SanDisk Sansa e280 8 GB MP3 Player (Black)
by SanDisk
|
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 |
|---|
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: Overall fantastic. Some minor issues.
Summary: 4 Stars
It looks great. I sounds great. It has a ton of features, including FM and sound recording. The ear phones are not a style I like--they tend to fall out of my ear. But they sound better than most of the ones that come with these players. The battery lasts a long time. I tend to have the screen on a lot, checking things out, and I still get 14 hours on 3/4 volume. Though the screen is small, it will play video which can be fun. It has a micro SD slot, so if 8GB isn't enough you can add up to 2GB more. The controls are easy to use and, in addition to playlists, you have a nice array of play options, including artist, album and genre.
Instead of the included software for audio, I would recommend Media Monkey, available free through their web site and Download.com. The free version lets you edit tags, create playlists, etc. and it will sync up with almost any player including this one. It also lets you level the volume between tracks, and you can set the amount of volume you want in the settings dialog in DBa. This has two advantages: You mess with the volume control on your player less, and you can give your mp3s more volume so you can lower the volume on your player. I believe your battery will last a bit longer if the volume control is lower.
Some minor negatives:
1. The player has a manual setting for EQ which is great, but it is not reliable. Every once in a while the left channel simply cuts out when you are using manual EQ. You can get it back by changing to a preset EQ and then back to manual but it's a pain in the butt. I know it's the player, because I had to send the first one back with another problem and they both do it. I am hoping this is a firmware issue and will be fixed. By the way, the e280R does not have manual EQ.
2. The mike on the player has to be very close to the sound source when recording, so you can't use it to record a meeting or anything like that.
3. This will not allow you to put your DVD on the player as the conversion software will be blocked by the DVD encryption. If this is important to you, do a web search for free CSS decryption software. Get one that decrypts in the background on the fly. Some of these work only with certain software, so there may be some trail and error in finding one that suits your needs. This won't be illegal as long as it's just for your personal use. Also the quality of the video file is only good enough to the small screen on the player. It not something that could be sold.
Customer Review: Impossibly difficult to use
Summary: 1 Stars
I ordered this unit with high expectations, lots of memory, expandable, multiple modes, from a well known company and an excellent price; how could I go wrong?. Easily enough, as it turns out.
I was unable to load it and control the play lists. Trying to use it in MTP mode always crashed the host (BSOD) so I reverted to MSD (Mass Storage Device) mode using drag and drop.
Dragging a folder to the device was pointless. Most of the time the files didn't even show up, and when they did they were scattered all over the place. I copied 82 files from the Lord of the Rings set into a single folder, only 52 could be found even during play back, but they could be seen from "My Computer" on the host system. After fooling around with it for a couple of hours I gave up and called SanDisk technical support certain they would be able to help me sort it out.
I have to admit that I was pleased with their support even though in the end they were unable to resolve any of the problems other than by suggesting that the only way to use drag and drop was to dump everything into the MUSIC folder where it would play in whatever order the device wanted; a totally useless method.
This was totally unsatisfactory since there was no control over the play list and no way to even find all of the files that would fit into 8+gb. Imagine listening to the first movement of Swan Lake followed immediately by something from 9 Inch Nails, then maybe a Bach Cantata!.
Using Media Player to sync did no better. Creating a playlist (m3u) of 82 files and then syncing did exactly the same as drag and drop. A hopeless mess, no play order, missing files and so on.
After spending 3 hours with SanDisk tech support we were both more than ready to quit. The tech had no more idea that I did about how to solve the problems that plagued the player and we both gave it up as a bad job.
This is little machine has plenty going for it in the specification, but it's hopelessly flawed in the implementation, and this is without complaining about the stiff control wheel or the overly small buttons.
Throughly frustrated, it was in the mail being returned less than 8 hours after I received it. I just cannot recommend this player, it needs a through overhaul of the interface and firmware; and fixing the control wheel and buttons would be a plus as well. As it stands, it's without merit as a player.
Customer Review: Sandisk Sansa e280 8GB MP3 Player
Summary: 5 Stars
I had no wishes to join the iSheep crowd and worship at the altar of Apple, yet I wanted a capable music player that would allow *me* to choose what music service, earphones, type of music file etc. I wanted to use. Sandisk fits the bill in spades with this player, offering a few more features than the iPod and even having the audacity to list it cheaper. I've owned my player for five months now and the few problems I've had have been very minor.
For one, while there is a fast foward and rewind feature for videos, it's not particularly useful and can often stop playback. Different speeds of both would've been appreciated. Also, some lament the fact the screen is much smaller than the iPod - something I personally wouldn't have any other way. This fits way more comfortably in your pocket than an iPod, so naturally a smaller screen size is a tradeoff. Second, the pictures fuction works fine, but photos may take a bit of cropping so the player won't resize them awkwardly to fit the screen. The player displays the photos in very rich color though.
