Given all the goodness the sansa players have to offer and double the capacity, literally trouncing the ipod, i see no reason why anyone would want an ipod.

..with new firmware this makes it a big day for SanDisk.. would love to see an improvement to the scroll-wheel.. not much more to bitch about IMO... very nice.. and the price drop on the other Sansa e200 sizes is a great move!

..ok ..native DivX and XviD support and lossless would be nice too... =)

To Kamil:

Because people aren't rational;, they're emotional. They want an iPod just because others have one; then if they don't have one, they can't be cool.

so sad, but so damn true...

I'm the opposite. I don't want an ipod because everyone has one. This will be my first mp3 player ever.

same here, i do not want an iPod because almost everyone has one. Apple might be the underdog to Microsoft but their iPod line is way too popular these days.

I'll probably get this sansa mp3 player if i can get a better deal and I would wait for some more reviews on its performance.

to Reyn & Space Canuck: you must own Macintoshes then, since you don't want what everybody else has. I bet you also don't bathe, since most people do. I may or may not think that iPods are great (I'll let you jump to conclusions as to which), I'm just pointing out how absolutely assinine your statements are.

I have a 2 year old iPod which cost me over $500 Canadian - the battery is now 99% dead on it (making it 99% useless) and I'm looking to replace it. This Sansa thing apparently has a removable battery so when it burns out and holds only about a 5 minute charge like my iPod does, I can just replace it. The iPod's battery is soldered right in there and is a PITA to replace (and costs nearly as much as a new iPod).

The removable battery on this is is my killer feature, but I also like the fm radio and voice recorder, things the iPod motherboard supports but which Apple PURPOSELY DISABLED on their iPods (which pissed me off when I found out as you can imagine -- you can get these features back by loading Linux on your iPod but linux on the iPod is still pretty rough around the edges). I also like that this Sansa has flash memory, since the hard drive on my cousin's iPod died after a couple years. I foolishly convinced her to buy into the Apple hype as well, which I now regret because she was using her iPod to store school files like a thumbdrive.

I will never buy Apple products again. My PowerBook is overpriced for what I paid (my work HP laptop is not as "sexy' but works way better and is faster for half the price), my Apple Extreme Base Station is the WORST thing I ever bought in my life and is complete garbage, and my iPod is nearly dead despite only occasional use and is more style than substance. As you can tell, I was a "switcher" who "drank the Apple kool-ade" for a while and bought all Apple stuff. HUGE MISTAKE.

Apple is "cool" but in the end, i just want stuff that works, which Apple doesn't, and doesn't make me feel like I've been ripped off, which is how Apple makes me feel. I think they're an advertising company that ALSO makes computers.

I would give you my email so you could ask questions but I did that on another tech forum and i got so much hate mail and so many pedophile spams and crap that it's not worth it. If you have any questions ask Google.

So what's in the new firmware other than the EQ or does anyone have info about this yet? For instance, can you have stuff other than music on the extra card? I'd love to have that so I can pop the card from my camera into it a look at pics. Or store a video on a card. I tried to wade through the forum and find stuff, but somehow I missed the list.

I have been looking for a decent MP3 player for a long time.
At the moment, the Sansa e280 is probably closest to what I want, but there are problems.

Language support is extremely lacking.
Apparently there are four separate firmwares for different regions. No single firmware will support all of these languages / fonts. I listen to songs in multiple languages so the tag information is often in several languages. For the few languages that are supported, to get the track information to display you actually have to switch the interface to a supporting language. This smells like a relic from legacy code pages. The 90's are over now; it should be in Unicode from the start. I've already confirmed that one language I want will not even display correctly on the device (will be replaced by squares). This is a really big let down for me.

The device is bulky and not very attractive. (Not the worst though.)
There are many things that I do not like about Apple, but I must say that they know how to design an attractive product.

Video at 15 FPS? If it can't do at least 24 FPS, why even bother?
Just remove video playback.
It's an MP3 player; I have dedicated devices for video.
Maybe that could help remove some of the bulk from the design.

The battery life could use some improvements.

