The GoGear does deliver built-in voice recording that encodes 32Kbps mono WAV files to a dedicated directory accessible from the GoGear's start-up screen. Unfortunately, there's no line-in recording function which, again, the Zen Nano Plus includes.
Thankfully, the GoGear does include fast USB 2.0 transfer speeds, along with support for Windows Media Player Plays for Sure and WMA DRM10 subscription content. There's also playlist support, shuffle and repeat modes, and four equaliser presets: rock, jazz, pop and classical -- none particularly compelling.
Performance
The GoGear SA4000 series' included earbuds sound predictably thin. Using our test Etymotic ER6i isolating earphones, however, we could hear plenty of musical detail, especially in the middle to high range (vocals, strings and percussion really stood out in the mix).
We started looking through the equaliser presets to add some low end to the somewhat flat sound, but were disappointed to find all the presets noticeably quiet. All seemed to drop the playback volume by a few decibels, pulling the music's energy back rather than forward. We tried playback using a cushy, closed-ear headphone, which added some of the low end we were looking for and increased stereo spatialisation.
While removing the headphones from the minijack, we noticed that the GoGear produces a sharp, crackling pop in the headphones while plugging or unplugging. We experimented with a few different headphone types and a few different brands of players, and while temporary connection noise is fairly common, we felt the GoGear's was pronounced enough to mention.
We found the GoGear's voice recording easy to use, and it produced fair results despite allowing no control over recording gain and no choice of recording-quality formats. Our test recording did sound a little muffled when played back, however.
Battery life is rated at an unimpressive 10 hours.
Edited by Lindsey Turrentine
Additional editing by Nick Hide
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