SanDisk Sansa e260 4 GB MP3 Player with MicroSD Expansion Slot (Black
by SanDisk
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Our Price: $259.96 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $52.99 (click here) Category: Network Media Player See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of SanDisk Sansa e260 4 GB MP3 Player with MicroSD Expansion Slot (Black
Customer Review: This is the DMP I've been looking for!
Summary: 4 Stars
I've been through TONS of MP3 players and I've got to say that unless something drastic happens, I've found the player I've always wanted. That's not to say it's perfect and I'll get into the cons a little later, but it's pretty much exactly what I've been looking for.
Simply put the Sansa is awesome. Everything about the player is just "cool."
The screen is Bright and vivid, if a bit small. You can see what's playing, adjust settings, volume, view playlists and just about everything else on the brightest sunny day.
Sound is excellent for a flash-based player and includes several preset EQ settings as well as a custom EQ.
Playing music is a breeze. Just select the music icon on the screen and from there you can play your own, pre-edited playlists, play music based on your ratings of tunes. Play all songs in a particular style or genre, or just choose an artist or album to listen to.
Once you're playing music, the Sansa will display album art if you've got an actual picture file associated with the artist or album, otherwise the screen is just a simple progress bar with the artists name, album name and track name listed on the screen. The menus can be a bit difficult to get into as you sometimes need to hit the power/menu button to back up or escape to a sub menu.
Once you're jamming, there is nothing more annoying than having one of the buttons accidentally activated by a wrong move or accidental button press, especially if you listen to long podcasts or long mp3 tracks. Well, Sansa's got ya covered. There is a sliding "lock" switch on the player that locks the buttons so you can't skip to the next track accidentally or throw the volume into the extreme level by bumping into something.
The player includes an FM tuner, but it's fairly weak as there is no extendable antenna, but it will work for powerful or local stations.
There is a voice recorder, FM tuner recorder, video player and photo player.
The photo player seems a bit useless because of the size of the screen but it might be a nice thing to occasionally show someone some digital pictures you've taken and stored away on your mp3 player... Then again, maybe not.
The Video player is a great addition, but again it is limited by the size of the screen the player has. It does an admirable job of displaying your movies, tv shows, ect that you upload to the device via the media conversion software included in the device, that is if you can get it to work correctly. The software also can bloat your videos, especially if you are converting AVI files or Divx files... It's still a great addition that give the Sansa a bit of an edge over the Ipod Nano which Sandisk is hoping to compete with.
Now there are a few issues.
The firmware on my player was old when I opened the box and as per sandisks' instructions I connected to the web, downloaded the firmware update software and launched the update on my device. Within a few hours my player was stopping and shutting down every so many minutes while playing tunes and eventually the Main Image of the device failed.
This was resolved in less than an hour by contacting Sandisk and getting the original firmware back.
Be advised that things CAN go wrong with the newer firmware version. Update at your own risk. I'll try it again in the future to see if it was just a bad upgrade or if there was some kind of error between my computer and the player when last I updated the firmware.
Also, the wheel that you use to navigate the menus and adjust the volume with just feels odd. If you open the case you'll see that it's basically just a gear that drives a switch, but it's kinda iffy at times. the button placement as a little too close to the scroll wheel, so if you have medium or large fingers it can be hard to hit the play/pause, forward, back and menu buttons.
Finally, there is no Audible Audio support, so if you have any Audible Audio books, you cannot listen to them on this player. When I connected to Audible to attempt to download my library of audio books to the device, Audible's Download Manager told me that the E200 series players are not compatible with Audible without a Firmware update. Well, that update didn't let me listen to audible books and cause other errors that ended up with the device crashing.
If not for the firmware issue I had and the button placement, this would be a full on 5 star product. As it stands now, this is the best MP3 player I've ever owned, even if I have to keep my small RCA "Thumb drive" player for listening to my audio books...
Customer Review: Tried it, love it!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
Some of the reviews I read left me wondering if this was the right player for me. I found a consumer review on-line where they ran through the features and actually demonstrated how the thing works. That did it for me. After that, I knew that I had to have it.
I haven't had to be concerned with the technical issues, as it has done everything except convert video clips that I have taken with my camera. I found some other software that will convert it and allow me to load it onto the player.
