SanDisk Sansa e270 6 GB MP3 Player with SD Expansion Slot (Black) Reviews

• Very happy except for one Issue/risk

  
  By A1YDYMXPHK5B13 on 2006-06-15
  June 15 2006 - Unlike some of the reviewers, I couldn't care less about music "services" be they iTunes, Rhapsody, etc.
  Why pay 0.99 to anyone for DRM crippled tracks?
  The artist doesn't benefit.
  I listen to CDs I have bought and ripped.
  For that purpose, this unit works beautifully with *any* OS including Mac X, WinXP, even Linux.
  The e270 can act like a flash/keychain drive:
  just go into the Settings menu and change the USB mode.
  The e270 also shows the album art (folder.jpg) while playing tracks.
  The e200 series has a beautiful display, better than the Nano.
  I wouldn't whine about the design being imitative:
  the Nano has better quality buttons/wheel,
  the e270's controls are comparatively flimsy-feeling and are harder for large fingers to operate.
  Besides, didn't Apple copy from *Creative's* mp3 players in the first place?
  The courts are reviewing that question now.
  THE ISSUE.
  My only issue is that the USB cable is proprietary, mandatory, and irreplaceable.
  And, Sandisk is currently unable to provide a replacement if you lose it.
  Without the special Sandisk USB cable, you can't even recharge the on-board Lithium battery,
  and also there's no wall wart for AC power available either.
  By contrast, my previous Sandisk e140 player (a 1GB model) uses an AAA battery
  --and the same USB cable most digital cameras use.
  Battery- and connection-wise the e140 is a better solution,
  but the drawback is a dim monocolor display.
  If you have good eyesight, the e140 is a great economy player;
  but the e270 is the ultimate luxury toy.
  Everyone who sees my e270 is smitten.
  UPDATE July 6th -
  Sandisk says it is _now_ able to ship me a replacement
  "e270 to USB" cable, so give them credit for that.
  Also, according to internet rumor, Griffin makes an e270-compatible wall-wart (AC Power) solution.
  Finally, no solution is available yet to the "cannot play-tracks-in-album-order" issue,
  a problem I failed to mention above.
  This might drive you seriously insane when you play Mozart or Beethoven on the thing when the IV movement isn't played fourth.
  Or, when an mp3 audio book can't be played
  in chapter order!
  We're waiting every day for the firmware update from Sandisk that fixes this track ordering bug.
  
  

• Unusable if you travel without a laptop to charge the player

  
  By AWGBA9CS8RV19 on 2006-06-21
  I just bought a SanDisk Sansa e270, and deeply regret the purchase. I need a travel charger and a spare battery, but you don't sell either, and will not tell me what other chargers, if any are compatible with the e270. Your technical support representative's answers are absolutely useless - I have cut and pasted my questions and his responses below. Given the non-existent customer support, I will not buy another SanDisk product again.
  
  ===============
  Your Question/Problem: I want to use the Sansa e270 when I travel, but won't be carrying a laptop. How do I charge the battery since you don't sell a travel charger? Can I use the IPod Nano/mini charger brick and plug the Sansa USB into it? If not, what can I use.
  Also, I want to buy a spare battery since it is user replaceable, but you don't sell it either. Where do I buy one?
  ________________________________________
  SanDisk Response: (06/20/2006 08:09)
  
  Thank you for contacting SanDisk Technical Support.
  I understand how inconvenience the issue may be causing you.
  As of now there is no available wallcharger and spare battery for the Sansa e200 series. Also we do not recommend that you use the charger of the ipod player, considering that is not a product of SanDisk.
  If you have any further questions, please feel free to reply to this e-mail.
  Thank you for choosing SanDisk.
  Have a nice day!
  
  Sincerely,
  Michael Louie I.
  SanDisk Technical Support
  ________________________________________
  Your Response: (06/21/2006 08:03) My trips typically last 2-4 weeks, so I really do need to charge. Since you do not sell chargers and batteries, and recommend not using non-SanDisk chargers, that makes my SanDisk unusable after the charge runs out.
  The only alternative is to use the IPod charger - please tell me what the correct voltage, amperage, and polarity is to charge the Sansa e270. I am willing to use a non-SanDisk product even if it means voiding the warranty. Otherwise I have wasted almost $300. And when will you start selling spare batteries, since one of the reasons I bought the Sansa was because SanDisk advertised it had a replaceable battery - although this may be true in theory, it is not true if you don't sell one!
  ________________________________________
  SanDisk Response: (06/21/2006 08:03)
  
  Thank you for contacting SanDisk Technical Support.
  I understand how inconvenience the issue may be causing you.
  The ampherage, polarity and voltage are all proprietary information that we are unable to release at this time.
  You may try to do a search on a compatible charger for the Sansa e200 series player. However we do not guarantee that anything will work with it until we put a charger on the market. But we have no information when it will be out.
  If you have any further questions, please feel free to reply to this e-mail.
  Thank you for choosing SanDisk.
  Have a nice day!
  
