SanDisk Sansa e200 1.8" Black 2GB MP3 Player Sansa e250

Pros: The hardware is pretty much perfect. Someone in Sandisk's product design area is getting a raise. Battery life is long, brightest screen I've seen on something this small (readable in full sunlight at brightest setting), it's sturdy, doesn't scratch, charges quickly, the dial has good tactile feedback while still being easy to spin, and of course it has expandability with MicroSD. But...

Cons: ... the firmware could be better. It doesn't view JPG (only BMP) or MPEG (Only .mov). The record button would be better as a function button (IE, function+scroll= scan through song). It's frozen on me once when trying to get a gallery view of a directory with no pictures (actually, the music kept playing, but the player became unresponsive). I've heard that RockBox will be ported to the sansa e2xx line. I hope so. It'll be *perfect*- it's just the firmware that keeps this from being a 5.

Overall Review: The firmware isn't awful. The navigation is straightforward, and listening to music/radio/video is just fine. But it could be better. And audio quality sounds fine to me. I'm not an audiophile but a 192kbps MP3 on ten buck headphones sounds fine to me.

Pros: I did a lot of research and product comparisons and by far found this product to be the greatest value with regard to price and features. But here's the big thing for me: it works with Linux! I'm using Ubuntu 7.04 and as soon as I plugged it in the USB port, an icon appeared on my desktop. The Sansa functions like any other drive; I can copy files to *and* from the drive. Sansa was good enough to pre-install some sample music and I can copy from the mp3 files to my local disk. This was not possible using Windows and its stupid DRM restrictions. Overall, the unit feels solid (the back is metal and feels hefty but not too heavy), the UI seems intuitive enough and the sound is excellent using a pair of Koss headphones I purchased separately (they were about $30, or so.) The display is crisp and bright.

Cons: 1. The USB cable is proprietary. Not a big issue, but I bought an extra one just in case I lose the first. 2. No AC charging adapter; it charges from the USB cable. Again, it's a perfectly valid configuration but I bought an AC adapter separately. 3. The supplied ear buds look solid and sound good but are too big for my ears and keep falling out. But this is typical with me for most ear buds. 4. A little weirdness with the USB/Linux connection: after it connects it displays a message that says "writing" when none is going on. Maybe that requires a firmware update, but no big deal because it otherwise functions perfectly.

Overall Review: I had a 3 year old Rio S11 prior to this and loved it. Technology certainly has progressed in those years. If you're on the fence about upgrading without going overboard, this may be the one for you.

Pros: The picture qaulity blew my mind and everybody I showed it to. Easy to use. have yet had it's battery die(keep changing songs so it keeps charging). Great video conversion software. Expansion slot

Cons: Earbud headphones(I don't like earbuds but they are good ones). I wish you could edit mp3 info and play by album. But my only two major complaints are the video it plays uses quicktime codec(wished it was mp4)???? This causes the files to be rather large(400+mb for 40min). My other one is the proprietary usb jack(it should of had a standard one in case you lose the cable)

Pros: Plays music, video and pictures. Small and lightweight.Fits in your pocket. Holds hundreds of songs. Works with Rhapsody and Mp3 and plays them both. Battery life is about 20hrs. I left in on for 18hrs and it was still working.

Cons: Like all Mp3 players the butons are a little hard to work with clumsey hands.

Overall Review: I bought this to replace a portiable CD player.Got tired of carying a bunch of disk and the big player. Put 85 songs on here from both Rhapsody and Mp3 and haven't skipped a beat yet. It comes with Sansa Media Converter. Just drop your pictures and video in it and it will convert them and put them on the player. My next project will be to put my CD collection on it and the expansion card.

Pros: Cost less than an ipod and has a lot more features.

Cons: menu can be kinda loopy

Overall Review: you cant compare radio reception to that of a cars...

Pros: Supports pictures, video, and several music formats. Supports Rockbox third-party firmware allowing for games plugins and various different media formats such as AAC and AVI files. Allows for easy memory expansion via a MicroSD card. Supports files either synced from Windows Media Player or via drag-and-drop. Scratch-resistant finish, and a decent selection of third-party cases and addon's (such as FM transmitters and usb adapters).

Cons: Lacking in overall storage space. 2GB is a bit small considering the capacity of many mp3 players on the market. Shorter battery life than I expected (needs to be recharged after a day of relatively-full usage). Proprietary USB cable.

Overall Review: I bought this player because of the great price, easy expansion, the full-color LCD screen, and for drag-and-drop when adding music. With Rockbox added it's an excellent media device, but on it's own it has many features worth recommending. Having expanded the onboard memory via MicroSD, this player supports all of the media I could ask for and works great in both XP and linux.

Pros: It works great so far; I haven't had any problems with it! The scroll wheel doesn't feel cheap like some people have said. I've not had any problems creating multiple playlists either like some people have. Navigation is simple to use and learn; I only had to check the user manual twice to see how to do something. The video/photo conversion software has worked perfectly so far. I use a combination of WMP 11(MTP mode) and drag and drop(MSC mode) to transfer files and sync music; both ways work perfectly. I'd rate the audio quality a 4 out of 5. The EQ presets actually sound somewhat good. Beautiful 220x176 display. Some of my video files I put on my sansa (chapters ripped from a dvd) play in sequential order so I can watch an entire video that's been split into 4 files without any interruptions except a blank screen for a second or two while the next file loads; I was thrilled about this since the sansa doesn't support video playlists.

Cons: Issues I already knew about before buying: 1. Video files have to be converted into large MOV files in order to be played back. 2. Volume resets to 50% when you turn on the player. 3. When using the scroll wheel, sometimes the higlighted menu item will suddenly "jump" to the next menu item. 4. Startup time for player is slow (15 seconds). 5. Can't playback videos/photos from the microSD card. Issues I discovered after purchasing: 1. Custom EQ can cause audio distortion fairly easily. I was dissapointed, but was able to get it sounding decent after 5-10 minutes. Maybe with high-end headphones the custom EQ will provide better sound. 2. The sansa doesn't use the EQ for video playback and the audio quality for videos is not great. 3. Voice and FM recordings don't utilize the EQ either unless taken off the player, converted to mp3 or wma, and put back on. 4. Fast forward is much too slow for long audio tracks.

Overall Review: I researched the sansa e250 a LOT before deciding to get one, including reading literally hundreds of reviews on several websites. I rated the Sansa a 5 because overall it performed as I had expected it to, the issues I didn't expect have been minor, and I've not had any freezing/firmware problems with the player so far. In my opinion the amount of features and the quality for the current price (as of 3/18/07) made the Sansa e250 a great buy. I'm very happy with my purchase! Yay Newegg!

Pros: Very sleek and nice player for the Price.

Cons: ***Just know that if you're buying this with the intention using Rockbox that the V2 model of the e250 doesn't work with Rockbox as of yet. Most likely you will get a V2 since the V1 are pretty much phased out. I didn't learn this until I got the item so I figured I should pass it along.