SanDisk Sansa Express 2Gb MP3 Player

First of all ignore any reviews that complain this model doesn't have an FM radio - it's clear that it doesn't - buy the other model if that's what you need/want.

My reason for buying this model was that it had the best overall reviews online for appearance, usability and audio quality in this price bracket (and now it's even cheaper).

Unfortunately I can't comment on the shipped headphone quality because I've left them packaged as this is a Christmas present for my daughter. I wouldn't expect them to be very good at this price though. With £30 worth of Sennheisers this MP3 player sounds truly excellent though (all MP3s at 160kbps). Switching the graphic equaliser (something I usually leave alone) to 'pop' made the sound even more full.

After the initially great first impression over sound and also user interface (the four line display is great) I came close to sending the thing back because a) I couldn't set-up playlists other than the editable-on-the-fly 'go list' (and there was no related information printed or on the CD); and also b) because the voice recorder (a great feature for an 8 year old girl to play with) caused the device to shut down and be unresponsive, only coming back on when plugged into USB socket! I discovered that there were over 500 spurious empty audio files that needed to be deleted, but this didn't solve the problem.

a) was solved after a lot of trawling online forums but the solution is very simple and elegant. Copy the files over to the player (on a Windows PC (no idea about Macs), no special software required and device recognised immediately) and then simply select the files for the playlist, right click and select 'create playlist' before renaming to something sensible. The player recognises this playlist but it does not recognise the format of playlists created directly by the likes of Windows Media Player.

b) was solved by installing the latest firmware (Sandisk's customer support page is pretty good). A very simple process that I highly recommend even if you don't experience the same voice recorder problems that I did.
https://www.customernation.com/pls/ps/ps.ps_main?p_host=304&p_supplier=5096&p_parm=PSHPP
Find the device from the menus and then follow the easy instructions.
For the record I upgraded from ver 01.01.01A to 01.01.05E.

Don't underestimate the value of the micro SD slot - this is a great and, AFAIK, fairly unique feature. With the tumbling price of memory the 2GB capacity (~500 songs, more if the quality is dropped when ripping tracks) can be doubled now for less than £10! This MP3 player is nicely future proofed, 4GB cards are on the market now and who knows what will be available in a couple of years.

Finally ignore the complaint about 'not suitable for audiobooks' UNLESS your audiobook consists of very long files. The one I've ripped to the device for my daughter is a Harry Potter book and, as such, consists of hundreds of files roughly 1 min duration each. It's true that the machine doesn't remember position mid track, but it does remember which track it was last playing.

So, armed with the info above you should have this thing fully operational within minutes rather than the hours it took me...which means five stars as far as you're concerned. :-)

An excellent bit of kit for the pricing you are paying. A small and compact player, earphones are a bit of a let down, but nonetheless a very suitable iPod 2nd gen nano alternative.

*Update - 27 July 2008*
I have now been using this player for well over 6 months, and so far so good. The main headache with this player is that you need to carry out system updates to iron out any bugs, but suprisingly after my first update I was able to use the Radio function in the player, which previously not a selectable option. So definately worth a lot more now with added radio capabilities.

The Micro SD expansion slot works a treat! Now using a 4GB card, and that allows for a lot of flexibility in the types of data I can carry on it i.e. not only music!

Structurely the player is perfect, it has recieved A LOT of knocks, bumps and drops, but so far the little guy seems to just take it all in his strides. Definately happy with this over the long run.
Ipods are overrated, Sansa is the way forward!

*Update - 25 Oct 2008*
I have now had the player for just under a year, and I must say that its definately GREAT value for your money - £25. The only issue is that the player is not compatible with SDHC cards, which was a wasted 4GB!
Ipods are overrated, Sansa is the way forward!

I had a few issues with my player straight out of the box - it kept freezing and needing a power reset to sort it out. Being a bit of a techy i managed to upgrade the operating firmware myself and have had no problems to date. Memory expansion is easy with a micro sd card. Sound quality is good, needing a USB port to charge it can be a bit limiting, but hey it's not an expensive bit of kit.