Customer Reviews

SanDisk Sansa View 8 GB Video MP3 Player (Black)

5 star:		(62)
4 star:		(38)
3 star:		(20)
2 star:		(25)
1 star:		(39)

 

 

I bought the Sansa View on sale for $129.99, and I am very pleased with it. As a first-time buyer of an mp3 player, I was reluctant to pluck down a lot more money for an IPod, which at this point seem overpriced and overrated, given the other choices that are now out there.

The sound quality is quite good. I'd forgo the built-in EQ settings, which sound uninspired, and opt for the custom EQ that allows you to tailor the frequency response to your own tastes. I agree with some other criticisms that I've read online both in customer and professional reviews that lower bass response is a bit lacking. But I've found that a combination of tweaking the custom EQ settings, plus buying a better pair of earbuds that the ones provided, make up for this mild inadequacy. I bought V-Moda Bass Freq earbuds, which really help to round out the sound of the Sansa by providing plenty of lower bass response. My listening tastes range across classical, jazz, rock, blues, popular, and electronica, and the sound quality the Sansa provides is very good across all these genres.

The Sansa View is a bit large for a flash-memory based player, but I think this is due to the generous size of the display. The video quality is bright, sharp, and with good color, for videos, photos, and album covers. One small complaint is that the wallpaper options are quite plain, and there doesn't seem to be a way to add your own wallpaper options (or at least I haven't discovered it yet). Menus are simple and easy to navigate.

One feature I really wanted which no IPods have is an FM tuner. The digital tuner works quite nicely, with good sound and reception and up to 20 presets.

I really like the control wheel. It works smoothly and the rubber gives it a supple feel. And the look of the Sansa View simple and elegant, with a shiny piano black finish, with the body having a sturdy, solid build quality to it.

I've found the 8gb built-in memory to be more than adequate for my CD library. I've loaded around 60 CDs (a little over 1100 songs), and I still have about 1.5gb left. Bear in mind that many of my CDs are classical symphonies, jazz compilations, or electronica, which average 60-70 minutes each and take up space more quickly than your average CD. And the expansion slot for a microSD card, which I haven't tried yet, would allow me to add an additional 8gb of storage.

Overall, I'd rate the Sansa View as "best in class" in terms of offering very good overall quality and a generous selection of features for a modest price, compared to other comparable mp3 players.

I bought mine (16gb one) the first week and heres the deal:
The player is beautiful, no question. The size is perfect imo and very light. The radio and mic features are very nice, and watching music videos or movies is much more enjoyable then i would have thought, thanks to the screen size, vivid colors, and detail. Everything is crisp and clear.
But the player does have many faults that I found upsetting, epecially for such a new product.
There does seem to be some difficulty with adding songs, you can drag-drop or use windows media player to "sync", but personally both options are faulty. Drag-drop twice did not work when i tried adding a single song to the rest of the files, and the folder wmp "sync"'s to is not the same folder where you drag-drop to, so maybe its an "either or" type of thing. wmp would be easy IF (and thats a big if) u already use it to manage your mp3 collection (i didnt though.)

For some reason mine would not retain a charge after charging from my pc. I took it back at one point and they suggested a wall charged since many have "problems" with usb charging. I'd never had a problem with my old ipod charging that way, but i bought a wall charger and it worked, charged to full and held the charge from that point on, so I dont know it thats this type of player or mine unit only, but its something to note.

Mine also did experience random "freezing." Its not too often, but if you keep pressing buttons it will last longer,so when I noticed it freeze, I would press nothing and wait for about 20 seconds the screen goes black (music will still be playing) and it basically ignored whatever you just pressed, but is ready for commands again. Very similar to a pc when it has to boot up a hd to access data, but this is flash based so it really shouldnt be doing that. (plus thats pretty long even for a spinning drive)

Also while its a solid design, the polished exterior is very prone to fingerprints and scatches. Smudges wipe away easy, but you'll be wiping it often. And the hard platic will get scratched by almost anything so I would ABSOLUTELY buy a protecive case if I bought one new.


Just for note.... the instructions are pure junk (if you care), there are about 21 preinstalled songs that are NOT on the disk that comes with the player, so dont format or delete if you want to keep those, ohhhh and the earbuds are less comfortable then the cheap ipod ones, so you should probibly drop a few bucks for new buds.

