Customer Reviews

SanDisk Sansa e260 4 GB MP3 Player with MicroSD Expansion Slot (Black

5 star:		(406)
4 star:		(269)
3 star:		(68)
2 star:		(44)
1 star:		(66)

 

 

This player is really well thought out. I would highly recommend it to anyone thinking about an Ipod nano. The included software is complete and works flawlessly. Best of all, it will play WMA music files, has an included FM radio, has an expansion slot, and plays home videos. Here's what I've learned so far:

1. MUSIC- You can drag and drop from windows explorer or you can use Windows Media Player 10. Your choice. Either way works great. Note: The installation CD does not include WMP 10 but no big deal.

2. PHOTOS- The included media app on the install CD is a wonder to behold. It couldn't be easier to use and is rock solid stable. Photos shot horizontally are cropped (like widescreen) but photos that are vertical are shown full screen. I am going to experiment on this but haven't had time just yet since I just bought the Sansa.

3. VIDEO- Probably the best feature. The same media app that you use for photos also doubles for videos. Again, unlike some other players that have problems with converting video, this is heaven sent. Just pick out a video and press convert. It converts and then transfers in one step. It works perfectly.

Unlike past Sansa's you have to spend extra for a decent carrying case. Still, if you like felt pouches and lanyards (I Don't), they come included. One minor drawback is that you can only charge using the USB attached to the computer. An AC adapter would have been nice.

One final note. I tried to convert 2 DVD movies that were already on my hard drive. They were in the 550-700mb range. Each time, the video utility started to convert them no problem. However, in each case the utility timed out after 13 minutes 39 seconds. It cancelled the whole thing so not to worry about having 1/2 a movie on your sansa. I am going to fool around with this and see if I can shrink the file size of those 2 movies to around 200-300mb and try again. If I can work around this and am sucessful I'll let you know. Even though trying to watch a feature length movie on a 1.8 inch screen might be a bit much, the screen itself is really crystal clear (better than nano) and TFT not STN. I would highly recommend this player to anyone. Finally, a company that got everything right and it all comes right out of the box.

The other reviews have already commented on the features and performance, so I'll try to comment on those aspects that haven't gotten much attention.

This is a great player, but I will concentrate on some annoying aspects:

1. When you charge via USB, the display on the device is always on. It doesn't fall asleep or go dim. The device is also nonresponsive in this mode, ie the buttons won't work and you won't be able to play or do anything.

2. If you have a USB wall charger, the display will dim and the buttons will work while charging. But the device must be on, it won't charge via AC if the device is turned off.

3. Playlists can be made on the fly, but you have to play each song you want to add to the playlist in order to bring up the option.

4. Video conversion software only installs on windows XP. It also breaks up larger files into smaller ones, and it's not very intuitive to copy whole DVD's. The quicktime format it uses is proprietary. Also, video files are only recognized in the root folder, so the device won't see files located in subfolders. Videos run at 15 fps.

5. Has the option of choosing MSC or MTP mode. MSC loads the player like a flash drive so you manually drag and drop files. MTP works with wmp 10, and some other third party software to manage your syncing. I prefer MSC, but I switched to MTP because when you unplug the USB cable in MSC mode, the device reboots itself. It does not do this is MSC mode.

This is a great player, but you'll need to spend some time configuring everything to your preferences. The Sandisk firmware has good basic functionality, but if you're used to lots of features for customization, be prepared to work for it with this device. I miss features like "play most recently synchronized" that my old player had. The good news is that these firmware drawbacks may soon be addressed when Rockbox firmware is released. The hardware and build quality of this device is truly excellent, and it will be the best flash player on the market once Rockbox firmware is released for the e200 series.

I've owned a 3rd generation iPod for quite a few years now and decided it was time to upgrade to something newer. The iPod Nano was one of my top choices, but then I found this item and decided to give it a try. It offered much more features (FM radio, voice recording, video, photos) for a lower price. The negative reviews and stories of it breaking soon after purchase made me wary, but I hoped they were just rare occurrences and got one anyways.

1)Music

One of the great features of the Sansa is that it allows you to drag and drop music files right into the drive in MSC mode and it'll find and play it after a restart. No need for iTunes or any other complicated jukebox program. If you would rather use a music program, it can be set to sync with a Windows Media Player library in MTP mode. I did notice that the only way to put user made playlists on the Sansa is to use Media Player and select a pre-made playlist in the sync options.

When browsing through music, the typical options of searching through albums, artists, genre, or songs are available. One problem I found was that browsing through songs in a playlist slightly lags compared to browsing through other options. I like organizing my music in playlists so this bothered me.