  Sincerely,
  Michael Louie I.
  SanDisk Technical Support
  
  

• Best gadget I've bought in years

  
  By AZT4AGR8T6FO4 on 2006-05-24
  I was hesitating on buying the iPod Nano because I'm the guy who usually bought something and the next week something newer and better came out. I think this time I finally got it right. The e270 is sexy. I've seen the Creative Zens get cosmetic scratches within minutes of pulling it out of the box, this tiny e270 looks great, appears durable, and I'm confident it will survive my abuse. Dragging and dropping music is a cinch, the iPod and Zen software my friends use took some getting used to...and the out of the box conversion software to put videos and graphics on this baby is just too easy. The variety of accepted formats wasn't impressive, but it took my mp3s and wmas with no problem. It converted my jpgs with no issue. There were 5 out of 40 music mpegs had an error during conversion. And a movie in .avi format was broken down into 12 .mov files. I took this with a grain of salt and assume future firmware improvements might fix this. The menu works better for me and I prefer the e270's dial over other mp3 players. Improvements I would like to see would be the ability to put the videos in subfolders without disappearing from the menu, a different style headphones, a freebie screen protector and some way to wear it other than the supplied carry pouch or lanyard. I'm still trying to pick up an FM station, can't determine if the weakness lies with the built in antenna or the AFN stations in Iraq. The flash memory was the basis for this buy, the drive players were too bulky and sensitive to my treatment. The added feature of a micro SD slot is probably excessive, but not unwelcome. I am VERY happy with this purchase. Now how about making some accessories for this thing!?
  
  

• Ipod Nano Killer!

  
  By AEZMH65X3EN78 on 2006-05-31
  Voice recorder, FM radio, Liquid metal scratch resistent back, micro SD expansion slot, 1.8 inch screen vs. Nano's 1.5 inch, and best of all......a battery that can be replaced by the consumer! This is easily the most feature packed flash memory player on the market. Claims of low level 'noise" and tired thumbs are complete nonsense. The Sansa e270's release will not make the evening news, but it is clearly the Nano KILLER!
  
  

• Great buy

  
  By ALXV5YNZ3RTX7 on 2006-11-15
  So far, I am satisfied.
  
  I updated to the latest firmware right after I recieved it on front of my door, and I highly suggest you to do it too. I had it for about a month, and had never freezed.
  The latest firmware also has custom EQ, which sounds better than those presets, in my opinion. If you high the bass, however, it sounds very distorted. You can reduce that by lowering the second and third bars of the eq. Overall sound quality is nothing to be wow-ed about.(my other mp3 player, iriver u10, is noticably better.) Still, acceptable and better than the nano's. If you aren't picky about sound quality, you should be fine.
  When you convert videos on the Sandisk media converter, the sound quality is noticably reduced. A very bad thing when you are transfering music videos, but you can mod the program to solve that problem. Just search how by going to the e200 forums in the anythingbutipod website. Photos were easy, but I had to go in rotate all my photos so it will appear full screen on my Sansa. That's time consuming.
  I think that the mechanical wheel is better than the ipod touch. You can actually feel it scrolling, if you know what I mean. The bad thing is, after exessive use on the wheel, it becomes a little loose and chuggy.
  I personally have no problem pressing the buttons on the outer side of it(I have small fingers), but if you have thick fingertips, I understand that it will be a little difficult, especially when you have a case put on the player.
  
  Occasionally, the sound drops to one channel when using custom eq. When I switch it back to normal, the sound comes back in both channels again. I think it's a firmware problem. Hopefully they will fix it soon.
  I once dropped my device pretty hard on the kitchen floor. Surprisingly, no damage was made externally and internally(still, be careful!)
  
  Overall, very good player. I definitly choose it over the ipod nano.
  I mean you get more battery life, a bigger(and brighter)screen, video playback, fm radio, voice recorder, USER REPLACEABLE BATTERY, custom eq, expandable memory.. All in half the price. I wouldn't understand why some people would still choose to buy a nano. Because of those people, there are not a lot of accessories for the e2xx(yet).
  
  
  
  
• This product stinks
  By A2192I8UN26BLW on 2006-11-21
  I dislike ipods so i figure I try something else and hope for the best..Unfortunately I was wrong
  Itunes and Ipods are definitely much better..
  Basically this device is a cheap piece of crap and it seems like Sandisk's approach is WYSIWYG..disappointing
  
  PROS:
  - long battery life
  - email tech support is quick and good but website support sucks bad
  
  CONS:
  - it's easy to setup but instruction manual is useless
  - buttons are rigid and miniature and difficult to press with a skin on
  - wheel is very stiff and offers very little functionality
  - software is buggy and terrible
  - freezes occasionally
  - navigating through menus stutters and lags
  - boot time is 10 seconds
  - video mode has no options
  - needs serious firmware updates
  - time is listed only in settings menu = useless
  - tons of issues with playlists getting erased or not working properly
  - every firmware update erases all your settings, including radio presets
  and the list of issues goes on and on...
  
  anyone who has reviewed this product positively obviously didnt do a thorough job because these issues exist and its definitely irritating
  I am extremely disappointed and will never buy a sandisk player ever again
  
  My suggestion is to try it out thorougly before buying..so you dont make the same mistake I did and trust other people's lopsided reviews...
  
  
• Forget those hard drive players!!!!!!!!
  By A11M5UFJDYE8Z1 on 2006-05-29
  With the new firmware update this player is great. I had the 20 Gig Zen Touch and it died on me after a year and a half. Being in the market for a new player I wanted the highest capacity flash player I could find. With the 1 Gig Micro SD it runs at 7 gigs and that's just about enough for me. Being used to 20 Gigs I had to be picky. Atleast, I can run with this one. Video is always an option, but just not enjoyable with the small screen.
  
  
• Great possibilities, perhaps a QA issue
  By ATIRABGXARNWN on 2006-07-26
  I have owned an iRiver cd slimline, philips mini-cd mp3, and an iPod 40GB. I was hoping for something I could take jogging (flash memory vs harddisk or cdr). Out of the box I must say I was impressed with the little 6GB Sansa e270, but over the next two weeks flaws would appear.
  
