SanDisk Sansa m230 512 MB MP3 Player (Blue)
by SanDisk
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List Price: Our Price: $27.95 You Save: $22.04 (44%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $14.54 (click here) 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 m230 512 MB MP3 Player (Blue)
Customer Review: Ingrates for Ipods
Summary: 2 Stars
This doesn't feel right. I'm going to give a negative review to something that was purchased for me, something that was a very generous gift. Does that make me an ingrate? I really do appreciate it, it was a very well meaning gift and- based on what we knew about it beforehand- seemed like quite the prize.
But here's the problem. First of all, it holds about six hours of music. That may seem like a lot. It seems like a lot when it's empty. It seems like a lot if you don't have a huge music collection. You could certainly load it with just your favorite songs and have lots of good music to accompany your jog or whatever. But if you have hundreds of CD's, a giant bootleg collection, and/or you want to put new things on it, books on CDs to have incase you're stuck on the bus for example, then six hours is really not a lot. So every time I add something, I have to pick something to delete. Not only is it time-consuming, it's heart-breaking.
Second of all, the radio. My dear, dear, dear, dear loved ones who bought me this chose it over an ipod because it also has FM radio on it, and they knew I liked to listen to the radio sometimes. But the reception is terrible, so I find myself still bringing along a separate radio walkman thingy when I want to listen to the radio. It's also FM only, so no sports, no Air Americer. So that was a disappointment, but again, nobody's fault, but thought I should warn you.
Third, it is suppose to come with free music and programming from certain services, but that turns out to come with a catch. What you really have to do is sign up for those services, complete with giving your credit card info, and then cancel after the freebies.
Also, I had a quicker internet connection at work, downloaded some bootlegs from nugs dot com, then tried to put them on the MP3 player from that computer at work. It messed things up. Now my computer at home, the computer at work, and the MP3 player are all confused, and they are all blaming me. I don't know, maybe that was a no-no, maybe Ipods do the same thing. They don't trust you, assume the worst if you try to change from one site to another.
Anyway, a well intentioned gift but not what I'd buy again. It might be a nice little MP3 player if you just want something small and relatively inexpensive just to treadmill with, if you just want your favorite up-tempo work-out songs with you. But if you want the complete Beethoven ouvre, a couple of Dick's Picks, and still have room to put on that Buckshot LeFonque CD you never got around to checking out, along with that import live Love Supreme... it just won't do the trick. Hey, did I tell you, a buddy of mine got me a bootleg of Hendrix and B.B. King jamming together. He also had the rooftop Beatles concert. Did you even know that was out there? It's a brave new world.
Thanks for listening.
Customer Review: Best Flash Player for its price
Summary: 5 Stars
I got this last Thanksgiving for only 30 dollars at Best Buy, plus 10 dollars for a 2 year insurance. Awesome deal. It was way more than I could ask for, for only 40 bucks.
The pros imo:
- Very light weight. I could barely even notice I had the Sansa in my pocket when I used it at work. Also, the arm band is very handy so you can keep the cord out of the way while doing things.
- Buttons very easy to reach. I could push the play buttons through my sweater without even looking at them.
- Equalizer options are great since you can cuztomize your own.
- FM tuner, is always a plus, but it didn't really work for me because I live sort of far from Boston so I couldn't get the good stations. Well I can't get the good stations even on my house stereo. Only in my car's stereo I can tune in to them.
- The case that comes with it is a perfect fit, and it protects the sansa from scratching.
- Playlist support if you sync it with WM player. That's such a neat option that lets you create playlists and update them to your player very easily.
- Also you can access the sansa with windows explorer, and add music by drag and drop.
The cons:
- 512 MB not nearly enough for my needs. This is not really a con, because for the price it's still a bargain. But that was the main reason why I sold it to my friend for $50. I'm planning on getting a hard disk now.