I know I made this sound like a bad player, which is sad cause I really love mine. But I had high expectations for it being better then the ipod and im just not sure it is. I had an ipod mini for 3 years and while it had almost none of the features this thing has, it was reliable, fast and easy to use. I never had any of these issues with that player so its hard to justify the extras when you're giving up some of the main functionality, like adding and playing mp3s without hangups. :/

Before a friend of mine showed me his Sandisk Sansa View, I was almost ready to purchase the Zune because I was impressed with the navigation, sound quality, and the heavy feel of quality the Zune seemed to possess. However, when I found out that Zune made you get Zune Marketplace and did not even work with Windows Media Player, I became disillusioned. However, I got to actually play with my friend's Sansa View, I was impressed with the feel of the quality, the capabilities of drag and drop from Windows Explorer (not available with Zune or iPod), sound quality, the same feel of switches and navigation, and the fact that it will hold other types of files as a huge memory stick.

If you decide to purchase a Sansa View, you need to do three things before playing with your View and installing mp3's. (1): Go to the Sansa site and dowload the media converter and most importantly the pdf advanced instruction manual (the manual that comes in the Sansa box is worthless). (2): Make sure that your mp3's are properly tagged per the ID3v2 standard because the ease of navigation within the View to your songs is heavily dependent on the proper tags. (3): If mp3 books from other sources, re-number chapters 1-9 as 01-09 to keep the flow proper or else it will list as 1,11,12...2, 20, 21... etc. and play in that order causing some confusion.

Pros:

Drag and drop from windows explorer

no ties to speciality software (iTunes or Zune Marketplace)

sound quality (with other headphones)

expanding storage with microSD cards.

audible.com compatible

flash memory


Cons:

limited selection of cases and expense of cases.

headphones (earbuds too big; sound crappy compared to other headphones I have from Sony, Samsung, Koss, Philips)

poor documentation in the box.

wished it had 7 band eq instead of 5 band eq to better tune your sound.

I have owned my View for a month and I love it even more than when I first got it. I will tell you about all the complications I have had, how I overcame them, and why this player rocks my world.

The View is small, like the nano and provides equally excellent sound, photo/video quality. It comes in 2, 4, 8, 16, and 32GB, but trumps the iPod with its memory expansion slot which allows you to add up to an additional 16GB of data for just the memory card's price. Be aware however that it only takes microSD chips, which for most people needs an adapter, but an 8GB card can be bought for $20 with an adapter, so it still isn't bad.

Upon receiving my sansa view, I knew instantly that it would be prone to scratches and fingerprints, especially since the screen and the player itself are one, so I recommend buying at least a screen protector. The material of the player is more similar to the first generation iPod nano, which doesn't feel as cheap as the new generations of iPod. The face of the player is easy to clean with a soft cloth (like those glasses ones). When it comes to the design, I like the View over the iPod because the back of the View is a very comfortable soft rubber grip that doesn't attract ugly fingerprints and isn't cold to the touch, and the menu wheel actually turns, which just feels good when you use it (you'll understand...)

When it comes to their interface, I'd say they're very much alike. The menus are self explanatory, and both have their pros and cons about their menus. One notable thing about the View is that you can choose your background color on the View's menu screen, which to me isn't very important, but when I'm bored it's one more thing for me to play with.

Now, the controls. After using the iPod for so long, it took a bit of time to adjust to the View. For example, when using the iPod, you simply press the up key to go back one step in the menu no matter what you are doing, but whenever I press the up key while something is playing on the View, it will play/pause it. If you press left or right on either players, it will go backward or forward in the track list. So then that leaves the down button, which on the iPod pauses or plays what you are playing, and on the View gives you the song/video/photo menu (it adjusts to whatever you're doing) and from there you are able to get back to the music list. What will really spin your head about the View though is that when you're not on the "now playing" screen, you use the left/right buttons to navigate the menus...so it keeps your mind sharp. So sometimes, it's one more click than necessary to navigate the View, but once you're used to it, there really is no difference. Plus, whenever I'm lost in the controls, I simply hit the handy home button and start over again.

One cool feature from the View which doesn't exist on the iPod is its voice recording. I am in college and I use this feature to record lectures, or simply to punk friends. The sound quality from the recording is amazing, and unlike other recorders, it doesn't alter the voice being recorded. Also, if you are listening to the radio on the View (yes, it has an FM receiver), you can record what you are listening to, which is pretty cool also. For me, voice recording and radio are the most used applications on my View, and maybe that's because I've never had an mp3 player with those options. Whenever I'm like "darn, why do I love all the songs on my View? I want something to compare it to so I don't get used to all this good music", I simply switch to the radio.