  One of the things that made me return the player was the order of the tracks; 1) actual track name 2) album (taken from id tags) 3) artist (also taken from id tags). This was a major source of headache for me as alot of my songs had incomplete idtags. I suppose if I had a smaller player (1 or 2gb) going back fixing the tags would be viable, but 6GB (or 8GB if you get the additional 2GB SDcard) seems daunting. I like to just dump my mp3s in to root or some folder I created so I can sort thru them that way, but folders is not an option for sorting. Now there is a playlist you can create ON the player, which is very cumbersome. Maybe if you could create or import them from your PC, but from the player is too time consuming. Compounded by the fact that once the playlist is made, scrolling thru the list is very laggy. This must be a design flaw, as the lag isnt apparent when going thru sorting by track name, album, or artist.
  
  And as others have posted, the player seems to randomly freeze and require a power off restart. As well as the terrible buttons for the up down left right being so recessed by the wheel that it is nigh impossible to press. The wheel does not scroll fast enough thru the list either. An option I find great in iRiver is a 10 song skip, instead of having to scroll thru 1 at a time, which is great for cds (650megs). Something like 10 or 50 would be nice when scrolling thru 6 gigs, not one at a time! You pretty much are forced to use the sorting by Album or Artist option (see above for my pains with the ID tags).
  
  I dont mind the Sandisk USB cable to charge/move mp3s as I have a laptop with me often. But I can definitely sympathize people wanting an wall AC charger for trips w/o laptop. Some people might only have desktops, so charging away from home is an impossibility.
  
  Long and short of it, paid almost 300$ for the Sansa, I shouldnt have to put with these headaches. Currently I am trying a Creatize Zen for my flashdisk needs (jogging).. so far none of the above problems, but its also alot smaller (1gb), and I have had to return it once for failing (after a few days), hopefully this is just a bad unit and not indicative of the line.. (might have to go ipod nano)..
  
  
• great!
  By A3TR4HPRIBYWEJ on 2006-06-09
  I'd have preferred to be able to give 4.75 stars rather than 4 or 5. The reason for this is the placement of the RECORD button. I have made more than a couple inadvertant recordings simply as a result of handling the unit. Other than that, I like the fit and feel of the thing. I don't know that the micro-SD slot contributes much to the user -I think it was meant rather to contribute to SanDisk (manufacturers of same, not coincidentally). I like that the unit will "keep track" of your progress through a long track (I like to use my Sansa for listening to audiobooks, the files of which can be quite long and finding one's place manually can be a rank tedium). The screen is quite nice- disproportionately large for so small a unit. Finally: battery life for mine on the first two charges was between 20 and 22 hours. Not bad at all.
  
  
• Pretty Good -- Hopefully Getting Better
  By A2XBYKGP936LUB on 2006-09-12
  I have been using the 270 (6 GB version) for about 3 weeks now, and largely agree with the positive comments on this site. Sandisk just released a v. 1.01.11 update for the e200 series, so be sure that you go to the Sandisk website and download the updater (all updates after this version will be installed automatically when you sync).
  
  I thought about getting one of the harddisk based players which offer up to 60 GB of space, but they seem to have high rates of problems and disk crashes -- not suprising given the workout these tiny devices are subject to. So I 'settled' for the 6 GB version. That is a huge amount of music, certainly more than I can listen to at a single sitting. I have the equivalent about 68 of my library disks on right now, say, about 40 hours of music PLUS another 20-30 hours of old time radio shows. So a big flash memory drive is the way to go, and 8 gigs would be more than enough for almost anyone. Remember that the e200 series all accept microSD memory chips. Currently the 1GB microSD is going for about $US 55 in local retailers, less online. I expect that a 2 GB chip will be releases shortly at around $US 100. IMHO, only college students that are skipping all of their classes would have the time to fully use more than 8 GB of storage.
  
  The removable battery is a Very Good Thing. All you need is a SMALL phillips electronics type screwdriver to remove the four tiny screws in the back and the battery removes as easily as a cell phone battery. I'm puzzled by the reviewer who complained that he left scratches when he "pried" it open -- no prying is necessary -- the case back splits easily from the front. Be sure to put the screws in a safe place (I use a little plastic bag), because they can easily get lost. Which leads me to the next point:
  
  The firmware is improving, but is not all the way there. One of the annoying problems that occasionally reported (and I experienced) is a hard crash and lockup -- this happened to me -- and the solution is fairly easy, just pull the battery and replace it after 10 seconds (not something you can do on an iPod). I am guessing it's some kind of operating system programming issue that can be easily fixed in a future update. If and when that happens, I'd give the e200 series an upgrade to 5 stars.
  
  Note that the Sansa relies on the internal .mp3 file tags for artist/album/track information. This means that if you have music that was converted to .mp3 with bad tags, they'll have to be fixed for things to be identified and ordered correctly. I had that problem as I used early versions of RealPlayer, which apparently didn't write tags into the .mp3 files correctly until recently. It took about an hour to rewrite the bad tags with a tagging program that used the internet music info database to retag, after which things worked fine. As noted in other posts, the Sansa e200's conversion codecs for video yield a fairly a large set of quicktime files - a full length video can take up from 1.25 - 1.5 Gigs of space. Given that the screen resolution is very small, this needs improvement. However, it actually DOES do video and movies, and they are actually watchable with decent sound. It would also be nice if SanDisk would support some other common formats besides .mp3 and .wma.
  
  Given that the e200 series has been out less than a year, it seems likely that all of these issues will be addressed shortly.
  
