that displays about 4 lines at a time. Makes for a much smaller unit, but it comes down to personal preference.

I'd certainly recommend this unit to others EXCEPT the 2GB unit. Get at least the 4GB one. There's plenty of competition out there, but nothing on this unit would steer me away from it. It'll probably be my backup unit, only because of its limited memory.

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For what you are paying for, this little mp3 is a good deal. It comes with a handy armband so you can wear it while gardening or working out without fumbling in your pockets or the fear of losing it. It provides enough straps to enable it to be worn on the wrist, the arm or on a belt.

It's small, simple and easy to use. The screen is small but legible. The interface is intuitive.

You don't have to use Songbird. I just plug this into my PC and load up songs like it's an external HDD.

To my surprise, the sound quality is quite good with a large volume range.

The locking function is a little awkward as you cannot see if it is locked or unlocked by looking at the player on the screen. Also, the "lock" function doesn't lock the volume tuning.

It also doesn't seem to have an accelerated fast forward mode. I guess this is a little inconvenient for people listening to audio book.

All in all, if you want a simple straightforward player with long battery life that you don't have to worry too much about, this is a great option. I'd certainly recommend this unit to others EXCEPT the 2GB unit. Get at least the 4GB one.

Read Best Reviews of Philips SA3RGA04K/37 GoGear Raga 4 GB MP3 Player Here

Just wanted to clarify a few features of this player. It's small, simple and easy to use. This isn't a high-end fancy machine just a basic MP3 player. It's lightweight but feels well made. The interface is intuitive and the sound is excellent much better than expected.

Two key points I wanted to make, since they weren't clear from the reviews or info.

1. This is Mac compatible.

2. You don't *have* to use Songbird. I almost didn't purchase this because I really dislike propriety software (*cough* *cough* MP3 player made by giant software corporation), but turns out I can plug this into my Mac and load up songs like it's an external HDD.

If you want a simple straightforward player with long battery life that you don't have to worry too much about, this is a great option.

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This product isn't bad for the price. I bought this for everyday use. I like to listen to podcasts when I am doing random chores around the house and I put music on it for the gym. I don't need video, overly complicated playlists, or any other bells and whistles. On the plus side: the sound quality is quite good, it has a large volume range, it is small and compact, and the price is quite nice. On the down side: the "lock" function doesn't include the volume, which means that when I am listening to something, lock it, and then put it in my pocket, it can still change the volume levels if I bump up against something. The entire locking function is a little awkward as you cannot see if it is locked or unlocked by looking at the player on the screen. Nothing worse than getting half way through a 3 hour podcast and then accidentally hitting the button to forward on to the next song. It also doesn't seem to have an accelerated fast forward mode. On my old Colby, when fast forwarding through something, once you got through the first 5 minutes, it would speed up and jump in 10 minute increments. That's great when you have to (as previously noted) go back to the middle point of a 3 hour podcast.

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This is one of those frustrating devices that could have been so much better. For one thing 2GB is an obsolete size. Actually it is only 1.6 GB as there is a 0.4GB overhead. Do not even consider this 2GB size. The 4GB is even too small but at least approaches a more reasonable size (8 GB or larger would have been still better). This is a revised version of my review. Initially the problems that I had (described below) caused me to only give the unit 3 stars, but since then I have used it more and its positive features have caused me to revise my thinking and give it four stars (but only for the 4GB version).

Assuming that you are getting the 4GB unit, instead of this 2 GB unit, then how good is it (assuming that the 2GB unit that I am reviewing and 4GB unit is identical except for the storage size)?

WHAT I LIKED

The size is compact and easy to use (when you figure out how).

It comes with enough straps to enable it to be worn on the wrist, the arm or on a belt.

The screen is small but legible.

The sound is good, but I have inexpensive foldable earphones that I like better because they give a richer base tone.

The FM radio works and the tuner is OK. (I would not consider a version without the radio).

WHAT I DID NOT LIKE

The software is very difficult to use. It took me more than four hours of reading the manual, putting the unit aside in frustration and then trying again, to finally figure things out. You must load songs onto the unit from the library, which was not made clear enough for me. I was inadvertently working from play lists and the queue. I feel that a better manual would have enabled me to avoid this problem. When I finally figured it out I was able to load my music, but loading was very slow.

The computer tells you when it prepares to load music, but not when it is finished loading, and if you interrupt the process (which I did) you can lock things up. You can only tell when the loading process is finished by looking at the screen on the unit, which is very difficult to do using the three inch USB cable that comes with the unit. Fortunately, I had a longer cable so that I could leave the unit where I could see the screen on the unit while it was loading music.

The manual did a very bad job of describing what the buttons on the unit do and learning to travel through the menu items was a learning experience that I am sure I will forget between the times that I use the player.

Songbird is a resource hog. With normal priority (the default setting), everything slowed to an unacceptable crawl when it was on. I was able to speed things up by putting it on the lowest priority (through the Windows task manager). Songbird is meant to be an organizer of your music and a vehicle to buy music from Phillips. However, since it slowed down my computer I only use it to install songs on the unit.

All in all I spent the better part of a day, on and off, working with this device, when on similar ones I was able to get up an running in less than an hour (often in only a few minutes).

IN SUMMARY

If you are interested in this unit only consider the 4GB model.

Be prepared for quite a bit of frustration because of a poor manual.

However, if you have patience you will be rewarded with a compact unit that works as advertised (when you get it to work).

As stated at the beginning of this review, initially the difficulties with putting music on it resulted in a 3-star rating, but upon further use (and with these initial frustrations behind me), I am raising my rating to 4-stars (for the 4GB version). All in all, the unit is handy, compact and useful.