When it comes to battery life, I would hands down give the award to the Sansa View. I've never had an iPod whose battery lasted over four hours on one charge. The View can last me a whole week without recharging, as long as if I control its volume, backlight, and be sure to turn it off when I'm not using it. I use my View for at least 2 hours everyday. But one thing about these players' battery is that it all depends on your luck or willingness to ask. Lithium Ion Batteries will die when its time comes, so when you purchase one, you can rely on luck to get a fresh battery, or you can ask them how long this player has been sitting on the shelf. Of course, if you're buying from Amazon, you won't have that option. Therefore, I bought my player from Best Buy.

Now, to the most important part of this player: actually getting music/photos/videos on there. Let me tell you, there is nothing simpler for the View. Plug your View into the computer (be sure you switch its USB mode to MSC, or it won't let you do anything but charge), and drag and drop your files into the correct folder. If you know how to use an USB, you'll have no problem with putting music on your View. Also, the SUPER BEST part is that you don't need another program like iTunes on your computer to do it. I almost cried (in joy) at its simplicity and how much time this feature has saved me. Also, one very good feature in the View is its ability to delete songs from the player itself. So if you decide that you've outgrown one of your songs and you never want to hear it on your View again, you don't have to go to the computer to delete it, you can do it right then and there wherever you are.

Other stuff:
The View will bookmark your podcasts and audiobooks as long as if you don't switch to another podcast or audiobook in between pausing it and going back to it. There is also video bookmarking.
For the best sound quality, I strongly recommend you adjust the EQ settings and get new earbuds.
There is a hold button, power button (which I find more convenient than iPod's "push and hold the play button for 3 seconds" way of turning off the player), memory expansion slot, and allows you to reset your player in times of freezing
There is a power saver option that will turn off your player automatically if it's not doing anything for a set amount of time that you choose - however I found out that turning off your player is still the smarter option if you are not going to be using it for a while.
You can adjust how long the backlight stays on, and of course, the shorter you set it, the longer your battery will last on that charge
You can find the shuffle/repeat options on the music menu or the settings menu
There is a slideshow option for photos, and you can even tag a song on it
There is a quick list option called "music go" and "photo go"
Charging takes about 3 hours if your battery is low
There is a "refresh" screen after you disconnect your View from the computer, but it only last for a couple seconds - it's updating your music, and it will still do it even if you don't change anything
You won't be able to listen to music, or do anything on your View while it is charging
When you're viewing photos and videos, you will have to turn your view horizontally, but Sandisk had you in mind when creating this player, so the button functions will automatically shift places so that up is still up, down is still down, left and right are still left and right when it's being used sideways...i really like this feature, lessens the confusion

Tips for optimizing your View's potential:
1. Before you even attempt to use your View, download the free firmware from the sansa website. This will solve the freezing and charging problems.

2. Charge your battery to full before using it for the first time, and NEVER let it completely run out from that point on- that is the quickest way to kill your Lithium Ion Battery

3. If you watch videos, download their free photo/video media converter. It's not as much of a pain as everyone makes it out to be. Just be patient, you don't have to stare at it while it's working =), go eat or something

4. Get an AC adapter, it will speed up your charge and provide a more complete charge. When I use USB charging, the battery hops around after a couple hours, which kinda drove me crazy, because then I didn't know when I actually needed to charge the thing.

5. If at first you can't view your photos, go to more>settings/options>system settings>display>TV out>off, if you still can't see them, try using the media converter

6. LOVE IT!

I hope this review helped. I'm still learning about my View, but I pretty much got all the features I frequently use down, and I hope it will be the same for you!

I am not sure why everyone has given this player a bad review. I own the 8 GB version, and I love it. I have never been impressed with the iPod. It's too over-rated, and it's not appealing to me. Although the click-wheel is cool, that's all that I like.

I also looked into the Zune, and I'm not impressed with that one either. I checked out the 30 and 80 GB versions of the Zune. The 30 GB is like a brick. It's huge! And it's heavy. And I don't really need 80 GB of space.

Then one day, strolling through Best Buy (or rather, Worst Buy) I came upon the SanDisk Sansa View. I started playing with the features on the in-store display, and I was impressed. First off, SanDisk has been around for years and is a name that geeks everywhere (like me) know and trust. Second, it's not an iPod. Third, it does all of the same things as the iPod, and it's cheaper. Let's compare.....