- When I bought this player I thought that I could upgrade the memory by adding a sandisk flash card to it. Guess I was wrong, but some other Sandisk players do have that option, even though they're twice as expensive.
- Earbuds are kinda crappy. I mean they fit nicely in my ears and also had that little cover, but after about 3 months the left one started dying on me. I had to keep the cord in a certain position so I could hear the sound. I guess I broke the earbud because I kept getting the cord caught on places and I kept pulling on it by accident. The sound quality is great though.
- You can't use folders as playlists. You can't use any other player to add playlists to the sansa except for WMP. I used Real Player (not a good player I know) to upload my music, only because it gave me the option to convert my mp3's to wma while adding the music to the sansa. I hate wma files, but I used it so I could fit more music into my player. You get almost twice as much space if you use wma instead of mp3. Later on I found out that the sansa won't recognize Real Player playlists. Then I tried to Create playlists on Windows Media Player then add the songs that were already in the Sansa to the playlists, but you can't add files to a playlist that way with WMP.
So no playlists for me, just regular playback through all my library. I could still play by genre, or by artist, but still wasn't the same. If it wasn't for that I think that this player would have been perfect.
Customer Review: One of the best little players for it's price
Summary: 4 Stars
Alright, so mp3 players, yeah there's so many to choose from, it gets really annoyin, especially when all of your trendy friends are telling you to get an ipod. Don't get me wrong, ipods are great, i have one in fact, and i love it. But i rollerblade (not recreational, like the kind where you go to skateparks and grind handrails and various other things). So the the ipod's size makes it more prone to be broken, which is why I love this thing. I'm going to skip all the candy coating and get straight to the tootsie roll filling:
pros:
-Most other mp3 players are a little bit thinner, but the sansa has a flat control panel and the back is round to fit in your hand, i know, i know, you're going to put it in your pocket, well just put the interface on the inside of the pocket and none of the buttons have a chance of breaking, or the screen.
-The sansa has an extremely long battery life for one little AAA, around 20 hours, which is awesome since i hate buying batteries, but that's not a problem because i have rechargable AAA, but it's gets extremely aggrivating having to recharge batteries everytime you go out.
- The buttons are perfect, they're big, they're bold, what more do you want, and i noticed most mp3 players put these tiny little pin size buttons on their players, what's the point of that.
-The menu is really straightforward and simple. You just press the menu button on top of the player, and then use the 4 buttons (play/pause, previous track, next track, and stop) as the directional buttons on the menu.
-I used to have the older version of the sandisk mp3 players (256mb) and it was never loud enough, like i would be on the bus or in a busy area and not even be able to hear my music! Thankfully they enabled it to become louder and have a better sound quality.
-It's very inexpensive, i payed 40$ for mine from a seller on amazon. And that's about how much it goes for retail everywhere else.
Cons:
-The only problem i have is that the earbuds that they come with aren't the best in the world, but i still use them, they're the only earbuds i have ever found that have fit my ears without a 2 billion dollar price tag. Or i would get new ones.
-The fm tuner that comes with this is junk, i get a good signal every once in a while, but it really shouldn't be used as a marketing gimmick, considering most flash mp3 players have one now.
Ok, well thanks for reading my review of the sandisk sansa 512mb. I forgot to mention that it has a decent voice recorder for notes and such, but i always have mine filled to the the rim with music, so i've never really had the oppurtunity to really try it out.
Customer Review: Sandisk M230 Honest Review
Summary: 5 Stars
I did a lot of research on this product before purchasing. I have several Sandisk Compact Flash Cards that work great, so I knew the quality was good from the company already, so I gave them a try and Amazon had it at a great price with Free Shipping.