That being said, the Sansa e2x0 series has some important features that I am really looking for.
1) The swappable SD slot is a real winner. They could get rid of the internal drive as far as I care. SD is the way to go, especially as the sizes continue to increase.
2) Support for UMS is really important to me.
I do NOT want to use an external program to transfer my music to the device.

While it is currently at the top of my list, I have mixed feelings about this product. I keep telling myself to wait a little longer, but I've waited several years now and still I can not find a decent product. It seems like I may have to choose the lesser of evils.

Um, the nano is still MUCH smaller and lighter than the Sansa e200 series, including the e280. I hate to rain on everyone's love-fest. While Sandisk obviously has the Ipod Nano beat on capacity to price ratio, its still about double as heavy and bulky as the nano which to me = DEAL KILLER. SIZE SIZE SIZE, PERIOD. Hold a Nano, Hold a Sansa, decision made for me. I'll wait for the 8gb nano to come out.

Last I checked, and I did a side by side comparison at Cosco, the Sansa e200's are slightly shorter in length than the nano's. Their also a wee bit shorter on width too. The only real place their bigger is in their depth. However, after thourogh testing I have confirmed that the Sansa's added depth is in fact an advantage when holding the device, and faced with the ever increasing list of features it has over the nano, I think that the extra depth and weight are more than a fair comprimise.

Since when does holding a device in your hand, equate to an intelligent review? The e200 series still weighs next to nothing. Its not like you have to use a backpack to lug it around. Ever carry a portable cd player with a pack of cds? The size of the Nano and the Sansa is almost not worth talking about. Their both small.

Does the Nano come with candy & flowers? Side by side, the Nano and the Sansa look quite similar. Layout is a little different, except the Sansa has a bigger screen and an expansion slot.

Right now, Sandisk has a huge advantage over Apple because Sandisk is a flash memory manufacturer. Flash is the future for storage devices. They're small, durable, and less noisy than a hard drive. No moving parts. More importantly, they don't draw a lot of power either. Hence, improved battery times.

Who would want a 4GB Nano, if Sandisk has an 8gb Sansa for the same price of $250? And you get video, fm tuning & recording, voice recorder, an expansion slot, and better battery usage from the Sansa too. Things the Nano doesn't have. The Sansa looks like a no-brainer to me. Can't wait to get one.

Sorry for the rant. Competition,......... ain't it sweet? (wink)

I currently use flash to record live music. Greatest thing to happen to Pro audio in a long time. Love it! :)

I just bought my sansa e250 2gb for 99.99 and the only problem I heard people talk about was the language(doesn't apply to me) and the wheel...people are wusses..I can turn it just fine..as far as I'm concerned for me this is the perfect MP3 player for me....YAY!

I just bought my sansa e250 2gb for 99.99 and the only problem I heard people talk about was the language(doesn't apply to me) and the wheel...people are wusses..I can turn it just fine..as far as I'm concerned this is the perfect MP3 player for me....YAY!

Responding to Dan N.:

Let me preface by saying that neither the e200 series or the Nano meet my needs.

> The size of the Nano and the Sansa is almost not worth talking about.

I respect your opinion. However, the difference is very significant to me. As well as the weight.

I agree with you about flash memory. I do not want a player with a traditional harddrive. I can fit more than enough music to listen to for days on a single 2GB flash card (and switch later).

> And you get video,

Video at 15 FPS is a joke. Either do it right or remove it. Maybe a smaller screen would reduce the size of the unit.

> and better battery usage from the Sansa too.

Battery life is better, but neither are anything to brag about.

> an expansion slot

The single most important advantage that the Sansa has is the expansion slot. When more companies start adding that, then we'll have some real competition.

With so many pluses and minuses, neither unit is really worth it. I'll wait for better.

i was wondering.....i wanna sell my h10 on ebay...and i wanna know if this is a worthy replacement considering the following :
-I need something that does SCHEDULED recordings...i got a zen vision m but u hit the button to start and hit it again to stop
-if im makin 100 or so i dont wanna spend too much more
-i work so i can buy the cards in the future
and where can u get a 2 gb for 99$??
thx all

this is a man hot
is sat pliss me is rayter
is kalakt thacss

SanDisk sansa e270& e280 assrape the nano, fuck ipod.

