An MP3 player and much more! Support for MP3, WMA, and DRM WMA file formats. The built-in microphone allows voice recording, and the unit can be used as an external storage device for other data. 1GB of memory holds over 16 hours of music in 128kbps MP3 format or 32 hours of 64kbps WMA songs. One AAA battery provides up to 15 hours of continuous playback of 128kbps MP3 files. Create folders to organize your music, and create multiple custom playlists. Continuous, random, and repeat functions let you control how your music is played. High-speed USB 2.0 connection allows fast transfer to and from almost any computer. Plug-and-play; no drivers required. Indigo backlit LCD provides ID3 tag information (v.1 and 2). Includes MusicMatch Jukebox 9.0 (basic version), USB 2.0 cable, stereo headphones, carrying case, and battery. Minimum System Requirements: Windows 98SE, 2000, ME, XP Mac OS 9.x+, 10.1.2+ USB 2.0 connection required for high-speed transfer
1 Not what it should be
I bought this Mp3 player because of its compact size for working out at the gym. Unfortunlety, I have spent more time trying to get the darn thing to work than working out at the gym! I am good with mp3 players and have had many before, but I have had nothing but problems with this one and I should have done the smart thing at the start and returned it instead of trying to make it work. Save yourself the trouble and spend the extra on the Ipod.....The savings isnt worth the effort on this Mp3 player.
2 Great little player
This is my first mp3 player and I'm very pleased with it. When I was shopping and comparing devices I saw a bunch of criticism on it that didn't make much sense. Now that I've had one for a week and I am sure of its quality I wanted to comment on this.
Two things to keep in mind when buying a small player:
1) Navigation will not be perfect; small buttons and lots of features come at the price of easy navigation. (That being said its easy to learn, its just not intuitive really).
2) A 1 gig flash player can not hold 1 gig of music! Much like a computer with a 20 gig hard drive can't hold 20 gigs of data. Your OS will take up some space. If you put on a full gig your player is bound to mess up, don't do this (I've heard about 950 mb is ok).
A lot of people complain about those two things and its just stupid. You get what you pay for. This does not support tags, just file names. It also doesn't support playlists. However, files will show up in the order you place them on the device, so if you really want to you can build a play list. The shuffle resets whenever you turn off the device, not after going through your whole list. This isn't ideal, but once again, it's what you should expect. The firmware update really needs to be installed or you will probably eventually experience some static (I did), but it's a very painless process.
All in all this is a good player and is a pleasure to use and listen to. I'm not an audiophile, but I really enjoy the quality of the music. Just make sure you understand the way the device works and that you can live with it before you buy it. It actually has very few true flaws.
3 Small size, Big performance
During this Ipod era, it's nice to see innovation continues. After hearing about the cost to replace the Ipod battery was nearly equal to the cost of the Ipod itself, I decided to keep looking. I'm glad I did. This little MP3 player hooks up to a supplied USB cord and was instantly recognized by my XP software as an additional drive. Using a My Computer window, I created some folders and started dragging and dropping copies of my MP3 files. After trying them out I decided to reorganize them to make using the tiny screen a bit easier for my 50 year old eyes.
Sound is great and there is a little equalizer to customize the sound a bit. Earbuds are supplied but I will most likely use a small headphone set with a volume control on the cord to suit my needs. I have tried it with a cassette tape adapter in the car and it works great. No skipping because there are no moving parts. 1 GB capacity gives me plenty of room for carrying along a variety of my music.
It has a small blue light to help see the screen. This comes on automatically anytime you press a button. It goes out fairly quickly afterwards to save battery power. I would prefer it stay on perhaps another 3 seconds longer. I notice that when the USB is plugged in, the light is on constantly. I don't know if it draws power from the battery or the USB but I suspect it draws down the battery. It would be better if it did not come on at all when hooked up to the computer; I don't think it adds anything but does seem to deplete the battery. If you want to see what's on the device, use the "My Computer" window.
It has a built in FM radio. Reception seems to be fine. I've used it very little because that is not what I bought it for but news and weather are not far off if you need it. It does have a seek function and of course, a digital readout. It also has a voice recorder but I haven't used it yet.
I am pleased with my purchase. Let me plug J&R computers; Great price and really fast delivery. No moving parts, no thugs trying to steal your Ipod, pop in a AAA battery when you need to and a voice recorder and FM radio. Wow! Thanks San Disk.
4 Great All Around Player
I love this little thing. It's great for my workouts, playing basketball, and running. I don't use the armband much, but I just stick it in my pocket and go. It doesn't skip and it's so small you can barely notice it. The sound quality is good, and the controls are very easy contrary to what other reviews have said on this site. It has a lot of space to put your music on, up to around 300 songs (I don't know a person that can listen to more that 300 songs in one car ride or workout). It started freezing on me the first day I got it, but as soon as I got the firmware update on the site it hasn't happened since in about 2 weeks. The only bad thing I have to say about it is that the songs aren't in alphabetical order, but after a while you kind of remember where they are, and it's not too hard to get around. I would definitely buy this SanDisk again and I'd recommend it to anyone who's looking for a tiny, lightweight workout companion or just something that you can stick in your bag before a long car ride or walk. Overall a great buy.
5 Flawed, but still not a bad buy
First, I like it and I use it all the time. It sounds pretty decent (but you will need to get decent headphones) and hooks up to your PC as a USB drive, so it's easy to upload to.
But, it has many flaws, some that have been mentioned by other reviewers, some that I'm surprised other reviewers have not mentioned.
- The interface is not very good, navigation is by filename and folder, and not possible via the ID3 tags.
- Folder list is buggy, items can repeat
- It crashes every so often, I've found especially when on the shuffle setting. When this happens you have to remove the battery, which as someone pointed out is more difficult than it should be
- When battery runs low, it makes horrible noises rather than failing more gracefully
- I don't use the control for affecting the sound (those equalizer settings for different kinds of music), but if you do, you may notice that anything other than normal introduces some hiss
But, when it's playing a song it sounds good, it's small, it's easy to load, and it does display the song's ID3 tag. In short, despite its flaws, it does what I bought it to do.
(Btw, I have upgraded the firmware and the flaws above still exist)
6 Great little MP3 player
After looking at all of the other MP3 players, I decided on the SanDisk 1GB MP3. This thing is incredible. I travel a lot by air. I'd been carrying a CD player, but the hassle of CDs and the bulkiness of the player prompted me to by the SanDisk. I use it with a set of noise-cancelling headphones, and it's a godsend for the noisy flights. I chose the SanDisk unit, because the other SanDisk items I've owned have all been very good. I would highly recommend this unit..
7 Good player for the money
I bought this player to replace a reliable Creative Nomad II (which used 128MB Smart Media cards). The Sandisk seemed to pack a lot of performance into a small package, with good sound quality and volume. When I first got the unit, I had to flip the display to orient it more logically (easy to do via the menus). Also, mine shortly developed a bug where it would hang on the hourglass when you tried to power on. I would need to remove the battery, wait a few seconds, re-insert and then it would power on normally. Contacted Sandisk support, and they first suggested I try reformatting the drive as FAT or FAT32. I tried both, and the behavior remained the same. I contacted support again, and they pointed me to a firmware upgrade. I flashed the firmware, and it now powers up normally.
The sound is great, with usable EQ presets and a user preset to fine-tune it. I use Koss earbud earphones, which produce great isolation and nice full-range sound. There's plenty of volume here. I don't know what it goes up to, but get near 30 and it's way too loud. I mostly use this setup for commuting on my motorcycle, and both the MP3 and radio functions work great. The tuner is even pretty decent.
Dragging and droppping folders of music onto the unit is a piece of cake, so I update it often.
If it holds up OK, this unit will be a steal. I gave it four stars because of the bug from the factory, but if it doesn't fail on me for a couple of years or more, it will be a five-star purchase.
8 POOR SOUND
I was looking for a mp3 player that I could use while running or biking I settled on this player because of the price and the large 1 gig drive, it is very easy to use the only problem I have with it is the sound quality, I tried several ear phones thinking that it might be the phones but with the 4 ear phones that I tried the sound was at best was poor, if you are an audiophile do not buy this. I think Sandisk needs to think about sound quality when producing a mp3 player. I do have the Rio Karma and the sound on that player is perfect.