Here's why I gave it a five:
1. Voice recording - I use the voice recording to record meetings at work. The sound is crystal clear, better than any tape recorder I have used in the past. Also, using the lanyard and dropping it down the front of my shirt, nobody else realizes that the meetings are being recorded. It's a great opportunity for black mail!
2. I was looking for something that would allow me to record radio broadcasts - I've tried it with music and it sounds every bit as good as the station did the first time. I mostly use it for talk radio and it works great. Radio reception is awesome. I record the radio at work in an office setting. Reception is even passable in the elevator!
3. MP3s - I am very pleased here. I was worried that play-lists would be a problem and that having the player randomly select music would also be a problem. That was based on other reviews that I saw here. I am sorry, but those people must be idiots. You can upload the music using Windows Media Player, dragging and dropping play-lists. The player keeps the play-list and automatically groups your music. You can select the play-list and it will shuffle just that play-list (if you activate the shuffle function). You can also play music by song, album, artist, and genre. Or you can play them all. It's all very simple and works well.
4. Pictures - I am a photo-nut. I love to take pictures of my kids, landscapes, and sunsets. The photos are pretty small, but the detail that the screen allows makes the images very sharp. You can definitely fit more pictures in here than you ever could in your wallet. The photos are all converted to *.bmp files using the software that came with the player, but it is very easy to add photos. You have to rotate all of your photos so they are taller rather than wider to maximize the size of the image on the screen, but it is not difficult at all.
5. Memory - I have uploaded 100s of songs, a handful of short video clips and commercials I found online, 147 photos, and a handful of recordings. I have used just over half of the memory on this thing.
Here are things that I wish you could do with it:
1. Switch out the battery - sure you can, but you need to buy another special battery and I have not seen an external charger. This is a relatively minor thing. It will last a full day (from sunrise past sunset) and recharges in about an hour. It has not been a big drawback for me.
2. Delete songs directly off the player without hooking up to your computer - I ended up with a number of albums of my daughter's intermingled with my music and had to keep fast-forwarding over those songs. They were mixed in with my work music, so I had to tolerate it for a full day. Again, not a huge issue.
3. Despite the fact that I have been very careful with the player, it does have some small scratches on its front, one of them on the display. I can't imagine that this isn't a problem with other players too. Again, it's not the end of the world.
Things that I was surprised by:
1. There's a record button on the side. That makes it easy to record radio programs when you are taken away from listening unexpectedly.
2. Play-lists are easy to create.
3. It is easy to set the player to shuffle and/or repeat
4. The size is really much smaller than it appears in photos
5. The sound quality when recording (voice and radio)
6. You can reset the player by merely holding down the power button for about a minute. I did have it lock up on me when I was getting ready to record a meeting, but figured that out just in time.
All and all, I would say this is a wonderful player and would (and have) highly recommended it to my friends. I hope this helps sway you to make the purchase. I was having second thoughts when I read some of these reviews, but those must have been posted by idiots. Sorry, but it's true.
Customer Review: It's a great little player
Summary: 5 Stars
I'll admit the main reason I did buy the Sandisk Sansa e260 was because of it's price (I bought it for $180) compared to the iPod Nano (currently the 4 GB Nano is around $250) but I also bought it because of all the added features. You can put on videos and images; you can listen to FM radio as well as record it; and more reaons that I will get to later in the review for what made me buy it.
Pros:
- Great battery life.. I can basically go a week without having to ever charge it.
- Storage capacity has never been a problem for me and I have almost 1,000 songs and at least 20 videos.
- I'm surprised no one has really mentioned this yet but you can actually expand on the total memory capacity with the microSD slot which has cards that currently go up to 2GB. (That's a total of 6GB for the e260 and 8GB for the e270.)
- The sound quality is great and heck I just use the default settings that it is set at, I don't really mess around with it too much other then turning the volume up in some situations.
- The video quality is great but it depends on the kind of videos you upload like I have short 5 to 7 minute videos that I download off sites and I think the quality on the player is actually better then it was on the computer in most cases.
- The overall vibrancy of the screen is a sight itself. When you first turn it on you think wow the color looks great and then you get into messing around with the settings and say wow it can get even brighter.
You're probably thinking about now I bet this guy has no cons at all right? Well despite my love for it there are things I don't love about it or wish would be added.