CHRIS MEYERS- by the way, your obviously a flaming homosexual...i guess your feminine arms cant lift 2 ounces and cant fit half an inch-thick mp3 player in to your skin-tight leather pants. fag

dumbass, your going to base your decision exclusively on size...yeah let me pay $250 for something that has a smaller screen, less features, and half the memory of the competition that costs less- ONLY because the competition is like twice as big (which is basically nothing considering the nano is like 5 fucking molecules thin) dumbshit.

by the way naD, nobody really cares about your opinion hahaaha

Dan N. has got the idea, dont question people that are right.

austin,

Opinions are neither right or wrong. That is why they are opinions.
You are of course equally entitled to yours.
Although it would be nice if you could express it in a more civil manner.

If you are happy with the e280, that it great.
I for one will continue to wait. The Sansa e2x0 series, as well as the Nano, does not meet my requirements.

no.I don't speak english.you me turkish explanation send ok.
mail adress:mahsun1@mynet.com
e280 about explanation send.
sandick e280 excellent mp3/4

Oh how clueless some of you are. In this segment (the flash market segment), it is ENTIRELY based upon perceived value of style and sexyness. It has very little or nothing to do with price to capacity ratio. Flash memory and flash based players are inherently MUCH MUCH more expensive than their hard drive counterparts. If the size of the player didn't matter, people would pick up a 30gb Ipod with video for a little over $200. Size is what SELLS the flash player market you morons. That's why when the Sansa is exactly DOUBLE as thick as the nano (and thickness matters a LOT when 2 products are identically sized), then in THIS market, people will take the sexier device on average. Sandisk has made an "in-between" product. A flash based player which is bigger an more clunky looking than other flash based players, but doesn't have the capacity of the hard disk playersm which offer much more capacity per dollar. They stand no chance of increasing market share much with this strategy. They have a very temporary advantage now (until next week when Apple released the upgraded Nanos), because they've refreshed their product lines before Apple at the lower price of flash memory. When Apple releases the 8gb nano, it's all over for any hopes of any real market dominance.

Hi every one,

Pretty heated discussion going on here.
Anyway regarding sansa e200 series i must say 15fps video is Not much of a GREAT FEATURE. but price and size wil really give apple a good competition,And can anyone comment on the sound quality?I heard that there is a low processor hum audible at low volumes.

A new version of the Nano was released this week.
Up to 8GB and 24 hour battery.
The pluses and minuses between the Sansa e280 and Nano are much closer. The important points to me are:

e280
-------
+expansion slot
+ MTP and UMS
+ strong casing
- bulky
- heavy
- poor language support

Nano
-------
+ superior size (smaller)
+ superior weight (lighter)
+ better interface
+ Unicode
- no expansion slot
- no MTP or UMS
- weak casing

Apple is making improvements. But neither are what I am looking for.
I want something with the design of the Nano with an expansion slot, MTP/UMS, Unicode, and strong casing.

After all of these years, I will continue to wait.

The casing on the new Nano has been replaced with the aluminum from the Mini series. It is much more difficult to scratch. So the Sansa does not necessarily lead in that respect anymore.

Regarding Chris' comments... There are many reasons other than style why someone would want a small flash player as opposed to a HDD based device. For one, hard drives utilize a lot of power. That means there is a trade off between battery life and weight. Sure you can get a 60gb ipod to play for almost 20hours but the battery for that thing is a brick. Weight is a big factor when you are bringing your mp3 player everywhere. The flash based players outlast their hard disk counterparts and do so in a much lighter and more portable package (whether it be e200 series or nano). Granted, you sacrifice a good amount of storage space, but hey, I have a lot of hard drive room on my PC. I don't need to carry my ENTIRE collection in my pocket. Just enough to get through a vacation, etc... As long as I have easy access to my computer changing playlists is simple & quick.

i have a question
where do you go to download music to the sandisk sansa e260 4gb for free

I heard the e280 in Europe will not have a FM Radio...

