SanDisk Sansa e260 (4 GB) Digital Media Player

My wife and I shopped around throughout 2007 for a portable music player and found a couple that seemed perfect. We tried a Creative Labs ZEN Vision M and our daughter is on her 4th ipod. The SanDisk Sansa e200 series topped them both! Selling points were the user replaceable battery and the built in FM radio.

PROS:
1. Perfect size and weight, feels good in the hand.
2. Great disply.
3. Great sound.
4. Easy to navigate. The buttons and wheel have a click feel so that you can navigate while the unit is in your pocket.
5. Easy to load music. You can drag/drop files using Windows Explorer or synchronize music to the Sansa using Windows Media Player. Either way, the player will read each songs tagged data so that you can find a song by artist, album, genre or title.
6. No special software is needed to load songs to, and from, your Sansa. Audio tracks are not converted into a propriety format as with ipod and Zune. A file can thus be transferred between a PC and your Sansa, (in either direction - to or from), without loss of quality.
7. The Sansa e200 series can also display pictures and play video.
8. The unit has FM radio built in.
9. Includes a microphone to record voice memos.
10. The rechargeable battery has a long life and excellent time between charges. If it should fail, the battery can be replaced by the user. I believe ALL other manufactures require you to send the unit in for a battery replacement (for a substantial fee!).
11. Great reviews from both ebay and Amazon. Owners are very satisfied with the e200 series portable multimedia players, more so than for ipod, Zune, ZEN.
12. Flash based memory means INSTANT access from one song to the next, even in random mode. There is no clicking sound while waiting for the next track as with hard drive based units.
13. Micro SD memory card slot built into unit so that an entire different play list of songs, (or video), can be played without deleting some tracks to make room for the new ones. I can keep a Micro SD card on hand for different moods.
14. Playlists from Windows Media Player can be transferred to the unit and played. Great for a shared device so I don't have to listen to Brandi Carlile in the mix and my wife does not get subjected to my Grand Fund Railroad while on random.

CONS:
The packaged ear buds, while sounding great, can get uncomfortable after awhile.

For a list of software types that the Sansa e200 series player can play, visit: http://www.sandisk.com/sansa/f​aq/faq18.asp

BOTTOM LINE:
Still one of the best portable multimedia players you can buy. User satisfaction and dependability much better than competitors and this unit is even better than the newer Sansa View series.

The SanDisk Sansa e200 series multimedia player is one of the best and easiest to use media devices on the market. There is no need to convert music to proprietary file extensions and the unit comes with an FM receiver. The unit does not need to be sent in to the manufacturer for battery replacement, you can do this yourself should the battery stop recharging properly. It has 2 to 8 GB of flash memory, not hard drive memory, so no clicking or waiting between songs, (great for random play mode!). It has great sound and a nice color display. Get one!

Sandisk must have been brave. They introduced a MP3 player right in the middle of the iPod Nano hype, with similar dimensions, and similar market targets. In reality, the Sansa is exactly the same size as the Nano, being only 3mm thicker, and a bit rounder than the iPod rival. And what do you get for that extra 3mm? Well, a whole lot really.

For starters, you get a much larger screen, that not only displays your normal MP3 functions, but is also for playing your videos. Yes. Load up the Sandisk-bundled CD, and you have a 3rd-party program that converts all your favorite videos into a format readable by the Sansa. Mind you, the screen really isn't cut for a movie flick, but it's more than enough to show your friends what you caught on YouTube last night. Besides that, the brightness is also adjustable, rather than a simple on/off. Make it brighter in morning for legibility, turn it down at night to save power.

Sound wise, the player is great. As you know, Apple players just aren't cut for the bass sounds. With a expensive set of Shures, Sure, but then anything will sound powerful with the Shures. Even with the good quality earbuds that Apple supplied (which works well with the Sansa) the bass still manages to sound closer to flactuance. With the Sansa e200, it's a different story. Pretty much any buds will sound great with the player, including its own. The EQ works rather well too, it doesn't seem to consume any more power and it gives me my bass. Rather than saying "Sounds are rich", I'll just cut the crap and say the Bass is great, vocals are good and the treble is awesome. You can't go wrong with that.

Using the Sansa e is like using an iPod, but change all the white backgrounds in the screen into pictures and a whole ton of settings for you to personalize your music experience. Same story with the controls, except you get mechanical components rather than a touchpad. Touch is cool, but sometimes it lacks feel. And if it's for looks, the translucent ring wheel on the Sansa glows deep blue while you use it. Looks good to me.

The ease of use is one of my favorite things about the player. Rather than being ONLY compatible with iTunes, Sandisk made it easy so you just drag and drop. You CAN use Rhapsody, Windows Media and Napster, but you can also just open the music folder and dump everything into the player with a simple click and a drag. The player also works the moment you plug it into the computer. Drivers are not needed for windows XP and above.