Bottom Line about the M230 (M200 series):
The unit is very user friendly and works great. Some positive notes about it are: Affordability, Equalizer, FM Radio (20 Pre-sets), Sound Quality, Firmware Updates, Backlit Screen (nice blue), Uses non-proprietary batteries (big plus in my book), comes with a protective case and arm strap that works. Others have stated the arm band is not any good, but I disaggree totally. I use my unit at the gym several times a week and running on the tread machine, it stays put and never skips a beat (literally). I've never used the recorder, but it is good to have as a memo option if needed on the go. Being I go to the gym regularly, the stopwatch is very handy to have also. The equalizer settings (Rock, Jazz, Classical and Pop) are good right out the box. The unit also gives you the option to manually set the sound which is what I use and improves on the already great sound that the preset equalizer gives. One of the things that really sold me on this unit was that you aren't limited to just one computer to load and delete songs with the unit. I can use any computer with a USB plug (1.1 and 2.0) and add new songs and then instantly play them unlike some other well known named products which must have the same computer to be able to play the song. Another key feature is that it uses a single AAA battery and not a proprietary type or worse an internal type which can't be replaced easily or cheaply. When your internal or proprietary battery runs out of power, that's it. You can't run to the local drugstore and buy some AAA batteries to continue use. The proprietary type must be recharged before reused. I use 900 mA rechargeable AAA batteries. The battery life is about 24-30 hours of continuous operation which is great. A regular Akaline battery in this unit last for 15-19 hours.
The only minor issues are that the the supplied USB cable is on the short side (9"). If you do not have a front USB port, this can cause a small problem, however, I am able to use my Canon digital camera cable for the camera and the Sandisk M230 which works prefectly and gives plenty of length. The other small issue is the back light stops operating when the battery reaches 3/4 empty which is really understandable being it takes a lot of power to run a backlit screen. The IPOD Shuffle doesn't even have a screen nor many other features the M230 has. This was a great buy.
Customer Review: Music quality very good, but a few quibbles
Summary: 4 Stars
I got this player after I already had a 512MB Ipod Shuffle, because at times I missed being able to see the ID3 song information on a display screen. Also the price was unpassable the day after Thanksgiving as well.
So here it is about a month later, So I can pass on not just the first thoughts, but what I learned thru much experience so far as well. Hopefully the information will help you make an educated decision.
The sound is very good, no background hiss at all, great clarity. You WILL need a different set of earbuds though, the ones it comes with are even worse than the IPOD stock units. I suggest the very inexpensive Sony 828's.
Using the built in equalizer with the "Rock" setting will make the stock earbuds sound OK, but just barely.
The backlight is dim, but a nice blue color. Combined with the small font however, makes the display not useable in the dark. The scrolling of the text is the smoothest I have ever seen on any display. You will see all of the song information.
The Sansa is chunky, but very comfortable to hold. The almost 1" thickness may make it uncomfortable in tighter pockets.
The AAA battery life is very good. I get 20 hours. Interestingly enough your friends probably will not use up any of this battery life. Without reading the instructions, it is hard to figure out how to turn the unit on in the first place! (You hold down the small MENU button on the side for 3 seconds)
The cpu to mp3 upload speed is SLOW. Takes 10-15 minutes over a USB2 connection on a 3 GHZ machine. Same size IPOD takes me 5 minutes.
The FM tuner reception is excellent, good separation, frequency response and sensitivity. Hardly ever fades out. Tuning and presets are good as well.
The voice recorder has only one quality level, I think 32k sample rate, sounds muffled like AM radio quality. Microphone is pretty sensitive. Will fit several days worth of lectures for later study and review.
The shuffle function is not so good. It replays songs you already heard, before you hear them all. It is truly random, but I much prefer the Shuffle method where you hear them all, before you hear repeats. ALSO if you use the FM radio and go back to MP3's, the play list starts at the beginning again, and in the same order!
I still use the Shuffle, because it is sleeker, smaller, and "shuffles" much better. But if you can get the Sansa at a really good price, the sound is excellent, the FM is great, the display good in bright light, and the recorder is just, well, OK. Just don't forget a better set of headphones and enjoy.