SanDisk Sansa m250 2 GB MP3 Player (Black)
by SanDisk
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List Price: Our Price: $59.95 You Save: $90.04 (60%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Network Media Player See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of SanDisk Sansa m250 2 GB MP3 Player (Black)
Customer Review: Great Little Player, But Don't Buy Refurbished, Only New
Summary: 5 Stars
I have bought the Sandisk Sansa m250 MP3 player new and found it to be excellent, especially considering the price. It has many nice features.
However, I recently purchased a refurbished one through Digitalet, an outlet store featured here at Amazon.com. Well, it was "refurbished," all right. The player was filled with serious malware which uploaded into my computer immediately upon attaching. It instantly disabled the System Restore and up-to-date anti-virus programs, and ended up embedded all over my computer.
This was a very new "worm" intended to create an access pathway to one's computer in order to gather sensitive information. It was so new, Dell didn't have info. on it so couldn't fully handle the problem, even after I paid them $239.00 for a software service contract. Eventually it took several calls to Microsoft and an escalation to a higher expert there to finally get full resolution. (Shoulda tried this first; Microsoft handles such calls for free.) All this took several weeks and a lot of aggravation.
Upon contacting Digitalet, the only satisfaction they would offer me was to take back the player and send me ANOTHER refurbished player. Uh, no thanks. Then the guy suggested I "shake the fat cat manufacturer." (Charming.) Sandisk says they do not refurbish any players; they leave that to the third party outlets, and do not take any responsibility for such items.
I'd suggest never to buy anything "refurbished," and certainly don't patronize this company, Digitalet, in Brooklyn, NY. Whether they are responsible for the worm, I don't know, but at least they should have checked out the player before selling it to an unsuspecting customer.
Customer Review: Sitting useless on my desk - total junk
Summary: 1 Stars
When I say useless, I mean "unable to be used" not "has some quirky features I don't like" It started out OK, but after about a month, it is broken.
The problems started when I loaded about 1GB of music onto it. I had 2 playlists, each with about 500MB of music. The music would play fine, but switching playlists would take about 2 minutes. That's right, with a flash player (ie. no moving parts), it would take a full 2 minutes for it to start playing a song when I changed playlists. I don't know if it was due to number of songs per list or anything like that. All I know is that it was totally annoying and completely ridiculous.
When I got sick of it and looked on Sansa's website, I noticed they had a firmware upgrade. So, hoping it was a bug that had been fixed, I ran their firmware updater. IT CRASHED!! My jaw nearly hit the floor when the updater crashed. For those that don't know, an aborted firmware update is the equivalent of a lobotomy for an electronic device. For what it's worth, the player worked for another day, but then just quit after that.
I plugged it into the computer to sync some music, and it was not recognized. So, I unhooked it and replaced the battery, hoping to clear whatever snafu was happening. Since that (1/2 hour ago), I've been staring at the Sansa bootup screen, hoping against all hope that it will eventually spring to life.
I wanted a good quality, non-iPod mp3 player. Simple, easy, and inexpensive. The m250 is none of these, considering that you'll end up throwing it in the trash and buying something else. Save yourself the trouble and get something worthwhile.
Customer Review: Great for my audio books, nothing fancy.
Summary: 4 Stars
I got this player in August '06, mainly to play audio books from Audible and the local online library (Overdrive Media files). Most of the time I listen in my car via cassette adapter. The 2gb capacity holds quite a few books, so I only have to load/unload books every 2 weeks or so.
It works great with Audible books, always starting at the last place I left off in a file. However, with any other file type, it will only start at the "bookmarked" spot if I switch off the player on THAT file. If I leave a book and switch to music or another book, and then turn off the player, it only remembers the bookmark on the last played file, all others are lost (except for the Audible formats) . Frustrating, but that may be the fault of the file format rather than the player, I don't really know.
Spoken word sounds just fine. Volume goes quite loud when needed. I've always used it with the included vinyl jacket on it, so it is completely shiny and unscratched underneath, almost 2 yrs later. Because I leave it in my car most of the time, even through the winter, it has refused to power up on very cold winter mornings because the battery is too cold, no surprise. I usually take the battery out and let it sit on a vent and let the heater warm it up to room temp, and then the player's good to go. I haven't had any operating issues or breakage yet, but the unit just doesn't get moved around much. Screen's still like new, switches and buttons as responsive as ever. I'm quite happy with this player and plan to continue using it until it dies. For that reason, I think it was a good value, considering it's been nearly 2 yrs.
Customer Review: In use for three years, so here's the deal...
Summary: 4 Stars
I purchased this as a gift for an immediate family member who's a bit of an audiophile. She has consistently complimented the sound quality (having a great set of headphones helps, too), ease of uploading music, ability to navigate through the menus (admittedly, the learning curve for this device seemed quicker than for some cell phones these days), and ability to skip ahead/replay/etc. The main reason why I liked it was that it runs on batteries that YOU can change, not a built-in one while will eventually lose its charge and stick you with a device that will likely require servicing and/or replacement. We have rechargable batteries, so this was extremely suitable and we've saved a LOT of money on batteries in this regard.
Downsides: after three years, we've noticed a problem recurring with increased frequency. The device will freeze between a half-hour to an hour of straight play and normal to heavy usage (navigating, reprogramming playlists, etc.). Popping out the battery and reinserting it (however fresh the battery was) became a necessary inconvenience as it was the only way to "solve" the issue; the device was otherwise unresponsive, even when trying to turn it off. After numerous tests (including plugging it into my computer, poking around the firmware, etc.), I've concluded that the device itself -not the users- is the problem. We can easily get back to the place where it froze once it's been reactivated, but who wants to do this on a crowded subway car or when supposedly relaxing in the passenger seat of a long drive? Inconvenient, yes. Overall, though, it really was worth the money in spite of a minor annoyance.
Customer Review: NOT USEFUL for TALKING AUDIO with Multiple Folders - Get CREATIVE instead
Summary: 1 Stars
The Sansa is NOT useful for TALKING AUDIO with Multiple Folders, especially my required Sorted Play Order.
The Sansa brand is better used as a plan MUSIC ONLY Player
* I bought the SanDisk Sansa m250 2 GB MP3 Player w FM to replace a Creative 1 GB MuVo Tx FM that had a detachable flash drive with built-in USB connector.
* My Creative cost $70 and lasted about 2 years. I was able to use it as a regular detachable flash drive for data and running programs. Apart from the easy data flash drive I liked the large number of settings that Creative had, particularly the fact that it sorted audio files by File Name and allowed me to select individual folders (copied over from my pc).
Most of my audio are lessons and I need to play or repeat folders that are sorted by mp3 TAG using file name ... like Tony Robbin's motivational material or Vernon McGee's Thru the Bible CD Set.
* I bought the Sansa thinking that I could just re-copy over my usual audio files and listen to them as before ... NOT the case. Even though it's a good size drive for the price and requires the separate USB attachment, it won't allow the access of data or programs and I CAN'T listen to my audio files in SORTED file name order unless I use the SONG selection which just plays everything on the entire drive ... If I select by Artist or Album then the play order is by Title (and it may be a different jumbled order). Sansa should COPY the Creative brand usability features!!!
* I'm going back and buying the cheaper model of the Creative MuVo MP3 Player with Detachable Flash Drive ... I can skip the FM Radio model.