  The best part is that it's not an iPod, and I'm not yoked to Apple's iTunes service if I want to buy content from a competitor. With the e200 series' ability to use microSD chips, I'm guessing that Sandisk hopes to sell movies and other content on micro SD chips at retail in the future. But it also opens up the possibility of easy transfer of home video as many camcorders can store SD format as well and with an SD reader and a computer it is easy to transfer all kinds of content.
  
  
  
• Almost there, SanDisk....almost
  By A3R92PY6PBLMD on 2006-12-19
  My e270 has been a mixture of the enjoyable and the frustrating...with a few changes this little gadget could be simply outstanding. Instead, the Sansa e200 series falls short of what it should be, but remains a good value for those with the technical savvy and patience to put up with it.
  
  For crying out loud, SanDisk, when are you going to support folders, or creating play lists on the fly? The e200 will organize your music for you, IF your tags are in order. You can create a "go list" list on the fly, but that's it. Your music (MP3, WMA or WAV only) can be browsed by artist, song title, album, genre and a "go list". There is another category, "my top rated", but if you rate your songs with the Sansa, it'll freeze... how much simpler life with the Sansa would be if there was support for folders or multiple play list creation.
  
  The list of EQ settings that the player ships with are also limiting...there is a custom EQ with the latest firmware, but it isn't as robust as the EQ choices on my older e140, and some users report that it's buggy. So far, I haven't had that problem. The sound is good, with good earphones. The earphones the e200 comes with have been relegated to under the pillow use by me...the ones I got with the old e140 were much better, and the Koss KSC75 clip-on's better yet.
  
  Video? Yep, but the MOV QuickTime format is as bloated as a beached whale. The bundled media converter will chop your video in to 10 minute chunks with iffy sound and in widescreen format. All this can be changed (except the MOV format) with some file editing, but why should a user have to dig through the anythingbutIpod forums to find this out? What could have been an outstanding feature with MP4 support is merely a novelty.
  
  Voice recording? Yes, in WAV format. You can record FM on the fly, (when is a Sansa player going to have AM support, anyway?) and there are photos with a slideshow function via the media converter.
  
  Left out of the package as of the 01.02.15A firmware- An alarm function and a sleep timer.
  
  The Sansa is fine with me from a control standpoint. The voice record button is placed where you can hit it by accident, the scroll wheel should be progressive, and the buttons around the wheel are hard to find with my fat fingers, but for something this size it's all livable. Battery life is as advertised, but you are a slave to your USB port unless you buy an aftermarket adapter. Don't lose the cable, its Sansa only.
  
  I enjoy my e270; the six gigs of storage, plus the expansion possible via micro SD are plenty for my use. A lot of the niggling problems I've encountered have been solved with the use of a good MP3 tag editor (MediaMonkey is great for this) and some searching through Sansa forums.
  
  
  
• A Great All-Around Player
  By A1175NZWAXRPGB on 2006-08-31
  I got this item last week with 6Gb. It's a great device. It has good display and great features.
  The *MUSIC* that you want can easily be dragged onto the Sansa. The device automatically gives the playlists of artist, album, etc.
  The converter that comes with the item is really amazing. It was a big hastle to put videos on my PSP but the converter makes it so easy to put it on the Sansa 270. You can put pretty much any type of *VIDEO* onto the converter and it will do all the work for you.
  Im not a big *PHOTO* person but the converter in suposed to be able to do that as well.
  The *RADIO* can almost always pick up channels very clearly and the recording of the radio is good quality as well.
  The VOICE RECORDER is very good quality. It is much better than any recorder that comes on a cell phone.
  
  The only few bad things about the Sansa e270 is that it does not come with a wall charger or car charger(i dont think that they even sell them) You can only charge the device by using the USB cord that it comes with to charge it in your computer. Also the Sansa does not offer a lot of storage space or accessories(but you can buy extra memory to put in your expansion slot)
  
  I encourage you to buy this great item
  
  
• Impressed
  By AEUW6VD9XCVWD on 2006-09-09
  I have used my little Motorola MP3 player for a few years until I found something I would really be happy with. The e270 is it. I am extremely impressed. I love the fact that I can drag and drop files onto it without using more software to clog up my computer. The sound quality is fantastic. I flashed it to the newest firmware and it really does everything I want it to do. The little screen is great, easy to read and bright enough on a sunny day. I figured out how to do my own album art and upload pictures but in the end, it's all about how easy it is to use and how good it sounds. In those categories it excels. There are two small issues, one is that every now and then (maybe every 100 songs) a song only plays on one channel, this can be fixed by restarting the song. I'm sure this is a firmware issue and hopefully it will be addressed at some point. The other thing is that the buttons around the dial are a little on the small side and can be hard to push.
  I bought the Sansa E200 Travel Case Kit which is very nice, and a Trekstor USB charger which works beautifully.
  All in all I am very pleased and future firmware revisions can only make this player even better.
  
  
• The Good, bad and ugly
  By A2LN9H43BQ4VHF on 2006-06-17
  I have since resolved most of the problems I had with subscription services eventually getting the Sansa to work with Napster service but not Rhapsody. However, Sansa music downloads from Napster generate multiple download errors once I have download 3 or 4 playlists. Also, the more music you have on your Sansa, the longer it takes to download successive tracks. Napster confirmed that the Sansa e270 is not compatible with their service. This is what I would recommend to minimize problems with subscription services.
  
  1) Use Windows Media Player 10 NOT Version 11 Beta - Version 11 Beta did not work with my Sansa.
  2) Format the Sansa with Windows Media Player 10 PRIOR to connecting to Napster (just deleting the songs Sandisk provides on the Sansa upon shipment does not delete all the tracks for some reason and created a problem for me so formating was the only solution that worked.
  
