SanDisk Sansa e250 2 GB MP3 Player with microSD Expansion Slot (Black)
by SanDisk
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List Price: Our Price: $72.99 You Save: $127.00 (64%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $32.00 (click here) Category: Network Media Player See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of SanDisk Sansa e250 2 GB MP3 Player with microSD Expansion Slot (Black)
Customer Review: Awesome Player, Great Price
Summary: 5 Stars
I got the Sansa e250 for Christmas, and I must say I have been thoroughly enjoying it since then. My sister got an iPod Nano at the same time, and since that seems to be the general standard in the small mp3 player industry, I will base my review on a comparison of the two.
LOOKS AND AESTHETICS
This is the one area, in my opinion, where the iPod has the real advantage. It is slimmer and lighter and sports a cleaner design, and the case is entirely metal. The Sansa, on the other hand, has only a metal back; the front is made of a plastic that is rather easily scratched. The screen of the iPod also scratches less than that of the Sansa. Nevertheless, the Sansa's screen is twice as big, and the colors are vivid and clear. The Sansa is admittedly bigger than the iPod, but it is no means of an objectionably large or bulky size, and its thickness is hardly worth criticism.
EASE OF USE
The user interfaces of the two mp3 players seem remarkably similar. The most noticeably differences are that the iPod's scroll wheel is touch-sensitive while the Sansa's is mechanical. I personally prefer the touch-sensitive version (although it does take a bit of getting used to), but I have had no problems with the other.
One convenient feature of the Sansa is that it has a power/menu button. Pressing the menu button below the scroll wheel shows a menu based on your selection (similar to right-clicking an object in Windows), and pressing the Power/Menu button brings you back to the main navigation menu. I'm sure the iPod has some way of showing a submenu too, but I was not able to find it. Another nice thing about the Power button is rather obvious: it allows you to shut off your player. The iPod has only an auto-off feature.
A number of reviewers have complained about the difficulties involved in pressing the buttons on the Sansa. I can see why they complain, but at the same time I don't have a problem. You just have to press the buttons with your thumbnail.
Also falling under the "Ease of Use" category is synchronization and computer use. I don't think one is much harder than the other, but there are more ways of adding to the Sansa than to the iPod. While the iPod is limited to iTunes, the Sansa allows synchronization from Windows Media Player (which I use), Windows Explorer, and many other programs. Some reviewers have complained of the difficulty of making playlists, but it actually isn't hard at all: all you have to do is find the song you want to add or delete from the playlist and hold down the select button (the large round one) for about a second, and the song is automatically added or removed from the playlist.
FEATURES
This is where the Sansa jumps ahead of the competition. Both players have great sound and allow the playing of music by Artist, Album, Song, Genre, and Custom playlist (the iPod adds "Composer" to the list, and its playlists are more easy to use), but there most of the similarity ends. The iPod has games, but the Sansa has Video, Photos, MicroSD expansion, Voice recording, and FM listening/recording. All of these features have worked fine for me, and I especially enjoy the FM feature. I get three of my favorite stations with great reception even without plugging in the USB cable (which functions as the FM antenna; if the radio didn't work without the antenna, I don't think I'd ever want to use it).
PRICE
This factor obviously fluctuates, but the Sansa generally has a tremendous advantage in this area.
SUMMARY
The Sandisk Sansa e250 is a very nice mp3 player, with more features than an iPod Nano and a much lower price. The face scratches easily, and I've had a few minor problems with the firmware, but these are the Sansa's only flaws. I highly recommend this player to anyone who wants to get twice the mp3 player for half the price.
Customer Review: A great and affordable mp3 player
Summary: 5 Stars
I have owned the Sandisk E250 mp3 player for almost 1 year. This is my 3rd mp3 device: #1 was a Sandisk Sansa m250 which still works ($50 refurbished), #2 was a Toshiba Gigabeat 40GB ($140 new) that died within a few months of purchase and caused me many headaches. I did a lot of research on Amazon with reviews and specifications before deciding on this. I wanted something reliable, of great quality, and easy to sync songs. My biggest problem was finding something affordable since most mp3 players with these features are Ipods and I didn't want a computer, I wanted a song device. I finally purchased this for around $38. I later received a $5/5-song music credit from Amazon and was able to download 5 free songs. It was very simple to redeem since I already had an Amazon account.
