Customer Reviews

SanDisk 1 GB MP3 Player Silver

5 star:		(105)
4 star:		(77)
3 star:		(26)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(24)

 

 

I was considering buying an mp3 player, this would be the first one, and I did a lot of research. I was looking at the Sony HD1, the Creative 30gb Zen Xtra, the Iriver one, and this one. When I learned that the Creative player usually fell apart between one and two years, I decided against it. All of the Hard Drive based players that I looked at had internal batteries and therefore, after about a year, the battery life was shot and the player was useless. Therefore, I decided that I needed a replaceable battery player.
This small player 3" x 1.3" x 1" has all of the features I wanted, and is fairly easy to use. In my winXP computer, I could transfer mp3's into folders on the device and each folder acted as an album. There was no software to install. In the player, you can navigate to different folders, and then play those folders or indevidual songs in those folders.
Unlike the sony player, this player will play MP3's any way you have them on your PC, this means VBR mp3's too.
Also, unlike the Creative player, you can choose to have the player display information from the ID3 tags, or from the file name, so if your mp3s aren't set up well, its no problem.
The buttons are a littel confusing in the begining, but after 5min, I could use it perfectly. Also, it can be used left handed to right handed, the LCD rotates.
There are many play modes that you might want like Shuffle and Repeat. These are all easy to use. Overall, a very nice player. I would buy again. 1gb is enough space to switch files in and out, and since the battery wont die like a HD model, and the HD wont die either, I think it's the best choice.

Main good points:
-replacable battery
-VBR mp3's
-Shuffle and Repeat
-ID3 tag use, or path display
-No software to install
-can store any media on the drive like a flash drive
-easy to use
-Left or Right hand use
-Nice display

<<UPDATE: Still use this MP3 player, but have had to resolder the headphone jack and superglue the 'on' / 'play' button back in place. Still impressed with the functionality.>>

I bought this player a couple of weeks back and am satisified for the most part with its performance. I bought it for $140 and for that price range there was nothing that I could find in the marketplace matching its feature set.

What I like about it:
1) Affordable and reasonable build quality.
2) Good sound quality
3) Plug and play HD for Windows and Mac
4) FM Player works well though I hear some ocassional static which I think may be due to a reception problem indoors.
5) I have used it for about 4 hrs and I still see 2 bars. On a single AAA I think thats quite allright

What I don't like:
1) Recorder was a big disappointment. I hear constant static all through the recording that renders it pretty much useless.
2) Menu structure is rather complicated, but reading the manual helped.
3) Headphones too big for my ears but quality is quite allright.

In summary if you don't care much for the voice recorder feature and all you need is a player that can double up as an mp3 player, fm player and a plug and play hard drive this is the player for you.
If recording quality is important look elsewhere.

After reviewing many differant players, I decided on the Sandisk
1GB, one for the price, two for size, and three for ease of use.
The the money spent on this toy, I enjoy it tremendisly. I cant tell you how easy it is to use. I was a little worried about the plastic case, and wasnt too crazy about the cover, but, I've been using it steady everday for three weeks without any problems. Loading songs, scrolling throught the menu, whatever I do, its simple to do. I am in the 40 year age bracket, and althought kids may need more space for there music, I find the size of this is perfect. I would recommend it to anyone that wants to tune out office noise and enjoy the sounds of your own little world.

This small flash-based MP3 player is the Honda Accord of MP3 players. It isn't the best or the prettiest but it has tremendous value. The FM radio, 1GB memory, and arm band/case are all included for $10-20 less than the 1GB iPod Shuffle. This is the best value of the flash-based players. If money were no object, I'd seriously consider iRiver.

PROS:
- Easy loading of MP3 files
- Digital FM tuner w/20 presets
- Doubles as a USB storage device
- Many configurable options
- Right or Left handed display support
- Inexpensive
- Small and lightweight (1.4 ounces w/battery)
- Includes arm band and see-thru case
- USB 2.0
- Good battery life (~15 hours)
- Replaceable battery
- Firmware upgradeable

CONS:
- User interface is not intuitive
- Buttons are located in somewhat awkward positions
- Lacks paper manual, but includes Quick Start Guide
- Lacks support of OGG files
- Lacks playlist support (despite Amazon's description)

I am the last of all of my friends and family to own a mass storage MP3 player. My sister and cousin both have iPod's. My best friend has a Creative Labs Zen and my wife a Rio Carbon. I had 2 players previously that supported under 96MB of storage. With everyone jumping on the iPod wagon, I was just waiting for the right time to throw my hat in the ring. After I decided against disk-based jukebox players, the decision was quite easy.