9 Ver poor
I HAVE A HAD A VERY HARD TIME USING THIS MP3 PLAYER. IS IT VERY STATICY AND VERY HARD TO USE. PLEASE DONT BUY. A BIG WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY
10 SANDISK 1GB DAP--GREAT VALUE MP3 PLAYER AND..
I just bought one of these on amazon, and I have been pleasently surprised at how good this little machine is, I threw about 20 mp3'sn on it to feel it out, and hooked it up to a little set of Cyber Acoustics 3 piece pc speakers, and turned it up, it sounded great, handled all the functions i put it thru, the folder system was tricky at first but i got the hang of it after a few tries, putting music on the item was quick and simple the lcd is good, has a ton of functionality and the fm radio was a plus for sure, because now that i have it hooked up to my little pc speakers, it has become my home stereo system, what else do you need, something that plays your cd collection via mp3 and it has a radio, sleep function, timer, voice recorder, all for under $130.00 that's a heck of a bargain compared to what I think is a very bland apple $99 product, that thing is just a thumb drive with a speaker hole, so you know where my vote is, if your interested in getting one, I would totally recommend getting 1 in any flavor, just buy a good set of rechargeable batteries and comfortable earphones if you aern't diggin the pre-packaged set, and your good to go, i love my little mp3 player, and shame on Sandisk no lynyard, dang now i gotta get one of those too, but that's no deal breaker, so get one if you can, i think you'll enjoy it.
11 Firmware upgrade solved static? Not quite!
I downloaded and successfully installed the 1.02 firmware upgrade but it doesn't completely solve the static issue on my player.
I don't hear it much with Pop music but it's very noticible with my Classical music mp3s. I can't really enjoy Bach's "Mass in B minor" or the Haydn "Trio Sonatas" because of it.
Not sure if this is because Classical music is recorded at a lower volume level or just has more pauses but you can't miss it in the quieter sections of pieces. After messing with the Equalizer it seems to be minimized with the Jazz setting but it's definitely not gone. Hope they really solve this in a future upgrade.
In the meantime, back to the drawing board.
12 Don't buy an Ipod Shuffle, buy this!!!!!!!!!!!
You've got most of the (correct) details on this great little player from previous reviews. I've had mine about 3 weeks, and have really put it through its paces. So far, it's performed better than expected. The sound is excellent and customizable. The F.M. radio is quite remarkable. As to the length of the ear bud cord, allow me to explain. A non ground plane antenna works best at 1/4 wave length, and SanDisk uses the ear bud cable as the F.M. antenna. Therefore, it's cut to 1/4 wave length at about 100 Mhz for best reception. So there! If you want to add some dynamite headphones, you'll even enjoy this player more and probably won't notice problems receiving F.M. stations. Let me add a couple comments for further clarification:
1. Someone said it doesn't have a shuffle feature--Bull feathers. Look at the second folder in the audio menu. Shuffle is there and it works just fine.
2. As to battery life. Folks, there are all sorts of milli-amp hour rating for batteries. In addition to how you use this little gem of a device, what type of battery you employ will determine battery life as much, or more, than anything else. I use 800 MA/hour NiMH batteries and get very good battery life. I have not put a stop watch on them, but it's certainly more than 10 hours and probably closer to 15. Who cares? They're small, rechargable and cheap.
Get one, enjoy it and be happy that you live in such great times. Ain't technology great?????
13 disappointing
I had high hopes for this mp3 player. It's cheaper than the iPod and does everthing I'd like, but play SD cards.
Good points:
-small
-light
-nice to look at
-lots of features
-great battery life
Bad points:
-user interface is complicated
-player crashes constantly when I try to pull up the folder list
-impossible to alter the playback order
I've been trying to listen to an audio book, and it keeps playing the tracks out of order. I can't figure out why. You can try to correct it by using the jukebox software, but sometimes it still chooses the wrong order no matter what you do.
I want to like it! However, it does such a good job of making me frustrated that I'm thinking of selling it and getting an iPod mini.
14 Software kind of etchy
I just bought my Sandisk 2 days ago, and i had to exchange it once already. The software kept freezing up on me, if I tried to skip songs, it would skip a couple and then the system froze. I took out the battery and it would be all ok, but then soon enough it will freeze again! This is a HUGE bug on any mp3 player, you shouldnt have to live with it! (I really like my music playing non-stop, I hope everyone else does!) Another problem was that it wouldnt fill up the entire memory. I constantly had 173mb left and couldnt store anymore!
I knew this mp3 had a few bugs before purchasing it but I gave it the benefit of the doubt! I returned the first unit the next day and now the new one is running very smoothly. i can fill up the 1gb and I can skip as many songs as I want without freezing!
Storage is great! left handers be happy, you can switch between left and right handed displays. decent player!
15 Great MP3 player for the price
I just recently purchased this MP3 player to use while exercising. I am very happy with it so far. The sound quality is great, the storage is more than enough for me, the size is just right for running or doing other exercises, and the battery life is decent too. The only real complaint I have with this is that it frequently "locks up" when turning it on. This occurs even after I downloaded and installed the update that was supposed to fix this problem. It's not a very big hassle though, all you have to do is take out the battery and put it back in. Then the player will usually turn on like it should. Still, it obviously wasn't meant to do this and I would much prefer that it would simply turn on like it's supposed to ALL the time. It comes with a plastic "sleeve" which helps to keep sweat and dirt off of the unit but it's a little hard getting the thing fitted correctly. The ear phones are decent but I prefer to use regular headphones since they stay on my head better. There's also a wrist band included that allows you to attach the player to it. The volume can be turned loud enough to give yourself a headache, so you should always be able to hear your music. All things considered, I think this is a great purchase for anyone who wants an MP3 player for exercising or anyone who is looking for their first player. Even though it has a few bugs, the good outweighs the bad.
16 Best value flash player for the money
This is a great player for the price, lots of configuration (ala iriver), USB2 mass HD compliant, AAA batteries, great (not excellent) sound, uses DOS directories for files, FM, VBR support (tries 220Kbs and works).
Use Windows MP to create auto playlists of 1gb random songs from your library, does what itunes autofill function does.
CONS: A bit slow in going into next song, esp with shuffle, sometimes takes max of 4 seconds. Battery seems to last only around 8-10 hours, but im still testing. No lanyard included. No FM recording. Minor stuff for an otherwise great player.
17 1 Gigabyte?
The device plays music well, there is nothing wrong with that part. It is advertised as a 1 gigabyte hard drive. As I download files, it will only fill to about 550mb. After that it says that nothing else will fit.
18 Decide between Sandisk DAP and IPod Shuffle???
I started thinking about a digital media player a long time ago. I have owned a Minidisc player for a while, and it still works great, but I wanted to move to something that was smaller, lighter and with more capacity than an MD.
HD based jukeboxes have been in the market for a while, but all of them (Nomad jukebox, Archos, etc) were extremely heavy and bulky to be called portable. A MP3 CD Player is too big, and all the flash memory based players used to have ridiculous amounts of capacity (32 - 128 MB).
Then Apple introduced those beautiful smooth lined IPods... but I still consider them quite expensive and heavy. I wouldn't risk taking the subway or walking arount the city with a $300 device in my pocket... no way man!
I kept my MD, and settled for a while... until IPod prices were lower or a better choice came up.
Then it happened... The IPod shuffle was launched, at a reasonable price, very portable and with a respectable capacity.
I'm not in the Mac world, like many other people, so I started reading many reviews, especially from windows users, to know about their experience.
That's how I found out about Sandisk Players... and the real challenge came.
I could not decide between Sandisk 1GB Silver and Ipod Shuffle 1 GB.
Then again, I started looking at the pros and cons about both of them.
- Ipod Shuffle has a rechargeable internal battery that charges through any USB port: GOOD
- Ipod Shuffle's Internal non-user-replaceable battery will eventually die: BAD
- Sandisk DAP uses common AAA batteries which you can buy anywhere: GOOD
- Buying new batteries every 1 or 2 weeks can get to be annoying: BAD
- But you can buy rechargeable ones: GOOD
- Both have 1 GB of capacity: GOOD
- Both can store Music and Data: GOOD
- IPod Shuffle must be accessed through ITunes propietary software: BAD
- To use IPod Shuffle on several computers you must install ITunes on all of them: BAD
- Sandisk DAP is recognized as an external flash drive (Just like a very very large memory key): GOOD
- Sandisk doesn't need any special software or drivers to be recognized: GOOD
- IPod Shuffle comes with a built in USB Connector: GOOD
- Sandisk DAP needs an aditional cable to be connected: BAD
- Sandisk DAP has a built in FM Radio (Not that I use it too much since I have 200+ songs I love at a few clicks, why listen to FM waiting for a song I like): GOOD
- Sandisk DAP features a LCD Display (believe me, this is very useful if you'll search for a specific song between your 200+ songs): GOOD
- Sandisk DAP has a 5 line equalizer fully customizable: GOOD
- Sandisk DAP includes a voice recorder (I don't find it very useful, but you might do): GOOD
- Sandisk DAP's price is lower than IPS: GOOD
- IPod Shuffle's carrying case and arm band are sold separately: BAD
- Sandisk DAP includes the carrying case and the arm band: GOOD
- IPod Shuffle's battery life is about 12 hours: GOOD
- Sandisk DAP's battery life is about 12 hours: BETTER
And the final point that helped me on my final choice...