Anyone know if that's true ?

I won't buy an iPod as long as their batteries are idiotically soldered in. SCREW APPLE. They're not getting me on their forced upgrade schedule of buying a new unit every 2 years when the battery dies.

And I've held a Nano and it is WAY too thin. It's so flimsy it's ridiculous. The Sansa being thicker is a big advantage to me. Having a super-thin nano does you no good if you can't take it out because you could snap it in half at any time.

-- Scooby

does anyone know if they are going to make it possible to "folder browse" on the player instead of shitty ID3? ID3 is so fuckin annoying. artists do feature other artists on their tracks so it appears as another artist on the screen even though it is the same. PLEASE SANDISK LISTEN TO ME PLEASE PLEASE FIX THIS !!!! this keeps the player from being a perfect player.

.......Lynx, I have heard that too, I live in England but I bought mine in America for that reason.

um ijosha..
"to Reyn & Space Canuck: you must own Macintoshes then, since you don't want what everybody else has. I bet you also don't bathe, since most people do. I may or may not think that iPods are great (I'll let you jump to conclusions as to which), I'm just pointing out how absolutely assinine your statements are"

what ARE you on about?? are you seriously telling me that where you live everyone is like sheep and proud? Since when did Reyn & Space Canuck say anything about being rebels who are oppostie to everything? It IS annoying if everyone has the same thing which may or may not be better.. there is nothing wrong with wanting to have something different, it need only apply to one thing, NOT to bathing etc. You should really judge statements less harshly, sometimes it is just boring to be the same

.... does Austin even have any sort of life? I dont usualy make comments like this but geez, how many comments (offensive also) do you have time to make, its not like they are helping anyone

you're a nasty homophobic, idiot who judges people stupidly (and its kinda stupid to call someone a flaming homosexual when for all you know they might be gay and out anyways, its not like its an insult which you made it into, plus even if he isnt which is fairly likely statsitically it would still offend other homosexuals.. all the same i sincerely doubt its cos he cant lift the extra weight (yes i know you werent being serious) but all i eman is why make fun of it? some people have small pockets in their jeans, bag etc or want to wear it around their NECKS... it hinkt thats quite important and useful actually though i only just thougt of it.

also I was interested in naD's opinion so you7've been proved wrong there haven't you??
one of only a few people who didnt assume they were definetly right (I dont assume that about my comments apart from the parts about treating people nicer)

haha i just reaslied i started talkign about austin and thenfinished talking to him, i really hope he reads it, otherwise it is a big watse of my time which i need to spend watching Shaun of thre Dead for As Film Studies/ (irrevelent, whatever)
anyhow i KNOW there are a ton of typos cos im tryin to save time

PLease try and be a little more mature, i dont know how old you are but your level of immiturity over the age of 13 would be dispaointing and if you are any older than 17 i'd be worried, i know I was taught to accept people without nasty comments and im not some holy saint, most people are the same

yeh.... um, thats all ¬________¬ (a lot)

I favor the e280 over the 8gb nano. My sister already has a 4gb nano. I bought the e280 because of fm tuning, expandable memory, it's flash frive, voice recording, longer battery life, video(doesn't really matter, since it's only 15fps), and the brighter screen. What I don't like about apple is that they seem to be able to charge here and there because it's name. I also don't like the fact that you can't change the battery yourself, while the sansa has a removable battery. The agent 18 cost 20 bucks excluding tax and you also have to add on a extra 50 BUCKS excluding tax just to get a fm tuner. And there is nothing wrong with being different, just because I don't want an ipod because everyone has one makes me one step ahead of the game! It's trying new things and taking risk that created these innovated these products anyways.

Hey, I just bought a sansa e250 my only problem is how do you take the crap they gave you off? Thanks in advance.

