Ever Experience An Aural Orgasm For Less Than $75.00?
Written: Feb 26 '07
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Pros: Awesome sound, seven display colors, light-weight, inexpensive.
Cons: No 'hold' button, controls revert to main screen too quickly.
The Bottom Line: Looking for an easy to operate MP3 player but don't want to spend a ton of money? The SA4010 is definitely the way to go.
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| Freak369's Full Review: Philips SA4010 (1 GB) MP3 Player |
As much as I love my Skull Candy 360-CD Personal CD Player and Sony Psyc Gleam Black CD Player, I really wanted an MP3 player so I could have massive amounts of music with me when I am out running. Sure, I could fit about twelve to fifteen tracks on a CD but that doesn't compare to over two hundred that I have managed to shove onto this. When I bought this I had my eye on a different Philips 1 gig player but they were sold out of it; then the clerk pointed out this one and said it was ten dollars less and they had never had any complaints about them. Knowing that I am a complete moron when it comes to things like this I called my friend and asked him to check it out and see if it would be something that I would be able to use; he gave me the thumbs up, I handed over my credit card and walked out with a very small, very cute and very easy to operate MP3 player.
Philips SA4010 1 GB MP3 Player
I'm a girl but I'm not a girlie girl. Anything that has different light settings, can fit in the palm of my hand and is even slightly entertaining appeals to me. I had my eye on a different MP3 player but they were sold out of it; there is still a small part of me that wishes I would have held off and waited for more to come in stock because this one is not a true USB MP3 player meaning that you have to use a cable [someone called it a firewire and I was hooked because of the cool name] to connect it to the USB port on your computer. I am not a computer person and have never had great luck installing software that comes with printers, keyboards or anything computer related. That holds true with this MP3 player; when I went to load the software for it I was told that I needed to download software packet one; something that I assume is linked to Microsoft XP [no, I still hate it, it has failed to grow on me and I want Windows 98 back]. After the first few attempts I made to load the software I decided to go to the website and just get the drivers or programs I needed from there. Join me in a hearty laugh.
That's when I called one of my geeky friends and got the best advice on this MP3 player. Unplug it, restart the computer and wait for the window to pop up to ask you what you want to do with it; use Windows Media Player or select other options. As long as I can get it to recognize the MP3 player in the 'my computer' section, I am set. I just open up 'my documents' then go to the music file, right click the mouse and use the 'send to' option. Songs take about five seconds to transfer but you don't want to leave this continually plugged into the computer because it does drain the battery. When you hook this up to the computer you will see two icons on the screen letting you know that there is a link between the player and the computer; to me that's there just for show because when I had it hooked up the first time I saw that but the computer wasn't recognizing it. This is the same way that I have to use the DXG Technology DVC-202V Digital Camera when I upload photos. Sure it can be a real pain but hey, as long as the job gets done, to me that's all that matters.
According to Philips you can have up to 460 songs but there are little asterisks next to that so you know that there are a lot of circumstances that revolve around that magical number. Per the back of the box it says, "Available storage capacity will be less. Capacity based on 4 minutes per song and 64 kbps WMA" Right now I have about 190 songs on this [average song, 3 minutes] and when I checked the available memory, it says that I have 771 MB left. You can access this by going to the system icon on the screen and scrolling until you see the information prompt. Using the menus isn't hard but the buttons that you press on the side of the MP3 player are a little on the small side. My only problem with the menus is that you don't have enough time to read through things before it reverts back to the main screen. Outside of that, this thing is so sweet I sweat it is giving me cavities. The shape of it is nice too; from the image shown here it looks flat but it isn't; it has a slightly oval shape to it and lots of curves. Look out J-Lo, this thing is going to give you a run for your money!
