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,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of SanDisk Sansa m250 2 GB MP3 Player (Black)
Customer Review: Bought for the A-B playback.
Summary: 5 Stars
I asked for this player for my birthday because I needed something with an A-B playback. Personally I use it for choreographing to music but I know others who use it for writing reports/books, language learning, or memorization.
The first thing I had to do was load up my music. Unfortunately I tried to do this in windows media first... just don't, not if you want playlists etc since the attempt will drive you mad. So I took a hint from the Rhapsody advert that came in the package and gave it a try; instant success! In fact it was so easy I am ready to transfer more of my music than what I need for work purposes.
Next I had to figure out how to use the A-B playback, the quickstart manual didn't cover it. I didn't want to use the disk that came with it since my computer doesn't have a tray system and the disk is a smaller size so I went to ([...])and downloaded the PDF of it. There I found the instructions that directed me to hold down the AB button to activate it and I was good to go. (It is also the repeat button so pushing it without holding it down cycles through repeat one, all, and none.)
I love this product. The AAA battery gives 19 hours of use, the buttons are larger and easy to use under any circumstance, even with the larger size the player is lightweight, the hold button prevents any unintended changes, the menu is easy to navigate, the sounds quality is great, and the separate volume button lets me change it instantly. I wholeheartedly recommend this player to anyone wanting a good MP3 player with A-B playback.
Customer Review: Falls at the first hurdle
Summary: 1 Stars
This product is fine in all but one thing. Unfortunately, this one thing is totally fundamental and thus negates any other advantages the product might otherwise have.
The problem is this: it doesn't play tracks in the correct album order - it plays them in ALPHABETICAL order. I've never seen another MP3 player with this problem...even the 128mb freebie that came with a stationery order.
I rang SanDisk asking when a firmware update to fix this basic problem would be available - I may as well have tried to divine it from tea leaves. They had no idea, and what's more, the product's been on the market for OVER A YEAR, and they still haven't fixed it. Useless.
They also told me to simply change the ID3 tags - which doesn't actually work, as the player then plays them in some kind of random order. Plus, if I've got 500+ tracks going onto this thing, do I really want to faff about changing each and every track tag? No I do not.
It was then suggested I create playlists on Windows Media Player (great customer support this is - .wpl isn't recognised and you have to create .m3u files in Winamp - I had to tell THEM that!). But why should I have to do that, when all other MP3 players simply play tracks straight away in the right order automatically?! Here's a suggestion from me SanDisk - get the basic functions right before releasing a product!
Avoid this player if you prefer listening to music the way artists intended it rather than the way an inferior electronic device decides you should.
Customer Review: Everything works, playlist problem solved
Summary: 5 Stars
This is quite a little player. It can be set to either a Mass Storage Device, so you can drag and drop audio files onto the player through Windows Xp File Explorer or you can set it up to be an MTP device (the actual setting is called 'auto detect.' I like to focus on problems so people know what they are getting. But to touch on the positive: everything works on the player and works well. The equalizer presets, the fm tuner and fm presets, playlists, buttons, backlight, stop watch. All the functions work.
Problems:
The case and armband. Simply put, yucky. But it shouldn't stop you from buying this player.
Plastic construction, but unless you buy a hard drive'd player, there really isn't any other option. This shouldn't stop you either, unless you are a teenager and plan to beat on it.
Playlists. EECK! This was a huge pain, but I was able to figure it out. Here's how:
Player firmware is: 4.04.44A
Windows Media Player: version 10
1. Set the player to be MTP USB mode. (Menu->Settings->USB, select Auto-detect)
2. Create a playlist in Windows Media Player, go to the sync tab, click 'set-up sync', highlight your playlist and then click sync.
That's the only way I could get it to work. I found other reviews online that had a complicated "make your own *.m3u" file, but I just couldn't get that to work at all.
And for only eighty-eight doll hairs (that's money), a 2 gig flash player can't be beat.
Customer Review: Good for those on a budget
Summary: 4 Stars
When I got this player, I put both music and audio books from audible on it. It worked great at first, but I did encounter some problems. It would still show a removed book, froze within a book and listed the wrong title. This may have been an issue with the need to use different settings to load and remove audible files. I contacted the company and had a new one in five days. This replacement is great, have had for six months now with no issues. Sound quality is decent.
Pros:
Not too expensive,
Very easy to operate without too many controls on it,
Compatible with [...] audio books that take up little room,
Can put several books on it,
Fast at loading music and audio books from the computer,
Very good online tech & Customer support,
The screen is surprisingly clear and font bigger than expected,
It is pretty durable, I dropped it several times with no effect on the player.
Cons:
It can be somewhat difficult to remove content,
Does not come with a decent manual,
If using audible to install audio books, user must change USB settings on the player to be successful at putting content on and taking it off,
If user comes to the end of an audio book but wants to listen to it again, you cannot just restart from the beginning like you can with music, you have to remove the book and reload it,
Strange shape and does not come with a belt clip.
I bought one for my roommate for Christmas and she loves it, has had no problems.
Customer Review: Great product for what I need
Summary: 4 Stars
Bought this for when i run. it's pretty basic but for the price, exactly what i need. the headphones are actually pretty good in terms of sound. although, they tend to come lose during the run but i've found most aftermarket ones (even ones that wraparound) aren't really any better. would really like to find some headphones that allow you to mute them without having to fish the device out of your pocket.
was a bit surprised about battery life. would be better if this one could be charged via USB on your computer. but it takes a AAA battery and only lasts a few hours. i don't know the exact number.
i don't like how quickly the device turns off when on pause. about a minute i think then it shuts off. it then takes 20 sec to turn back on but it does remember where you were in the song which is handy.
the playlist feature is pretty tricky. i was using rhapsody's player (device comes with a 1 month unlimited download from rhapsody which btw is a really great system other than synching playlists with the device) and no matter how many you create in rhapsody, only the first one shows up in the device. so i switched to MSN's media player. by far the worst system to work work in terms of setting up a playlist. But, it does properly synch the playlists to the device.
For those worried about size, 2GB is more than enough. I have 113 songs on there any only takes up 500MB. I'll likely never use up the space unless i use it for data storage which is a handy little feature.