While listening, the repeat, shuffle, and equalizer options are only a few clicks away. One problem, however, is that you can't scroll to any place in the song. The available options are pause, skip, fast forward, and rewind. Similarly to the iPod, the scroll wheel becomes the volume control. The difference is that the Sansa resets the volume to 50 every time you turn off the player. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be like that, but hopefully it'll be fixed in a future firmware update.

As for music quality, I was quite impressed with the sound. My music sounded as good if not better than my 3G iPod. For the record, all of my music is in mp3 format of 192 to 320kbps. The included earbuds are okay, I'm not a big fan of earbuds.

2)Radio

The FM radio is a nice feature to have when you're tired with your music and want to hear something fresh. Reception from the Sansa isn't the best, but some stations still sound good if they have a strong signal. The player allows you to create your own presets or it can browse and make some for you. The ability to record radio is a nice addition for those times you want to remember a song you don't know the name to.

3)Video

Watching video on a 1.8" screen might seem pointless, but I very surprised by the quality of video the Sansa produced. I first tried converting a seven minute, DivX encoded music video using the Sansa Media Converter, but the program crashed when loading the file. To remedy this, I first converted the file to MOV using a free encoder then used the Sansa program on the MOV file. The result was a 416x304 DivX file (131mb) to a 160x208 QuickTime movie (118mb). The final file is quite large considering it's about half in resolution and frames per second (29.97 to 15fps) as the original. Nonetheless, the video looked and sounded perfect compared to the original (just quite small). Being able to carry videos with you to watch whenever you want is certainly a cool factor. As with music, one grievance is the inability to scroll to any point in the video. The only controls available during playback are fast forward, rewind, pause, skip, and volume control.

4)Photos

The Media Converter can handle most picture formats and convert them to something friendly with the Sansa. I haven't tried adding photos of my own, but the sample photos look nice.

5)Voice Recording

I tested the voice recording feature during lecture in one of my classes. I sat in the 9th row and the professor was using a mic. However, her voice still sounded muffled in the recording. The recorder does seem to be able to record voices at a close distance fairly well. Another drawback is that the output file is in 16bit wave format. Voice recording is a nice feature, but you shouldn't expect too much from it.

6)Style

The Sansa looks great, even better than the black iPod Nano in my opinion. The mechanical scroll wheel does feel a bit cheap, but I guess I'm just used to using the electrostatic touchpad of an iPod. The buttons are small if you have large hands and they are somewhat hard to press. I have to sometimes use the tip of my nails to press down. It would have been nice if the buttons were raised slightly higher, but it might ruin the Sansa's sleek look. The included pouch looks nice with the player and is certainly better than getting nothing. There is also an included lanyard that can be attached to the player. Finally, the screen is very bright and its colors vivid, even on the lowest brightness settings. Videos and photos look quite good on it despite the screen size.

7)Other Notes

I was able to get about 15 hours of use from my initial charge. It's less than the advertised amount, but came fairly close. Charging the battery does seem to be a bit of a hassle since it must be connected to a computer via USB. It would have been nice if they just included an adapter to let you charge with a wall outlet. Finally, more memory can be added with microSD cards, which is a cheaper alternative to upgrading to a model with more capacity.

Overall, the Sansa is a great audio player with some nice features. There may be some bugs, but hopefully some of them can be fixed in future firmware updates. It may not have the fame of an iPod, but sells itself through its looks and functionality.

PRO:

Price (cheaper than iPod Nano for same amount of storage)

Extras (FM radio, video, photo, voice recording)

Drag and drop to add files

Looks great

More memory can be added

CONS:

Hard to press buttons

Lag when browsing playlist

No included wall charger

Volume resets to 50 every time it's turned off

First let me get my Ipod bashing out of the way. The 4GB Ipod Nano that The Sansa e260 competes with costs $230. That should be enough of a reason to buy this amazing player for nearly half that amount (I paid $130).

My second biggest gripe with the Ipod is the batteries. They are not user-servicable, and in a couple of years when they die (as they all do) you will have to ship your Nano to Apple and pay them to replace it. The Sansa has a user replaceable battery kit for around $13.

Also, the Nano doesn't play video. The Sansa e200 series will convert and play many different kinds of video files. I just loaded 2 full length features and a full season of my favorite TV show and still had enough room fo about 15 CDs. That should be enough to keep me distracted on a long road trip i have planned.

Lastly, if you have an Ipod, you have to use iTunes to load your music. Personally, i hate to be forced into using proprietary software in order to use a device. The Sansa lets you drag and drop files directly onto the device in Windows explorer. You have the option to use Windows Media Player if you want to set up Playlists, etc.

