SanDisk 256 MB MP3 Player Red

Rating:
Summary: Don't Buy - 2 Frozen Units So Far
Review: After purchasing the device as a Christmas present for my daughter, the unit worked for approximately 20 days. Went through the RMA procedure with SanDisk so that they could ship a replacement unit. Just got the new unit back and it too has failed on first try. New battery in, power on, download one song to unit, goto playback and the unit is frozen on the Welcome screen, can't shut off or anything else. Just like the first unit. A piece of junk - don't waste the $70.

Rating:
Summary: GREAT MP3
Review: I gota' tell ya', for the price it is absolutely worth owning, especially if it's your first mp3 player. I couldn't be happier with it: the display is great, it's very light, and it has many features.

Some people have complained that it's a bit too difficult to use. True, but after a couple of rounds of forward and backward any user will get the jest of the most important functions. Programming the FM player gets a bit confusing but it's doable.

It's really a pleasant surprise as how many features are put in this product; it's actually fun trying to figure them all out. Although the manual is not very helpful, you can figure it out for yourself.

You can organize your mp3s or wmas any way you like. Maneuvering through your folders and files is also easy. The FM radio has 20 preset stations that you can program, the signal is not great but it works. The mic picks up conversation from almost 2 feet away. Just a good product.

The only downfall is the immense consumption of batteries. I go through 4 batteries a week!! I know the company promises 15 hours of play time, but this is misleading because it uses a lot of juice when you're transferring songs to the player from your pc (or Mac). Now, I only transfer songs sporadically, to deter some of the battery usage. I also figured out you can turn off the backlight, which also saves some juice.

Overall, I'm happy with it. Keep in mind I haven't experienced any other mp3 players, but objectively I think it's wonderful. Enjoy.

In My Humble Opinion


Rating:
Summary: I love this player!
Review: I ordered this player because I did not want to spend a lot of money. It is so compact! I couldn't believe it. I use it at the gym and just keep it in my purse all times (you never know when you might get stuck in a long line at the groccery store or have to wait). I have even used it in my car with an old adapter from a portable cd player to use with your tape deck. I read the reviews before buying this product. They were right about the menu it is somewhat difficult to use. I usually have it shuffeling my music and therefore do not have to use menu often. I probably will get the i pod someday but will still love this player for the gym and just having around. This was my first mp3 player and I am thrilled!

Rating:
Summary: A mainstream player. Without the frills.
Review: If you're here, you're probably trying to figure out whether you can live with 256 MB with all the "bigger fish" in the sea. What features you can live with, and what you can't. Maybe even how much a brand name like iPod is worth to you. But if you're like me, you have your eye out for value, too. With this in mind, I can heartily recommend this little player to a good number of (though not all) prospective listeners.

Let's be clear here. SanDisk's 256 MB player in particular is designed for a specific niche of users. It's not for audiophiles, nor is it for people who want to take a ton of music with them all the time. You're probably a good match for this player if you need some portable music during a task - the gym, the library, a bike ride, a morning's commute - and don't intend to be jamming non-stop to fresh tunes the entire day.

Here's what you'll get: a sleek little red player that scores solidly across the board. We have mainstream support for the old (MP3) and the new (WMA DRM), a suprisingly readable screen, a pretty good form factor and some little extras here and there. Yes, this comes at the expense of space. But you get everything that you'd expect on an MP3 player. And consider how much your money gets you here, compared to the competition. Without question, the going price of this 256 MB player is one of its key strengths - it's not a serious investment.

With that said, if you're willing to invest more, there's a few issues to bear in mind with this player. The menus and controls, while quickly grasped with a bit of experimentation, may be confusing to users who don't intend to read the manual (which, unfortunately, is not very extensive). Sorry, you only get one color choice here. And the plastic sleeve that comes with it is functional, but feels like a cheap afterthought. But hey. That's what I'm trying to get at with this review. The player is functional AND cheap (in the good sense).