My 2 cents... The reason Apple has been so successful and continues to be the leader is that the stuff works, AND its clear how and where it works. SanDisk should be embarrassed at the absolute void of user information on using the player. If it was up to me I would have a whole site dedicated to how, where and what you can download, store, and play on the device, but instead they have an inane beast eating crap. With flash memory growing by the day, don't rest on the size of your memory but how versatile the player is and how many ways and places you can source material. List sites that you can get material from that the player will be compatible with, have how-to’s on downloading and managing your digital media. If you can assure the buyers that once they have purchased the player that they can actually get good use from it, you will sell players, which is EXACTLY what Apple has done. The Nano is horribly flawed in the fact that it actually can crack in half, but that fact didn’t even dent their sales, because people know that when they buy it there will be more material (music, books, movies) to listen to than one could EVER digest.

Are you listening SanDisk?

FAO Don, I think you're WAY off base with your assessment of why the Nano continues to sell well. It sells because of the image, it's the hot item.

How-to's on after sales stuff like managing digital media are not the reason that Nano's outsell Sansas, if you think that's the reason you are dreaming.

i have already bought and returned 3 different 4gig models because 2.2 of the gigs is already being used before i even do anyhing with it. the guy at sandisk tech support said he has been getting these complaints a lot as of late. it has been very frusrating and i have given up on the sansa...peice of crap

HI everyone,

There's a crucial question I can't find the answer to, which is about the main feature I'm looking in an MP3 player :
- do the sansa e200 series have a "on-the-go playlists" function?

It means, for example, while you're playing an album, can you add another song to the on goning playlist ?

Thanx for your help !

PS : Does anyone know any other mp3 player which has this function ?

I'm f-ing furious. I have just received my Sansa e280, and have only just realised that it doesn't have an FM tuner. I am so angry I could throw it out the window. It's a nice piece of kit, but I'm sick of being disappointed with technology. The most annoying thing is that I was in the US just a few weeks ago and decided to wait till I got home to the UK. I might just send it back because of this. I don't give a damn about recording radio, or watching movies, or photos, all I want is one simple device that lets me listen to mp3's or radio. Is that too much to ask? If anybody knows any way of hacking this damn thing to get the radio to work, please let me know. Apart from that, it's a beautiful piece of kit.

That's a EUROPEAN restriction, John. Sansa is not allowed to sell their device with an FM radio on it in the UK. Return it and buy one in the US (or have a friend do it and ship it to you). Amazon has the 8GB version with all the bells and whistles for only $179 US (Hmm, that would be about 5 euros, right)? ; )
Good luck...

Hi, I'm ready to buy this mp3, but like others I am unsure about the FM Radio. I come from the UK and I am aware of the European restrictions of FM Recording. Is it true that if I buy it from the US , the radio will work here? Also, if I buy it from America, will their be any problems with the player such as firmware?
Cheers

Hi everyone. I just received a sansa e250, but I am facing a problem now. I dont know how to unlock!!!I know this might sound stupid to you guys...hehe! But how can i unlock it?

There should be a switch on the top, lol.
If thats what your talking about.
screw iPods btw.

I bought an e280 for my wife for Christmas.
Not long after I got one for me too.

I really liked my c140, but I outgrew it.

Hey, people, any news about FM tuner restrictions? Is it possible to flash SANSA with an US firmware and unlock radio? Or is radio-chip ripped out the SANSA?

It doesn't sound as if there are any FM tuner restrictions. The ad copy (and reviews) indicate you can freely listen to FM radio as well as record from it.

From my point of view, the best features of the Sansa are that there is no DRM (i.e. you own your music, instead of Apple or Microsoft owning it and deciding how and when and where you can listen to it), and that it works with Linux.

Maybe a stupid question but can the same ipod car adapter that connects the ipod connect the Sansa e2x0R Rhapsody player? I just recently had the ipod car adapter installed and it would suck if I needed to get an aux port for the Rhapsody.

And to join in on the argument, Rhapsody selling unlimited music to listen to on the computer and the sansa player is dam awesome for 14.99 a month.

The Sansa e280 is not only 30% cheaper than the 8MB Nano, and has additional built-in functionality like an FM radio, voice recorder, on-the-fly radio recording, video playback, user-replaceable battery, and built-in support for additional file formats, but in addition... it is a PlaysForSure device ...which gives us the option to purchase music (and video) from a variety of music services, inc. Yahoo Music, eMusic, Urge, Musicmatch, cDigits, Ruckus, Napster, etc. etc. etc.

