SanDisk Sansa e280 8 GB MP3 Player (Black)
by SanDisk
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List Price: Our Price: $40.00 You Save: $209.99 (84%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Network Media Player See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of SanDisk Sansa e280 8 GB MP3 Player (Black)
Customer Review: Good but be aware...
Summary: 5 Stars
The sansa e280 isnt a bad choice for an mp3 player because unlike the ipod nano, you can remove the battery by yourself(Although I haven't tried it) and overall its pretty good for its price but there are a few things you should be aware of. These things aren't necessarily bad because other mp3 players might be the same and might not be much different but you should take these things into condsideration before buying it.
1. When it comes to photos and videos, the name will appear the way the actual file is named on the computer. So it's not like music where the file name can be GoD's PrOJeCt and on the mp3 player it says God's Project. The way it appears on the file name is the way it will appear on the screen.
2. Unlike the photos, you can't have seperate albums for your videos so you'll have to name your videos in a way that will organize them. So if you want all your rock videos in a section you could put a 1 in front of the name, then your rnb videos with a 2 in front of the name so that you don't have to scroll up or down and all over the place to find the videos you're looking for.
3. Because you can't fastforward or "scan" like in your songs, it'd be wise to NOT have a compilation of videos into one. This usually only happens with reggaeton videos where they'll show like two or three songs from the album on that one video alone. I haven't tried movies yet as their resolution is too high and it takes to long to cut them into parts but if you must, don't put the whole thing in one clip.
4. Unlike the videos which are formatted in the best way to fit the screen, the photos can be put in in different angles. If you want to get the pictures to fit the screen the best way possible, change their angle so its a standing rectangle just like the screen. It will fill most of the screen and you'll be able to see your pictures better.
5. There is a recorder for voice and FM but be aware, it won't sound as good as when you're recording the song you hear on the radio. This meaning you can't record, send to computer, turn into mp3, send back to sansa, and hear it with same quality sound. It's not totally useless as you can keep the recording until you find the name of the artist and/or song or you can understand the lyrics enough to find the name of the song. Hopefully in the future we'll be able to record the song from the radio and hear it with the same quality as when we were recording it but until then, use this as a way to find what you're looking for.
6. It can and will freeze. Don't worry it won't freeze that often but from time to time it will. I haven't found a way to fix it or unfreeze it so until then, take your time, pause what you're listening to before you change it, and just try not to do too much at one time.
7. Videos and photos are formatted to fit the screen on the sansa so it's not like you can put the photos and videos in, and then copy them back to the computer and see them with the same quality as the original file so keep the original files somewhere like a dvd disk in data mode which will hold more than 70 mb of space.
8. The buttons around the wheel may be hard to reach. Even I that I have skinny fingers, have a little trouble pressing those buttons. It's still better than the ipod where its hard to stop where you want it to so maybe they'll make the buttons wider and the wheel shorter next time.
Be a little realistic about these things though because some of these might be a downer but you might or might not even see that many photos or videos. Some people don't even organize their music or label it right and they have to look everywhere anyway. But if you're like me where you like your music, videos and picturess organized and easy to access, there's your alternative and solutions to some problems. I didn't see these things as that big of a problem and found ways around most of them so that's why I give it a 5.
Update: There is an alternative firmware that you can get for free online called Rockbox which works for this mp3 player. It has games and some other applications and other neat stuff. However it wasn't developed by sansa though and it will become your primary firmware. If at any point you want to go back to the firmware that comes with the sansa then do this. When you turn it on, click and hold down the rewind button until the screen tells you that its loading the sansa firmware. Rockbox also lets you use some SD cards which the original firmware may not detect. Depending on the card, it may or may not be read by the original firmware but the sansa will pick it up though.
Customer Review: Value and Quality only on the rise.
Summary: 5 Stars
First, the fact that Sansa's e200 series beats the nano seems to have been pretty well covered by other reviewers, so whether you agree or not, those aspects of the player I will not go over again. (i.e. replacable battery, fm tuner, playlist/equalizer options)
Second, as mentioned by many other reviewers as well, is the price. If one is to look upon the market trends as indication of direction of price point, I submit to you that Costco featured the 8 gb, e280 unit not too long ago at 80 dollars. While this was a black Friday ad, the fact that Costco had far more than sufficient stock to cover sales throughout the whole weekend, suggests not only that Costco is likely to feature it again at a similar if not identically reduced price point, but that the unit itself is capable of being and has already been sold at significantly reduced prices to accommodate market fluctuations, such as those accompanying large sale dates.