I purchased a wall charger for this separately for $5 from an Amazon seller b/c I didn't want to rely on the usb charger only. That was one of my biggest concerns about this particular device but the wall charger has worked flawlessly as an alternative. The charge lasts for maybe 15-20 hrs each time.
It's very easy to sync songs to this device. I've had issues with the Toshiba Gigabeat and a lot of other devices are very temperamental on this as well. I am a Windows Media Player person (b/c it's easy) so I am thrilled that all I have to do is select the songs, add them to my sync list, and hit "Sync list." You have to have at least WMP version 10 which is free to upgrade to. This device also comes with its own sync software. I do use the software to transfer pictures though there may be another way. I'm not fond of this software b/c it's not particularly user friendly but there's nothing specifically negative about it either. I think you can also drag and drop files from your computer right into the device location folder.
This holds up to 500 songs but that decreases as you add pictures and video. It is also capable of receiving local radio stations and voice recordings. I have some photos stored on there for fun and they're easy to access but I mostly keep songs on there. I currently have over 275 songs and 20+ pictures stored and the device has a quick response.
Aside from using this on the go, I regularly plug it into my car stereo and my elliptical machine b/c both have mp3 ports. The mp3 player itself came with a special cord that plugs into the device and any mp3 ready machine so this was a huge perk.
It has a go list function, a favorites functions, random, repeat, etc. I think it may even have some sort of genius random function because I constantly have it on random and it seems to play similar genre songs together. The rotating wheel can be a bit tricky because it is so fast. It can take a little time getting used to maneuvering your way around the device b/c it's setup as 4 main menus: video, photo, music, and radio/voice? Each main menu has a subset and your listed files. The back feature can be a pain b/c it goes all the way back to a main menu rather than your previous folder/location but it's nothing worth changing my overall opinion on this device.
I've had no problems with this device and I couldn't be more impressed with it. My money was definitely well spent. I recommend for anyone who wants an Ipod alternative and a great bargain.
Customer Review: Sansa E50
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a very versatile item. I have downloaded songs to this very easily. They play back beautifully.
The FM radio is a dream. I have listened to this in my office building in downtown Chicago. The sound is very clear. I walk around inside the building and continue to have great reception. Right by the elevators it gets a little fuzzy. Inside the elevators it gets pretty staticky and I pretty much lose reception. It comes back when I get out of the elevators.
It is light and small. I hang it on the (included) lanyard around my neck, and use the (included) earplugs. This is wonderful, and I really love it!
It has 2GB which is supposed to be 500 songs. It has a slot for a microSD disk. I have a 1GB disk, it should hold another 250 songs. If I got another microSD disk, I could swap them out whenever I felt like it. I could have a number of music libraries.
This is also supposed to do pictures and videos. I haven't tried that yet.
I have ordered a speaker dock. Also a little case for it. The included case, according the the other reviews, is supposed to be a hair and lint magnet. I ordered a leather case, I think it should be OK.
The cable that comes with it plugs into your computer USB port to recharge the battery. I can listen all day at work and the battery indicator goes down about halfway. There is, however, a wall charger available here on Amazon. Search for "Sansa Charger", the first item that comes up should be it. Make sure to check that it is a US outlet plug because there are European ones available. Don't get the wrong one.
This is the first day I am using this player, and it is working great. Some other reviewers have said it doesn't work for very long. I wouldn't know about that yet. I just recharged it to full, and I am listening to my (one and only) downloaded album right now. It is sounding great.
The menu is a little weird to get used to. Hit the little menu button to go back to the main menu. (It is the little button on the bottom left.) If you just press it, it goes back to the main menu. If you hold it down for a few seconds, it will shut the unit off. The right button works you forward through the menu, the left button works you back. The top and bottom buttons work you up and down through submenu selections. The top button pauses and resumes when you are playing downloaded music. The little round wheel is the volume control. The volume goes up and down fairly slow, so you don't scare yourself if you move it too fast.
There is a little port on the right side for the microSD disks. There is a button on the left that seems to control the record function. I pressed it accidently, and I'm not quite sure how I got it to stop now. I think you can use it to make a memo for yourself. I guess I need to read the instructions to really know how to use this little gadget.
Yes I have not read the instuctions yet. So it is pretty easy to use. I am pretty much loving this thing. I hope this has been helpful for you.