I considered 3 flash-based players very seriously. The iPod Shuffle, SanDisk 1GB player, and a 1GB iRiver. I had actually gone into the San Francisco Apple store to buy a Shuffle but received less than stellar service so postponed my purchase. My best friend also wanted to buy a shuffle, but when he went in, they didn't have any in stock. The delay in the purchase allowed me time to look at the iRiver, but it was way beyond my budget. I've always admired iRiver because of their excellent firmware support and easy-to-use interface. But cost was a big barrier. The Sandisk 1GB was about $60 less than the iRiver. I found the SanDisk in-stock and inexpensive. So, I made the jump.

When I received the package at work, I couldn't open it because it's in one of those blister packs that you need a chainsaw to open, so I had to wait to get home first. After opening the package, I found a CD-ROM with MusicMatch on it and manuals, a Quick Start Guide, an arm band, a see-thru case, one AAA battery, a USB A-Bmini cable, and the player.

SETUP & DOWNLOADING
Without reading any guides, I inserted the battery, plugged the USB cable in and XP recognized the device immediately and showed up as a drive. I could've just copied all my music using Windows Explorer, but instead used MusicMatch Plus so I could downcode my files to 128kbps. I transferred 4 albums(Tori Amos, The Killers, Erasure, and Shania Twain) very quickly before heading to the bus stop.

USER INTERFACE
I spent most of my time on the bus trying to figure out how to use the interface. I got the gist of it, but had to look at the manual on the CD-ROM to figure out how to work the FM presets and how to get to the top level system menu. Also, the buttons are placed kind of weird as I kept flipping the display to the wrong side. I found out later you can actually flip the display to the other side so I can use it the way I expect to.

SOUND QUALITY & EARPHONES
Sound quality is excellent but the earphones are a bit too big for my ears, lacks bass, and the cord length is too short. I only used the included earbuds to test with anyways and had intended all along to use better ones I purchased separately. The equalizer is handy, but the player sounds good flat as well.

DISPLAY
The display is pretty easy to read and has a great deal of useful info. Backlighting is configurable and as I mentioned above, you can flip the display to suit your preference in how you hold and view the player.

BATTERY LIFE
I've actually only listened to the player for about 2 days now, but the AAA battery that it came with still shows full (3 bars), even after transferring 4 albums on it, listening to it on the bus, and listening to it in my car on the way to work. Will it translate to 15 hours? Even at 10 hours, it's on par with the Shuffle's "up to 12 hours." And at least I know when to replace the battery.

FM TUNER
The FM radio comes in surprisingly well. The autodetect feature is pretty useless. It's supposed to auto preset the 20 strongest stations but instead it presets the first 20 stations that it finds, strong or not. So preset #20 ended up being like, 89.1 and it didn't even bother searching the rest of the frequencies. Setting the presets manually is a confusing process until you read the manual. Having the tuner is a great option when you get tired of the music you've loaded onto the player.

MISC
The Amazon description says that the SanDisk supports playlists but it does NOT. The only way to go about "playlists" is just creating a folder of songs you want to be your "playlist." This works for me I guess, but native support for standard playlists would have been nice.

I heard the crackling noise like everyone else when navigating the menu. The firmware update from SanDisk's site solved that. However, I wish SanDisk would've provided a bit more info on the firmware, like release notes. The original firmware version on my player was 0.97, I think.

I remain hopeful that SanDisk will put in support for OGG files in future firmware updates. For the time being, MP3 and WMA are the only file types supported.

SUMMARY
Jukeboxes like the iPod and Zen are much bigger than I really need and aren't ideal for jogging with, which is why I wanted a flash-based player. The SanDisk is a good player for a good price. SanDisk should sell a lot of these. If Apple can't properly assess demand and keep the Shuffles in stock, they'll keep losing customers like my friend who ended up with a 512MB version of the SanDisk instead of the 512MB iPod Shuffle he originally wanted.

Having to first wipe and then reburn a CD-RW just to hear a few new songs on my MP3-CD player was an inconvenience I wanted to be rid-off -- plus the inability to fast-forward to a certain point in a track made listening to audio books a pain. So began my hunt for a MP3 player.