I am sick and tired that my iPod almost forced me to purchase from the Apple iTunes Store and that content from this ripoff store pretty much works only with iPods further forcing me to continue buying iPod gear. Sure, you can play MP3s on iPods and convert iTunes music to MP3s and audio disks, but that's all extra work.

With the Sansa e280 (as with any other PlaysForSure MP3 player)... we have options to purchase music from, less expensive music, mind you, and that is something the Apple-iTunes-iPod monopoly cannot offer.

Jubox
Yes, you can create an "on-the-go" play list, but just one.

Kara
the easiest way to do it is to change USB mode to MTP. It will act like any other USB drive. Look in the music folder (may be hidden) and delete any or all the music you want. Same for video and pics.

In fact the only problem I have with the e280 is that did not use a standard USB cable. You have to use the plug that came with it. It would be easer to use as an 8gb USB drive.

Kara ... sorry change you should change USB mode to MSC. MTP is to sync with Windows Media Player.

If you're playing a certain song, is there a way to select a different song to play after the one that's currently playing.

No. But check in the Sansa forum. Software (Sansaplaylister) is available to make playlists.

In many ways, comparing the e200 series to the iPod nano is a sort of apples (no pun intended, seriously) to oranges thing. The nano has small and sleek down, it's not feature-rich because it does not need to be. They're the most popular small flash player around. The e200 is larger, is feature-rich, and cheaper but realatively obscure, although I've seen a lot of Sandisk players lately. It's sort of like comparing a purse to a back pack. My iPod mini has finally frustrated me enough that I've dropped the $100 to get a 2gb e250 on sale. I don't want a nano since my previous experience with apple products has been frustrating.

Is it possible to record the radio via a timer record function (e280) ?

Ok guys, after evaluating an 8Gb nano for the last 30 days I decided to return it and get an e280 today.

You guys have discussed the same things over and over.

-price
-features
-size, etc.

A few things you all have seemed to miss.

First off, YOU MUST USE iTUNES to load your music onto your iPod.
Not good, I was definately not expecting that after using a Sansa e130 for the last year or so. I expected the iPod to work the very same way. (very much like a flash drive in which you can just drag and drop your material in)
Unfortunately this was not the case.

Secondly, after reformatting my harddrive and trying to restore my music back onto my computer, I found out that iTunes did not allow that.
Actually, what I was first trying to do was add another song to my iPod. Since iTunes was a fresh install (after reinstalling everything on my comp) and didn't have my original music in it, (only that one new song) iTunes would only allow me to ERASE EVERYTHING I ORIGINALLY HAD ON and then sync that one new song onto my iPod.
Meaning I would have lost all the music from my iPod and only have had that one new song.
WTF IS THAT? *&^(*

I finally did some reading and found out how to remove my music from my iPod and when I did the songs were named things like "NADJ" and "EPOF", etc.

lol WTF is that?

What if you're at a friends house and want to add music from his collection onto your iPod? It can be done but you have to go though hoops to do it! (and it's a time consuming process)
It's b.s.

There WAS a plug in for iTunes that allowed you to copy your music back to your machine but because of companies like RIAA, they forced Apple to remove it, as it enabled the potential of sharing music.
Apple even threatened websites with their lawyers behind them to stop hosting that plug-in on their websites.

Do you see where your hard earned money is going ppl?
Expensive advertisements for Apple.
Money for them to retain Lawyers for this b.s!!!

Thirdly, you can't use nano as a flash drive (utilizing it to hold misc. files) as you can with the Sansa mp3 players.

have a look at these sites:

http://www.wildbits.com/ipoddownload/

http://destraynor.com/serendipity/index.php?/archives/26-How-to-get-music-off-your-iPod.html

to hell with Apple I say!

Hi!
[url=7afeba19b32b96b564048cd2f4a4402f
][/url]

Hi Guys:

I'm so in love with my Sansa e280! I guess the people complaining about the size must have really small hands because I don't think it's bulky at all. When I went looking for it I expected a huge garage opener thing but it's tinier than a cell phone. I use Yahoo! Music Jukebox which I had even before getting my e280 and it works great!

