Customer Reviews

SanDisk Sansa e270 6 GB MP3 Player with SD Expansion Slot (Black)

5 star:		(88)
4 star:		(67)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(15)
1 star:		(25)

 

 

June 15 2006 - Unlike some of the reviewers, I couldn't care less about music "services" be they iTunes, Rhapsody, etc.
Why pay 0.99 to anyone for DRM crippled tracks?
The artist doesn't benefit.
I listen to CDs I have bought and ripped.
For that purpose, this unit works beautifully with *any* OS including Mac X, WinXP, even Linux.
The e270 can act like a flash/keychain drive:
just go into the Settings menu and change the USB mode.
The e270 also shows the album art (folder.jpg) while playing tracks.
The e200 series has a beautiful display, better than the Nano.
I wouldn't whine about the design being imitative:
the Nano has better quality buttons/wheel,
the e270's controls are comparatively flimsy-feeling and are harder for large fingers to operate.
Besides, didn't Apple copy from *Creative's* mp3 players in the first place?
The courts are reviewing that question now.
THE ISSUE.
My only issue is that the USB cable is proprietary, mandatory, and irreplaceable.
And, Sandisk is currently unable to provide a replacement if you lose it.
Without the special Sandisk USB cable, you can't even recharge the on-board Lithium battery,
and also there's no wall wart for AC power available either.
By contrast, my previous Sandisk e140 player (a 1GB model) uses an AAA battery
--and the same USB cable most digital cameras use.
Battery- and connection-wise the e140 is a better solution,
but the drawback is a dim monocolor display.
If you have good eyesight, the e140 is a great economy player;
but the e270 is the ultimate luxury toy.
Everyone who sees my e270 is smitten.
UPDATE July 6th -
Sandisk says it is _now_ able to ship me a replacement
"e270 to USB" cable, so give them credit for that.
Also, according to internet rumor, Griffin makes an e270-compatible wall-wart (AC Power) solution.
Finally, no solution is available yet to the "cannot play-tracks-in-album-order" issue,
a problem I failed to mention above.
This might drive you seriously insane when you play Mozart or Beethoven on the thing when the IV movement isn't played fourth.
Or, when an mp3 audio book can't be played
in chapter order!
We're waiting every day for the firmware update from Sandisk that fixes this track ordering bug.

I was hesitating on buying the iPod Nano because I'm the guy who usually bought something and the next week something newer and better came out. I think this time I finally got it right. The e270 is sexy. I've seen the Creative Zens get cosmetic scratches within minutes of pulling it out of the box, this tiny e270 looks great, appears durable, and I'm confident it will survive my abuse. Dragging and dropping music is a cinch, the iPod and Zen software my friends use took some getting used to...and the out of the box conversion software to put videos and graphics on this baby is just too easy. The variety of accepted formats wasn't impressive, but it took my mp3s and wmas with no problem. It converted my jpgs with no issue. There were 5 out of 40 music mpegs had an error during conversion. And a movie in .avi format was broken down into 12 .mov files. I took this with a grain of salt and assume future firmware improvements might fix this. The menu works better for me and I prefer the e270's dial over other mp3 players. Improvements I would like to see would be the ability to put the videos in subfolders without disappearing from the menu, a different style headphones, a freebie screen protector and some way to wear it other than the supplied carry pouch or lanyard. I'm still trying to pick up an FM station, can't determine if the weakness lies with the built in antenna or the AFN stations in Iraq. The flash memory was the basis for this buy, the drive players were too bulky and sensitive to my treatment. The added feature of a micro SD slot is probably excessive, but not unwelcome. I am VERY happy with this purchase. Now how about making some accessories for this thing!?

My e270 has been a mixture of the enjoyable and the frustrating...with a few changes this little gadget could be simply outstanding. Instead, the Sansa e200 series falls short of what it should be, but remains a good value for those with the technical savvy and patience to put up with it.

