Summary: This is my second Mp3 Player (first was a Bantam BA350 in 2001). I chose Sandisk because I love their Cruzer line of flash drives. I think their flash-based products seem very solid, which is fitting since they pioneered the medium. My price point was sub 100$ (flash memory DOES wear out-- you can't expect to use this player for years if the music gets heavy rotation). I ended up fudging up to about $150 beacuse the cheaper players were too "toylike".
Here's a first look at the Sansa e250:
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* I still think that Apple hit the nail on the head when they realized that moving your finger in a circular motion is a great way to scroll through lists. So I am very wary of ANY "cross shaped" navigator or D-pad.
The scroll wheel is raised on the Sansa E200 series. I think this makes pushing the buttons more difficult than if it were flush or recessed. Not a huge deal: I mean, reaching over a bit with your thumb is NOT a Sisyphian task. The scroll wheel is slightly narrower than my thumb, and I felt that the player was hard to scroll through because my thumb was so large-- when I got to the bottom of the scroll wheel, the player was unbalanced in my hand, and it felt that my thumb had to "reach" a bit. The wheel is MUCH easier to use if I turn the player upside down--but then the screen is upside-down and partially covered by my hand (what if the player had a scroll wheel on the back of the player, on the far end? That seems better.)
I find myself cradling the player in one hand and using the index finger of the other hand to control the wheel and push buttons.
Also, the scroll wheel feels cheap: it rattles a slight bit--even right out of the box. I felt like it was (a-hem) like something Sandisk took off a Happy Meal toy and put on their otherwise solidly built player. Why couldn't they have made the wheel out of that cool LiquidMetal stuff they're touting? No, it wouldn't be able to light up, but then, the back-lit wheel is really more of a showy thing.
Think about it: you can FEEL the wheel--and it only rotates one way of the other-- there's no screwing this up if you can't see it. However, the buttons are another story. I would have preferred that THOSE light up in the dark--especially since I find myself using the menu button quite a bit. But the wheel has a nice tactile "clicky" feel to it, you can actually feel the gear under it.
When people talk about the scroll wheel "not feeling good" I think thy are talking about the balance issue and the cheapish plastic used on the wheel. If it were made of metal and seated a bit better (so it wasn't loose), I'll bet they would go for it.
I think he CNET staff reviewer who says the wheel will "tire out" or "wear out" your thyumb is referring to how you have to reach with your thumb if you keep your finger on the wheel.
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* The plastic finish seems slightly less shiny than the iPod's. But it's still nice. I wonder if it REALLY is more scratch-resistant? My screen seems to have acquired a couple of micro scratches in only the first couple of hours I've owned this.
* The LiquidMetal alloy on the back is NOT like the iPod's-- It's not chrome-like, but more of a satiny brushed finish, The color is also slightly bronze-hued. I like it a lot! The entire player seems to pick up fingerprints readily. The anal-retentive might end up polishing them off constantly.
* The dedicated hold switch is right on the top. Much appreciated.
* The bottom has a proprietary connector, It looks similar to the Apple dock connector.
* The back of the player has a small symbol of a trash can with an X over it. This is supposed to tell you not to chuck the player--presumably b/c the battery is not eco-friendly. But I can't help thinking it mean "Please don't throw away this expensive electronic goodie! We worked so hard on it!" Makes me grin.
* A let-down: the Samsung Z5 has cooler menu animations. I THOUGHT the Sansa would have something similar, but theirs are simpler. The menu is really just a series of images that changes--the icons don't actually slide smoothly from one position to another. They just sort of appear in the next position. A small thing, but I'm a sucker for eye-candy and would have appreciated more sleekness here. Also, the "playing progress bar" introduces magenta into an otherwise cool (as in "cool and warm colors") color scheme. Why?
* The included earbuds didn't really fit into my ear canal well. I didn't bother playing with them. They have the same cheap foam padding that you find on sub 10$ earbuds. :o(
I ended up using the grey-white Philips surround sound earbuds that I bought last Christmas (20-30$)
* The lanyard looks like a rubber cord. Not terribly sleek. I'd actually prefer a nylon/poly woven lanyard like on the Sandisk Mini Cruzers. Even though the lanyard is cheap, I appreciate having a lanyard hole in the top corner of the player. I wish Sandisk would just not bother with the cheap accessories and give me what I really want: a heavier-duty scroll wheel and/or adaptors (like a USB-Sandisk connector adaptor) and charging accessories--like a car/plane charger or even just a silicone skin to protect the screen.
* Some have complained that the unit is thicker than the nano. I see this as a plus (it's perhaps a slight bit thinner than the iPod video). Watching Steve Jobs take the Nano out of his pocket made me cringe: I could just see myself accidentally snapping this elegant--and pricey-- object it in two.
But the Sandisk player has a nice solid weight in my hand. I would even stand for it to be an ounce or so heavier. It currently weighs just under 3 ounces.
* One of my fav. aspects of the iPod is how the song will stop playing when the headphones are unplugged. How thoughtful of Apple! Unfortunately, Sandisk hasn't picked up on this yet.
