Product Review – The Sansa e280

If you’re looking for a great little MP3 player, stop here! Enjoy 8GB of internal memory with the Sansa e280 MP3 Player 8GB from Sandisk. The Sansa e200 Series MP3 players are the flagship products of SanDisks audio line. Created by the leaders in flash memory, this flash-based player provides everything you need for music, photo, and video clip playback. The very attractive, sleek design includes a 1.8 TFT color screen with advanced navigational features and an easy to use interface. You can also avoid scratches and cracks with the durable metal backing. The Sansa e200 provides superior sound playback and supports Microsoft PlaysForSure subscription music. The SanDisk Media Converter supports most image formats to enjoy photos and small personal videos. Your Sansa e280 has expandable memory via a MicroSD memory card slot (cards are optional). It is tiny (44.1mm(w) x 88.9mm(l) x 13.2mm(h)), thin, light, and durable. Get ready for big things in MP3 with the Sandisk Sansa 280. It’s the player for you. User replaceable and rechargeable Lithium Ion battery for up to 20 hours of battery life Includes the Sansa Media Converter to support all picture and video formats Features microSD expansion slot for additional memory capacity Supports SanDisk TrustedFlash and Gruvi content cards Digital FM tuner, on-the-fly FM recording, and voice recording Supports Subscription Music Stores Minimum System Requirements – Windows XP; Windows Media Player 10+; CD-ROM drive; USB 2.0 port required for hi-speed transfer. –Amazon

Well when I picked out this little electronic do-dad for my step-dad for Christmas it may have been wise to check out the specks for it’s actual size.  This little guy, is LITTLE! 

So being that I play tech-support for most of the electronics in my family and this one does connect to the computer I should get familiar with it and get it set up ready to go.  I figure I will dump how many Eagles songs I have laying around to it along with a video clip and a couple of family photos.  Who knew that was going to take so much of my time but I have to admit I am glad that I ran into issues and not my step-dad. 

So the first task was an easy one delete the current content and set the date/time and language.  Can handle those without the instructions.  Step two was to find the user manual and related software.  As a REFURB unit it didn’t come with either of these items.  That was fairly easy however the install of Sandisk’s media converter and the firmware update was not.  I am a multi-tasker and decided to install the media converter while I was still working on other things.  BAD idea!  As soon as that was installed Windows and or the Sansa decided to switch from  MSC (Mass Storage Class) to MTP (Media Transfer Protocol).  The first is where the device needed to be to do drag and drop of files and to install the firmware update.  The problem is that the device needs the firmware for the option to switch is listed in the settings.  Wonderful!  After several pages of forum post I finally found instructions for changing this; switch the hold/lock button to on and then press and hold the << button, it was the off or on that didn’t appear to work until FINALLY!! After this small set back all was right with the world and we began adding files.

Included in the WHITE unmarked box:

• USB Cable
• Sansa
• inexpensive ear buds

Pros:

• The screen has great clarity when playing a video.
• Sounds good to this girl with untrained ears.
• Is small and light weight.
• Does Audio recordings, FM radio and recordings, plays video, mp3 and pictures. 
• Has a microSD slot. 
• Holding 8g with a 2g expansion slot you should get ~2500 mp3s

Cons:

• You have to use their media converter to add files, WHAT? you can’t just put a .jpg on there.
• Uses a proprietary cord to connect via USB (WHY not use the USB mini like so many other things?  I am tired of keeping track of all these stupid cords.
• Don’t seem to be able to “rotate” images or video. 
• The plastic “wheel” is difficult to operate, it works like a direct rip off of the iPod.
• It finger prints and looks bad quickly.
• REFURB is stamped into the back, come on you couldn’t of put that inside? or made it less of a OMG LOOK it is a REFURB?

I wish I had more time to play with the little guy but I purchased it as a gift and really just wanted to get it set up and working.  I do think that if I were in the market for an MP3 player Sandisk would be the first place I shop.  The only issue I have is that the current iPod has ALL my music on it.  Good bad or otherwise that is a lot of music.