Other features that the Sansa has that the Ipod doesn't even offer are the radio tuner with 25 presets and autoscan (which works perfectly), a voice and radio recorder (great for important meetings or just a grocery list).

There are a couple of small cons with the Sansa e200 players. The wheel is mechanical and isn't sealed well, and I can see it eventually getting lint, dust, etc. in it if you don't buy a separate case. I have not had this problem, I just see this as a possible future problem.

Also, you can't use the device while it is plugged in to your computer. You can, however, use the device while it is plugged into an AC or car adaptor, so you can simply buy a cheap multi-adapter (with both a car and AC plug) and problem solved.

Even if you purchase the most expensive case and plug adapter on the market, you will still end up spending much less than you would have spent on a Nano.

In conclusion, if you like to throw money away on expensive players with virtually no features, by all means, get the Nano. If you are a conscientious shopper who would rather have a player loaded with features and $100 in your pocket, go with the Sansa.

Some of the reviews I read left me wondering if this was the right player for me. I found a consumer review on-line where they ran through the features and actually demonstrated how the thing works. That did it for me. After that, I knew that I had to have it.

I haven't had to be concerned with the technical issues, as it has done everything except convert video clips that I have taken with my camera. I found some other software that will convert it and allow me to load it onto the player.

Here's why I gave it a five:

1. Voice recording - I use the voice recording to record meetings at work. The sound is crystal clear, better than any tape recorder I have used in the past. Also, using the lanyard and dropping it down the front of my shirt, nobody else realizes that the meetings are being recorded. It's a great opportunity for black mail!

2. I was looking for something that would allow me to record radio broadcasts - I've tried it with music and it sounds every bit as good as the station did the first time. I mostly use it for talk radio and it works great. Radio reception is awesome. I record the radio at work in an office setting. Reception is even passable in the elevator!

3. MP3s - I am very pleased here. I was worried that play-lists would be a problem and that having the player randomly select music would also be a problem. That was based on other reviews that I saw here. I am sorry, but those people must be idiots. You can upload the music using Windows Media Player, dragging and dropping play-lists. The player keeps the play-list and automatically groups your music. You can select the play-list and it will shuffle just that play-list (if you activate the shuffle function). You can also play music by song, album, artist, and genre. Or you can play them all. It's all very simple and works well.

4. Pictures - I am a photo-nut. I love to take pictures of my kids, landscapes, and sunsets. The photos are pretty small, but the detail that the screen allows makes the images very sharp. You can definitely fit more pictures in here than you ever could in your wallet. The photos are all converted to *.bmp files using the software that came with the player, but it is very easy to add photos. You have to rotate all of your photos so they are taller rather than wider to maximize the size of the image on the screen, but it is not difficult at all.

5. Memory - I have uploaded 100s of songs, a handful of short video clips and commercials I found online, 147 photos, and a handful of recordings. I have used just over half of the memory on this thing.

Here are things that I wish you could do with it:

1. Switch out the battery - sure you can, but you need to buy another special battery and I have not seen an external charger. This is a relatively minor thing. It will last a full day (from sunrise past sunset) and recharges in about an hour. It has not been a big drawback for me.

2. Delete songs directly off the player without hooking up to your computer - I ended up with a number of albums of my daughter's intermingled with my music and had to keep fast-forwarding over those songs. They were mixed in with my work music, so I had to tolerate it for a full day. Again, not a huge issue.

3. Despite the fact that I have been very careful with the player, it does have some small scratches on its front, one of them on the display. I can't imagine that this isn't a problem with other players too. Again, it's not the end of the world.

Things that I was surprised by:

1. There's a record button on the side. That makes it easy to record radio programs when you are taken away from listening unexpectedly.

2. Play-lists are easy to create.

3. It is easy to set the player to shuffle and/or repeat

4. The size is really much smaller than it appears in photos

5. The sound quality when recording (voice and radio)

6. You can reset the player by merely holding down the power button for about a minute. I did have it lock up on me when I was getting ready to record a meeting, but figured that out just in time.

All and all, I would say this is a wonderful player and would (and have) highly recommended it to my friends. I hope this helps sway you to make the purchase. I was having second thoughts when I read some of these reviews, but those must have been posted by idiots. Sorry, but it's true.