  The Sansa now works for the most part with my subscription service and allows me to download 3 or 4 Napster playlists directly to my Sansa!.
  
  The good:
  The Sansa e270 looks great, is amazingly small and has a good display. The 6GB storage is large enough that you no longer need a hard drive device which means you get player with great battery life and able to stand up to knocks without skipping / breaking. If you have a lot of purchased music or CDs on your computer, then this is the MP3 player for you - (see my warning below about subscription services!)
  
  The bad:
  Scroll wheel feels a little cheap and button placement takes some getting used to especially if you have big fingers
  The Sansa e270 does not support playlist created on Rhapsody, Yahoo or Napster. You can set up playlist but this is done on the device which is extremely time consuming especially if you are a playlist guy like myself.
  Placement of the record button means you inadvertanly hit it initiating recording while you are handling the player.
  
  The Ugly:
  The Sansa e270 support for subscription music services is extremely buggy. I would not purchase the e270 if you plan to use it with Rhapsody, Yahoo, Napster or other subscription services. After spending several hours trying to figure out why my tracks would not download ( I eventually re-loaded firmware and reset device), I evetually managed to download tracks. However, the next day at the gym I got a message telling me to re-synch and none of the tracks would play. Now I'm trying to figure out how to renew the licesne so I can play music on my Sansa. I never had this problem with my Creative Zen MP3 player.
  
  Conclusion - The Sansa is close to an Ipod killer but limited support for subscription players will relegate it to "also ran" status compared to Zen MP3 players, which fully support subscription services. Great design, good features, consider if you own a lot of your own music. Give the Sensa e270 a miss if you like playlists or use subscription services.
  
  
  
  
• By far the BEST flash mp3 player on the market
  By A2WE9RGRURCMLC on 2006-06-25
  I bought the e270 about two weeks ago and really put it through it's paces. I travel on a plane about 10 hours each week, so I've gotten some use out of it. Oh, and I watch tv shows on it too, which is surprisingly tolerable given the small screen size.
  
  Positives:
  -The screen is way bigger than a Nano, and it's really nice
  -Plays Video
  -User changeable battery (when they release it, which I'm sure will be soon)
  -Flash upgradable using MicroSD (also, there will be full albums coming out in MicroSD compatible "gruvi" cards)
  -Sound recorder, with easy to use record button
  -VERY VERY sturdy, with a metal back, that looks great and does not scratch easily (I don't even have a case)
  -Plays FM radio
  -6gb for the same price or less than a 4gb nano
  
  Negatives:
  -The charger is USB only which for 98% of people is not an issue, but if you need one reportedly the Griffin Powerblock works fine, as I would suspect any charger that allows a usb cable to be plugged in
  -A bit thicker than the nano, but I actually prefer the e200 form factor
  
  
• don't trust rebate or after purchase support
  By A2C2UELV7Z6OB0 on 2006-08-26
  The player lives up to everything it should be but after purchase support by Sandisk needs to improve.
  
  The rebate offered on line is a nice little extra but it really pissed me off that I just received a post card saying that my purchase was invalid. I checked all the requirements prior to purchasing and again before I sent in the form only to have it dismissed. I have ceased using other vendors that tempt you with troublesome rebates and I think it is time to do the same with Sandisk products. This is just plain false advertising!
  
  Other complaints with the player are that Sandisk does not offer a USB cable for sale separate from the player. I asked Sandisk nicely about this and after numerous exchanges they agreed that they would send me cable as a once only replacement cable; after more then a month I am still waiting.
  
  The worst part of the after purchase issues had to do with dealing with customer support. Mind you, the customer support personnel were very nice but the process of trying to get resolution was grueling. They needed me to register my e270 but they wanted a serial number that is not easily found. I went through 4 exchanges of email asking for its location and a possible picture so that I could locate it. It turns out that you must disassemble the e270 to get to the serial number. When I asked why they didn't have any instructions as to how to do this, support responded that they don't want to have people know how to take the device apart. HUH! THEN WHY THE HECK DO THEY PUT THE SN IN A PLACE WHERE YOU HAVE TO TAKE IT APART AND THEN REQUIRE THAT YOU DO SO!
  
  I like the product but I am definitely not impressed with after purchase support.
  
  
  
• Love It
  By A10NU33GH5OR5M on 2006-06-27
  It's a beautiful player, a little bit bigger than the IPOD nano but that doesn't bother me. The fact that it has FM, and can hold pics and video is enough that I can deal with it being a little bit bigger and maybe heavier, but it's negligible.
  Good:
  I like the scroll whell on this. I don't like the IPOD scrolls because I always move past the selection that I want or tab it by accident and select something I didn't want. This, you feel the wheel click so that won't be a problem. The buttons around the wheel is a bit small but I have small fingers so it's not a big deal. The interface is easy, I just dragged my music over and it was fine. Battery life is great. I already watched one movie and listened to ~5 hours of music and I still have 3/4 of my battery.
  
  Bad:
  You have to use a computer to charge it. When it plays movies, it pauses in between scenes for about 5-30 secs which can be annoying. The screen is a bit small that you can't see the pics too clearly but it's a small player with a flash drive, so that's unavoidable. You have to convert the movies/pictures using their converter, which freezes my computer sometimes and it takes a while for it to transfer movies (~20 min for a 650MB movie). Also, there aren't that many accessories you can buy for it. I've been trying to buy an adaptor so I can use it in my car but haven't been able to find anything. And when you plug it into the computer, you can't do anything to the player.
  