The 4 GB iPod Nano (3rd. Gen.) is $149.99. It plays music, video, displays pictures, has a click-wheel, and is kinda small.

The 8 GB SanDisk Sansa View is $149.99. It plays music, video, displays pictures, and has an FM tuner. It can also record through a microphone, and it has a click-wheel type device on the front for navigation through menus.

My favorite feature that blows the iPod and the Zune out of the window is that the Sansa View is expandable. You can put in up to 4 GB more via MicroSD or SDHC. I've never seen an iPod do that!

So, overall, I am in love with this iPod and Zune killer. I hope more people out there will realize that the big names like iPod and Zune are just getting money for a name, where as the other companies like SanDisk give quality products for the price of the big name stuff.

Oh, and one last thing. Windows Media Player is the only downside. I'm not a fan of the Windows Media Player, but it the sync process easy and fast. I put 4 GB of music on my player all at once, and it only took about 4 minutes. Not too bad.

Not-as-popular companies: 1 Big name companies: 0

There have been many mixed reviews of this product, and from what I can tell, opinions are split between people who expect an MP3 player and those who expect an iPod. No doubt, iPods have their benefits, but the Sansa View has proven to be superior in my opinion.
Being a college kid, I keep my MP3 player with me at all times as if it were some sort of life-support equipment. I used to have a first-generation iPod Nano, but I converted from that fad religion when I saw my girlfriend's Sansa e200. My Sansa View has more capacity than the current generation iPod's in the same price range, with just as high quality of audio playback. The navigation with the rubberized click wheel takes about three minutes to get used to (yes, the iPod's amazing touch wheel is award winning, but you'll find, after about a day of use, that the Sansa's navigation is just as intuitive as any other). There are other structural features that add to the View's quality: the integrated hold switch is easy to use, and the back of the Sansa View is covored by a rubberized finish that helps keep the player still when on a table top (unlike the scratch-prone chrome backing of the iPod). When it comes to the synchronization of the View with your computer's media library, I strongly reccommend using Windows Media Player (free from Microsoft, if your PC doesn't already have it; they have a Mac version, too :-D). That program's Sync tab and organization, ever since the introduction of WMP 10, have made it just as easy to use as iTunes or any other, once you get used to the different formatting. It will even recognize your specific Sansa View, and the two work quite harmoniously together.
As I have not yet had any technical troubles with my View, the only problem I see inherit in its design is that the Sansa's screen stays lit, with a glowing "connected" symbol, the entire time it's plugged into your computer. Even when you're not synchronizing, and you're just charging the player, the screen is fully lit. The problem I see this having the potential to cause, though it has yet to happen, is someone forgetting to remove their View, leaving it connected to their computer for the weekend or so, and having dead or floating pixles burnt into their screen when they return to use their player. I don't know if that would happen, but, nonetheless, I always take my View off its charging cord the minute it's done.
Despite this flaw, the View has countless other features, making it superior to the iPod and other player. It has a built in FM tuner, which is handy when you don't want to listen to any of your own music, and you just want some casual background music. You can even record FM radio, along with anything else you want with the built in microphone and voice recorder.
One last important thing to mention: Many people don't realize that when they buy an iPod, they're aren't really getting an MP3 player, as an iPod can only play the specific iPod file type coverted and purchased through iTunes. Furthermore, the video capability of iPods is limited to ONLY those videos purchased through iTunes. The Sansa, on the other hand, can play raw MP3 files without having to be converted, and play any of the most popular internet video types, such as WMA and ANYTHING converted through Sandisk's media converter (free from the website).

I've been using Sansa players for about 4 years now and have always preferred them because of how well they work with Rhapsody which I think is much better then iTunes. Having said that I have been disappointed with my view. The player has all the features that I liked in my e200, without the mechanical wheel. The rhapsody interface is good. The biggest problem I have is that the battery only lasts for about 3.5 hours playing music before it is discharged vs. 18+ hours for my e200. I'm not sure what the problem is but it simply wont last.

A quick update, i contacted sandisk about the poor battery life. After formating and a hard reset, the player completely lost its mind and I am instructed to
return it as it is defective.

A further update, I've learned a few things about this player from use groups. first the June firmware update fixes the battery life issue. It lasts at least 9 hours and looked like it was 1/2 depleted.