Battery Power & Life
This comes with one AAA sized Philips alkaline battery and it lasted about seven hours before the on screen display started to show that it was close to dying. Subsequent batteries have lasted about five hours but when I ordered more Duracell ProCell AA batteries I also added some AAA sized ones to the order and they last on average of about twelve hours. Considering that this only runs on one battery it means that it's light weight but doesn't suck the life out of the battery. Sliding the battery case door open is easy but it's not so easy that a child will be able to get into it. There isn't a lock on the door so if you have ingenious children that are forever figuring out how to dismantle things, you may want to keep this some place that they won't have access to.
Volume
I am not going to say that you are going to get an incredible amount of volume from this, sure, you are going to have something that is loud but not something that is really going to have your brain rattling. I am going to look into getting a pair of headphones that have a volume control on them; this was I can squeak out a little more volume from this. A lot of the volume depends on the equalizer and the setting that you choose for it. You can choose from rock, classical, jazz, pop or have it off. Oddly enough, when you have it in the off setting you get the most sound from it. The on screen display shows you the slider bar when you raise or lower the volume but there are no numbers on it so you have to sort of start at the middle and see how loud or soft you want it.
Headphones
These come with standard ear bud headphones that I immediately tossed in the drawer. Why? I had them before and the left one would always fall out with the slightest of movement. To be fair and give an honest review, I did wear them to the gym with this and as I expected, the left one kept falling out. I can't completely fault the ear buds for this, I just have weird ears. No matter what type of headphones I used with the player, the sound was great so if you like the vertical or ear bud headphones, you are going to get great sound. Philips really screwed up by putting these ultra cheap headphones in with this player; it wouldn’t have cost them more than a few pennies to have the over the ear style and give the consumer something that is not only comfortable to wear but something that is going to last.
Price
I had to start digging to find the receipt; it was tagged at $59.99 so it's something that I consider affordable yet very user friendly. The warranty that comes with it is nice; ninety days from the date of purchase for defects. Ninety days might not sound like a lot but you will be able to know if it is defective out of the box or within the first week of use. The store that I purchased this from offers a 30 day return on electronics where some others only offer ten or fifteen days; it's recommended that you return it to the store if possible rather than sending it to Philips for exam and repair or replacement. For about $64.00 I walked out of the store with something that I know is going to last at least two years and is going to make my CD players extremely jealous. The only thing that could make this better is if Philips would package it with an MP3 carrying case; I got a Case Logic one for $4.99 but having one with the unit would be a big selling point.
The Bottom Line
The price is low, the quality is great and you can fit a tremendous amount of music on it. Sure it would be nice if I could plug it directly into the USB port and it would have been nice if the software would have worked but hey, I can't really complain about this because it has worked perfectly for me. Even if you have a ton of music, this thing will be able to handle it. I like being able to choose the color of my screen [orange, green, red, cobalt, white etc] and you can have it display a myriad of different languages. Programming it and setting it up the way you like it doesn’t require reading the manual so if you are like me and want to jump right into using something, this won't fry too many brain cells in the process. For teens, this is a great pick because they can plug it in and load up what ever they want in short amount of time and you won't have to wonder what all those unlabeled discs are that are laying around the house.
This fits in the palm of my hand so I can click to the next song without having to even look at it, just move my thumb a little and I'm off to the next track. I like the way the artist and name of the song scroll across the screen [this is how you have them labeled in your computer] and that I can choose to have the songs repeat or play at random. The membrane that covers the port for the USB cable isn't cheaply made so I don't think I am going to have to worry about it breaking any time soon. Above and beyond all that I've said about it, it's so freaking cute! Yes, there, I had a girlie moment and said that it was cute. The good points greatly outnumber the bad ones but for the price, you really can't bash this thing too much. I searched and search the body of the player for a hold button so that I wouldn't accidentally advance a track or adjust the volume when I was running but couldn't find one. There is indeed a hold button but you have to access it from one of the main screens. I guess technology has flown past the old school 'hold' slider button.
As always, thanks for the visit…
~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~
© 2007 Freak369
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SkullCandy Ear Buds
Philips Personal CD Player
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 59.99
Recommended for: Music Lovers - High Capacity Storage for an Entire Album Collection
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