Apple included in it's IPS those annoying copyrights protection, so, if I load the IPS at home with 500MB of Beatles MP3 (half the device is still free) and at the office I want to stuff another 400MB of The Doors, I can't, unless I delete the prior 500MB. That's the way Apple "prevents" you to make ilegal copies of your music on other computers.
I don't buy music online, most of my music is ripped directly from my own CD collection, so I have the right to keep as many copies of my MP3s as I like... So Apple is going bye bye, and Sandisk DAP, welcome to my electronics collection.
Hope this helps you to make your own choice.
19 Only had it for 12 hours
Bought mine on Amazon. Recd and began to use the unit on the first evening. The software that shipped with it did an automatic flash upgrade when I connected it to my PC. I don't know if that is related but when I finally got to working the file/folder navigation I discovered the fonts/items were not visible. Called Tech Support and went through various evolutions (re-formatting, etc) to try and fix it. Ended up RMA the morning after I received it. May just be a bad unit so now I must wait for a new one. I'll give SanDisk the benefit of the doubt here but I am a bit bothered at paying $140USD and waiting 2 weeks to use my device.
If the next unit they ship works; then all is fine. I like it's size and capacity as portability and durability are my ultimate concerns. If not they get it back and I don't by from SanDisk again. We'll see.
20 Great Little mp3 Player!
I just got the Sandisk mp3 player, and so far, I love it! It's very compact, and yes, it was much lighter than I expected, but doesn't seem outright flimsy. I was able to load my music folders from my computer onto the drive without any help from the manual. I have read other people's reviews that this player doesn't have a manual, but I was able to download the manual in PDF format when I purchased the player. So far, I haven't needed it. Overall, I'm very happy with this player.
21 Swapmeet Quality
Build Quality: I open the package and the first thing I notice is this item is small and very lightweight. Small is good, lightweight can also be good unless you sacrifice quality to save a 100th of an ounce and increase your profit margin. Don't be fooled by the metallic looks to it. It's made of plastic... a plastic that has a very cheap feel to it.
Earbuds: I load a few MP3s (very easy to do) and stick the earbuds into my ears... felt kind of funny... take a look at the photo I posted... it shows one earbud cord was over a foot longer than the other.
Sound Quality: I can deal with the cheap feel to it and I can go buy some new earbuds... but the main reason I returned this item to Amazon was beacuse of the annoying static while playing MP3s. There wasn't noise while playing the FM radio. I didn't bother to try the voice recorder. After reading the positive reviews maybe I just got a lemon but I'm not going to give SanDisk another chance.
22 Very happy with this MP3 player
I just got the Sandisk 1GB MP3 player, and I am pleased with my purchase. As soon as I got it I plugged into my work computer, because I put music on there from my bought CDs and CDR Cds. The computer recognized it as a new drive and I pulled in MP3s and WMAs into it in separate folders per genre. I had a good 45 songs that I put in within minutes, it's fast transfer and I was able to play them with no problems. The sound was great. My biggest reasons for purchasing as the previous reviewers was
A. Plug & Play (no need to install new software) which is great because my work computer requires admin rights and I would have had to wait till I got home.
B. 1 GB, is enough for me, I figure most of my songs are about 6MB, that would give me about 166 songs that I can have on there. I could hold more songs if they were under 128 kbps quality. I don't need my entire collection of songs on there, only the ones I listen to most.
C. Battery replaceable. 1 AAA battery, which I can buy rechargeable for. I hate the idea of having an internal battery that I would have to send back to get replaced.
D: Flash Memory, so I can take it to work out and not have to worry about moving too much. I don't like the idea of a hard drive based MP3 player.
E: Size, it's small, so I can use it for working out.
F. Extra: I wasn't looking for these, but they were good extras: FM tuner, which has good reception for a small device. Voice Recorder, the fact that I can store other files and use it like a memory stick, came with the arm band and clear casing.
All in all, it was a great buy!
23 Third unit to freeze up!
I fell in love with Sandisk MP3 player - I first bought the 256mb but immediately realized i needed more space after playing it a few times. Before getting ready to exchange it for a 1G, it began repeatedly freezing up. I'd have to keep removing the battery just to reset it, until that even stopped working. So I returned it (bought it from MWAVE.com) for a refund. Then I purchased the 1G from Amazon, thinking the problem couldn't happen twice. When I got it, again I fell in love with it. Small size, holds a terrific number of songs (still only half the amount of space is being used so far) and the sound quality is excellent. And now - IT'S FREEZING UP!!! I take the battery out, and still nothing changes. I've even hooked it up via USB to add some songs just to see if changing the file structure might shake things up a bit and NOTHING! I can't even turn it off. I'm furious. If it would funtion, then this would be the perfect, less-expensive version of the iPod, but so far the frustration (and shipping expenses) have not been worth it. Wouldn't buy again.
24 Awsome, conveniant, and nice sound
This player is great, easy to use, small, and haven't seen any problems(just a little confusion). I had a problem were the player would start up, then shut down just like many other reviews said, but after awhile of messing with it, i found that the battery was just dying. I don't no if that was what was wrong with the peoples whos "broke", but it's great. Only thing bad is the band is hard to get hooked to the case. overall I only regret not getting a mp3 player with more memory such as the 20GB iriver or ipod.
25 The waiting is over
I have received this player as a birthday gift from my dear friends about a month ago. I use it a couple of hours daily while commuting to work as well as on weekends when I ride my mountain bike. I was amazed that I can climb the same steep hills almost twice as fast when I listen to the music! Ok, back to the player. The previous reviewers have posted a lot of positive comments about this unit and I can't agree more. Contrary to some of the negative opinions though, I found the voice recorder quality totally adequate. If you need a top-class recording quality then you better stick to a professional recording equipment, otherwise this unit does the job quite nice. What also impresses me in this unit is the build quality. I was actually thinking about buying an MP3 player before, but none of the players I've looked at in the stores felt like they are going to last. Well, after a month of abuse I can declare that this unit is bulletproof! The wait for the arrival of a near perfect MP3 player is over. Get this one and you'll never regret!
26 Great little player
I love this player. First of all it looks and sounds great. The display is really nice an very legible with a lot of information. It is a good size, not too small that is hard to operate or hard to see the screen and not too big to be inconvenient. The 1GB size is really nice too, I can fit all the music I need for a long time. I like to play with the equalizer, I cant believe that such affordable player is packed with so many features. Thee AAA battery is convenient and lasts at least 10 hours on medium volume. I have started using rechargeable batteries so this is a non-issue for me, but 10 hours on a sigle battery, I find that astonishing! Sandisk has done well too in making this player function like a USB drive. I always wanted a USB drive for those ocasional times when such a device is a life saver. Now with this player, i will forgo the additional cost of the USB drive since I think I would only use it ocasionally and this player is perfectly suited for that. So whats not to like? The accessories are nothing spectacular, but this is what I expected in this price range. What I really would like is a set of wireless earphones. I'm really impressed with this player and will give it nothing less than 5 stars due to the amount of value for the money. I'm looking forward to many years of joy from this gadget.
27 Big storage, big sound, itty bitty player.
Quick Take-
Bottom Line...
This small flash-based MP3 player is the Honda Accord of MP3 players. It isn't the best or the prettiest but it has tremendous value. The FM radio, 1GB memory, and arm band/case are all included for $10-20 less than the 1GB iPod Shuffle. This is the best value of the flash-based players. If money were no object, I'd seriously consider iRiver.
Pros...
- Easy loading of MP3 files
- Digital FM tuner w/20 presets
- Doubles as a USB storage device
- Many configurable options
- Right or Left handed display support
- Inexpensive
- Small and lightweight (1.4 ounces w/battery)
- Includes arm band and see-thru case
- USB 2.0
- Good battery life (~15 hours)
- Replaceable battery
- Firmware upgradeable
Cons...
- User interface is not intuitive
- Buttons are located in somewhat awkward positions
- Lacks paper manual, but includes Quick Start Guide
- Lacks support of OGG files
- Lacks playlist support (despite Amazon's description)
Review-
I am the last of all of my friends and family to own a mass storage MP3 player. My sister and cousin both have iPod's. My best friend has a Creative Labs Zen and my wife a Rio Carbon.