Love the expansion slot. Love the fm tuner. Love the price!

What tF! how weak are you or how small are your pockets? If they are small all you can afford is the sansa, not the ipod. If they are big then the size is no issue. Tell me, can you lift a piece of toast to your mouth in the morning, or your cereal spoon, or have you been blogging teaspoon sites and hunting for the lightest spoon in the world?? soo soo weak. The e280 is so fat and heavy and bulky eh! I had to buy an estate/wagon just to fit it in my car. Get real ladies, if you want to downhill MTB, run, exercise for that matter (read 'actually leave the couch') then what matters is the fact there's no moving parts and you can select from 8gb of tunes, radio, and show off a few pics or the odd video whilst off the couch.

Go lift a full cuppa tea or coffee to ya fat face for a week and then try to lift a sansa e280. Serious workout, good luck. Or, ask your car dealer for an alloy key for your car to cut down on pocket weight. Do make sure you've got insurance for that wrist fracture you might get! Hey, lucky subway offer light subs or you might starve.....

Gosh, when I got my sansa e280 I just felt so embarrassed with such a huge bulge in my pocket I had to place it further down hill - comments changed from "has he got man breasts" to "has he got a hard**"Traumatic.

I am on the verge of buy 4 Sansa e280 MP3 8GB Players for my family.

I am only worried about the wheel and music interface at this time. Also someone noted that his operating system ate up a huge amount of memory. Is that true?

A point that no one mentioned is. Itunes costs $1 per song. Where other services you can pay a flat fee for Unlimited down loads. So if I DL 1000 songs on Itues that is $1000!
So for my family Itunes could kill us.

My family have both iPods and Sansas. However, I like a Sansa over an iPod for the following built in features that a Sansa has but an iPod.

1> Digital FM tuner with 20 preset stations which many folks love to listen to radio when they on a train or a bus (public transportation)

2> Voice Record and Radio Record feature

3> Removable battery (when a battery dies in an iPod may cost you a new iPod)

4> I like 64,000 colors screen

5> Bigger clear screen display, anti-scratch screen and hard to scratch its body.

6> It can play all format sound files

7> Expandable MicroSD Slot

i have just bought a sansa e280 and it's came but i have a windows 2000 computer. when i put in the intallation disk it says i have no driver for it. is there anyway i get around this or find a way to put music on it?

I got my e280 for Christmas. I love all the features and size. However, for the second time I lost all the music I had downloaded for no apparent reason. One day the music was there and the next day all the files were "Empty", though the Info section still listed 437 songs and the appropriate memory used. I know I can go to the Sandisk website and upload new firmware and try the Sansa Connect Recovery Tool and it will probably work again, but I don't want to have to continue to do this. Is anyone else having this problem or did I just get a lemon?

Dear every single one of u noobs.

You r all nerds. i am just on here cuz i am chekin out wut to buy 4 a mp3. honestly i advise u to get a life.

Dear every single one of u noobs.

You r all nerds. i am just on here cuz i am chekin out wut to buy 4 a mp3. honestly i advise u to get a life.

Dear every single one of u noobs.

You r all nerds. i am just on here cuz i am chekin out wut to buy 4 a mp3. honestly i advise u to get a life.

Dear every single one of u noobs.

You r all nerds. i am just on here cuz i am chekin out wut to buy 4 a mp3. honestly i advise u to get a life.

Says the one that knows the word noob.

Ok so I got my e280 last week and so far I've been struggling with some features. Apart from having to go through my music collection to make sure all the ID tags are correct so that I dont have multiple artists for one artists album (my prefuse73 artist folder was split into many different artists depending on who featured on the track).
And although you can just drag and drop tunes onto the device it would be nice to have some lightweight software which transfers songs onto it and shows you how they will appear on the device in terms of Artist/Album/Track names.
The video playback is good quality but I have noticed that some of my videos the sound will go out of sync. Im currently experimenting with converting a .avi file and .mp4 file onto the device to see if that makes a difference as some videos sync fine while others dont.
The media converter is good, but I dont like the fact that you HAVE to use it to transfer/edit photo's that are going onto the device. I put a load of pictures onto it then realised I should have rotated them horizontaly to make the most of the screen shape so I used explore and windows picture viewer to rotate them. After unplugging it and going to my photo's that I had rotated I got a "please use media converter to convert this file" error instead of the picture. Slightly annoying.