Cons:
- Despite the overall durability the screen does get scratched. Also finger prints show up all over but those are no problem whipping off.
- Playlisting on the player is bad. I just gave up with it all together and either just have it play all the songs on shuffle or I listen to a whole albums separate.
- I can't really say it's a con now since I solved the problem now but I hated the headphones, they were very uncomfortable and they just didn't fit. Funny thing is though after I took off the ear piece coverings they felt much better. I have never changed out the original headphones.
- The voice recording really isn't worth it in my opinion. The sound quality isn't really that clear and you can't make very long recordings although you can make multiple recording but you're still lacking the continuation.
- There aren't really any good add-on accessories for the player itself. There is a speaker dock but I really wouldn't buy it and there is also FM Car Transmitter which is great because I don't want to carry around a bunch of CDs. Other then that there is nothing.
- Protective casing wise for these players the ones that are out now just look bland to put it nicely. That's one thing I liked a little about the iPod is all the different designs and stuff they have for their protective casing but there's nothing fancy about the casing for the e200 players.
- I'm a guy that loves his sports talk shows and there are no stations for that on FM radio. I don't really like any of the music that they play on the radio these days other then some of the songs on good classic rock stations. Anyways my main point is I wish there was AM as well because I would definitely trade FM for AM radio.
A couple tips I have learned so far:
- When first turning on the player make sure you unlock it by switching the button at the top of the player left of the headphone jack. I too had been confused about this at first.
- If the ear piece coverings bother you take them off. It won't be any less comfortable.
- Always use the battery saving settings because they really do save you a lot of batter and you don't need to be staring the screen for every song unless you are paranoid it's going to blow up or something.
- There are many easy options for uploading songs to the player so don't be afraid of not using iTunes. (Some options are Windows Media Player, Rhapsody, Napster, and more.)
I hope my review has helped you some in making your decision to purchase the Sandisk Sansa e260. If I were you though I would definitely buy it because it's worth it.
Customer Review: Nice features, terrible design - not recommended
Summary: 1 Stars
I bought this gadget in Nov 2006 as an alternative to the Nano. I wanted something small and also something that would work with Napster's On-the-go feature, which is not compatible with the iPod. Had it not been for this particular requirement I actually would have bought the iPod without hesitation.
So, to be straight, I haven't liked this thing almost from the moment I purchased it. Partly due to design, partly due to reliability issues:
1. Button design. The buttons around the wheel are very hard to press b/c they're depressed below the surface of the wheel, unless you jab it with your nail's end. If I want to rewind or fast-foward, my finger won't catch the button properly, even though it feels like it did, and when I release the button the track just skips to the beginning or end instead of rewinding/fast-forwarding... ANNOYING.
2. Quality. In the last month, the center function button has been giving me problems and doesn't always respond to my press, as though it's sort of stuck. Poor mechanical design. I haven't dropped it or poured water on it... this is a result of simply having used it normally. If the button stops working, this thing will become totally useless... KILLER.
3. Record button design. I never use the record feature, and who does?? But the HUGE button is prominently located on the upper left side, right where it's comfortable to hold your index and ring fingers as you curl them under the device. Particularly when I jog with it, my finger frequently accidentally hits this button and it STOPS playing the track and starts recording, which is ridiculous, but the worst part is...
4. Record feature bug. ... recently, after I accidentally hit the record button, it won't STOP recording! I press all the buttons to try to make it stop and even try to shut it off, and nothing happens. It just keeps recording until all available space is used up, making it totally unusable for minutes at a time. KILLER.
5. Dumb subscription synch feature. If you haven't synched it in a couple weeks and you use Napster On The Go, the licences will not have been renewed so you are asked to sync it again to update the licences - FINE, this is normal. But if I play an album that happens to need renewing, it will cycle through EVERY song and spend seconds on each one, flashing me a message to re-synch. OKAY, I GET IT. It won't let me cancel out of this annoying cycle until it's done going through every song in the album. 18 tracks on an album that aren't updated, and man, there's a 2 minutes of my time spent staring at my MP3 player wishing it would just stop. And the power button won't kill it. KILLER.
6. Power button does too much but not what I want it to do. The power button is a multi-function button that takes you to various menus. But the bloody thing doesn't really do well what it should: turn the unit OFF promptly. It doesn't interrupt certain functions (read above) and seems to be a bit picky, esp b/c you have to hold it down for several seconds to get it to shut off. If you don't hold it down quite long enough and get impatient, you'll be taken to various menus instead of getting it to shut down. Not killer, but STUPID.