Since I didn't plan on having my whole collection with me (simply 40 songs, if not less, at a time), a 1gb+ player would be overkill. True portability, plus not having to wait for a recharge and potentially having to send the player back 3 years later to pay x amount to replace the battery, meant that I was looking for something that runs on AAAs or AAs. I might also jog with it and a read through the on-line forums showed mixed results for micro-drives in this capacity which placed me in the market for a 512mb or 256mb flash DAP.

Examining the reviews and user opinions on CNET, Amazon and various on-line, audio forums, the companies to consider were Apple, CreativeLabs, iAudio, iRiver and SanDisk.

Apple has a great reputation and everyone seems to agree that the quality (both finish, ease of use and sound) of their players are excellent. The only controversy was with the short life of the lithium ion batteries but all players with this energy source will have this problem. (According to Battery University, if the user leaves the battery at 100% charge at 77 degrees Fahrenheit, at the end of 1yr, the total charge level will only be at 80% which means that if you were able to get 20 hours of play, a year later, you'll only be able to get 16 hours)

The new iPod Shuffle didn't appeal to me because it lacked a LCD screen (try navigating a CD-RW with 107 songs and you'll know what I mean) Also, I heard that the Shuttle was binded to your home's iTunes so the only way to transfer files from your office was to first format the thing. It doesn't have a FM tuner, runs on lithium with ~12hr life, and doesn't support WMA but is the only player to support AAC. You can only have 1 playlist. So it wasn't for me. However, if you have a large iTunes collection, have an iPod and just want a excellent sounding player with familiar controls to workout at the gym with, this player is for you.

CreativeLabs, the guys who brought us the awesome sound blaster cards ( I have the Audigy 2 ZS), offers a wide array of DAPs which have just as much mind-share among the enthusiast as Apple. Their most popular models are Zen Micro followed by Zen Touch. The major issues were: 1. bad firmware update for the Micro and 2. the headphone jack on the Micro seems to degenerate too quickly. Sound quality-wise, vox poplui is that Zen Micro and the iPod 4gb sound about the same.

Among the flash players, only the Muvo N200 and Muvo Tx FM have a FM tuner and run on AAA batteries with ~15hr life. Both are exactly the same but the Tx FM can act as a USB key without having to use a small adapter like the N200 -- this also means that the Tx FM is slightly larger. Reviews and discussions suggest that both have pretty good sound quality but not on the level of a iAudio or iRiver. I favored the Tx over N200 because the former can be a true USB key but ultimately decided not to go neither because the LCD was so small. (Went to J&R to see one).

Of interest, the original Tx FM could not fast-forward to the middle of a song, however, a firmware update has fixed this plus added support for Audible.com. I have also read the manual and found the controls (jog wheel that can be depressed to select and volume + & -) to be as intuitive as Apple's. Overall, the N200 & Tx FM are for people whose willing to sacrifice a bit of sound quality in order to get a small LCD screen. Both have FM tuners and so-so voice recorder ability but has no playlist support and you can only have 1 subfolder (C:\Level1\Level2). They support MP3, WMA and Audible.

iAudio is a company that appears to be quite popular in Korea. They don't seem to have as big a following in the states due to fact that their players, before the recent price decrease, were rather expensive and had limited distribution. Their most popular models are the U2 and iAudio 4 (there is a 5 out now, different look, same insides). Both had FM tuners, excellent voice recording ability with playlist support and fast forward ability. They support MP3, VBR, WMA, WAV, OGG and ASF

Since there wasn't too much on the forums about them, the CNET reviews were the main source of information and the U2 was rank the top flash player with some of their other players also taking top spots. The U2, with its extremely small form factor, had excellent sound, on par with the iPod Shuffle and a beautiful design. The only problem for me was that is used lithium rechargeable batteries. The iAudio 4 used AAA batteries and had the same sound quality as the U2 but didn't navigate via joystick. Both had about a ~15hr battery life.

Taking a look at the manuals, the i4 did not appear to be as intuitive as the CreativeLab Muvo or Apple iPod. The U2 is good for people who want excellent sound with an easy to read LCD and navigation plus small footprint. The iAudio 4 is for those who are looking for everything in the U2 but is willing to trade slightly larger form factor and navigation to have a non-lithium battery. I have ordered a iAudio 5 512mb (The i5s are gorgeous!!!) and am waiting for it to arrive. An interesting note is that you can change the short boot-up screen for the i4. Just download the software from the company's site and it makes converting a moving gif for the start-up screen a snap.

iRiver is iAudio's rival in Korea and it seems that both have about the same sound quality (which means excellent sound and on par with the Shuffle). iRiver is also known to have elegant designs and their iFP-799 is no exception - this player looks very similar to the U2. The review on CNET and elsewhere were very favorable to all their players however, it seems that quite a few users in the forums have quality problems and report the units breaking about a few months later. I was going to get an iFP-799 which supports MP3, OGG and non-protected WMA. The fact that it doesn't work as a UBS key killed the deal. You have to install iRiver's software in order to transfer anything onto the player but you can't save songs from the player to your computer - perhaps done to please media companies. Battery life, at ~40hrs, was the longest of all.