  Overall, I think it's a great player. It's a flash drive, so you can take it running and not worrying about possibly damaging the harddrive inside. I originally had Creative Zen Sleek Photo but returned it and got this one and I'm VERY glad, not that Creative don't make great mp3 players but this one is much smaller and has video and I can exercise with it (assuming I get off my butt and actually go to the gym)
  
  
• iPod lovers beware...
  By A2K82BZL8CTP8R on 2006-07-14
  IPOD lovers beware. There's a new player in town. The Sandisk Sansa E200 series. Now for the review:
  
  The iPod nano. You can listen to music and look at photos. 4gb. $250. I don't get it. The Sansa Sandisk. You can look at photos, watch movies, listen to music, listen to FM, record FM, record VOICE, expand the memory via microSD cards, etc. for less than $250 for a 6gb player.
  
  I have had my 4gb Sansa Sandisk, and directly compared it to an iPod nano 4gb. Here's my thoughts.
  1. Screen is better on the Sansa E200 series, brightness is unmatched
  2. Back of Sansa is extremely difficult to scratch, Nano is very easy to scratch.
  3. Sounds quality: Equal footing, i couldn't tell the difference between the two.
  4.Navigation: I almost prefer the iPod nano on this one. The Jog dial on the Sansa is a bit too tactile for my taste. However, I am now use to it and doesn't harm my enjoyment of the Sansa.
  5. Sansa e200 series you can import photos...such a small screen its not very worthwhile to put a high-detailed photo on there, but some photos look good. Ipod the same.
  6. Sansa you can watch movies. I imported a Family Guy episode, and imported Lawrence of Arabia onto the Sansa. Family guy episode went great, and fast. It was only around 15-20 minutes long, and the sansa had to break up the file. However, the only pause I saw once it transitioned from the first file to the second was a slight "jump" in the film and a small distortion in the sound. Not bad at all! Lawrence was the same, but the 4th file didn't copy over at all. Not sure where it went. I tried again, and it copied just fine. The movie plays great. Software is okay, but fine overall.
  7. Accessories. This is where any MP3 player looses out. Apple is everywhere with iPod. Car stereos, speaker docks, etc. Time will tell how well Sansa competes in this area.
  8. Battery life. My sansa played music for a total of 18:42. The Nano (with the same playlist) played only for 14:55. Thats almost 4 hours extra. Nice job Sansa! And the battery is user-replaceable!
  9. Software. I used Rhapsody, Media Monkey, and iTunes to sort and transfer music to the MP3 players. Itunes only worked with the IPOD, and Rhapsody and Media Monkey were fine with the Sansa. I much prefer Rhapsody than Itunes. The feel of it, the ease of transfering, the playlist/last listened to features are superb, though itunes is good as well (it just won't work with the Sansa)
  10. Stability: Nano wins here. The Sansa is on its 2nd firmware release, and a 3rd one promising a LOT of improvements is just around the corner (as of 7/14/06). The Sansa has locked up once while transfering music, and locked up for 10 seconds while I was trying to back out of a movie. The Nano never once locked up. Good job Apple, but Sandisk is giving their Sansa a lot of support.
  
  Overall I love my Sansa. For the price i paid for the 4gb ($150 on deal, coupon) at almost $100 LESS than the Nano, the Sansa wins by a good margin of features for the price. I just hope Sansa keeps up with developing new firmware to help out the stability of the player as well as add new features. This and more accesories. I talked to Sandisk and they said a compatible speaker dock as well as a car charger/FM broadcaster were going to be released this fall for the e200 series.
  
  Sandisk, i give your Sansa a 5-star rating. Ipod Nano, compared to the Sansa I knock you down to a 4-star rating.
  
  
• Awesome mp3 Player!!!
  By ASPD1SEAUUV90 on 2006-08-25
  This player is very user friendly and has great sound. I have throughly enjoyed using it and think I made the right decision. It does have a few small quirks, like when it is in shuffle play it always starts with the first song in my list and if you have the micro SD card in it has to "Refresh Database" everytime you start but it doesn't take long. The radio gets great reception, especially compared to the other mp3 player I had.
  
  I highly recommend this mp3 player!!!!!
  
  
• One of the Best Flash players out there
  By A2PPUARV07QQUG on 2006-10-08
  I did my research before buying this player, and from the reviews i saw (which were many) this player seemed like the best one on the market. And it is.
  I don't want to waste your time, so I'll just sum up everything about this player:
  
  Pros:
  Beautiful Presentation (inside and out), big screen
  Good Controls - very simple and easy to use, although the menu/power button may be a little annoying for the left handed
  Great Sound
  Music Options - shuffle, repeat, custom/preset EQ, album art, etc.
  Video/Photo/Fm Tuner/Voice Recording
  Removable Battery
  Extremely Easy to use
  Plays Music while charging (part of firmware)
  Compatible on all computers due to its two usb modes - use WMP or just drag and drop
  Firmware updates - currently on 1.02.07A
  
  Cons:
  No asian support as of yet - it can easily be fixed with firmware; in fact, a few languages have already been added via firmware
  Hides time on now playing screen - also fixable by firmware
  Can only be charged via usb
  
  That pretty much sums up this great player
  
  
• Great Sound Quality - Smokin' Video
  By A28Q4R4JGIH80B on 2006-11-25
  Not much said about the fantastic quality of the video picture. You wouldn't think that you would actually be able to watch video on a screen this small but the resolution and quality of the picture is amazing. I have shown it to an I-Pod owner and was told the video on this player is definately better than the I-Pod.
  The unit is not perfect, it does freeze occasionally, but the re-set function has always unlocked it. The video sometimes converts in a jerky fashion also. But the conversion software was able to handle very large files. I suspect a little tweaking might fix the conversions.
  Sound quality is great. Combine this with Sennheiser CX300-B Earbuds and you'll love it.
  This is my forth MP3 type player amd the extra money over the lower end players definately yields a better product. The previous player, Creative Zen Nano Plus 1 GB MP3, quit working the week the warranty ran out.
  Thumbs up on this one.
  