For crying out loud, SanDisk, when are you going to support folders, or creating play lists on the fly? The e200 will organize your music for you, IF your tags are in order. You can create a "go list" list on the fly, but that's it. Your music (MP3, WMA or WAV only) can be browsed by artist, song title, album, genre and a "go list". There is another category, "my top rated", but if you rate your songs with the Sansa, it'll freeze... how much simpler life with the Sansa would be if there was support for folders or multiple play list creation.

The list of EQ settings that the player ships with are also limiting...there is a custom EQ with the latest firmware, but it isn't as robust as the EQ choices on my older e140, and some users report that it's buggy. So far, I haven't had that problem. The sound is good, with good earphones. The earphones the e200 comes with have been relegated to under the pillow use by me...the ones I got with the old e140 were much better, and the Koss KSC75 clip-on's better yet.

Video? Yep, but the MOV QuickTime format is as bloated as a beached whale. The bundled media converter will chop your video in to 10 minute chunks with iffy sound and in widescreen format. All this can be changed (except the MOV format) with some file editing, but why should a user have to dig through the anythingbutIpod forums to find this out? What could have been an outstanding feature with MP4 support is merely a novelty.

Voice recording? Yes, in WAV format. You can record FM on the fly, (when is a Sansa player going to have AM support, anyway?) and there are photos with a slideshow function via the media converter.

Left out of the package as of the 01.02.15A firmware- An alarm function and a sleep timer.

The Sansa is fine with me from a control standpoint. The voice record button is placed where you can hit it by accident, the scroll wheel should be progressive, and the buttons around the wheel are hard to find with my fat fingers, but for something this size it's all livable. Battery life is as advertised, but you are a slave to your USB port unless you buy an aftermarket adapter. Don't lose the cable, its Sansa only.

I enjoy my e270; the six gigs of storage, plus the expansion possible via micro SD are plenty for my use. A lot of the niggling problems I've encountered have been solved with the use of a good MP3 tag editor (MediaMonkey is great for this) and some searching through Sansa forums.

I have been using the 270 (6 GB version) for about 3 weeks now, and largely agree with the positive comments on this site. Sandisk just released a v. 1.01.11 update for the e200 series, so be sure that you go to the Sandisk website and download the updater (all updates after this version will be installed automatically when you sync).

I thought about getting one of the harddisk based players which offer up to 60 GB of space, but they seem to have high rates of problems and disk crashes -- not suprising given the workout these tiny devices are subject to. So I 'settled' for the 6 GB version. That is a huge amount of music, certainly more than I can listen to at a single sitting. I have the equivalent about 68 of my library disks on right now, say, about 40 hours of music PLUS another 20-30 hours of old time radio shows. So a big flash memory drive is the way to go, and 8 gigs would be more than enough for almost anyone. Remember that the e200 series all accept microSD memory chips. Currently the 1GB microSD is going for about $US 55 in local retailers, less online. I expect that a 2 GB chip will be releases shortly at around $US 100. IMHO, only college students that are skipping all of their classes would have the time to fully use more than 8 GB of storage.

The removable battery is a Very Good Thing. All you need is a SMALL phillips electronics type screwdriver to remove the four tiny screws in the back and the battery removes as easily as a cell phone battery. I'm puzzled by the reviewer who complained that he left scratches when he "pried" it open -- no prying is necessary -- the case back splits easily from the front. Be sure to put the screws in a safe place (I use a little plastic bag), because they can easily get lost. Which leads me to the next point:

The firmware is improving, but is not all the way there. One of the annoying problems that occasionally reported (and I experienced) is a hard crash and lockup -- this happened to me -- and the solution is fairly easy, just pull the battery and replace it after 10 seconds (not something you can do on an iPod). I am guessing it's some kind of operating system programming issue that can be easily fixed in a future update. If and when that happens, I'd give the e200 series an upgrade to 5 stars.