So, in sum, the design and reliability of this thing have been sub-par by any standard. Although it plays music with nice audio quality, if I get annoyed with it every other time I use it and it prevents me from playing music, even for just a minute, it's garbage b/c it's not fulfilling its mission as a music player.
On the plus side, the audio is quite nice - although the audio on the iPod is better, as the equalization is simply better. The video feature is really awesome. the screen is nice and bright, and synching video with the included converter is pretty easy. Photos display well, too. The recorder, I presume, works well but I never use it. I suppose it could be handy if you're looking for that feature.
My conclusion is that this is a nice unit with good features and good ideas that make it a good contender to the iPod. But with so many little, simple flaws that inhibit my easily using it, which drive me crazy, and bigger reliability issues with buttons, I wouldn't go near it despite the attractive feature set.
Customer Review: Made the right choice
Summary: 5 Stars
I did a lot of research before purchasing my first MP3 player. Fairly computer savvy but a novice to MP3 players. Was close to purchasing the Zen but was concerned about how many people said they froze up. Fortunately I looked a little longer and discovered the Sansa e260. Great reviews though some mentioned them freezing up. Seeing that seemed an inherent problem with MP3 players, I knew I'd just have to take my chances. Finally went to the store and actually saw and held both the Zen and Sansa. After examining them both the choice was simple. The Zen felt cheap and not very durable. I liked the weight of the Sansa and the size of the screen. Didn't know if I'd really need 4 GB but figured if I was going to get one I might as well get one with a lot of storage with the ability to add expansion.
All that said, I have had the Sansa for about two weeks and while I have not had the time to REALLY explore all of its features, I can say that so far I am EXTREMELY pleased with it. Downloading music from my computer was cake. It is holding its first charge exceptionally well. After two weeks and about a half-dozen uses the charge is still about 98% full. Don't know but I think that is pretty good. The pre-loaded video demonstration was awesome. Still have a few minor issues with the ease of use of the different menu screens but I'm sure with more time to play with it I will find it very accommodating. I have found the earphones that come with it quite good, but again I've not tried any other headphones with it. I mainly wanted an MP3 player to listen to tunes at the gym and to keep me entertained on upcoming plane travel. So this MP3 player is PERFECT for me. May run into 'issues' down the road, but so far I can say that this is a magnificent piece of technology. I did download the firmware from the Sandisk website (highly recommend visiting it before and after purchasing one of their players), which I think is advisable. Yes, the buttons on the front are small but I have small fingers so it's not a problem - but could be for a guy or gal with larger fingers. The screen is a very nice size and seems to have very good resolution, although I did finding watching the demo videos a bit difficult and had to find the right angle to hold the player to see them more clearly. But I do think if you want this player for a lot of video downloads you will be pretty satisfied. I do wish (and hope) Sandisk starts producing more accessories specifically for the e200 series, but until that time there are many companies making accessories compatible with the series (can someone recommend which AC adapter charger is safest and best for this MP3 player?).
All that said, I can say "So far so Great!" I think this is a very high quality, very user-friendly, durable MP3 player that is worth whatever cost you pay for it (and boy there is a wide range - I would just advise buying it locally and not on-line for the obvious reasons - possibly used, damaged, and if you have to return it you can run into a lot of headaches). I am almost embarassed to say I paid through the nose getting it at Wal-Mart, but if I need to return it it is much easier than having to mail it somewhere, and I was able to play with it before actually buying it. Just a personal choice. I hope in a week or two I'm not dealing with a dead or dysfunctional MP3 player, but at the moment, early on, being a novice, I think this player ROCKS! I can highly recommend it, and I think if you are down to either a Zen or Sansa, go for the Sansa. The Zen is cute and offers a lot of neat accessories, is smaller and colorful, but the Sansa is far more durable, offers a larger screen, and in all just seems to be a more durable, better quality item. I wasn't even going to go near an Apple Ipod! The "proprietary" conditions with them regarding music downloads really turned me off, and in general the user reviews are not good. Check them all out in person and see what feels 'right' to and for you. But absolutely give the Sandisk a look. I am a very satisfied owner.