  
• DO NOT BUY!!!!
  By A2IVYYK2AMVLDO on 2006-09-22
  Oh if only I could rate this item with negative stars!
  
  What a piece of trash! The design of the player is nice and I love how I can drag and drop files through explorer, but just as I am starting to enjoy my player, it breaks.
  
  The first one didn't last a week. It just stopped turning on by day six. The second one didn't last a week either and it also stopped turning on. Sandisk obviously doesn't care about quality control, since both players malfunctioned in under seven days. And yes, the batteries were charged and I did not in any way damage the player to cause the problems.
  
  I'm returning my piece of trash and requesting a refund that I will probably spend on an i pod. I hate i pods, but I hate being jerked around even more.
  
  Here's a word of advice to the potential customer. Save the packaging. I guarntee by day six your player will break too.
  
  
• Many great features, but lacks most important one: Sound Quality
  By A9O0HOAWLK803 on 2006-09-29
  I'm not really an audiophile, but I do enjoy great sound fidelity.
  
  This player offers many great features and the user interface is decent (not as intuitive as the other better players out on the market). I can't really complain about those two things. It's got so many features that I thought $180 for the player was a steal.
  
  My only complaint (and a big one at that) is the sound quality this player transmits. I use Shure E4C earphones, and they definitely expose a bad source. The sound on this player compared to the iAudio X5L that I sold doesn't even compare (i've tried the iriver clix too, and that thing also sounds way better). The sound is very flat and muffled to my ears, it lacks any aggressiveness or warmth that i've been accustomed to. Bass response is also very muffled.
  
  
• Nice package, but not user-friendly enough
  By A1791VRGYVQ5MC on 2006-11-06
  I purchased this to replace my MP3 Companion, also a Sandisk product. I connected the e270, transferred over 3GB's of wma's (over 60 folders worth), and watched as the firmware lumped all my music into ONE HUGE collection called UNKNOWN. It was not possible to play the songs in one folder, nor to browse the folders by name. This was possible with my MP3 Companion. I contacted Sandisk Tech Support and they confirmed that in order to group songs by Artist or Album Name, the MP3 ID tags must be ripped with the song or album. No ID tag, no grouping. Well, most of my music DOES NOT have the ID tags attached to the file name, and I can't even get some of the original CD's to re-rip the music. Furthermore, I'm not about to spend hours re-ripping the CD's I do have.
  
  This is going back, shame on Sandisk for removing the functionality given us in the MP3 Companion and earlier flash-based players. At least with those, you could browse and play by folder, regardless of ID tag or not.
  
  
• Solid product for an attractive price
  By A25Q2DI8QQOHSZ on 2006-12-10
  I have bought 2 Ipods for my two sons and have watched them fight the file format issue since we have a PC instead of a Mac. When it came time to buy a portabile music player for myself, I set the following criteria:
  
  1. Must be compatible with Rhapsody which I have been using for years.
  2. Must not have a hard drive
  3. Capable of handling the large number of WMA format music I have converted from CD.
  4. Price / valuable ratio must be good.
  
  I finally broke down and bought a Sansa E270 last week. I have been listening to it nearly non-stop.
  
  The pros:
  
  It fit my criteria listed above.
  It is easy for me to use (at 47 I don't want to fight technology)
  The sound is great when I substituted higher grade noise canceling headphones for the earbuds it came with.
  While it doesn't handle the thousands of songs I had hoped it would, it handles as many as I need and syncing with Rhapsody is easy.
  
  The cons:
  
  Face plastic scratches very easily
  Ear buds furnished with it are worthless
  Software bundled with it was hard to install on one of my computers
  Doesn't come with wall charger.
  
  Summary:
  
  I bought a wall and car charger and rubber case on Ebay for it for less than 10 bucks, they work well. I really like being able to move my Rhapsody music easily over to the Sansa. I didn't realize that I had to change my Rhapsody subscription from $9.95 a month to $14.95 a month, but it is worth it to have all the new fresh music available from Rhapsody each month.
  
  
• So far I love it!!
  By A12BUY2SNQHPEK on 2006-06-29
  I bought this from Amazon a few weeks ago and so far I love it. I had an iPod 30GB video player that died loading songs the first time. Apple replaced it and then the replacement died the same way. (Apple gave me a full refund to their credit!) I'm not sure why my iPod didn't work and so I've been a little gun shy with the SanDisk, but I haven't broken it yet! Turns out, when Windows Media Player tries to sync with the device - it get's screwed up. (Hold down the power button for 20 seconds to reset.) But - when I drag and drop files - it works perfectly. The album art is not displayed on the SanDisk and the Windows help site has an item on their FAQ about this saying it is a SanDisk problem. Also, the radio reception is not the greatest, wish it had a little antena or something. Also, I'd really like a wall charger for it. Other than that it's perfect! I REALLY like it - and - I haven't broken it which is amazing considering my experience with iPods.
  
  Update on 7/14/2006. The Sansa did lock up when trying to load over 700 songs until I did the following:
  1) Changed the USB Mode Setting to MSC from MTP.
  2) Formatted the Sansa from Windows specifing "Fat-32" - You need to be in MSC mode to specify Fat-32 formatting.
  3) Then I changed back to MTP mode and haven't had it lock up anymore.
  
  Maybe with a new firmware update this won't happen, but I read about this tip on the web and it helped me.
  