Note that the Sansa relies on the internal .mp3 file tags for artist/album/track information. This means that if you have music that was converted to .mp3 with bad tags, they'll have to be fixed for things to be identified and ordered correctly. I had that problem as I used early versions of RealPlayer, which apparently didn't write tags into the .mp3 files correctly until recently. It took about an hour to rewrite the bad tags with a tagging program that used the internet music info database to retag, after which things worked fine. As noted in other posts, the Sansa e200's conversion codecs for video yield a fairly a large set of quicktime files - a full length video can take up from 1.25 - 1.5 Gigs of space. Given that the screen resolution is very small, this needs improvement. However, it actually DOES do video and movies, and they are actually watchable with decent sound. It would also be nice if SanDisk would support some other common formats besides .mp3 and .wma.

Given that the e200 series has been out less than a year, it seems likely that all of these issues will be addressed shortly.

The best part is that it's not an iPod, and I'm not yoked to Apple's iTunes service if I want to buy content from a competitor. With the e200 series' ability to use microSD chips, I'm guessing that Sandisk hopes to sell movies and other content on micro SD chips at retail in the future. But it also opens up the possibility of easy transfer of home video as many camcorders can store SD format as well and with an SD reader and a computer it is easy to transfer all kinds of content.

I'd have preferred to be able to give 4.75 stars rather than 4 or 5. The reason for this is the placement of the RECORD button. I have made more than a couple inadvertant recordings simply as a result of handling the unit. Other than that, I like the fit and feel of the thing. I don't know that the micro-SD slot contributes much to the user -I think it was meant rather to contribute to SanDisk (manufacturers of same, not coincidentally). I like that the unit will "keep track" of your progress through a long track (I like to use my Sansa for listening to audiobooks, the files of which can be quite long and finding one's place manually can be a rank tedium). The screen is quite nice- disproportionately large for so small a unit. Finally: battery life for mine on the first two charges was between 20 and 22 hours. Not bad at all.

So far, I am satisfied.

I updated to the latest firmware right after I recieved it on front of my door, and I highly suggest you to do it too. I had it for about a month, and had never freezed.
The latest firmware also has custom EQ, which sounds better than those presets, in my opinion. If you high the bass, however, it sounds very distorted. You can reduce that by lowering the second and third bars of the eq. Overall sound quality is nothing to be wow-ed about.(my other mp3 player, iriver u10, is noticably better.) Still, acceptable and better than the nano's. If you aren't picky about sound quality, you should be fine.
When you convert videos on the Sandisk media converter, the sound quality is noticably reduced. A very bad thing when you are transfering music videos, but you can mod the program to solve that problem. Just search how by going to the e200 forums in the anythingbutipod website. Photos were easy, but I had to go in rotate all my photos so it will appear full screen on my Sansa. That's time consuming.
I think that the mechanical wheel is better than the ipod touch. You can actually feel it scrolling, if you know what I mean. The bad thing is, after exessive use on the wheel, it becomes a little loose and chuggy.
I personally have no problem pressing the buttons on the outer side of it(I have small fingers), but if you have thick fingertips, I understand that it will be a little difficult, especially when you have a case put on the player.

Occasionally, the sound drops to one channel when using custom eq. When I switch it back to normal, the sound comes back in both channels again. I think it's a firmware problem. Hopefully they will fix it soon.
I once dropped my device pretty hard on the kitchen floor. Surprisingly, no damage was made externally and internally(still, be careful!)

Overall, very good player. I definitly choose it over the ipod nano.
I mean you get more battery life, a bigger(and brighter)screen, video playback, fm radio, voice recorder, USER REPLACEABLE BATTERY, custom eq, expandable memory.. All in half the price. I wouldn't understand why some people would still choose to buy a nano. Because of those people, there are not a lot of accessories for the e2xx(yet).

I just bought a SanDisk Sansa e270, and deeply regret the purchase. I need a travel charger and a spare battery, but you don't sell either, and will not tell me what other chargers, if any are compatible with the e270. Your technical support representative's answers are absolutely useless - I have cut and pasted my questions and his responses below. Given the non-existent customer support, I will not buy another SanDisk product again.