SanDisk has been in the flash memory business for awhile and it was a logical step to create more value-added products like a MP3 player. Their entry seems to have forced prices of flash players down. I have brought 2 of these (gave one to my youngest brother who loves it) and found the value, relative to price, to be the highest among all the flash DAPs. It supports MP3s and both protected and non WMA files. There is no playlist.

The sonic quality of the item was a bit worst than your average CD player and the included headphones sounded mono. Switching to my Sennheiser HD 457s, gave the sound a better range (lows were lower and highs were higher) but it came with a slight decrease in volume.

The FM tuner had trouble auto-scanning but you could manual select and I found the reception to be no worst than a standard walkman. I have not tried the voice recording but heard that it was only good for personal messages. Don't expect to record lectures like the iAudio and iRiver DAPs. The unit itself only supports one folder level (no subfolders) and couldn't seem to handle more than 10 of them. My brothers and I found that the navigation wasn't a problem for us. Reading the manual, however, was required in order to get all the options. How can someone know that holding down the select button for 3 seconds while in any mode will bring up the systems menu?

The LCD screen was a decent size. With a blue backlit, there were no issues reading it. Since you could just drag and drop your songs via Windows Explorer, I have not tried the included software. You can also create your folders via Windows Explorer. The small form factor meant that you could place it in any pocket and not notice it there. No problems were had connecting to our 4 PCs via the included USB cable. File transfer was very quick. A reviewer complained that file deletion was difficult but that was not the case. Just select the song and hit Rec, press the Play/Stop to confirm. We had been using the 2 units for awhile now and the 15 hour stated battery life appeared to be correct.

This DAP is definitely good for those looking for a ultra portable device. It's not much bigger than your thumb. The sound wouldn't blow you away (audiophiles would be better serve with a iAudio, iRiver or iPod Shuffle) but the low price will surely impress. SanDisk looks to be a strong contender in low-end flash player market.

General note about what storage size to select. Besides, the SanDisk 1GB, non of the other 1GB items could be recommended. Often times a 4GB unit can be had from the same company for just $25 to $30 more which means that the user should choose between 256mb or 512mb. Assume 6mb per song, you can have around 42 and 83 songs, respectively.

I have had this player for nearly a year and I highly recommend it. I like the fact that the battery is removable, size AAA, and can be easily swapped. With rechargeable NMH batteries I get about 12-14 hours on a charge. I also like that I can play WMA files which at comparable sound quality are 1/2 the size of MP3s. I can get over 30 CDs of music in this player at WMA 64Kbps.

I have read with amusement some of the bad reviews below. For instance, someone states that the only way to play music is in shuffle mode, not by playlist, and that he called support and they told him so. I play my music in playlist mode all the time. Usisng Windows Explorer, simply copy a folder containing the songs you want to play in the order you want to play them (like the songs of a CD) and they will all play in that order. The player does have shuffle option which must be turned off (the default). I also read where someone says that they cannot drag and drop music and must go to WMP to transfer files. I copy music directly to the player all the time and have never gone to WMP to do so - simply select the folder of files you want to copy, hit copy, select the player and hit paste... bingo. Bottom line, this is a great player - I have enjoyed it tremendously and highly recommend it.

Pros:
Small size
Good audio quality (with the right headphones)

Cons:
Slow transfer speed if you only have USB 1.1 (older computers)
Controls are a little wacky but you'll figure them out after playing around

Comments:
This thing is a nice little package, only a little bigger than a USB keychain. It works for audio books contrary to some reviews (you have to press and hold the FF/RW button to seek within a track, just like a CD player).

With the right headphones, audio quality is very good and can even be adjusted with a multi-band EQ. I didn't try the included cheapo earbuds (so I don't know how they sound), I used a pair of Shure E2C in-ear headphones and a big old pair of Sony MDR-V600 muffs, neither needed modified EQ to get clear/flat/dry/accurate sound from this player. Bass was good, treble was crisp, and midrange was clear and not drowned out by the bass/treble.