Customer Review: Great portable media player
Summary: 5 Stars
After losing my primary MP3 player I was looking for a replacement. I've owned several Sansa devices in the 512MB-1GB range but wanted something with a bit more capacity and features. I was also interested in using Rockbox as the interface since I had heard many good things about it. I settled on a refurbished Sansa e250 player since it was well within my price range and the version I found is compatible with Rockbox.
After receiving the unit I plugged it in using the Sansa proprietary USB cable that came with it to charge it. I played with the standard Sansa firmware before deciding to try Rockbox. I downloaded Rockbox and followed the Sansa e200 series instructions to install it. While installing it the display changed from "writing" to "disconnected" though I hadn't touched anything. After about a half hour I manually disconnected the unit and restarted it. It was bricked! Fortunately there are instructions online as to how to put the unit into maintenance mode and I recopied the default boot file onto the unit and brought it up into regular Sansa mode. I then reinstalled Rockbox and it went in like a charm. I would expect that this is a rare occurrence since I haven't seen any posts about this happening to others.
I loaded a couple of books onto the unit and updated the media database. It immediately worked and let me move through the files and find the file I had been listening to on another player. I like the dial control somewhat better than the one on my daughter's iPod though that may be a personal preference. The tactile feedback as you scroll the mechanical wheel just feels right to me. The plugins folder had a number of games on it that were okay but the controls of the player really don't lend themselves to gaming. I copied an MPEG movie over to the player and it played smoothly, though with the small screen it isn't a super impressive presentation.
I took the unit on a 12+ hour car trip and the battery held the entire time and several more hours during that week. I am seeing battery life of something like 15-16 hours per charge.
Note that while Rockbox enables the use of additional memory cards of more than 2GB you can't upload to the larger card via Windows. You need to put the card into a card reader on your PC and download the content that way. I was using a 4GB microSD card but swapped it for a 2GB card in the player (I use the larger card in my camera now). I don't have to worry with removing the extra memory to load it with media content and I really don't miss the extra space.
For the price I paid for this player ($35) it's a real bargain. It does everything I want it to do and then some, especially with Rockbox. The standard firmware from Sansa is serviceable for most users who just want to plug it in and go and don't care about the larger memory options. I also picked up a sports arm band and case for this unit for under 5 bucks including shipping.
Customer Review: Beats the competition
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this for my wife as a replacement for her old MP3 player. It was getting old (4 years) and she wanted one that would store pictures and play video as well as play music. I researched all the players I could find for under $200 ($150 target price) and this unit was the only one for the price that did all three - and it does it very well. We figured 2GB was plenty of space for pictures, music and one full lenghth DVD and in the end, it was, but just barely (see complaint #2). We managed to put 600 songs (96 kbps - space was more important than quality), 250 pictures and one movie on it before filling it up - we'll get a memory card later to add more songs. While I was setting it up (breeze to set up, ripping CDs and converting video took most of the time), I only had two complaints, and really in the grand scheme of things - they are pretty minor.
1. I didn't like how it sync'd with Music Match - it was just too cumbersome to load everything into Music Match and sort through the songs - then again, I'm not from the iPod generation - I like to manually organize all my files on the computer to review them and not let some other program do that for me. Dragging and dropping worked a lot better for me.
2. Sansa Media Converter - what a pain! Of course, it should have been expected that a company primarily known for its memory cards would make this converter a memory hog. The video conversion process took forever and was very frustrating. First, to save space, I down-converted a DVD into a 160mb .wmv file (same program I use for my Windows Smartphone for videos) - then ran the program through the Media Converter to load onto the player. I figured it would keep the same size file when it transferred, but guess what? It blew the file up into a 880mb file! After some research on the web, I found some cheats to make the file smaller, but the quality wasn't that great - something my wife had to live with. If you are planning on playing videos - get the 4GB model - it's well worth the extra money and something we should have done, but I'm too stubborn. I was going to make this work one way or another. Oh yeah, one last thing on the Media Converter - convert the video into a .wmv file first, otherwise the converter will run almost through the entire video and then pop up telling you the conversion failed. Before I found the cheats, I converted the video into all types of formats, including Quick Time (mjpeg B) to see if Media Converter would convert the video into a smaller file. No luck yet, but I'll keep scouring the web for more cheats.
All-in-all, a great product - once I figured out these little tricks, everything worked smoothly and my wife really likes it. I would highly recommend this product to anyone looking for a great MP3 player for under $200 (and get the 4GB model)!