Sansa e280 (UK) - great player

Author's Rating:

Pros: Great Player - rugged, good looking, works with Windows Media Player !

Cons: No Album Art. Support calls routed (at their expense) to USA.

The Bottom Line: 
If you want your entire album collection with you, and you store (and have been adding) songs from CD with Windows Media Player - dont think twice. Buy this product.

Author's Review
My Daughter had a Nano as a Birthday present, and I like the idea of sync'ing my CD collection to one device, which I can connect to an FM Transmitter (legal since Dec 06)and carry it around in the car with me.

Although the Nano is intuitive and easy to use, iTunes just wont talk to Windows mediaplayer (and we're talking 1,500 songs in total).

Sansa does. Its almost identical in size to the Nano - just twice as thick. Its not a problem, fits in shirt pockets and is really small and light. Its more scratch proof than the Nano, user interface not quite as intuitive but easy to catch on to. I DO like the funky Blue wheel (its not cheap and tacky), forward and reverse buttons arent quite as easy as Nano's clickwheel(you'll need the slightest of thumbnails to press) but you quickly get the hang of it. I like the earbud cable is on the top not like Nano's bottom (can prop it in car's cupholder when connected to radio transmitter).

The earbuds are fine. Nitpick one (and I'm struggling to find faults), the cables arent quite as 'flowy' as iPods, ie marginally stiff. I mean marginal. I'm struggling to find fault here ... I've seem people spending extra dosh on fancy earbuds (are they mad?) - I'm listening at 20 -30% volume and they're fine.

Nitpick two, it doesnt import Album Art from Media Player 11. Sansa's FAQ says make sure the album art is in the same folder as the music (wheres that then ?), a call to Sansa's helpdesk (answered in the USA - Ugh!) says its a Windows Media Player setting, which they couldn't find, and nor could I. Oh well, it would be a pretty small picture anyway . . .

And dont forget, in the UK the Radio Receiver has been disabled.

Overall: A great little player. I found the 8G Nano and Sansa were within £10 of each other (in the USA the Sansa seems to be cheaper). If I'd been able to sync the Nano with Windows Media Player I probably wouldnt have bought the Sansa. But iTunes is just too painfull for words (No I dont want to buy a track for 79p - I just want my entire CD collection with me). Am I glad I bought it ? Oh yes ! Would I recommend it - definitely.

If you're like me and gradually Ripping your CD collection to your PC with Mediaplayer, and want to carry it around with you - dont think twice. Buy the Sansa !