I had 2 players previously that supported under 96MB of storage. With everyone jumping on the iPod wagon, I was just waiting for the right time to throw my hat in the ring. After I decided against disk-based jukebox players, the decision was quite easy.
I considered 3 flash-based players very seriously. The iPod Shuffle, SanDisk 1GB player, and a 1GB iRiver. I had actually gone into the San Francisco Apple store to buy a Shuffle but received less than stellar service so postponed my purchase. My best friend also wanted to buy a shuffle, but when he went in, they didn't have any in stock.
The delay in the purchase allowed me time to look at the iRiver, but it was way beyond my budget. I've always admired iRiver because of their excellent firmware support and easy-to-use interface. But cost was a big barrier. The Sandisk 1GB was about $60 less than the iRiver. I found the SanDisk in-stock and inexpensive. So, I made the jump.
When I received the package at work, I couldn't open it because it's in one of those blister packs that you need a chainsaw to open, so I had to wait to get home first. After opening the package, I found a CD-ROM with MusicMatch on it and manuals, a Quick Start Guide, an arm band, a see-thru case, one AAA battery, a USB A-Bmini cable, and the player.
:Setup and Downloading:
Without reading any guides, I inserted the battery, plugged the USB cable in and XP recognized the device immediately and showed up as a drive. I could've just copied all my music using Windows Explorer, but instead used MusicMatch Plus so I could downcode my files to 128kbps. I transferred 4 albums(Tori Amos, The Killers, Erasure, and Shania Twain) very quickly before heading to the bus stop.
:User Interface:
I spent most of my time on the bus trying to figure out how to use the interface. I got the gist of it, but had to look at the manual on the CD-ROM to figure out how to work the FM presets and how to get to the top level system menu. Also, the buttons are placed kind of weird as I kept flipping the display to the wrong side. I found out later you can actually flip the display to the other side so I can use it the way I expect to.
:Sound Quality & Earphones:
Sound quality is excellent but the earphones are a bit too big for my ears, lacks bass, and the cord length is too short. I only used the included earbuds to test with anyways and had intended all along to use better ones I purchased separately. The equalizer is handy, but the player sounds good flat as well.
:Display:
The display is pretty easy to read and has a great deal of useful info. Backlighting is configurable and as I mentioned above, you can flip the display to suit your preference in how you hold and view the player.
:Battery Life:
I've actually only listened to the player for about 2 days now, but the AAA battery that it came with still shows full (3 bars), even after transferring 4 albums on it, listening to it on the bus, and listening to it in my car on the way to work. Will it translate to 15 hours? Even at 10 hours, it's on par with the Shuffle's "up to 12 hours." And at least I know when to replace the battery.
:FM Tuner:
The FM radio comes in surprisingly well. The autodetect feature is pretty useless. It's supposed to auto preset the 20 strongest stations but instead it presets the first 20 stations that it finds, strong or not. So preset #20 ended up being like, 89.1 and it didn't even bother searching the rest of the frequencies. Setting the presets manually is a confusing process until you read the manual. Having the tuner is a great option when you get tired of the music you've loaded onto the player.
:Misc:
The Amazon description says that the SanDisk supports playlists but it does NOT. The only way to go about "playlists" is just creating a folder of songs you want to be your "playlist." This works for me I guess, but native support for standard playlists would have been nice.
I heard the crackling noise like everyone else when navigating the menu. The firmware update from SanDisk's site solved that. However, I wish SanDisk would've provided a bit more info on the firmware, like release notes. The original firmware version on my player was 0.97, I think.
I remain hopeful that SanDisk will put in support for OGG files in future firmware updates. For the time being, MP3 and WMA are the only file types supported.
Summary-
Jukeboxes like the iPod and Zen are much bigger than I really need and aren't ideal for jogging with, which is why I wanted a flash-based player. The SanDisk is a good player for a good price. SanDisk should sell a lot of these, but probably won't because of Apple's marketing juggernaut. Though if Apple can't properly assess demand and keep them in stock, they'll keep losing customers like my friend who ended up with a 512MB version of the SanDisk instead of the 512MB iPod Shuffle he originally wanted.
28 great value
For the price you get a really good deal. It's not the best in terms of design or quality, but you get much more features and space than you should for the price. Make sure you get the firmware update on the SanDisk web site.
pros:
*1GB is a lot of space
*FM radio feature is nice (no AM radio though)
*microphone quality isn't great, but it's a nice addition
*you can store other types of files on it like a large zip disk
*lots of other features like equalizer, etc (which I found unnecessary)
*SanDisk web support is really responsive (I guess not many people use it)
cons:
*low quality headphones (buy some others)
*navigation & menu system isn't obvious (you have to read the manual)
*feels flimsy, though nothing seems to be breaking after 2 months of use
29 Good basic player - and great for the price
I've been looking for a flash based player for a while to replace an MP3/CD player from iRiver. My demands were that it work as an external drive and not require proprietary transfer software, use easy-to-replace batteries, support folders, and have an FM tuner. When I ran across this one that had all those things, I was amazed at the price and took a chance despite some iffy reviews in here.
I'm very pleased with it. I haven't experienced any "freezing" and it's played every bitrate of mp3 that I've thrown at it, from terrible 96 kpbs to 320 and vbr. So far I don't hear any static. (I'm using pretty nice Sennheiser headphones).
Yes it's missing some features you'll find in higher-priced players (playlists, recording off the radio, and while it does support shuffle play it's not a one-button choice - you have to go digging in the menus to switch to it.) And as others have said, the voice recorder is really hissy - it'll be something to use in a pinch. I think the sound quality on mp3 playback is just a little tinnier than the iRiver, but the FM reception seems better. It's definitely good enough for the daily bus ride.
30 Good buy
This is a very good MP3 player with desirable features: light weight, small size & large volume. Sound quality is very good. The only improvement area is the functionality of the player. It's too simple. I want to have the option of randomly selecting songs to play, but there is no such function.
31 Static noise has a fix
This player is really cool. I bought this in Amazon for 135 few months back. You can just put it in your front pocket and best to be used with a more ergonomic headphone like a Sony ear-ring type.
It has a 5 band customizable equalizer. Sound reproduction is pretty good. Good fidelity. Only thing is to get used to its software menu navigation.
Pros:
1. It simply needs a AAA battery.
2. Very light weight.
3. Holds up to 980 MB space, Can be used as Flash drive as well [but with the catch of carrying the lengthy USB cable].
4. Its a plug and play drive and is compatible with window versions greater than Win 2K.
5. Has a good FM stereo receiver and a mono voice recorder
Cons:
1. The default earphone needs to be "inserted" into the ear and is not ear friendly.
2. As someone has stated, there is a static cracking noise with the software that comes default.
But hold on folks; don't trash this good piece for that reason. There is a fix for this. Sandisk has fixed this in its latest firmware 1.02 [This is a software that works as the "os" of this player]. All you need to do is just visit this link [http://sandisk.com/retail/dap-firmware.asp] and follow the kindergarten instruction. I have done it for myself and have tested it. Once you do that, this player beats the latest IPods of this kind which doesnt even have a display and leads its way in the race.
Also helps you overcome the "returning", "Un satisfied" feelings.
Hope you agree with me. Happy Listening:)
32 Mediocre at best
This is not a bad digital audio player, but it is not a very good one. The main problems with this player is a seemingly short battery life. Once the battery gets to a low point, but not completely drained, the player can be turned on, but the song lists cannot be browsed, and sometimes it can't even be changed to the next song unless paused, but it will still play.
33 STAY AWAY!!! CHEAP GARBAGE!!!
Within the first 10 minutes of use, the play/pause button became stuck in the "in" position, so I had to return it. A huge design defect. Also, the user interface is totally non-intuitive & unwieldy, and is even difficult to use AFTER reading the manual. I bought a jetAudio iAudio U2 1GB player instead and it's awesome.
34 Excellent sound, robust, good interface, good size.
Size of the MP3 player is great. With longer battery life, greater storage, FM tuner, and WMA support, there is really no good reason to buy an Ipod. To my ears, the sound quality is as good as the IPods.
Overall, I love it and everyone is jealous.
35 It looks great in the picture, but..
I got this as a gift for my friend and just received it, and it does NOT look as nice as in the picture above.. I mean, I'm sure it functions and works great and decently priced, but it doesn't look as nice. So I'm returning it, my friend has picky taste. =(
36 Good for geeks, confusing for others
Good sound, on the radio surprisingly so. Lots of space, easy to upload. Uploading works best through windows media player. When I just drug and dropped files, not all of them would play. You need to buy a rechargeable battery if you use this more for working out, I listen through an eight hour shift and one battery only lasts 2 shifts. Confused about which headphones to buy? Go with the Sennheiser hd497's, and get a good headphone amp. If you worship bass over all others choose the hd212's.