FM radio works great and reception is decent considering it has to use the headphones as an antenna (and it found all the local stations automatically with a press and hold of the AB button).

I'll see how durable the unit is. The keys seem similar to a modern cell phone so it'll probably be fine as long as nobody sits on it like a pair of sunglasses.

Functionality wise, this thing won't hold your whole music collection like a hard drive based player, but it's perfect for working out or audio books/podcasts.

I haven't tried to use protected/DRM audio/music files with this unit yet... some people have indicated you need to use Media Player or other software to transfer the tracks with license info (this sounds like a pain, I otherwise really like being able to just copy a bunch of unprotected tracks to it like another disk drive in explorer).

I have been using sony clie PDA/Samsung Uploar Sprint phone as my mp3 players. And because of the limit of the memory size, 256mb & 32mb, I was looking for a better replacement.

I did not like the craze of "iPOD" because of the high price you pay and the bulky size you get - my Clie PDA with memory sticks was not too big compared to iPOD/iPOD mini, and, hey, Sony Clie has a color touch screen with all other utilities to play with. and super light. And still cheaper than iPOD. These are my arguments with any iPOD manias.
with 4-40GB scratch HDD, Some might say that they want to carry all their CD collections in the handbag as if they will never update mp3 files again, and that it could be an alternative external 20-40GB HDD, but to me that would be an expensive choice when you can get 250GB ext.HDD at around $200.

So, I knew I would like 1GB tiny little mp3 player, hopefully with FM radio as a bonus so that I can carry it anywhere and it could stay in my pocket all the time. I would say this is the smallest/lightest 1GB mp3 Player. And the grey/chrome color looks quite "sleek" in my hands.

Originally, I was looking at Lexar Jumpgear/jumpdisk sport 1GB (approx. $120) but this black plastick thing did not apeal to me much although anyone who anticipates for a future upgrade to 2gb or higher would need this when a bigger flash memory is introduced.
And I also looked at cheaper but sharp looking chinese OEMs, there are 3-4 different designs, similar looking to iRiver/Samsung Yepp - but all coming with exactly same monitor screen - directly sold from HK on ebay and I could not trust the quality and it was only 20 some bucks cheaper($85~90) plus S/H ($30+)with no guarantee of after sale services. And I would not bother wasting time bidding on them.

The new iPOD shuffle is no comparison to this at all. NO monitor to read/search files, a blind mp3 player? Files are shuffled? NO way!! Is it cuter than other mp3 players? I personally think none of iPOD models is good looking, except that they are all WHITE or pastelly. It is like watching people dressed in all white and that is all. Kind of looking like a Mac groupie to me.

I paid for this Sandisk mp3 player at $143.54 from amazon.com. Amazon is the cheapest vendor at the moment with free shipping-ups-in 3 days.

After 2 hours of listening to music, I have to address some "minor CONS". I know Sandisk needs to improve this mp3 player a bit.

1. grey armband with clear mp3 player holder - looks cheap, but it is free!
2. Voice Recording volume is too low and it starts 1-2 seconds after pressing REC button and poor hissing background noises when played.
3. during USB connection to PCs, if you delete old files and add new files, you have to go and check "disk cleanup" as the old GHOST FILES still sit in the flash memory and would not let you add new files until all removed.
4. FM radio is superb but I found that I could receive more stations in KOREA setting- the factory default setting is USA.

5. "B/I/G D/R/A/W" - The basic operation instruction is not all printed in the quick guide manual, and you have to read rather "LOUSY" PDF file on the monitor instead. This was painful to me, too many pages to pagedown. But I finally manage to follow it better second time.

6. I wish it came with internal USB socket. It could be handy to plug it to any computer for file backup/transfer. The provided US cable is bulkier than the actual mp3 player. Some of the Chinese OEM I mentioned above has an integrated USB socket and it is ready for a file transfer.

Indeed, I love this mp3 player as I expected. The file transfer was super fast. Some people complained about the biggie earbuds but it works fine with me. Actually, this tightly sits in my tiny ears and does not fall out. It sounds quite true to the original recording sound without the exaggerated bass - very crisp!

The reason I gave 4 star verdict is because 3 & 5 above. These should have been imrpoved before Sandisk introduced this cool player to the market. Other than that, I am VERY HAPPY with this little thing - smaller than two fingers together.See the pictures I uploaded. Good Investment!

I got this as a Christmas present. Actually, I picked it out and someone bought it for me. I didn't want an iPod for several reasons, one being that I couldn't afford it and I definetly didn't want a shuffle because there's no menu. This is one of the next best things.

