
Solid, dependable, easy to load and navigate PLUS......
Review created: 07/07/07(updated 01/07/08)
15 of 15 people found this review helpful.
The SanDisk Sansa e280, (and the whole e200 series), portable multimedia player has just about everything right for portable music, picture and video playback. We love ours. We shopped around and tried the Creative 30GB but it had poor navigation and was not dependable. The Apple in the home, (our 3rd one still works - first 2 had to be replaced), had good sound and navigation but lacked FM radio, lacked user changeable battery and required the iTunes file converter to convert my own music into the the iPod format so no copy & paste or drag & drop was possible with that unit. The Zune, while not tried, compared on paper similar to the iPod in that it also required file conversion into a proprietary format and lacked a user changeable battery.
The Sansa has great navigation, a solid feel, great sound, simple Windows Explorer drag-n-drop capability, FM receiver and a user changeable battery. In the Creative, Microsoft and Apple 30GB models, you have to send your player in to have the factory install a new battery - for a large fee ($60 to $112 - can vary by device)! The Apple does not offer FM radio on ANY models.
The Creative, Apple and Microsoft all play songs using their different proprietary extensions while the Sansa e200 series players can play MP3, WMA, AAC and RAX files with no conversion necessary. Shows up as an additional drive on your computer when connected via the included USB 2.0 cable. There is included software to convert many graphic (pictures), and movie/video files into your player.
The Sansa e280 is an 8GB flash type memory player, not a hard drive based player. This means that it will have a smaller capacity than hard drive based players but it zips from one song to the next INSTANTLY and does not have that clicking and waiting while a hard drive indexes. I've loaded around 730 MP3's, mostly at 320kbs. Also have some photos and 6 Pixar short films on it, (for the kids). The 8GB capacity was a good fit for us.
The SanDisk Sansa shows up as an additional drive on your computer when you plug it in using the included USB 2.0 cable. By opening Windows Explorer, you can COPY / PASTE or DRAG / DROP music files to, and from, your player. It does not get any easier than that.
The battery life is great! Don't know how long a charge lasts as I've never been low on power yet. The 1.8 inch full color screen is great for seeing what you want to play and for looking at movies and photos. I do not recommend loading in full length movies to be viewed on this screen but it could be done - but this would also load up the memory very quickly.
Navigating the menus and playing files is simple and intuitive. Requires a little push you can feel so you can change songs while the unit is in your pocket. Does not have that soft touch style buttons that might accidentally get pressed.
The sound is perfect using the included earbuds at higher volumes. Good headphones or earbuds can be purchased that will allow outstanding sound quality at all volume ranges. We also plug ours into a speaker dock that also charges the unit. It works great and has great volume for its size.
THE BOTTOM LINE
We shopped around and this is the BEST portable music player with photo and video playback capabilities there is. If in the market for a portable multimedia player, the SanDisk Sansa e280 is the one to get.
UPDATE 1/2007 - The new Sansa 16GB is the same as above but this one requires you to send to factory for battery replacement.
Review ID: 10000000003962459

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