The sound quality is great but if you want to fast forward through a large audiobook/lecture it can take a long time. A bookmark feature would have been nice.

The shape and feel of it in my hand is great because Im used to having a 30GB Creative zen which is like a brick in comparison.

I would have also liked to be able to edit the background wallpaper of the navigation screens, just to personalise the player, but thats not possible either (unless someone knows which file it is that I can change on the device)

Also, using Windows media player 11 isn't as straight forward as it could be. Apparently my device has no songs on it, only the ones that I have used WMP to transfer songs onto it.

I havn't even started to try and create playlists yet what with all the problems Ive been having with it.

I still love the little thing and would definatly reccomend it over any other 8gb player.

Lets hope that with new firmware comes new features that make things a bit easier to do.

can u put videos on the sd card, and play it on the player.

can u put videos on the sd card, and play it on the player.

can u put videos on the sd card, and play it on the player.

can u put videos on the sd card, and play it on the player.

can u put videos on the sd card, and play it on the player.

can u put videos on the sd card, and play it on the player.

can u put videos on the sd card, and play it on the player.

can u put videos on the sd card, and play it on the player.

yankie, as far as I've read. The Micro-SD slot is for expanding the music only. But they might add something on the next firmware.

I'm wondering a little, since there have been some cases where the e280 doesn't work upon buying. Have there been similar problems with the latest firmware or is it only with the factory default?

Is it really 8GB of memory? (Someone wrote that the there was 2.2 GB missing.)

Is it possible to upload songs and playlist with winamp?

I'm thinking about buying a new mp3 player to replace my Ipod Shuffle 1Gb. (I need something bigger and with a screen so that I can choose what I want to listen too.)

And the Sandisk Sansa e280 is within my price range and contains pretty much everything I ever wanted in an mp3 player. (+ It's cheaper then a nano, which was my first choice. )

My Sansa e280 was great... until I ran into the age old "refresh database" problem. Now the player is dead. It took all of 10 days from purchase to dead player. It is back in the box and going back to the store. An iPod is starting to sound really good now...

The best thing about the Sansa e280 and its siblings is that you can load the RockBox firmware on them. You get an unlimited stream of new features as new versions are released. The present feature set is astounding.

If you're so inclined, you can code up your own features.

See http://rockbox.org/

I plan to use my Sansa E280 to play audio books (with mp3 files). Other players (for example, the Rio Carbon) require the creation of a playlist for each book to insure it will play the files in proper order. This seems to be necessary because book folders contain a great number of mp3 files usually and it is imperative they be played in a fixed order.
Can I do this with the Sansa E280? I have seen a reference to software called 'sansaplayerlister'. Is that the answer?

Akranis: as to the size question, it has to do with the difference between a megabyte and a Megabyte. Storage manufacturers are, almost without exception, in love with specifying their devices as if a kilobyte is 1000 bytes, a megabyte 1000 kilobytes, a gigabyte 1000 megabytes, and (now) a terabyte 1000 gigabytes.

According to the standard SI prefixes, this is exactly true. There are one thousand grams in a kilogram, after all.

In computer usage, though, those SI prefixes are perverted to refer to powers of two, not ten.

So a real kilobyte, as used by every desktop computer operating system, contains two to the power of ten, 2^10, 1024, bytes. A real megabyte contains 2^20, 1,048,576, bytes. A real gigabyte contains 2^30, 1,073,741,824, bytes. A real terabyte contains 2^40, 1,099,511,627,776, bytes.

As you can see, the difference between the powers of ten and the powers of two - the rip-off factor, in other words - gets worse and worse as capacities rise.

So basically, it will actually probably be around 7.6 Gb or so. But its an industry standard, nothing to get too angry at SanDisk for.