37 MP3 Player: How I Chose
Having to first wipe and then reburn a CD-RW just to hear a few new songs on my MP3-CD player was an inconvenience I wanted to be rid-off -- plus the inability to fast-forward to a certain point in a track made listening to audio books a pain. So began my hunt for a MP3 player.
Since I didn't plan on having my whole collection with me (simply 40 songs, if not less, at a time), a 1gb+ player would be overkill. True portability, plus not having to wait for a recharge and potentially having to send the player back 3 years later to pay x amount to replace the battery, meant that I was looking for something that runs on AAAs or AAs. I might also jog with it and a read through the on-line forums showed mixed results for micro-drives in this capacity which placed me in the market for a 512mb or 256mb flash DAP.
Examining the reviews and user opinions on CNET, Amazon and various on-line, audio forums, the companies to consider were Apple, CreativeLabs, iAudio, iRiver and SanDisk.
Apple has a great reputation and everyone seems to agree that the quality (both finish, ease of use and sound) of their players are excellent. The only controversy was with the short life of the lithium ion batteries but all players with this energy source will have this problem. (According to Battery University, if the user leaves the battery at 100% charge at 77 degrees Fahrenheit, at the end of 1yr, the total charge level will only be at 80% which means that if you were able to get 20 hours of play, a year later, you'll only be able to get 16 hours)
The new iPod Shuffle didn't appeal to me because it lacked a LCD screen (try navigating a CD-RW with 107 songs and you'll know what I mean) Also, I heard that the Shuttle was binded to your home's iTunes so the only way to transfer files from your office was to first format the thing. It doesn't have a FM tuner, runs on lithium with ~12hr life, and doesn't support WMA but is the only player to support AAC. You can only have 1 playlist. So it wasn't for me. However, if you have a large iTunes collection, have an iPod and just want a excellent sounding player with familiar controls to workout at the gym with, this player is for you.
CreativeLabs, the guys who brought us the awesome sound blaster cards ( I have the Audigy 2 ZS), offers a wide array of DAPs which have just as much mind-share among the enthusiast as Apple. Their most popular models are Zen Micro followed by Zen Touch. The major issues were: 1. bad firmware update for the Micro and 2. the headphone jack on the Micro seems to degenerate too quickly. Sound quality-wise, vox poplui is that Zen Micro and the iPod 4gb sound about the same.
Among the flash players, only the Muvo N200 and Muvo Tx FM have a FM tuner and run on AAA batteries with ~15hr life. Both are exactly the same but the Tx FM can act as a USB key without having to use a small adapter like the N200 -- this also means that the Tx FM is slightly larger. Reviews and discussions suggest that both have pretty good sound quality but not on the level of a iAudio or iRiver. I favored the Tx over N200 because the former can be a true USB key but ultimately decided not to go neither because the LCD was so small. (Went to J&R to see one).
Of interest, the original Tx FM could not fast-forward to the middle of a song, however, a firmware update has fixed this plus added support for Audible.com. I have also read the manual and found the controls (jog wheel that can be depressed to select and volume + & -) to be as intuitive as Apple's. Overall, the N200 & Tx FM are for people whose willing to sacrifice a bit of sound quality in order to get a small LCD screen. Both have FM tuners and so-so voice recorder ability but has no playlist support and you can only have 1 subfolder (C:\Level1\Level2). They support MP3, WMA and Audible.
iAudio is a company that appears to be quite popular in Korea. They don't seem to have as big a following in the states due to fact that their players, before the recent price decrease, were rather expensive and had limited distribution. Their most popular models are the U2 and iAudio 4 (there is a 5 out now, different look, same insides). Both had FM tuners, excellent voice recording ability with playlist support and fast forward ability. They support MP3, VBR, WMA, WAV, OGG and ASF
Since there wasn't too much on the forums about them, the CNET reviews were the main source of information and the U2 was rank the top flash player with some of their other players also taking top spots. The U2, with its extremely small form factor, had excellent sound, on par with the iPod Shuffle and a beautiful design. The only problem for me was that is used lithium rechargeable batteries. The iAudio 4 used AAA batteries and had the same sound quality as the U2 but didn't navigate via joystick. Both had about a ~15hr battery life.
Taking a look at the manuals, the i4 did not appear to be as intuitive as the CreativeLab Muvo or Apple iPod. The U2 is good for people who want excellent sound with an easy to read LCD and navigation plus small footprint. The iAudio 4 is for those who are looking for everything in the U2 but is willing to trade slightly larger form factor and navigation to have a non-lithium battery. I have ordered a iAudio 5 512mb (The i5s are gorgeous!!!) and am waiting for it to arrive. An interesting note is that you can change the short boot-up screen for the i4. Just download the software from the company's site and it makes converting a moving gif for the start-up screen a snap.
iRiver is iAudio's rival in Korea and it seems that both have about the same sound quality (which means excellent sound and on par with the Shuffle). iRiver is also known to have elegant designs and their iFP-799 is no exception - this player looks very similar to the U2. The review on CNET and elsewhere were very favorable to all their players however, it seems that quite a few users in the forums have quality problems and report the units breaking about a few months later. I was going to get an iFP-799 which supports MP3, OGG and non-protected WMA. The fact that it doesn't work as a UBS key killed the deal. You have to install iRiver's software in order to transfer anything onto the player but you can't save songs from the player to your computer - perhaps done to please media companies. Battery life, at ~40hrs, was the longest of all.
SanDisk has been in the flash memory business for awhile and it was a logical step to create more value-added products like a MP3 player. Their entry seems to have forced prices of flash players down. I have brought 2 of these (gave one to my youngest brother who loves it) and found the value, relative to price, to be the highest among all the flash DAPs. It supports MP3s and both protected and non WMA files. There is no playlist.
The sonic quality of the item was a bit worst than your average CD player and the included headphones sounded mono. Switching to my Sennheiser HD 457s, gave the sound a better range (lows were lower and highs were higher) but it came with a slight decrease in volume.
The FM tuner had trouble auto-scanning but you could manual select and I found the reception to be no worst than a standard walkman. I have not tried the voice recording but heard that it was only good for personal messages. Don't expect to record lectures like the iAudio and iRiver DAPs. The unit itself only supports one folder level (no subfolders) and couldn't seem to handle more than 10 of them. My brothers and I found that the navigation wasn't a problem for us. Reading the manual, however, was required in order to get all the options. How can someone know that holding down the select button for 3 seconds while in any mode will bring up the systems menu?
The LCD screen was a decent size. With a blue backlit, there were no issues reading it. Since you could just drag and drop your songs via Windows Explorer, I have not tried the included software. You can also create your folders via Windows Explorer. The small form factor meant that you could place it in any pocket and not notice it there. No problems were had connecting to our 4 PCs via the included USB cable. File transfer was very quick. A reviewer complained that file deletion was difficult but that was not the case. Just select the song and hit Rec, press the Play/Stop to confirm. We had been using the 2 units for awhile now and the 15 hour stated battery life appeared to be correct.
This DAP is definitely good for those looking for a ultra portable device. It's not much bigger than your thumb. The sound wouldn't blow you away (audiophiles would be better serve with a iAudio, iRiver or iPod Shuffle) but the low price will surely impress. SanDisk looks to be a strong contender in low-end flash player market.
General note about what storage size to select. Besides, the SanDisk 1GB, non of the other 1GB items could be recommended. Often times a 4GB unit can be had from the same company for just $25 to $30 more which means that the user should choose between 256mb or 512mb. Assume 6mb per song, you can have around 42 and 83 songs, respectively.
38 Great buy
Overall I am very impressed with the SanDisk 1GB MP3 Player. I was looking for a quality, basic player with great sound that gave me the most MB/GB for the money. I also wanted a flash drive (transfering songs to the player is a cinch). I wasn't concerned about the voice recorder, or having a player that has albums or folders or playlists. I go to the gym, strap on the armband and press play. I had simple requests and this player delivers.
39 Brief ex-iPod Shuffle User Here: Sandisk mp3 Does the Job!!
I gave my iPod shuffle to my cousin and went out and bought a Sandisk 1 G player. I realized after a few workouts with my Shuffle that I really just want to skip to a song sometimes for certain routines in my workout and I just cannot memorize a 100-200 song playlist. You probably can't either. I also needed a flash mp3 player for battery life and durability (chip based, not hard drive so no moving parts).