Many people have been complaining about the radio. But I think it's fair to say that nobody's buying this player primarily to listen to the radio. It's just there for value. Think of it as a supplement to your space - if you were to play through all 256 MB of your stored music, the radio's there in case you need it. I'd say the same about the voice recorder - just in case.

If you were thinking about the iPod Shuffle, as I was for a while, consider: this is still definitely pocket-sized; the screen is there to help you navigate; you don't need to install iTunes; you can change your own battery. On the flip side, you'll be carrying around less music, and you'll need to keep a USB cable handy at your computer.

In the end, you just have to weigh your options. Know what you want, and find the best player for your needs. For the gym, this was the best choice, and I'm happy with it. SanDisk's little player is going to give you your music, when you need it, without cleaning out your wallet. Best of luck in your search.

Rating:
Summary: sandisk 256mb mp3 player
Review: Product performs well. However, the company has yet to write a decent manual. Your basically on your own to figure out how all the features work. As the technician on the phone said "just fool around with it until you figure it out"

Rating:
Summary: Good Little Player
Review: There is something to Y Jiang's review below. I just received my player in the mail today and have been listening to it for the past 8 hours. Within the first 2 or 3 minutes of listening I heard this horrible crackling sound - very loud and audible. Since then, there have been sporadic (barely noticeable) crackles here and there. I think I can live with the unit as is. The price was right ($67 with free shipping). I can get plenty of songs on this thing. Actually the last 2 hours (straight) I have been listening I have not heard a single crackling sound, so maybe it's getting better?

I went running with this unit tonite. I placed it into my jacket pocket where it was bobbing up and down (I only zipped up my pocket with cord hanging out, I didn't really secure the unit). It promptly froze up. I was only able to get the unit back working by taking the battery out and putting it back in.

The supplied armband is wayy too stretchy and long. It falls down too easily and I am a fairly large 5'7" male, 176 lbs.

Audio quality is good. It is not audiophile quality but then again, for $69 what do you expect? Sounds seem to be faithfully reproduced. Treble could be a bit more clear and stronger. Bass is good. Amplification through supplied headphones seems ok. You have to set it around 30 to get it fairly loud (out of 40).

The supplied headphones are good. The sound is actually quite full and the range is decent.I'm listening to my Grado SR80's as I write this so I do have something good to compare them to. My qualm about the supplied earphones is that they are uncomfortable to wear and kind of large, even for my ears. I can't imagine how they would fit on a person with smaller ears.

Some reviewers complained of lack of bass. Let me pose a question: Maybe your rip wasn't all that great to begin with. Also, perhaps your headphones aren't that great at producing bass. Maybe you had the EQ setting on "Classic" where the Bass is set at -3 at 14khz.

Speaking of the EQ it is a 5 band from 50khz to 14khz plus or minus 12 decibels. There are presets with Pops, Classic, Rock, Jazz, Normal, and User selectable. So far my experience with the EQ has been very negative. Every time I try to use the darn thing not only does it start crackling but it actually starts to slow down (play speed decreases). I turned that sucker back to normal and everything went back fine.

One cute option: While in playback mode you have the option of viewing the peak level meter (right and left frequencies), amount of time left in the song, EQ, or volume bar. I have it set on amount of time left in the song.

Other complaint: The player will occasionally stop playing. I'm not sure if it is doing this because it is at the end of the playlist inside the directory or what. It would be nice if it just kept playing into the next song on the next directory.

User interface: I don't find it difficult to navigate menus on this unit (The joystick is kinda small however). In fact, I actually found it be be fairly intuitive. I didn't even have to look at the manual to figure out how to move from one folder to another. One nice feature: you can configure it to right or left handed persons. This way the screen will actually flip horizontally so you can use the directional pad with either hand. One thing I do not like is the way songs are displayed on the menu. Yes the names of the songs do scroll across, but they do so at an agonizingly slow rate. If you are looking for a specific song and you are trying to run through the list quickly, you will have to select the song, and then sit there and wait until the name scrolls by. What I have done is eliminate the name of the artist altogether or trimmed it down to 2 or 3 characters. This way the song title is (entirely or partially) visible as soon as you view the menu.