Third, despite its already sufficiently competitive if not superior nature to its I-pod equivalents, the unit shows significantly faster progression and potential for improvement. To be honest, the first e200's to hit the market, hit it with more than a few kinks it still needed to work out (referring particularly to firmware issues). However, since its release continuous and rapid improvement of these same features have not ceased. The firmware has continued to be updated, each update improving on primary issues such as earlier complaints of background noise (now nonexistent with current firmware and hardware versions), boot-time, compatability, etc.
On this last point, of particular need of mentioning, is the existence of an unofficial producer of a public sector firmware (The programming that is responsible for the user interface, amongst other things, think windows for the computer) known as "Rockbox," and the release of E200 V2's which boasts new hardware and new potential.
Rockbox - an open source firmware available for several mp3 players, seeks to improve and maximize the potential of mp3 units in areas such as file format support, applications, and utilities amongst others. More than anything, the amazing capabilities of this firmware testifies to the potential of future improvements on the sansa's. The Rockbox patch as of November 2007 available for the Sansa boasted the following.
- capable of full support for file formats not originally supported like mpg and H264
- Capable of installation of applications such as stopwatch and text readers.
- a plethora of games ranging from a fully playable port of Doom to Gameboy rom's.
- Themes which can change the look of the browsing screen to look like windows start menu, and mp3 playing screen to look like a windows media player screen, or one of dozens of other looks (one even will make it look like the ipod album cover scroller style).
- whatever the people working on rocbox decide to put on it.
E200 v2 - beginning as early as august of 2007, reports of e200's with new hardware versions hitting the sales floor began. After sifting through the initial confusion of those to whom the upgrade held primary significance (the people attempting to run rockbox), the following can be said.
- The version 2 (v2) is not as of December 14, 2007 compatible with rock box. (if you wish to install rockbox look for the older models usually packaged in a green and white box rather than the blue/black box of v2's)
- The v2 is somewhat of a hybrid of earlier e200/e200r(rhapsody) models, in that it fully features the seamless rhapsody DNA that allows it to carry rhapsody channels (a service available with subscription that allows you to download random music of certain genres on your player for as long as your subscription continues) and allows for faster transfer of music via rhapsody.
- the v2 has different hardware including but not limited to a new chip (a3525 instead of the previous PP5024, a portal player chip from the same company that has provided chips to companies such as I-pod and motorola) The new chip actually features faster processing potential. (as indicated by faster boot times which were already improving through firmware update)
So in the end, while rockbox is not yet ported to the v2's, if past progress is any indication of future direction, it is my opinion that the sansa will only increase it's already promising superiority over the i-pods and other mp3 units for that matter.
Customer Review: Good for music, FM, voice recording, Bad for video
Summary: 2 Stars
I bought this 8G player at Amazon in Thanksgiving during its sale. The first thing that I noticed when I opened the package was that there were not an installation CD and a user manual. So I called Sandisk support asking for an installation CD and a lanyard. Their service team responded quickly and said it's going to be mailed out in a week. The next day, I asked them for a web link to download their Media Converter, since without this piece of software, I can't watch any video (details below). However, 2~3 days later I received an email notifying me that a lanyard was mailed out. I was worried about that they missed the installation CD and emailed back immediately about the CD. They told me it's included in the USPS mail. Unfortunately, when I finally got an envelop severl days later, there was only one lanyard. I had to ask them again for the installation CD, and this time, they didn't respond to me at all and closed the ticket. I thought about returning this player, but on a second thought, making my own CD by coping the downloaded Media Converter might save me lot of hassle of dealing with it. So I ended up making my own CD and began to play with this MP3 player. The following is what I found about it.
As an MP3 player, it plays well. Although the earset coming with it is not a high quality, it's good enough for enjoying most of songs. For music, you might need a better earplug. Its multiple functionalities, like FM, voice recording, work very well too. Voice recording is a must function to my sister, and I think this is a good choice for voice recording.
The most disappointing part is the video. First of all, you can not just copy a video file onto it. It simply doesn't play and reminds you to transfer the video with the Media Converter. In order to play, you have to transfer a video to the player by using the Sandisk Media Converter. Copying and converting using the Media Converter is much slower than direct copying, and it takes a while to transfer a 700M video. If you want to watch a video, the best way is to start copying before you go to bed, and it'll be ready the next morning when you get up.