I've read complaints about how the headphones sucked, so I bought a pair to go with this MP3 player, so I guess I really have nothing to complain about.

Pros:
-Easy transer: Copy and pasted into the MP3's folder. How hard is that?
-Plug and play: Like a song on your friend's computer? Plug this baby into his USB port and put it on your MP3 player. No need to download any software onto his system just for a song or two or even a CD.
-Storage: Okay, so you can't hold 1000 songs, but for someone like me, I don't need to hold 1000 songs. 240 (more or less) is good enough for me.
-Accessibility: A little bit of fiddling with the player and I figured it out pretty easily.
-FM Radio: I do get bored of songs I have on here, so from time to time I can switch to my radio and listen to that.

Cons:
-Looks heavier than it is. I feel like I'm going to crush this thing.
-The guide isn't really all that helpful. I was trying to figure out how to get it on shuffle, but I couldn't really find anything in there. Good thing I figured it out for myself.

Either way, this is a good player for someone who is just now getting an MP3 player. Definetly my favorite Christmas present.

I started thinking about a digital media player a long time ago. I have owned a Minidisc player for a while, and it still works great, but I wanted to move to something that was smaller, lighter and with more capacity than an MD.
HD based jukeboxes have been in the market for a while, but all of them (Nomad jukebox, Archos, etc) were extremely heavy and bulky to be called portable. A MP3 CD Player is too big, and all the flash memory based players used to have ridiculous amounts of capacity (32 - 128 MB).
Then Apple introduced those beautiful smooth lined IPods... but I still consider them quite expensive and heavy. I wouldn't risk taking the subway or walking arount the city with a $300 device in my pocket... no way man!
I kept my MD, and settled for a while... until IPod prices were lower or a better choice came up.
Then it happened... The IPod shuffle was launched, at a reasonable price, very portable and with a respectable capacity.
I'm not in the Mac world, like many other people, so I started reading many reviews, especially from windows users, to know about their experience.
That's how I found out about Sandisk Players... and the real challenge came.
I could not decide between Sandisk 1GB Silver and Ipod Shuffle 1 GB.
Then again, I started looking at the pros and cons about both of them.

- Ipod Shuffle has a rechargeable internal battery that charges through any USB port: GOOD
- Ipod Shuffle's Internal non-user-replaceable battery will eventually die: BAD
- Sandisk DAP uses common AAA batteries which you can buy anywhere: GOOD
- Buying new batteries every 1 or 2 weeks can get to be annoying: BAD
- But you can buy rechargeable ones: GOOD
- Both have 1 GB of capacity: GOOD
- Both can store Music and Data: GOOD
- IPod Shuffle must be accessed through ITunes propietary software: BAD
- To use IPod Shuffle on several computers you must install ITunes on all of them: BAD
- Sandisk DAP is recognized as an external flash drive (Just like a very very large memory key): GOOD
- Sandisk doesn't need any special software or drivers to be recognized: GOOD
- IPod Shuffle comes with a built in USB Connector: GOOD
- Sandisk DAP needs an aditional cable to be connected: BAD
- Sandisk DAP has a built in FM Radio (Not that I use it too much since I have 200+ songs I love at a few clicks, why listen to FM waiting for a song I like): GOOD
- Sandisk DAP features a LCD Display (believe me, this is very useful if you'll search for a specific song between your 200+ songs): GOOD
- Sandisk DAP has a 5 line equalizer fully customizable: GOOD
- Sandisk DAP includes a voice recorder (I don't find it very useful, but you might do): GOOD
- Sandisk DAP's price is lower than IPS: GOOD
- IPod Shuffle's carrying case and arm band are sold separately: BAD
- Sandisk DAP includes the carrying case and the arm band: GOOD
- IPod Shuffle's battery life is about 12 hours: GOOD
- Sandisk DAP's battery life is about 12 hours: BETTER

And the final point that helped me on my final choice...
Apple included in it's IPS those annoying copyrights protection, so, if I load the IPS at home with 500MB of Beatles MP3 (half the device is still free) and at the office I want to stuff another 400MB of The Doors, I can't, unless I delete the prior 500MB. That's the way Apple "prevents" you to make ilegal copies of your music on other computers.
I don't buy music online, most of my music is ripped directly from my own CD collection, so I have the right to keep as many copies of my MP3s as I like... So Apple is going bye bye, and Sandisk DAP, welcome to my electronics collection.

Hope this helps you to make your own choice.