The fact that you can expand the memory is a nice touch. With a MicroSD/TransFlash slot on the side, you CAN buy small now, and expand it later on when you run into more money for the memory.

Lastly, none of that extra thickness was really used for achieving any of the above. The extra thickness was only for the better; it helps enlarge the battery compartment, which is home to a very juicy rechargeable Lithium-ion battery that just doesnt seem to run out of power. And the better news is, you don't need to pay Apple hundreds of dollars to replace it. Loosen the screws on the metal backing, and you can do it yourself for a fraction of the cost.

And with all of that, you pay... less than the Nano.

So, if you've missed the iPod bandwagon, it's ok, because it's an expensive ride.

Really, the price just doesn't justify the functions that Sandisk managed to stuff into this thing.

It's small, black, and comes in sizes of 2, 4, 6 or 8Gb's.

My only reason to buy this MP3 player was to use it with RockBox, a Linux based firmware that amongst other things, allows you to play FLAC files. The reason why I choose the Sansa e200 and not the ipod or others was the FM radio built in, removable battery, color screen and micro SD slot.

For me the most important aspect of any music player is the sound quality. It's not the best I've heard, but is better than the ipod's I've heard so far. Obviously, it helps to use FLAC files and a good headset.

I was quite happy to find out that upgrading the firmware was a very easy process, and you can actually dual boot between the original firmware and rockbox, so you never loose any original functionality. Also, with Rockbox you can now use SDHC cards, bumping the maximum SD size from 2GB to 32GB, which is pretty decent. The video also plays flawlessly.

Another pretty neat feature is the recording, that turns the player into a regular digital recorder.

The only not that great aspects about this player is the navigation, it's not always intuitive, and the LCD screen, it's not very bright and you really need to look straight at it.

In the end, it was a very good surprise to find such a great combination of player and firmware, and I'm already looking to find the 8GB model, since FLAC's take quite a lot of space.

This is my second mp3 player, and it's quite attractive. When i bought the sansa e260, it had better features than the ipod nano. For instance, the sansa could play videos, and the ipod nano could not. However, the new nano can now play videos. There are still a few features that the nano does not possess. The e260 has add-on memory via a micro-sd card. This model supports up to 2 GB. The expandable memory is an great feature, but you cannot add songs from the e260 directly onto the memory card. The e260 also has an radio tuner which the ipod also lacks. As i have stated, the e260 is quite durable. I am quite clumsy, and have dropped this four or five times. Nethertheless, the e260 hasn't seen a scratch; thanks to the steel back, and rugged design. If you're looking for a flash and small player, then get the nano. However, if you're looking for an durable, full featured player, then buy the Sandisk Sansa e260.

First, let me say that I love Sandisk products. They are reasonably priced and they have always worked flawlessly for me.

Second, I was looking for an MP3 player to replace my 1GB e140 player (a fabulous little machine) beacuse I needed a higher storage capacity, and it would only go as high as 2GB. So I looked around and decided that I wanted another MP3 player (non-iPod because I don't like the way they work after playing with the various types that my friends own), and decided on SanDisk due to previous experiences with the brand.

What I wanted:
~easy to use
~easy to recharge
~would play all of my music
~decent battery life
~adaptable storage capacity

What I found with this device:
~very easy to use. I didn't even need the software they included - I just plug it into my computer and load the files onto the player. Easy peasy.
~easy to recharge, yet not so easy to recharge. This is only because I travel a lot, and it only comes with a USB hookup for recharging. I have a long daily commute and don't take my laptop with me, so I bought off-brand wall adaptors seperately which work perfectly for me. The USB hookup works beautifully for me... it just means I have to be near a computer. it also takes a while to recharge (my old player took AAA batteries, so I might be biased on this). The only complaint I have is that you cannot listen while it is recharging via the USB hookup - again, another reason to get the wall adaptor.
~plays the majority of my music. I do have some files that won't load, but it plays over 95% of my music, so I'm happy.
~decent battery life. So far, the only way I've run it completely flat was accidentally leaving it playing overnight. Recharging it during the day via the wall adaptor allows me to listen as it recharges.
~easy to change the storage capacity - just add a mini SD card... which I haven't needed yet, but they are in all of my local tech stores, so I know I can find one easily.

The only complaint I have overall is that there is a moving wheel (similar function to the iPod wheel) that irritates me sometimes, but not enough to stop using the device. I haven't used the earphones that came with it either - I had my own set that I prefer.

If you've had other SanDisk devices and liked how they worked, you will like this device.

Bottom line, it works well and it's less expensive than alternatives.