MAN!! I finally was able to figure out how to overcome all the obstacles SanDisk mounts for a non-geek user. The obstacles:
1) The manual included with the player is close to worthless. The one included on the CD is better though, as mentioned elsewhere, is not exactly normal user friendly.
2) Plug in the player to your computer (mine is Win-2000 3+ year-old desktop) after, of course, you figure out where that might be. (Well, ok, not so hard, right next to the plug for my iPod.)
3) Great. Now I can load some songs! I go to Windows explorer to see if I can see the new removeable drive show up. Nope. Mine didn't. So I downloaded the recommended software -- Rhapsody. Can Rhapsody see it? Nope. Tried this and that, looked at the doc and finally called Tech Support. After a minorly tense conversation, I finally understand that the help desk person wanted me to change the USB setting from the default MTP setting to "MSC". Success!! Ok -- that's nice I can see if from Explorer, but I can't see it in Rhapsody, still, after disconnecting, reconnecting, etc. What do I do now Ms. Help Desk? Try it on another computer, she says. Nice.:(
4) After several hours Googling this problem, reading at forums, trying other stuff, I finally hit upon a "Music Manager" that works!!! Yay! So, I hope you might save some of the time I wasted with trying to make Rhapsody work and waiting for SanDisk to get back to me, etc, etc. Go to the Media Monkey site [...] and try out this terrific piece of freeware that (for me, at least) works very well. I still have to address the "playlist" hurdle but I'll leave that for the morning.

I'm satisfied with the player, sound, price, replaceable battery. But until I found Media Monkey, I was planning to return it to Amazon in the morning. (Honestly, if I knew then what I know now, I'd have bought another nano because iTunes is pretty easy.)

Dianne

I purchased the 4G device, and was so pleased that a week later I purchased a second 6G player for my wife. I read of lot of the reviews here on Amazon, which helped me make the decision to go with the Sansa. I think most features have been covered, I just thought I would add a few tips for people considering this mp3 player.

When I got the player it came with a flyer offering a 1 month free trial for Rhapsody To Go. I had been thinking I would go with Yahoo subscription service, because for years I have not been a fan of Real whose marketing tactics I have deplored. In any event the offer got me to do some reasearch about the various subscription services, and the consensus seemed to be that Rhapsody offered the most features, although it was a bit higher priced.

So I did sign up with Rhapsody for the To Go service, using the one month free trial offer. I can report that I could not be more pleased with the service. The subscription model puts another nail in the iPod coffin as far as I'm concerned, and given Sandisk's aggressive pricing for this player I agree with the Engadget guys that there isn't any reason to go with the Nano.

Now the caveats, and tips. I've not used an iPod and iTunes, but from what I read it is pretty bulletproof. The subscription model and combination of the Sansa e200 series with Rhapsody works great for me...I've got 3 computers authorized and two Sansa players. I've had zero problems with DRM...but if you read the forums there are folks who have definitely had DRM renewal issues.

It's my feeling that the latest versions of Rhapsody and Sansa firmware have got most issues under control. So when you get your Sansa player, immediately go to the Sandisk website and download the firmware updater program and update the firmware on the player...I received my player a week ago, and at that time it did do a firmware update.

Remember to set the USB connection (under settings on the player) to MSC instead of MTP for the update. There are two ways to connect to the player and normally you will use MTP mode, but not for the firmware update. Another point, when I tried to move a playlist created in Rhapsody to the Sansa in MTP mode it wouldn't transfer over as advertised...although the songs in the playlist were moved over. When I connected later in MSC mode the playlist automatically moved to the player. I will assume a further firmware or program update will take care of this issue down the road.

Also Rhapsody recently updated their software, so if you are not just now installing the Rhapsody software I would update their software before plugging in the Sansa. Another important point is that if you uninstall and then reinstall the Rhapsody software, make sure to 'deauthorize' the computer before you uninstall the software. The reason is that you are only allowed to authorize 3 computers (you can only be logged on to the service on one at a time though) and you will use up one of those if you don't deauthorize it before the uninstall. (You can get Real to re-set your list if you make this mistake, but it sounds like a bit of a hassle.)

And if you are going to uninstall the software go to their site and search the forums for instructions on how to do a complete uninstall.

Of the three installations of Rhapsody I performed, one didn't go right and I had to re-do it, but after the second install it worked fine.

Sorry if you think I spent too much time talking about Rhapsody, but my point is that when I purchased the player I assumed I would only use it to play music I already owned that was on my computer. After experiencing the subscription music model (whatever service you go with), I am blown away by how much it adds to the entire experience of the Sansa. I've been waiting for a long time to find an mp3 player that would give Apple some competition and finally, this is the one!

OK I will admit I am not a huge Apple fan. I was looking for anything but an IPOD. I searched and read reviews for 3 months about all the different players available. A friend bought a Nano for Christmas and I was impressed but like I said I am not an Apple fan.

