Philips GoGear SA5245BT

Visual
JPEGs and video can be easily viewed on the SA5245BT. With normal pictures it’s as simple as copy and paste, though opening high-res image files does take a bit of time. If you do happen to notice jagged edges in professional high-res images, it's an indicator that the player is not really designed for professionals. However, images from your personal digicam or mobile phone will look fine enough.

What I found to be a bit of a disappointment (but only a little bit) was the video conversion. The converter and device manager worked like a charm on my home PC, but not in the office for some reason. The converted videos didn’t look as good as I’d hoped, though they weren’t altogether bad. You can start any video stored onboard from the point of interruption, which is a definite bonus.

If your videos aren’t adjusted to a 4:3 aspect ratio you’re going to end up losing most of the screen. Naturally, on a portable video player the last thing you want is empty space on a small screen. The converter does give you the option to choose the size, provided the software can locate your device.

Connectivity
The SA5245BT supports Bluetooth v2.0+EDR and profiles for both A2DP (listening to audio via a Stereo Bluetooth headset) and AVRCP (Audio/Video Remote Control Profile) for controlling other Bluetooth enabled devices. This is the device's best feature, and is always accessible via the quick access menu.

You can send and receive videos/images and music from your mobile phone or any other BT device. If you're sending data from the player you can select multiple options and simply let the transfer process continue. You can’t really do anything while transfers are in progress.

Battery
I’ve never had much faith in the battery life claimed by companies. In fact, sometimes I wonder if they randomly pick a number! The GoGear website states that the SA5245BT can provide 30 hours of nonstop audio, which would have been simply awesome. But my tests clocked it at little over 19 hours, which is still very good.

The SA5245BT will allow you to watch at least two full-length movies and still get about an hour's worth of battery life. However, these tests don’t involve the use of a Bluetooth headset. With BT enabled, you can expect a considerable drop in battery life.

The Bottomline
Available in a 4GB version, the SA5245BT is reasonably priced at Rs 7,205. With good audio quality, a decent battery, Bluetooth, an FM radio with a recorder – and all of them working well, besides – this is one of the better players I’ve reviewed.