Customer Reviews

Sandisk 1GB Sansa Shaker Red MP3 Player (SDMX9N-1024R-A18, Retail Package!)

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I purchased the Red 1 GB Sansa Shaker for my 4 year old son. Overall, I would recommend this product. The positives far outweigh any negatives.

The good:
Price is great, I got mine for $20.

The set up was so easy. There was none in my case. They included a disk but I didn't need it. I just plugged it in to my laptop and dragged and dropped songs.

I like that it has TWO headphone jacks, so two people can listen at once.

I like that it also can play without headphones through a speaker on top.

I like the simple controls, they were easy to figure out- even for my 4 year old.

The Bad:
The light on the power button is very annoying the way it blinks, and I assume having it do that while the unit is on wastes the battery unnecessarily.

It came with headsets, but these are not good for kids- the ear buds tend to fall out of ears.

There is no display of what song is playing and no ability to select a certain song, so you just have to scan though each song to find a particular song which if you have a 1 gb, and 250 songs, will take forever.

The "shake to change to a random song" feature is a cute idea, but you REALLY have to shake hard (while pressing the power button). My son can't seem to get it most times, and he ends up shutting off the unit. I worry that he may fling it across the room trying to do this and bust the player. But when you do this right, it does switch to a random song.

Runs on a single AAA battery - advertised lifetime 10 hours, I don't have enough patience to test that, but whatever the lifetime is, I'm sure it would be longer if it did not continuously flash the BRIGHT blue led.

It's cool, it's amazingly small (would it have hurt them to make it run on a AA? they cost the same, but AAs have way more lifetime), and like the Sansa Clip we have, it just works. The single speaker is about an inch across, and as you should expect, the sound quality is not much, but it's not bad for what it is. Ours was fun for the kids right out of the box, with preloaded kids songs and a single AAA included - and loading additional music couldn't have been any easier after the USB port was exposed, it's normally covered.

One concern we have for our younger boy is if he puts the speaker up to his ear, it gets pretty loud like that, much louder than an earbud does... if your kids have good sense (meaning, if they're like 30 years old or more) then you don't have to worry about this, but it is something to keep in mind.

We own a 1GB Sansa Shaker and love it. A few advantages it has over an iPod Shuffle are the external speaker, the easy controls, and the kids love being able to change songs (and hear fun sound effects) by shaking the player. The 1GB model holds around 250 songs and the SD cards make it easy to swap tunes with someone else. At the current $15 sale price it's a great deal! Great gift for kids, they will love it! I recommend using a rechargable AAA battery (not included).

Other reviews have done a good job of covering the pros and cons, but I wanted to let Mac users know that the Shaker is Mac compatible even though the packaging says it requires Windows.

And you can drag and drop songs directly from iTunes onto the Shaker. You can't drag a playlist, but you can open the playlist, select all the songs, and drag them over all at once.

The Good:
The sound quality is good both through ear buds or the speaker. The SD card it easy to load with music straight from a card slot on the computer or via the USB cable. AAA battery last about a day.
The Bad:
I bought this for my handicapped daughter who has trouble with small buttons and labels. A large on/off button and shaking to change songs looked ideal, but.... To change songs you actually have to hold in the on/off button and then shake. It's hard for me. Sometimes instead of changing songs it turns off, other times it does nothing. You can change songs by turning the bottom ring but if you're a bit clumsy to begin with its easy to remove the bottom cover at the same time. Fortunately the cover is tethered by a short string so it doesn't get lost.
Conclusion:
It's easier to use than an iPod shuffle because of it's larger size and a replaceable battery rather than a USB recharger, but not as easy as advertised.

This product is easy to use.But while using as mp3 palyer in the car sound quality is poor.But overall its excellent and it is better than apple ipod shuffle.

When my 80 year old mother was admitted to the nursing home for rehabilitation after an illness, she stated she missed her music the most. It was not practical to bring in a stereo system and she became frustrated with headphones on a regular mp3 player. This little player is great for her because of the little external speaker. She placed it right under her pillow. It is no problem to load if you have non-DRM protected mp3 files (unrestricted files!). I loaded the card straight from my computer, popped it in the player, and off she went. She is truly technologically inept (sorry mom!) but she has NO problem operating this thing.

Got this for my tech challenged mother. She loves it! Simple to use, no screen to squint at, and long battery life. Songs are stored on an SD card, so upgrading is simple and inexpensive.

As suggested by other reviewers, we got this for our 5-year-old as his first MP3 player. For just loading some tunes on it & letting him go it's fine - we really just wanted something that he could listen to some music at bedtime. The "kids songs" that came with it weren't very "kiddie" - more top-40-ish/"tweenie" music than what I was expecting. The shaker to change the song - holding the button down and shaking at the same time - was a little complicated for him. Actually, it was a little complicated for me & I'm nominally more coordinated. At least it keeps him away from my iPod Touch. :-)

More design over function. But for my daughter it has turned out to be a welcome mp3 player, one she put on her Christmas wish list. She enjoys using it, even though its functionality is limited. The battery that came with it didn't last very long and gave us the false impression that the player had a defect until we realized that it only needed a new battery.

For young girls it is a cute and appreciated music player. Ear buds that came with it are too large for little ears, and not of very good quality. Lack of display and other functions might bother older persons.