I narrowed my own picks down to a Nike mp3 player, Rio Forge, and Sandisk. I liked that Rio has an expandable slot, but I chose Sandisk because I trust the brand with my memory cards, and in this case it was by far the best price with an external battery. I understand that Sandisk is the only maker that uses its on NAND memory chips, so the quality is usually (although as with everything else in life, not 100%) very very good. My USB, memory cards, and readers have never failed me.
I don't know what these guys are talking about regarding it "freezing". The controls are a bit cumbersome at first, but actually more intuitive than the iPod. You'll get it very soon even without an instruction manual.
So far, I'm still using the battery that came with it. The sound quality is more than good although if you want to get fancy just buy new earphones. The plastic casing for working out is kinda flimsy but it does the job.
40 FREEZES! DO NOT BUY
I bought this player because of the space and all of the features that you get with the price. However, right out of the box the mp3 player froze on the third song. It also freezes when ever I shuffel foward through the songs quickly. When it freezes I have to actually take out the battery and put it back in to restart the player. This is a huge hassle in the middle of a workout. Yes, this is one of the cheapest 1 gig mp3 players on the market.... but I unfortunatly found out that you get what you pay for. I am returning this to Amazon after one day of use and buying a better, more expensive player.
41 Close to perfect, but not quite
I've had several flash MP3 players over the last several years, but this is by far my favorite. As other reviewers have mentioned, sound quality is good (volume level is great), price is excellent and storage capacity is outstanding. Battery life is very good as well. I've not used the radio or voice recorder so I can't comment on them.
So on to my biggest complaints that keeps this from being my ultimate listening device: (1) no support for playlists, so if you want a song to appear in more than one album it has to be copied to every one where you want it to play (I know the capacity is great, but at 2-4 MB per song the memory still disappears rather quickly); (2) no support for playing songs according to genre, which would help alleviate the first shortcoming on my list; (3) no support for MP3 Pro format.
But the complaints are minor compared to its functionality and value for the money. It's still my favorite player that I've owned to date.
42 Seems ok, but the case is pretty bad.
As a player, this thing has decent features and seems to sound fine. I haven't used it much yet so I may need to edit this if I have any problems with it after using it for a few weeks. The main thing that I don't like about it is that there is no way to clip it to your clothes unless you're wearing a belt or the included armband because the case has a loop rather than a clip (see user pictures). The case is also pretty cheap. It seems like it's made of a very thick plastic bag or something. I'm sure it's fine as far as not tearing, but it just seems a little crappy. My other player (Creative Muvo Micro) has a much better case that has a belt clip so you can attach it to a belt, the armband or your shirt/shorts or anything else. It's also smaller. The Sandisk player is pretty small, but it has a bulge on the back where the battery goes (see user pictures again). Not a big deal though. This player is pretty much the same in every way to the Creative Muvo player except for three things: The Muvo has line in recording so you can use an external microphone or record from your stereo, the Muvo is a little smaller, the Muvo as the aformentioned clip. I've been using the Creative Muvo for a while without any problems. Since the Sandisk player just came today, I haven't had a chance to test it much yet. I will post an updated review if I find any problems.
43 Froze i am returning this
Caution buyer beware!!! This mp3 player was great at first but then it Froze. When it did this i couldnt change songs or shut it off, and the music stopped. You have to remove battery to start it going again. I just purchased the 1gb samsung mp3 player because samsung is a trusted brand.
44 So far so good...
This is my second mp3 player, I accidentally fried the first one. This time I was looking for something with a little more space, more compact, but yet had good sound quality. I decided to give this one a try and am not regretting it after having it a week. Let me list out the good and perhaps not so good qualities I have encountered so far.
Good
1. great sound quality with both fm tuner and music files
2. plugs right in WinXP without having to install sw taking up space on my HD
3. size...blows me away, I've had key chains bigger than this thing!
4. I don't plan on using the voice recorder that much, but its there. I know other people have complained about hearing static or hiss on playback, but I experimented with mine and have not had such problems.
5. battery life is very nice. I work out approximately 2 hours a day and am still using the same battery after 4 days with 2 bars showing on the battery life indicator.
6. file transferring is easy...drag and drop from your computer to the player
Things to get use to
1. The controls are small and I do have big hands, but I have got the hang of it, and I agree with other reviews that navigation takes a little getting use to, but the manual is a great help. I'd have to say this is my only gripe and its just a small one.
2. The carrying case looks a little cheap, since its plastic, but if you think about it, when you're sweating in the gym, you want something that will protect it, and the player fits tightly into the case so it looks fine.
For the price, I am very pleased with it. It does exactly what I want it to do and its just what I wanted. 1 gb of space is ample for me. I don't need to have my entire music collection on it to enjoy it.
45 So Far.... A Little Good Machine
I received my player yesterday from Amazon. Inserted the battery and attached the player to the computer using the USB cable (battery and cable included). Transferred the music files to the player using Windows Explorer and got it up and running in no time. No software installed. So far, I love it. Easy to transfer files and easy to operate. The sound is good too. The only bad thing that I could find about the player is that the earphone chord is too short and the earphones itself fits too tightly in my ears. Other than that, it's a good little machine.
46 Locked up, returned unit!
I just spent several frustrating hours trying to make this Sandisk unit useable. I initially just tried to copy some MP3's to the unit. They copied quickly over USB 2.0, which was great. As I was forwarding through my songs the unit just locks up. I then converted a new batch of songs to WMA at 96 kbps. Formatted the unit using the Sandisk utility, copied over my WMA's. Same problem, certain songs on the player just locked up the unit. It is impossible to identify which ones were the culprits (it locks up before the name displays). In addition, I noticed with WMA's the Sandisk ignores the Id3 tags (they were all there when I hook it back up to the computer). It does not seem to be a file naming issue or a corrupt file issue. This stuff should just work! It is nothing more than a flash drive, how hard can it be to write a simple player to access it. There was a newer firmware at the Sandisk site but this did not correct the problem. Maybe I got a bad one, but hey, I am not waiting a week for a replacement so I can go through this again. I am going to wait for the Ipod Shuffle. My friends with Ipods never have to put up with this kind of issue.
47 Almost Perfect
I've been using this for two months and I love just about everything about it: great sound, easy to carry around, excellent FM reception.
I just have three beefs about it:
1. tiny controls: I have big fingers and sometimes when I'm in the middle of a long track or mix and try to adjust the volume, I inadvertently go to the next or previous track. Which leads to my next complaint...
2. slow fast-forward: it's only two or three times as fast regular play. I'd like to be able to get to the middle of a long mix in just a few seconds.
3. battery life isn't 15 hours: I generally get about 10 hours on a triple A battery. Not really a complaint, since it's better than the whole IPOD replacement fiasco, but they should at least be honest. Or maybe I'm just listening to my music too loud!
48 Returned Two SanDisk 1GB Players
I returned the first player because the device periodically "froze" while playing, i.e., the buttons and joystick wouldn't work and music stopped. Had to remove the battery to get it working again. The same thing occurred with the second player plus its display would go blank then show random letters and numbers while scrolling between folders.
49 Good Design/Value/Sound - but not easy to follow manual
I have been using sony clie PDA/Samsung Uploar Sprint phone as my mp3 players. And because of the limit of the memory size, 256mb & 32mb, I was looking for a better replacement.
I did not like the craze of "iPOD" because of the high price you pay and the bulky size you get - my Clie PDA with memory sticks was not too big compared to iPOD/iPOD mini, and, hey, Sony Clie has a color touch screen with all other utilities to play with. and super light. And still cheaper than iPOD. These are my arguments with any iPOD manias.
with 4-40GB scratch HDD, Some might say that they want to carry all their CD collections in the handbag as if they will never update mp3 files again, and that it could be an alternative external 20-40GB HDD, but to me that would be an expensive choice when you can get 250GB ext.HDD at around $200.
So, I knew I would like 1GB tiny little mp3 player, hopefully with FM radio as a bonus so that I can carry it anywhere and it could stay in my pocket all the time. I would say this is the smallest/lightest 1GB mp3 Player. And the grey/chrome color looks quite "sleek" in my hands.
Originally, I was looking at Lexar Jumpgear/jumpdisk sport 1GB (approx. $120) but this black plastick thing did not apeal to me much although anyone who anticipates for a future upgrade to 2gb or higher would need this when a bigger flash memory is introduced.
And I also looked at cheaper but sharp looking chinese OEMs, there are 3-4 different designs, similar looking to iRiver/Samsung Yepp - but all coming with exactly same monitor screen - directly sold from HK on ebay and I could not trust the quality and it was only 20 some bucks cheaper($85~90) plus S/H ($30+)with no guarantee of after sale services. And I would not bother wasting time bidding on them.