  Also - the odd song doesn't show up on the player (but IS in the Sansa Music folder when you view it through Windows) and I have to copy it over again for it to show up to play the song.
  
  Also, I wish there was a easy way to merge songs in WMP like there is in iTunes. And I still am not getting the Album Art to show up. However, I have to say I LOVE this thing and I've been very happy.
  
  
• What Nano?
  By ABN46RITEACOL on 2006-11-05
  I keep coming back to Sandisk for MP3 players primarily because of reliability, owner replaceable battery and expandable memory. This is my 3rd Sandisk Sansa purchase (e100, e250 & e260) and I have been happy with all of them. I have never owned an Ipod and never will so I can't give a first hand opinion on how the e250 compares to it. I have briefly listened to my friend's Ipod Nano and as far as sound goes, I think with the Sansa's pre-programmed and customizable equalizer, the e250 sounds better. Other than Apple's "click wheel", it looks like the Sansa got them in every category. I'm all about getting the best bang for my buck and this e250 wins hands down. Do a side by side specification comparison and see for yourself.
  I noticed that one of the biggest gripes of Sansa owners is not being able to use the player while it's charging. That is not true. I'm not sure why Sandisk did not include this feature in the user manual. Anyway, all you need to do is plug in your player to a USB port while the player is OFF and let the USB power it up. Doing so will let the player charge without your PC recognizing it as one of your USB device making it useable while charging. You can even set it to turn off automatically after the charging is complete. Just press and hold the power for 2 sec. like you are turning it off and the LCD screen icon will change and say, "Charging".
  Another gripe is the buttons are placed too closely to the navigation wheel making it challenge to press them at time. I highly recommend buying a Kroo Silicone Skin for the e200 to remedy this which I can be had for $12 shipped. The thickness of the skin is perfect to pad the 4 buttons around the wheel to elevate them just above the nav wheel without interfering with the wheel movement. Don't bother with Sansa OEM Silicone Skin as it will NOT help with the problem.
  
  Hopefully this review helps current and future Sansa owners with these 2 issues.
  
  
• A+ for the design team!
  By A3H1316H0IEZTQ on 2006-12-11
  I've used many of the competitors this one is simply the best. The battery charge lasts and lasts (I do recommend getting a car/home charger to top it up when a computer is not handy). The sound quality is great and navigation is simple and quick. The best part for a person with 'older' eyes like me is the VERY BRIGHT and clear screen.
  
  Negatives are few: the supplied earbuds are some of the worst I've ever used (I bought some Panasonic in-ear buds and I am thrilled). The on-off button is difficult to operate (especially with the Griffin leather case).
  
  Great to look at - great to hold - wonderful design!
  
  
• Do All The People Who Have Reviewed This Product Work for SanDisk??
  By A3K13S8CCQP5EI on 2006-06-30
  They must b/c I don't know how they're all so happy with it.
  
  I'm not going to write a long diatribe here, but I want to caution potential buyers of the e270.
  
  For starters, it's NOT compatible with Napster To Go nor Y! Music Unlimited To Go subscription-based services. It is compatible with Rhapsody, but set up is difficult and you MUST HAVE USB 2.0 on your computer. The MTC protocol (see, I told you it is difficult. . . and I'm not that technologically savvy) only works with USB 2.0, not 1.1, which I have.
  
  Also, it scratches way easily. If you do purchase this product then get a cover for it.
  
  The controls are sluggish in terms of moving from one song to the next, but the scroll wheel is pretty cool.
  
  I also wish the sound output and the bass response were better. The bass is a little flat for my taste and when you're in the gym or on a plane, you can hear all sorts of backround noise b/c it isn't loud enough. (And yes, I went ahead and purchased the Shure earphones for $150 and I'm still not pleased with the sound performance).
  
  I can't totally trash the player, although I'm super dissapointed with it. . .especially in light of how much money I spent on it.
  
  Customer Support has been great. Quick and responsive. The player design is cool. It's small, but not to tiny so that the controls are difficult to operate. The scroll wheel is cool and the graphic display is bright and cool looking.
  
  Overall, if you're looking for a player that's compatible with all of the music to go, subscription-based services, look further than the e270. If you are cool with paying per song, go with the Nano and itunes. Oh, and who cares about the expansion slot. 6GBs are enough.
  
  
• great product
  By A3A3K2ZVKD94FK on 2006-08-30
  the sansa e270 is very sleek with a surprising amount of ability. with 6 gigs i am able to load all the songs i have and still have room for a dvd's movie files. though the screen is small, the picture quality doesn't suffer at all, and remains sharp. of course the only drawback to watching a movie this way is that text can't often be read, but if the movie doesn't have any then you're good to go. this product is highly recommended for its size, form, and function.
  
  

• SanDisk Silicone Case for Sansa e200 (Gray)
• SanDisk Sansa e200 Silicone Case (White)
• SanDisk Sansa c100 Silicone Case (Gray)
• Altec Lansing inMotion iM716 Headphones
• Sennheiser PXC 300 Noise Cancelling Headphones

• SanDisk Silicone Case for Sansa e200 (Gray)
• SanDisk Sansa e200 Series 5-Piece Travel Case Kit
• 2-Piece Value Combo Pack Of Brand New Home Wall Travel Plug in Ac Charger + Vehicle Cigarette Lighter Power Car Charger with IC Chip For SanDisk Sansa e200, e250, e260, e270, e280, e200R, e250R, e260R, e270R, e280R MP3 Music Player
• Macally USB AC Charger for SanDisk Sansa MP3 Players (Black)
• SanDisk Sansa e280 8 GB MP3 Player (Black)