It does not work particularly well with Rhapsody unlike SanDisks other players. If you have rhapsody to go and load a to go play list (ie rented music with WMA extension) their are several oddities that you have to put up with. First, whatever you do do not auto-update any play lists. The playlists will get corrupted and strange songs get inserted and others deleted with no rhyme or reason. If this happens, the only thing you can do is to format the player in both modes and then reload all your music. The same corruption often occurs if you try to update a playlist with WMA files. When this happens the only thing you can do is format the player in both modes and reload all music. This takes about an hour which is a real pain. This does not occur with MP3 files.

Other then the file weirdities it is a pretty good player, but the file thing bugs the heck out of me. Rhapsody and SanDisk point fingers at each other but it just flat doesnt work well in the music rental mode. Other then that a pretty darn good player for the money

I've been a fan of Sansa players for some time. Their products outshine the competition on several critical points:

--They are Audible.com compatible. If you love audio books like I do (I drive a lot and they are a constant companion) then this is an essential feature.
--It has a built in voice recorder.
--It works with a variety of software.
--It has a built in FM tuner...AND it can record FM radio too...a really wonderful feature.
--You can expand its memory with a miniSD card.

The screen is bright and the controls are simple to use as well.

A couple of points:
--the chapter mode for audiobooks doesn't work well. I don't recommend using it since it loses its place in books.
--the radio records in .wav format which uses up a lot of memory. (I worked around this by saving the file as .wmv and playing it as a video (one large file went from ten Gig(!) down to 500meg.

Overall, dollar for dollar, it is a better value and more functional than any other product currently available. You will not be disappointed.

I ordered the e280 through Amazon and their vendor sent me the VIEW by mistake. I had the option of returning or keeping it and decided to keep it for the bigger screen, ability to show long videos/movies, and longer-lasting battery.

Some people are concerned because the battery cannot be replaced, but I have a half-dozen devices going back 5-6 years with lithium batteries and they are still going strong, so it is not a concern for me. If you are still worried, get the 2-year replacement policy.

As soon as I got the Sansa, I hooked it up to my PC and used a file manager to pick out and copy 1000 of my favorite MP3s to the Sansa, then I used the Sansa Media Converter to copy over several dozen pictures and several dozen music videos. Even though I had 1.5GB left after copying the MP3s, I put the pictures and videos on the Sandisk 4GB MicroSDHC Memory Card that I got through Amazon for about $18. This leaves me plenty of space to add more MP3s, record speech, and record FM radio music. I had no problem with any of this, and watching videos on the VIEW is really cool. Now I can show my friends my favorite photographs and YouTube clips.

[Update: An SDHC card causes the battery time on a full charge to drop from 30+ hours to under 7 hours. Since I don't put MP3s on the card, I just leave the card out until I want to see pictures or videos, but if you have more than 8GB of MP3s, you're better off buying the 16GB version of the View.]

When I thought I was getting the e280, I ordered a Maximo SAN-360 Car FM Transmitter & Charger. One reason I never realized I had been sent the VIEW rather than the e280 is that the SAN-360 works great with the VIEW, but they do not list the VIEW as a supported player. It connects via the data port rather than the earplug port, which must give it a better signal. So the e200s and the VIEW must have the same (or very similar) data ports.

I had to return the case I got for the smaller e280. (The too-small case is what tipped me that I had the wrong thing.) So I've ordered the Clip On Crystal Case w/ Belt Clip for SanDisk Sansa View, Clear. Some kind of a case is a necessity.

The FM receiver is a nice feature. In my gym, the TVs are tuned to different FM frequencies and the treadmills, etc., have receivers on them to plug headsets into, but they are a pain to change channels on and have a lot of static. It's nice to hit the preset frequencies on the VIEW and listen to the different TV channels, even if I'm not at a treadmill.

The ability to record voice memos was another big selling point for me.

The Powers That Be are working on a VIEW version of Rockbox, so keep Googling for that.

I've had this mp3 player for a few months now and really like it. It's very lightweight, easy to use (I saw from the reviews here to format it before attempting to add music - that's the only thing that would've been unclear from the instructions), good sound quality. The battery really does last a long time if all you're doing is listening to music, which is mainly what I do. I'm very satisfied with my non-conformist (ie non-ipod) mp3 player! Saved myself a little money and don't look like everyone else out there.