The new iPOD shuffle is no comparison to this at all. NO monitor to read/search files, a blind mp3 player? Files are shuffled? NO way!! Is it cuter than other mp3 players? I personally think none of iPOD models is good looking, except that they are all WHITE or pastelly. It is like watching people dressed in all white and that is all. Kind of looking like a Mac groupie to me.
I paid for this Sandisk mp3 player at $143.54 from amazon.com. Amazon is the cheapest vendor at the moment with free shipping-ups-in 3 days.
After 2 hours of listening to music, I have to address some "minor CONS". I know Sandisk needs to improve this mp3 player a bit.
1. grey armband with clear mp3 player holder - looks cheap, but it is free!
2. Voice Recording volume is too low and it starts 1-2 seconds after pressing REC button and poor hissing background noises when played.
3. during USB connection to PCs, if you delete old files and add new files, you have to go and check "disk cleanup" as the old GHOST FILES still sit in the flash memory and would not let you add new files until all removed.
4. FM radio is superb but I found that I could receive more stations in KOREA setting- the factory default setting is USA.
5. "B/I/G D/R/A/W" - The basic operation instruction is not all printed in the quick guide manual, and you have to read rather "LOUSY" PDF file on the monitor instead. This was painful to me, too many pages to pagedown. But I finally manage to follow it better second time.
6. I wish it came with internal USB socket. It could be handy to plug it to any computer for file backup/transfer. The provided US cable is bulkier than the actual mp3 player. Some of the Chinese OEM I mentioned above has an integrated USB socket and it is ready for a file transfer.
Indeed, I love this mp3 player as I expected. The file transfer was super fast. Some people complained about the biggie earbuds but it works fine with me. Actually, this tightly sits in my tiny ears and does not fall out. It sounds quite true to the original recording sound without the exaggerated bass - very crisp!
The reason I gave 4 star verdict is because 3 & 5 above. These should have been imrpoved before Sandisk introduced this cool player to the market. Other than that, I am VERY HAPPY with this little thing - smaller than two fingers together.See the pictures I uploaded. Good Investment!
50 yea-
i love this item.i have 1 n its so cool...i dont no where to get the music from
51 Tiny - Inexpensive - 1GB - Great Deal
It's the size of a cigarette lighter and has 1 GB of storage. Plus FM tuner. It's a great deal for the price, especially in comparison to its competitors. The blue display looks good and employs various graphics.
The only problem is that it takes a while to figure out the controls. It's not overly user friendly. But in its defense, it would be very tough to make a user friendly user interface on such a small player that has so many features. After a while, my wife (who is not overly tech-savy) figured it all out and loves it.
52 Best bang for your buck....for now
Don't believe all the negative ratings. Downloading music onto the device is the easiest part of operating the player. All you do is click and drag. You don't even need the software that comes w/ the product.
I used to own an MPIO FL100 512 player, and this one's a bit easier to navigate. It takes some getting used-to but it's not rocket science (like some of the other posting suggest).
Here's my version of the Pros and Cons-
Pros:
Super easy to populate w/ mp3s and WMAs. Just click and drag.
Arm Band- saves you $30.
FM Radio tuner w/ 20 presets.
Cons:
Tuner preset feature is a bit annoying to get used to.
The user manual is in the CD and not printed out. I'm lazy like that.
Ear phones didn't stay in that well during my 30mins on the treadmill. I would recommend upgrading earphones if you plan to run w/ it.
Otherwise, so far so good. I'll update as necessary.
53 Wee Silver Treasure
How I love this tiny silver thing! So small, elegant, light and easy to use. Sounds great even with manufacturer-provided headphones. Great functionality for the price. The other reviews were very, very helpful in my selection of this product. I am completely delighted with this purchase. Choose this product if you:
Find iPods a bit spendy.
Like the idea of not having to wrestle with software.
Appreciate the stability of the flash technology.
Need a small, incredibly light player for workouts, excursions, work, etc.
Want the option of the FM radio.
Want to be able to change the battery with an old eveready AAA you found in your kitchen junk drawer.
Love, love, love your music always and everywhere.
1 GB is plenty satisfying. I am confident I would have filled up the little red or blue way too fast.
Buy it. Enjoy it. Be happy!
54 Very solid and reliable product.
What's the different between a Toyota Camry and Honda Accord? In many ways, nothing. Both are standard, reliable, middle-of-the-road cars without the bells and whistles. In many ways, when we're comparing brand name MP3 players, it's almost the same way. Sandisk , IRiver, and Lexar, I've owned or own a number of them and they're all functional. And functional is a good word in my book.
I believe people should have two MP3 players: one for the everyday use (the 20 and over gig hard-drive players) and the other for the workout (the 1 gig and under flash-based players). Until flash-based players achieve the capacity level of the hard-drive players, it's going to be a game of give and take. You'll never be happy because there's no all-in-one solution. Hard-drive players will be prone to skip for the exercisers and they're not as "portable" as the flash-based players, and flash-based players don't the the memory capacity of the hard-drives.
Then I'm sure people wouldn't mind watching videos and photos on their players and that becomes whole other subject. Just get Sony's PSP (Playstation Portable) coming out in March.
I decided not to get the iPod shuffle (gasp! I'm not part of the iCult) not because of the lack of an LCD screen, but because it lacked a radio feature. The Sandisk has the 1 gig memory (which will definitely last the workout), the FM radio (for a change of pace) and a microphone. The FM works incredibly well, much better the Rio Forge Sports, which I considered purchasing because of the expandable memory.
I'm still waiting for expandable memory to be the standard for flash-based players, but then again, it's just another bell and whistle to the exercisers.
If you looking for a reliable and functional MP3 player for the workouts, I would recommended it. Like the Creative brands, it's not the sexiest thing in the world, but it works fine and is a solid product. But if you are considering this to be your only mp3 (and you don't workout), I would steer you to the hard-drive players. If you really need expandable memory, wait for Lexar's newer version in March.
55 It grows on you
Wow, great product. Build quality is good with obvious chinese origins to be expected in this price range. Sandisk however has done a great job of making the player look stylish with a good overall design and effective use of chrome accents, this player has a big "how cute" factor and everyone I have shown it to comments on this. The display quality is excelent, its a bitmapped display not merely a fixed display like the ones you see on most low end players.
Here are the things I really like. Great looks and perfect size for me. It is just like a USB drive and can be used for data storage just like you would use a USB drive. Sound quality is superb (lots of equalizing controls with preset setting and configurable settings). Single AAA battery lasts 8-10 hours, using a standard battery means you dont have to wait for a battery to charge. But if you use it a lot, you can use a rechargeable NiMH battery, this is what I do. I bought a set of four 850mAh rechargeable AAA batteries and a 4-channel charger so I can charge one battery at a time. I get 10 hours of use per battery on a single charge. I am so unconcerned with batteries that I sometimes dont bother turning it off and leave it running for hours.
The things I dont like. Headphones sound good but are not a good fit for me, however I went to the local store and looks like this style of headphone is whats common now and I could not find a better replacement, I miss the headphones with the foam inserts, much more confortable. The arm band thing doesnt really work for me either, I think I will find another solution.
The things I wish for. Being able to record from the built in FM radio (actually its my sister's wish as she is too poor to pay 99 cent a pop). Line out connector. I have an FM receiver in my garage, it would have been great if I could hook up the player to it and listen to MP3s.
Overall I have to give this product 5 stars. I got a lot for my money and I have to admit that it has grown on me after using it for a while, and after buying an early model MP3 player quite a while back I think flash MP3 players have come a long way. The only problem is your whole family is going to want one. I bought one for my sister for christmas and soon everybody in my hose wanted one, this got expensive real quick. Hope this helps you, I'm quite certain if you buy it you will agree that this is a great value. (I actually bought the 256MB, and 512MB version but am posting this review for all 3 models as they are identical except for capacity)
56 get the iRiver 512 MB or 1 GB instead.
I first bought the iRiver 512MB player but later exchanged for this SanDisk because of the larger memory, but overall I think the iRiver is a much better player. Unfortunately, for about the same price as the iRiver, the SanDisk:
* menu navigation makes less sense
* sound quality is worse
* has less features
A smaller complaint I have is that the iRiver comes with a cord to hang your player around your neck, but the SanDisk doesn't.
In addition, as another reviewer has mentioned, the SanDisk has a very annoying flaw, which is the regularly occuring crackle/static sound while songs are playing. This is being returned asap, and I'm going to shell out the extra money for the iRiver 1GB.
57 Excellent product/price combination
I received the Sandisk 1GB for Christmas and overall, I'm happy with it. The main reasons I bought it were because it's a memory-based player (taking it to the gym) with a huge 1GB of storage space, it has an FM tuner, and because of the price. I don't need 5GB worth of space on a player for my hour and a half workout. Also, there aren't too many other 1GB flash based players in the $150 range. So this one looked perfect for me.