Setup was a snap. I downloaded the drivers from Sandisk website (I could have used the CD but I chose not to); Restarted my computer, hooked up the MP3 player through the USB port, created a directory under the new drive and threw some songs into it. I could have thrown all the MP3's into the root directory if I wanted to. The instruction manual (PDF) from Sandisk website tells you to install and use the MusicMatch Jukebox player to transfer files. You *don't* have to use this program to transfer files to your MP3 player!

The FM radio reception is good. The auto scan feature is nice as it automatically places the strongest signals into the presets for you. Luckily the unit didn't find more than 20 stations (that is the max number of presets). I was able to delete the stations that I don't listen to (like the Spanish ones).

The voice recorder does a decent job. Sounds a bit muffled, but I can use it to record info for my upcoming Natl Board.

This unit gets 4 stars overall but 5 for value. Ole! Good job Sandisk. Hopefully you will do better in your next series, there is room for improvement!

2/13/05

This is an update of the previous review above: I bought the 850mah Nimh rechargeables by Energizer and these are horrible. I got about 10 minutes of run time. Looks like I'll have to go with disposable batteries. An online search turned up no better than 1000 mah AAA Nimh's. I seriously doubt these will perform that much better than 800 Nimh. Just something to keep in mind. I wish Sandisk had gone with AA, that way I could use my 1700mah AA's and get good performance.

Incidentally I have only had sporadic occurrences of the small clicks and pops that I had mentioned earlier. The supplied headphones are much too uncomfortable for me to wear, despite the fact that they look nice and sound good too. Plus they fall out easily when I run. I have purchased a set of Sony EX81's and will report on that if I get the chance.

I really love this little player and take it wherever I go. :) The size is so small and cute. I went to Best Buy and looked at the other MP3 players. Wow! This MP3 player is definitely among the smallest players out there. I just wish there were better quality AAA rechargeable Nimh's available. It is hard for me to say how long the batteries last. I have been using the player an average of several hours per day for the past week. I just burned through the original supplied battery tonite after 5 days of use. If I had to guess, I would probably say I got about 12-15 hours out of it.

By the way, the reviewer Jack Dantes "John G" is completely wrong about battery consumption. This mp3 player does not use any batteries when you transfer songs to and from the player. As a test, I took the batteries out and transferred some songs to the unit and it worked fine.

Rating:
Summary: Sounds Good, Hard to Navigate
Review: This is a fantastic little player that serves as an FM radio, MP3 player and memory card. You'd swear the earphones were going to fall out of your ears, but they don't and, when one masters the player and can use different software, the device is a bargain.

The weaknesses, though, make things difficult for a novice. The software is dreadful, forcing users to find their own MP3 encoders. I also have not been able to record albums to their own directories and have them play in order -- probably a navigation problem on my part. I would have thought with arrow keys, one could navigate their way UP to the ROOT directory, SELECT a CD directory with songs in it and play those songs in the order in which they were recorded. Ah, but that would have been too intuitive.

The bottom line is there are better deals on the market unless you have your own copy of Nero or Easy DVD Creator and can dedicate the time to guessing your way through it. The instruction book certainly won't help!




Rating:
Summary: value for money
Review: This is a great little player, but the headphones are crap!! so make sure you buy some decent headphones when purchasing this!!

Rating:
Summary: Great price, does everything it needs to do
Review: Why pay hundreds of dollars for a huge hard drive player? Do you really need days worth of music at once?

This little player works great,

File transfer is a breeze, it uses the same system as your windows harddrive. Just drag files into the player icon, and arrange them at will.

Volume is good, I like my music loud, and for most songs (assuming you have a quality mp3 track) I keep the audio at about 26-30 out of 40. I have a nice pair of sony sport headphones so that probably helps too. The Earbuds that come with the unit seem just ok, but they are free after all.

The FM feature is nice also, I have not used the voice recorder yet though.