Second, the Media Converter is pretty crapy. It seems to be single threaded program. When you copy a video to the player with it, you can't do anything with the player and the software until it's done. You can't play music, listen to radio etc. If you copy a video during the daytime, you have to wait until it's done.
Third, the little screen is not of good quality. Its brightness is so low that you can't almost see anything on the screen daytime outside. I tried to watch a movie while waiting a campus shuttle in a cloudy day. Although there was not sunshine, and I turned my body to the north, I couldn't see clearly what's on the screen. I can only watch the video inside a build or a room where the daylight is gone. However, once you're inside, you'll probably don't need to watch such a tiny screen; you have other better video sources.
Forth, even you can watch a video indoor, you have to look into the screen within a very narrow angle. Once you lean awry a little bit, the motion picture simply disappears. The screen is such a bad quality.
To make watching a video worse, the entire front of the player is glazed. It appears attractive, but it's a disaster for watching a movie on the screen. I can see the inflection of my face in the glaze while watching a movie. It's like you watch the CRT screen of a TV with a light next to you. You can see the light and yourself on the TV screen.
Another thing that harms watching a video is the lighting wheel. The control wheel lights up when you touch a button, which is nice without watching a movie. However, when you watch a movie on the screen, since the screen brightness is so low, when you touch any button, the wheel lights up, the light is bright enough to make the motion picture blur. It's like someone puts a bright light in front of your CRT TV screen.
My observation is that this player is good for non-video playing. It isn't worth buying it if you want to enjoy watching video. It's simply not made for watching video on that glazed outside, dark inside, and narrow angle screen with nearby disattractions. Better for the money, is a decent MP3 player without video support.
It looks like ZuiMei has a better screen, but I've never tried that. Anyone has an opinion on the alternative?
Customer Review: A great, affordable first MP3 for the techno-impaired (and everybody else)
Summary: 5 Stars
After some research, I chose this unit as my first MP3 - chiefly because the price was right, the consumer reviews were favorable, and because the size of the screen was the biggest I could find. This unit is very easy to operate and the sound quality and function are terrific. I intend to use it only for music, but it has video and recording capability as well. It also records sound files, but beware of this function - the "record" button is entirely too easy to turn on, so you may find yourself recording accidentally and then having to delete this useless file. I have a fairly big music collection and went for the 8GB memory rather than the 4GB, and I'm glad because I used 4GB of the space in no time. Be aware that the unit comes with some material already on it, which takes up some space - you can delete it. The e-series players also have a user-replaceable battery, which was another selling point for me.
My one gripe is that for those of us of the analog generation, there is no "stop" feature, which I'm told the iPod does have. I get it; there are no moving parts and therefore nothing to "stop", but when one has a playlist five albums long and you want to quit 1/3 of the way into it, it is frustrating to have to either zoom all the way to the end or select another album and then cancel out of that one. I contacted Sansa Tech Support and they confirmed that these are basically the only options, which is ridiculous. (Turning the unit off for a spell doesn't help either; the player simply starts up again where you left off, the next time you turn it on.)
I strongly recommend that you also order the Sansa e-Series AC Charger, so you can just charge your unit from a wall outlet rather than your PC. The postage will cost more than the charger but it is completely worth having for the convenience. I also have (and highly recommend) the Altec Lansing speaker/docking/charging unit that is compatible with the Sansa e-Series players, as I use the unit almost exclusively with speakers rather than with the ear buds.
A quick note for first-time and techno-impaired users: I will spare you the pile of research and feeling foolish that I went through, with some basic tips, as none of this is mentioned in the downloadable User's manual. This manual erroneously assumes that everyone already knows the basic theory behind how MP3 players work.
First, you MUST have Windows Media Player 11 on your PC, and not an earlier version. Countless forums online have mentioned this as the solution to problems of getting their players to interface with their PCs. I made sure I had MP11 up front and have not had any problems.