So finally I had just decided to give in and buy a Nano. I had given up trying to find a better alternative or even one that was close.

But to my surprise I read a last minute review of the SanDisk Sansa e260. It sounded great but would it really compare?

Believe me, it does!!! It offers more than I ever would have guessed. It comes with a built in FM tuner so you don't have extra attachments and costs associated with it. I don't know how much I will use it but it is a nice "free" feature.

The audio player is excellent and has 8 preset EQ's.

The video is great and also the Pics but I bought it primarily as an MP3 player. The screen is amazingly clear and bright. Much better than the Nano.

That brings me to the real selling point for me. You can use the included software to manage your music or you can use Windows Media Player but the beautiful this about this player is you can connect to your PC\Laptop as a usb drive.

Since I already have about 20 GB of music on my Laptop converted and normalized. All I have to do is drag and drop the music I want to Sansa drive and media folder. The transfer for a standard CD is about 10 seconds. So far I haven't found anything that didn't play on the Sansa.

The other two big selling points for me are a removable\replacable battery and an memory expansion slot. Both are long overdue by other manufacturers.

The Sansa takes a about 4 seconds to load but it isn't an issue for me especially when it help preserve battery life.

This is a great alternative to the IPOD. In someways, it is superior. Battery life (compared with my pals Nano), screen clarity, Expansion slot, USB drive mode, Built in Voice recorder and FM tuner. All this and $50 less than the comparable IPOD Nano.

I recently purchased the E260 on Amazon, and I am relatively happy with the purchase. The E260 is a nice music and FM radio player, has good sound, and has a decent user interface. I find it easier to use than the Creative Micro that I used to have. I do not have problems with the buttons (and I have large fingers), and I find the movable wheel very useful. The touch sensitive bar on the Creative was too sensitive and difficult to operate.

My major use of a MP3 player is during commuting to work. I listen to the radio above ground and to podcasts and music below ground in the subway. The E260 is great for both functions -- the FM radio reception is actually quite good, better than my Creative Micro and an older RCA Lyra.

The reason that I gave it 4 stars is because the software on the player is missing some functionalities that SanDisk should fix in future Firmware upgrades. First, it would be nice to return back to the song that you had been listening to before you switch to FM. The player requires you to go back through the menu steps to find the song again. It does save what you had chosen before, so all you have to do is press select over and over again. If it remembers these choices, it would seem a logical step to put you back at the actual song again without the menu steps? Second, the player is missing a bookmark capability. This is a big issue if you want to use the player to listen to audio books. Third, the fast forward only steps forward by 5 seconds or so each push of the fast forward or if you hold it down longer. The Creative Micro accelerates the speed of the fast forward the longer you hold down the button. A similar functionality would be nice. Otherwise, it takes too much effort to advance to where you are in a long podcast or long audio book.

I recently purchased a new nano for my fiancee, and one of the e260 for myself. My thought was that I wanted to buy her a nice expensive unit, and I would settle for the less expensive unit. However, it turns out that the e260 is way better than the Nano. I'll break down why, and to be fair there is a couple of things also listed that the Nano does better.

THINGS THAT e260 DOES BETTER THAN NANO:

1.) e260 can do more

- You can play video on the e260 - great for little vacation clips from your camera.

2.) e260 screen is bigger, more colorful and brighter

3.) e260 battery is replaceble, no need to throw your unit away when the battery dies (since apple ipod would charge too much to send it in and get battery etc).

4.) Price per Storage ratio. Nano cost $175 for 2GB, e260 was $140 for 4GB (prices at my purchase time) Thats TWICE AS MUCH for LESS MONEY.

5.) e260 is more scratch and break resistant. Built better.

6.) e260 has an FM TUNER, you can listen to radio!

7.) You cannot use a coupon or coupon code on any Apple products at any store anywhere, you can with e260.

8.) e260 has memory card slot, yes you can add even more storage and/or move stuff off/on with a little micro-sd card.

9.) Battery charge - you get at least a couple of hours more from full charge out of the e260.

10.) Drag and drop your music onto the unit, no need for management software. This means the unit can also be used as a file storage device like a USB drive.

THINGS THAT NANO DOES BETTER THAN e260:

1.) Nano is slightly thinner.

2.) Nano has more accessories on the market, its hard to find them for e260.

3.) The scroll wheel of e260 is mechanical, the nano scroll is sort of touch based. Some prefer the mechanical, but the touch based is prefered by me.

Its no contest for me, I will never buy IPOD again, you just do not get what you pay for. Really, if there was an IPOD Nano out there with the same features as the e260 and same storage space, apple would charge over $500 for it.