Admittedly, the Sansa is not the best option for those who wish to have the biggest and best picture or video playback on a player - mostly due to the small screen size. But for minimalists such as myself this couldn't be a more perfect player.
The voice recorder, FM radio, and radio recorder all work perfectly. I've no complaints with their function!
The most important aspect, the music, is perhaps the most flawless aspect of the player. I've about 1700 songs on the player and haven't had any problems with playback or tags not being read. I've manually added the artwork and tags to each of my files, and the player reads them with no problem.
The only other (again awfully minor) complaint I have it is I would've liked an option to resize the text. I personally prefer a smaller font than the player offers. But as far as I know there isn't any player on the market that offers this option.
Some have commented on the fragility of the buttons or the player itself, it's been my experience that the Sansa is extremely durable. Case in point - I accidentally dropped my player at least five feet to a very unforgiving concrete warehouse floor. While the player was certainly dazed (the screen went black for a moment and it "forgot" what song was playing) it had no permanent physical or internal damage. Clumsy owners have no fear!
Customer Review: Fabulous Player - be cautious of the VERSION you are buying
Summary: 4 Stars
I would like to highly recommend this player. However, do be careful when buying a refurbished player that you are getting a Version 2 and not a Version 1, especially if you plan to add more memory to it. I originally purchased a refurbished player (e280), not realizing that there WAS a version 1 AND a version 2. There was never anything written ANYWHERE (even on the Sandisk website!) about there being two versions. The big difference is that with the Version 1, you can only add a maximum of 2 GB. I wanted to purchase the e280 which has 8 GB, and add an additional SD card with another 8 GB, giving me a 16 GB player. AMAZON was really great about taking back the Version 1, and then I found a refurbished version 2 and purchased that instead. I also purchased an 8 GB SD card, and upgraded to a 16 GB player. Then I purchased a wall charger, an car charger, a crystal case, and a cassette adapter for my car stereo. The total cost for everything, including shipping was only $117.00. I was HAPPY and it worked just fine, if a bit heavy to carry around. I finally got a clip for the crystal cover, and now I can clip it on my clothing and off I go...happy as can be. At least, I was very happy until...I plugged the player into my car charger, and "POP". Then NOTHING. The damn thing blew out. I was paralyzed and shocked. After two months of all that confusion and trying to get the right player and all the accessories, and poof, gone. I came home and called Sandisk, and they were incredibly helpful. We were able to reboot the player, and then I was informed that I had an old version of the software on the player, and it needed to be updated in order for the car charger to work. They walked me through the download and installation process, and the player was back in order just fine. Now it updates itself automatically when I plug it in to the computer. The car charger should work fine now, but I'm still too scared to try it again. I'll wait until I have the energy to reboot the whole thing again, just in case its necessary. That last episode nearly made me throw the whole thing in the garbage and go buy an IPod. But I'm very happy I got this, and am ripping my entire CD collection so I can listen to it all. This 16 GB player will hold 4,000 songs (in WMA) ! I'm a happy camper, and would recommend this player to anyone. It's easy to use, has loads of functions, is small (although a bit heavy), and Sandisk gives great technical assistance for free.Customer Review: Sturdy construction and lots of features!
Summary: 5 Stars
I have never owned an Ipod so I can't compare this player to one, but I can't imagine an Ipod being much better. This is my second MP3 player, the first being a cheap $20 Sandisk player, and I absolutely love the Sansa e280. I have put almost 1,000 songs on the thing and it sorts by album title, artist, song title and so on. For the price, you seem to get a lot of features and great functionality. It is also very durable. My wife wanted to help mow the lawn recently and she wanted to listen to music like I normally do so I let her use the Sansa and it fell out of her pocket and she ran over it with the riding lawn mower! After searching for a while, I found it buried in the ground with tire tracks across the back of it. Fearing the worst, I dug it out and it was still playing and didn't have a crack or anything on it. It was just a little dirty, but I haven't had any problems out of it even after that abuse!
Pros:
- Low Price
- Ability to hold thousands of songs, as well as, videos and pictures
- Very intuitive to load songs using Windows Media Player. I'm sure you can use other programs, but Media Player works great for me.
- Screen is large, bright and colorful.
Cons:
- There is no power indicator so if you hit the power button by accident, like when it's in your pocket, you have no way of knowing that it is on. I've done this a couple of times and only knew it was on because I hit the volume button causing the screen to "wake up".
- The volume control is kind of flimsy feeling and is very sensitive. I've been listening with the player in my pocket and when I pull it out of my pocket, I almost always cause the volume to go up or down. This can cause quite a shock to your ears when you turn the volume up full blast without meaning to.
- You can't delete pictures and video from the player. You have to connect it to your computer and go into the file menu on the computer to delete them. You can delete songs from the player though.
- The earphones that come with the player are really too short to be useful for me. If I tried to carry the player in my pocket the earphones would pull out of my ears so I bought another pair fairly quickly.
So, for me, the pros outweigh the few cons that this player has. I would easily recommend this player for anyone looking for a great MP3 player at a great price.