As for the player itself, I was very surprised at how small and light it was. It has a ton of settings you can go through if you're really picky about things like scroll speed, for example. The pdf manual that comes on the CD clearly explains everything I needed to know. You don't really need to install any kind of software to use it because Windows XP will recognize it as a removable drive as soon as you plug it in. Then it's just a matter of drag and drop.
4 stars because it doesn't support OGG. :)
58 Excellent (with one little flaw, OGG Vorbis)!
I have enjoyed my unit. I have been considering getting a digital voice recorder, USB storage device, and an MP3 player. This device acts like all of them. I have not had any trouble with the device at all. The only thing that I don't like about it is that it does not support the OGG Vorbis format. (Ogg Vorbis is a fully open, non-proprietary, general-purpose compressed audio format for mid to high quality audio. It is technically superior to MP3.) I copied files without any difficulty. It acts like any other Sandisk memory device, which makes it very easy to use. (In Windows XP, no special drivers to load.) I would not purchase it again because the manufacturer does not appear to have an interest in the OGG Vorbis format.
59 Nice player but has a fatal design flaw...with a workaround
I was intrigued by the small size of this player and the features. It is indeed tiny. It weighs almost nothing. You can easily carry it in a shirt pocket. I loaded it with 225 MP3 and WMA songs in a variety of genres from classical to rock. When I started playing songs, I heard an irritating crackling sound periodically. The sound was not coming from the recordings which played correctly without crackling on the computer. I soon noticed that the crackle coincided with the scrolling song name reaching the left side of the display where it hesitated briefly, crackled and continued.
I found other reviews on the Internet reporting the same problem, but many do not. SanDisk Tech Support told me to use only 128kbps MP3 or 64kbps WMA. So I did some experimentation. I found that only 64kbps WMA files played without the crackling sounds. 128kbps MP3 files do experience the crackling sounds. If you can use 64kbps WMA files (only), then I would recommend this player. If you expect to use MP3 files, buyer beware.
60 I liked it....
I got this one as a Christmas gift. It was not my first choice. The sound is clean and clear, you just have to set the equalizer to make it perfect. I have copied several hours of music on mine without issue. MusicMatch Jukebox (default on a Dell) works without complication. Files are easily dragged onto the player as if it was an external drive.
61 Almost what I expected
Man, this thing is small..and light, less than a ounce for sure. I bought my wife one for Xmas. Loading music and editing it was also easy through real player or windows media player. The Sandisk editing software won't load up on any of the three computers I tried it on, must be a bug! So far so good with the player however, except for the software issue. I have stored five albums on this unit to date (two days), and used up 1/3 of the memory. My wife wanted something for her walks on the beach and spin classes, and this should fit the bill.
62 Incredibly disappointing.
I recieved this mp3 player as a gift and was quite happy with it until i got it out of the packaging. the buttons are kind of small, and even though the unit itself is small, they could have made the side buttons a little larger. then i treid for HOURS to get songs loaded onto it using musicmatch. after several times where it just stopped and gave me an error i decided to try the copy and paste method described on the enclosed pamphlet. that worked, but i then found that i could only fit slightly over 400kbs of music on it. it is prepartitioned with a voice folder that you can not remove on your own. if i put off of my music into both folders i can get at most 3 songs played before the entire thing locks up and i have to remove the battery. at the end of the day and 3 attempts to use it i flung it across the room in sheer frustration. its a shame that a name with a reputation as good as sandisks would be affected because of a shoddy product. as a side note, if you check other sites for reviews you will find more reviews like mine and less like the ones here on amazon. do yourself a favor and check other sites for reviews because had i read the reviews here then bought this product i would be more than little ticked off.
PROS:
size
amount of available space
CONS:
locks up
tiny side buttons
fade in feature turns on every time you turn the unit on
lack of proper manual
lack of customer support
63 Perfect for working out
I bought this player for working out (running and weight training) and it's perfect. I'd previously bought an exercise cd man, which skipped constantly so I returned that, bought an Ipod, which actually isn't good for working out. This turned out to be perfect.
My only complaint is that the buttons are tiny (the entire thing is tiny, which I love so I can't really complain about the buttons). 1GB is perfect for me, especially since it's so easy to get new music on this thing. It works on both a PC and a Mac (and unlike the Ipod you don't need OS 10) and your computer recognizes it immediately. No complicated converting of files.
Best part is it's tiny and comes with an armband with it, so it's really perfect for working out. If you're looking to get all your music onto a player and never have to change or erase as you build a library, it might not be for you. But that it comes with FM, and is so small and easy to manage, makes it a great buy for me.
64 Good player for the price
I bought this player a couple of weeks back and am satisified for the most part with its performance. I bought it for $140 and for that price range there was nothing that I could find in the marketplace matching its feature set.
What I like about it:
1) Affordable and reasonable build quality.
2) Good sound quality
3) Plug and play HD for Windows and Mac
4) FM Player works well though I hear some ocassional static which I think may be due to a reception problem indoors.
5) I have used it for about 4 hrs and I still see 2 bars. On a single AAA I think thats quite allright
What I don't like:
1) Recorder was a big disappointment. I hear constant static all through the recording that renders it pretty much useless.
2) Menu structure is rather complicated, but reading the manual helped.
3) Headphones too big for my ears but quality is quite allright.
In summary if you don't care much for the voice recorder feature and all you need is a player that can double up as an mp3 player, fm player and a plug and play hard drive this is the player for you.
If recording quality is important look elsewhere.
65 Nice
I was considering buying an mp3 player, this would be the first one, and I did a lot of research. I was looking at the Sony HD1, the Creative 30gb Zen Xtra, the Iriver one, and this one. When I learned that the Creative player usually fell apart between one and two years, I decided against it. All of the Hard Drive based players that I looked at had internal batteries and therefore, after about a year, the battery life was shot and the player was useless. Therefore, I decided that I needed a replaceable battery player.
This small player 3" x 1.3" x 1" has all of the features I wanted, and is fairly easy to use. In my winXP computer, I could transfer mp3's into folders on the device and each folder acted as an album. There was no software to install. In the player, you can navigate to different folders, and then play those folders or indevidual songs in those folders.
Unlike the sony player, this player will play MP3's any way you have them on your PC, this means VBR mp3's too.
Also, unlike the Creative player, you can choose to have the player display information from the ID3 tags, or from the file name, so if your mp3s aren't set up well, its no problem.
The buttons are a littel confusing in the begining, but after 5min, I could use it perfectly. Also, it can be used left handed to right handed, the LCD rotates.
There are many play modes that you might want like Shuffle and Repeat. These are all easy to use. Overall, a very nice player. I would buy again. 1gb is enough space to switch files in and out, and since the battery wont die like a HD model, and the HD wont die either, I think it's the best choice.
Main good points:
-replacable battery
-VBR mp3's
-Shuffle and Repeat
-ID3 tag use, or path display
-No software to install
-can store any media on the drive like a flash drive
-easy to use
-Left or Right hand use
-Nice display
66 Can't be better.
This little player first gave me a little headache scrolling through somewhat complicated menu using small lcd, it will take about an hour to get used to. The built quality is almost flawless, its usb 2.0 interface works perfectly for both drag and drop operation or sync through windows media player. The sound quality is good with adjustable equalizer. The unit is so small and light, perfect for jogging companion. I am very happy so far. Still I don't know about durability, I will keep this review updated if I found something.
67 For the gym.............
This player is obviously aimed at people who want to have enough music for the gym or an active activity and is compact and will not break like a hard drive based player. I am getting this player today instead of something like my Rio sport S30S(which broke for no reason). Ipods and have their place, but I am more interested in a player that is flash based/durable, and this player fits that bill nicely.
68 Your silly
Are you silly or something. Less than 1% of all flash mp3 players are not expandable. Why is this? Because people prefer it that way. The average 1gb flash mp3 player is $250. So this is a steal my friend. This is not expensive okay. If you want more memory then by the kind that has it. If you want to use a memory card/device with your player then buy one of those rare players. Don't criticize this company for doing what 99.99% of all companies are doing. This is what the majority of people want.
69 Too Pricey for non expandable MP3 player
I cant even imagine what the boy wonders at Sandisk marketing are thinking. Here we have a non-expandable MP3 player which is about $150!!! Either buy a Creative 4GB MP3 for about $100 or go for the EXPANDABLE Lexar Jumpdrive MP3 for $30. You can then add your own memory...Some doofus claims that the public wants non-expandable players. nonsensical!! if the expandable player is less why not buy that !!