===============
Your Question/Problem: I want to use the Sansa e270 when I travel, but won't be carrying a laptop. How do I charge the battery since you don't sell a travel charger? Can I use the IPod Nano/mini charger brick and plug the Sansa USB into it? If not, what can I use.
Also, I want to buy a spare battery since it is user replaceable, but you don't sell it either. Where do I buy one?
________________________________________
SanDisk Response: (06/20/2006 08:09)

Thank you for contacting SanDisk Technical Support.
I understand how inconvenience the issue may be causing you.
As of now there is no available wallcharger and spare battery for the Sansa e200 series. Also we do not recommend that you use the charger of the ipod player, considering that is not a product of SanDisk.
If you have any further questions, please feel free to reply to this e-mail.
Thank you for choosing SanDisk.
Have a nice day!

Sincerely,
Michael Louie I.
SanDisk Technical Support
________________________________________
Your Response: (06/21/2006 08:03) My trips typically last 2-4 weeks, so I really do need to charge. Since you do not sell chargers and batteries, and recommend not using non-SanDisk chargers, that makes my SanDisk unusable after the charge runs out.
The only alternative is to use the IPod charger - please tell me what the correct voltage, amperage, and polarity is to charge the Sansa e270. I am willing to use a non-SanDisk product even if it means voiding the warranty. Otherwise I have wasted almost $300. And when will you start selling spare batteries, since one of the reasons I bought the Sansa was because SanDisk advertised it had a replaceable battery - although this may be true in theory, it is not true if you don't sell one!
________________________________________
SanDisk Response: (06/21/2006 08:03)

Thank you for contacting SanDisk Technical Support.
I understand how inconvenience the issue may be causing you.
The ampherage, polarity and voltage are all proprietary information that we are unable to release at this time.
You may try to do a search on a compatible charger for the Sansa e200 series player. However we do not guarantee that anything will work with it until we put a charger on the market. But we have no information when it will be out.
If you have any further questions, please feel free to reply to this e-mail.
Thank you for choosing SanDisk.
Have a nice day!

Sincerely,
Michael Louie I.
SanDisk Technical Support

I have used my little Motorola MP3 player for a few years until I found something I would really be happy with. The e270 is it. I am extremely impressed. I love the fact that I can drag and drop files onto it without using more software to clog up my computer. The sound quality is fantastic. I flashed it to the newest firmware and it really does everything I want it to do. The little screen is great, easy to read and bright enough on a sunny day. I figured out how to do my own album art and upload pictures but in the end, it's all about how easy it is to use and how good it sounds. In those categories it excels. There are two small issues, one is that every now and then (maybe every 100 songs) a song only plays on one channel, this can be fixed by restarting the song. I'm sure this is a firmware issue and hopefully it will be addressed at some point. The other thing is that the buttons around the dial are a little on the small side and can be hard to push.
I bought the Sansa E200 Travel Case Kit which is very nice, and a Trekstor USB charger which works beautifully.
All in all I am very pleased and future firmware revisions can only make this player even better.

I did my research before buying this player, and from the reviews i saw (which were many) this player seemed like the best one on the market. And it is.
I don't want to waste your time, so I'll just sum up everything about this player:

Pros:
Beautiful Presentation (inside and out), big screen
Good Controls - very simple and easy to use, although the menu/power button may be a little annoying for the left handed
Great Sound
Music Options - shuffle, repeat, custom/preset EQ, album art, etc.
Video/Photo/Fm Tuner/Voice Recording
Removable Battery
Extremely Easy to use
Plays Music while charging (part of firmware)
Compatible on all computers due to its two usb modes - use WMP or just drag and drop
Firmware updates - currently on 1.02.07A

Cons:
No asian support as of yet - it can easily be fixed with firmware; in fact, a few languages have already been added via firmware
Hides time on now playing screen - also fixable by firmware
Can only be charged via usb

That pretty much sums up this great player

This player is very user friendly and has great sound. I have throughly enjoyed using it and think I made the right decision. It does have a few small quirks, like when it is in shuffle play it always starts with the first song in my list and if you have the micro SD card in it has to "Refresh Database" everytime you start but it doesn't take long. The radio gets great reception, especially compared to the other mp3 player I had.

I highly recommend this mp3 player!!!!!