Sandisk Sansa e280: A Terrific Flash-Based MP3 Player

Author's Rating:

Pros: Small, cool looking, sounds great, user-friendly interface, long battery life, many player functions

Cons: Small screen to watch videos. There is a slight buzz/squeal on voice recordings.

The Bottom Line: 
This is one of the best if not THE BEST flash-based MP3 players on the market, especially for the money.

Author's Review
Summary

I was looking for a flash-based alternative to my Creative Zen Micro yet with more memory. I found the Sandisk Sansa e280 8 GB flash memory player which met and in fact exceeded my needs and expectations.

Specifications

8 GB flash memory
USB 2.0 with fast loading of music
User-friendly interface
Small, but nice and clear color screen
Excellent internal battery life
Expandable with microSD memory cards to 10 GB total
Charges on USB cable or with optional adapter
FM radio which works better than Creative Zen Micro radio
Voice and FM radio recorder
Videos and photos can be displayed on screen

Included in the package

Sansa e280 player
USB cable
Plastic pouch for player
Software CD-ROM
Earbuds

Setup

1. Plug the USB cable into an available USB 2.0 port
2. Charge the player until the battery indicator on the screen stops flashing
3. Drag and drop your MP3 tunes (including entire folders) onto the icon that appears in My Computer
4. Disconnect the player from the computer
5. Plug in your headphones
6. Select your source of entertainment or select your desired function
7. Enjoy the player.

Note the software disc contains software to convert videos to the appropriate format for the e280. As I purchased the e280 exclusively for music, I have not used the software yet. The fact that you can load music directly to the e280 via Windows Explorer (My Computer) is a major asset of this device. The player appears as a drive with folders for music, videos and recordings.

User Interface and Controls

The user interface is very friendly. One can turn it on and figure it out without looking at the tiny included manual.

Please note that I have taken the time to go into a lot of detail here in case you are interested. If you don't care about all the user interface details, just skip down to the next section on "Function" of the various components of this unit.

The power button is at the lower left hand corner of the device. Just hold it down momentarily and the device boots. It takes about 10 seconds to get to the last feature that one used when you turned the player off: MP3 player, radio, etc.

There is a round white plastic wheel which surrounds a large black button. The wheel is surrounded by 4 curving buttons underneath the screen. All functions can be accessed by using the the large middle button, the wheel and the buttons around the wheel.

At startup you might see the screen with large icons representing a radio (radio function), headphones and a CD (representing MP3 function), a camera (photographs), a movie reel (video function), a microphone (voice recording function) and a set of slider controls as on a mixing board (control panel or settings). All are labeled with text also. You change the focus of the icons by rotating the white plastic wheel and when you get to the correct icon, you press the large center button to choose that function. When the function is chosen, a submenu appropriate for that function appears.

Submenus in the Settings area include the following:

Music options (repeat, shuffle, musicEQ)
Radio options (Delete all presets, FMRegion, FMMode)
Slideshow options (shuffle, loop, slide time, music)
Backlight (5 seconds, 10 seconds, 15 seconds, 30 seconds, 45 seconds, 60 seconds, On)
Language (English, Francais, Italiano, Espanol, Nederlands, Swedish, Portugue, Brazilian, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian)
Date and time (Month, Date, Year, Hour, Minute, Time)
Brightness (slider control)
Volume (normal, high)
Reset All (reset all factory defaults, yes or no)
Info (provides firmware version, memory used, memory free, number of songs, number of voice recordings, number of FM recordings)

Submenus in the Music section include the following:

Play All
Play previous
Artists
Albums
Songs
Genres
Playlists
My Top Rated
Recordings
Music Options (this refers to the same settings as Music options in the settings area - repeat, shuffle, musicEQ)

The musicEQ function allows you to tweak the treble, midrange, and base to your personal preferences.

If you select the Radio function, you get a simple interface to select your channel and the volume. When you press the lower curved button, you get a submenu to add the station you just tuned as a preset. You can also Delete preset, Delete all presets, View All presets, or select recording from the radio.

If you select the Video function, you get a list of all the video files in your player. You can select which one you want to play easily.

If you select the Voice function of the player, you get the following menu selections:

Record Now
Listen to a Recording
Delete a Recording

If you select the Photo function, you get the following selections:

View Photo List
View Thumbnails
Slideshow Option (shuffle, loop, Slide Time, Music)

The player's functions can be characterized as user-friendly yet very customizable. Do not let all the options that I detailed above confuse or worry you. The player is very easy to operate and configure.

Rating the Function of the Player

The Music player function is overall quite excellent. Transferring your music files to the player is simple. Simply drag and drop your music files and folders into the music folder in the player via My Computer where the player appears as a drive. To listen to the player, simply select the Music icon. You can then select playlists, individual files, artists, albums, genres, etc. You can also choose shuffle play. If you have a JPEG picture of the album art in the folder for those files, the album art will be displayed with those tracks. The sound quality is very good to excellent. I ditched the included earbuds (as they fall out of my ears) for my preferred headphones.

The FM radio function is also very good. I can hear stations more clearly in the same physical location than I could with my older Creative Zen Micro.

The Video function is more of a toy. However, the video I looked at was crystal clear and very colorful. However, the small screen made it more cool than useful.

The Voice function was easy to use. The samples I have recorded are clear but there is a slight buzz and squeal in the background. Each recording is automatically labeled with the date and a sequential number.

Under the Photo function, you can view a list of your photos and then select from there. Alternatively you can see a screen of 12 tiny thumbnails which scrolls, or you can select to see a slideshow with any of the options listed above. The photos are tiny but easy to see.

Battery

The battery takes a couple of hours to fully charge, and my testing reveals it to last for over 20 hours of music playing time per charge. The battery life is excellent in my opinion. The battery itself is user-replaceable with a screwdriver. The player powers off after some period if nothing is happening (no function being used and no activity with the user interface.)

Other features and info

There is a lock control slider on top of the player. Once this slider is pushed to the player's right, none of the controls will function. This prevents the player from being turned on or off in your pocket or holder.

The headphone is a standard stereo miniplug on the top of the player to the far right. The location for this plug is good for most athletic protective cases (e.g., my TuneBelt).

The proprietary USB connection to the player is located in the center of the bottom of the player.

Aesthetics

The player has a shiny black finish on the front which is very attractive. The back is a brushed gray metal finish. The player has a nice feel in the hand. The white plastic wheel on the front of the player glows a bright blue color as long as the backlight of the player's viewing screen is on. This is cool and attractive.

Overall

I really cannot find anything to complain about here, and that says a lot. 8 GB holds a lot of files (973 at 128 kbps or higher bitrate), and it's at the upper extreme for current (early 2007) MP3 flash memory-based players; additionally you can add a microSD chip to expand the memory by 2 more GB. The user interface is colorful and friendly. The sound is great. There are many options to customize your experience. The player looks and feels great, and the battery lasts a long time after charging. The ability to simply drag and drop your music files into the player via Windows Explorer is a major, major plus avoiding the use of proprietary software (except to convert videos.) Don't forget that the battery is user-replaceable.

I got the player for $191 including expedited shipping from Amazon.com/J&R.