* Menus are mostly intuitive. Sandisk was thoughtful enough to group similar menu items on the same screen--so you don't have to navigate through lots of screens---but similar functions are visually placed in sets. The look is quite similar to something you'd find on an iPod. You get an oscilloscope showing the playing levels if you push the center button once at the current track. It doesn't seem to react in realtime to the music though. It seems to laga slight bit. Subsequent presses will display fullscreen album art (thank you!) and (this is especially nice): the next song that the player is going to play.
* I wish ratings were easier to do: I think Apple lets you rate with just a click or two from the currently playing track. You have to dig into the context menu and then scroll down a couple to access ratings Also, in my firmware version (01.00.09A), clicking the center button to set the rating causes the player's display to hang for about 10 seconds. A bit scary at first. The music keeps going though. After a few seconds, it fixes itself. Occasionally, it would display the rated song's title and album art, even after moving on to the next song. If it bothers you, just click fwd to he next song and then bkwd to return to the current song.
* I like how the player will automatically scan for FM stations and set them as presets. I DON'T like how you can't easily move backwards through your presets. You can only go forwards or manually scan back to the station. Also, the first scan didn't seem to pick up my local NPR affiliate (which is really all that I listen to) on the first go. Will try again once I'm in the car.
Interestingly enough, the player supports has a Japanese, a US and a "Worldwide" radio setting. not sure what this does, but v. cool since I plan on traveling to Japan soon.
* Sound is good. I don't hear any problems aside from poor quality mp3s (which is MY fault). You do hear some mild mild intereference between tracks in the silence. I don't think you'd notice it if you weren't lookign for it.
* I REALLY wish it had support for free formats like OGG and FLAC. I'm Linux user and also a Wikipedian. The Wiki uses exclusively OGG (for legal/rights issues) I'd love to be able to listen to the Spoken Wiki articles.
* I also wish photo support were better. You have to use Sandisk's own software to convert your photos (scaling etc.) for the player. What a hassle! Ditto for video--except it converts to Quicktime, which other users have reported actually makes the videos take up MORE space! I'd like to see support for GIF and PNG in the photo realm. As for video--what about support for Linux systems? But I'm sure if the player gets popular eough, I can find Linux software that will handle the conversion functions for me. At this point, it's not that important.
* The screen does seem...not "blurry" but kind of glary with whites. To see what I mean, turn on the player. The logo screen is a good demo of this.
* 1-touch voice recording. A nice add-on. Good for memos.
* Support for cover art. Also a nice touch.
* The player supports a WinMedia-centric file trasnfer mode (use for your DRM music store purchases) and a USB "mass storage" mode-- which basically converts your player into a flash drive. This is actually part of the Bantam's undoing. When they upgraded the players to work as flash drives they ran into all kinds of problems.
Not so with the Sansa, It elegantly handles your files. Just toss the music into the pre-made MUSIC folder on your drive: once you disconnect, the system restarts and the software handily indexes your music. Nice. It takea little while, but I'm just glad it works. It doesn't matter whether you have your music in subfolders or not; it uses the id3 tags to build your menus. If you include folders with cover art, that displays when you play the proper track.
* I know this is TRUE wishful thinking, but I wish the screen could be re-oriented upside down and/or sideways. Wouldn't it be better to have landscape mode menus when you are watching movies with the player turned sideways? I know they *thought* of landscape viewing because one of the sample movies on my unit is in landscape mode. Speaking of this, you'll find roughly 128 MB worth of sample music, video and pics on your player. Nice to have if you want to see the Sansa flexc its muscles without having to load your own video and pics (see above not on how inconvenient this is).
Over, not a bad player. I was also considering the Samsung Z5, but I really didn't like the nav button. Afetr about 10 minutes, I still couldn't figure out how the pad was supposed to react to my finger's touch, pressure and movement. I had a lot of trouble just moving down by one or two selections--the cursor would go whizzing down the menu. I feel that the tactile scroll wheel on the Sansa offers me the ability to move quickly through my music but ALSO the control to move down by only a line or two.
I think the FM tuner and the voice recorder are dealmakers for this unit over the Z5, though. Sure, they're not fancy fancy, but I could see them coming in useful every now and then. The Z5's menue are damn-sexy, though. But the way I see it, the Sansa *could* fix that in firmware updates. The Z5 is stuck with that unruly touchpad. Also, the Z5 is about 100$ more expensive than the e250. And yes, it DOES have 4 GB instead of 2, but like I said, flash memory wears out--do you really want ot spend $250+ on something that will only last a year or two--especially something that could get lost, stolen or crushed by any manner of heavy object? Maybe you're okay with that, Big Spender, but I just don't have the money for that kind of down-payment. 2 GB is well enough for anyone who is in close contact with their main computer--Especially if you're letting Winmedia sync your playlist. If you load your music judiciously (that is, only putting on stuff that you actually listen to) you should have enough material for a few days of unique listening. And let's face it-- since you can only charge it with the USB connector, you're going to be going back to a computer fairly often. (I actually consider USB charging a plus-- the Li-ion batteries are lighter than AAA and you don't have to keep buying/recharging batteries and throwing them away. Plus, if you're travelling internationally, you don't have to worry about voltage conversion--the computer that you're charging from has already done the work for you! The down side is that Li-ion batts are known to die if they don't get used or charged in a couple of days.
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SanDisk Sansa e270 (6GB)