Second, the basic concept of using an MP3 is as follows. Your computer is going to serve as the master storage library for all of your MP3 music - your music will have to stay on there for as long as you want it on your MP3. You put your music cd into your cdr drive and bring up Windows Media Player; you must tell Media Player to "rip" the music to your library (which means it makes a sort of low-res version of the music file - it sounds fine, don't worry). You can opt to uncheck the one song that you don't like on a CD, and it will be left out. When you have done this to all of the cd's you want to add for the time being, you then plug your MP3 into the USB port of your PC (the Sansa MP3 player comes with a plug thingy for this) and you must tell Media Player to "Synch" (i.e. synchronize) the library's contents to your MP3 player. It will copy everything over as it is on the library. NOTE: If you remove something from the library, the next time you synch, it will be removed from your MP3 player as well. You can add to the library and re-synch over time. You should also map out in advance what, if any, Playlists you want to make up. These are very handy things - you can select and string albums or songs together in any order and give it a name, and the player will store and follow it; however, you have to create the playlist in Media Player before you Synch your MP3. It will synch over with the rest of the material.
I recommend downloading the full Users manual from the Sansa site. Their Tech Support folk are also very helpful. Enjoy your unit!
Customer Review: Adequate player, but badly constructed with poor Rockbox support
Summary: 2 Stars
An adequate digital music player, plagued by bad controls, poor firmware, and a lack of standards.
Pros:
- Inexpensive
- Nicely sized
- Bright, clear screen
- Played everything I gave it with no difficulties.
- FM Tuner and vocorder
Cons:
- Poorly engineered buttons and cheap, plasticky scroll wheel
- Sluggish performance
- Proprietary dock connector
- Rockbox support is incomplete
I'm an iPod refugee, who finally got sick of Apple's expensive peripherals, tight-fisted control over my music, and slow and bloated music library software. When I recently lost my iPod, I took the opportunity to try a new music player. Based on the reviews I read (OK, and the things I could get for free with my credit card points), I picked the 8GB Sansa.
As soon as I opened the box I was disappointed. The scroll wheel on the Sansa is cheap plastic, and rattles around in its track when you turn it. When I first touched it I thought it was some kind of packaging that was protecting the "real" scroll wheel, and that I needed to tear it off! The buttons on the Sansa are extremely hard to press -- they're very firm, small, and have no tactile feedback at all (i.e. no "click" when you press them). To make matters worse, it's nearly impossible to press the buttons around the scrollwheel with your thumb when your thumb is on the wheel -- I find myself shifting the Sansa in my hand every time I want to switch from scrolling to pushing. Overall, the Sansa's controls are extremely poor, shoddily designed and made with cheap materials.
Furthermore, the Sansa uses a proprietary dock connector, a la the iPod. This is ridiculous -- there's no reason for the Sansa not to use the industry-standard mini-USB connector, unless they think they can somehow wield patents on the dock connector design to drive up the price of peripherals. I was very disappointed with this.
Docking and syncing was thankfully easy. The Sansa supports the standard Media Transfer Protocol, so no driver or software install was necessary. I just plugged it into my Windows XP PC, chose some playlists to sync in Windows Media Player, and everything worked fine. I then installed MediaMonkey (which I highly recommend over WMP) and synced the Sansa with a set of playlists there, and again the sync worked well.
I had specifically planned to run Rockbox (www.rockbox.org), a free and open-source mp3 player firmware project, on my Sansa. The Rockbox install went without a hitch, however it was only then that I discovered that the Sansa cannot sync under Rockbox. Unfortunately Rockbox doesn't support USB communication on the Sansa -- it can only charge when you connect it to your PC. To sync, you have to turn off the Sansa, then plug it into your PC. The Sansa will boot up into the original firmware, which you can then use to sync. Furthermore, Rockbox doesn't support Sansa playlists -- I had to install a custom build of Rockbox with a plugin that could convert Sansa playlists to .m3u playlists on my player, an extra step that I have to perform for each playlist after syncing.
Another annoyance was moving Rockbox content (such as themes, album art, music files such as .ogg that aren't supported by the default Sansa firmware, and .m3u playlists) to and from my Sansa so that Rockbox could access it. To do so, one must switch the Sansa in its default firmware from "MTP" mode to "MSC" mode (where the Sansa acts like a normal USB drive). When the Sansa is in MSC mode, it takes literally 5-10 minutes to boot while it catalogs its content. Every time I would sync the Sansa to add more Rockbox content, I would have to sit there and wait while the player restarted. This is, to put it mildly, frustrating.
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Overall, the Sansa is an adequate player. I've had no technical problems with it. However, its shoddy design, lack of standards, and poor compatibility with Rockbox make it impossible for me to recommend it to others.