SanDisk Sansa e270 - 6Gb MP3 & Video Player

 

 

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I've been living with my e270 for a couple of months now and feel like I can now offer a reasonably well-informed review.

The unit is good-looking, feels well-made and solid in general, although as other have mentioned the volume wheel feels a little flimsy, and the buttons could do with being raised slightly. The fast-foward/rewind controls in particular do make it rather time-consuming to navigate through long tracks or videos -- it would have made sense to use the wheel for this, but no such luck. I also find the menu system a little clumsy but it's simple enough once you get used to it. The unit doesn't seem to scratch easily, although the shiny front does get grubby quite quickly.

The unit is fairly slow to start up -- 15-20 seconds or so -- but word is that the next version of the firmware will address this.

Sound quality is good -- perhaps not audiophile quality but I haven't noticed any problems. There's a variety of preset EQ settings to choose from and even a custom EQ option, although it's currently a little buggy. The screen is excellent and both videos and images are very clear -- I've watched full-length TV shows without a problem. Sadly the chosen format for video (motion JPEG in a .mov wrapper) is terrible when it comes to compression, resulting in files that, in spite of being at reduced dimensions, are often larger than the original. It seems unlikely that SanDisk will ever change the firmware to support other formats but there's an active effort to port RockBox (http://rockbox.org) to the e200 range, which should offer all sorts of alternative options. On the plus side, the supplied conversion software is very simple to use and I've had no problems with any of the various video formats I've thrown at it.

Some people have complained that the volume doesn't go high enough (although a recent firmware update has added a new 'loud' setting) but I have the opposite problem: I use noise-reducing earphones (Sony MDR-EX71) in an office environment and find that the volume is too loud on even the lowest setting. I was hoping that using the Custom EQ controller to reduce all frequencies would provide a cure, but a bug in the firmware causes the EQ to reset after every track. I'm hoping that this will be fixed in a future release. At very low volume you can sometimes hear an odd electronic noise between tracks, but it's barely noticeable.

You can manage your content either through Windows Media Player (it works just fine, but I don't use it much myself) or manually by transferring the files using explorer as if it were a standard USB device (so you can use it to carry non-media files around too, if you want). Organisation of music tracks uses the files' header tags so you need to be sure that your files are tagged correctly or you'll end up with a complete mess (usually this is done automatically, if not you can easily find freeware -- eg. MP3Tag -- that will help you do the job).

I currently have over 750 MP3s (all at 192kbps) with 1.5GB space left -- so it should take around 1,000 total. And of course there's always the MicroSD card slot to add even more capacity (a 1GB card shouldn't cost you more than £10-15). It's a shame that the MicroSD card won't play video or pictures (only music, regardless of what previous reviewer mtber60 says) but it's not the end of the world. It's more annoying that you have to use MSC mode to transfer files to the card (which shows up as a separate drive in Windows Explorer): this means that when you restart you have to wait for the unit to refresh its internal database, a process that can take several minutes when you have hundreds of songs stored.

Battery life is excellent -- 20 hours or so of music, about five for video. The unit will recharge when attached to your PC, but you could also use a standalone charger with USB connector (which can be bought for a little as a fiver). Once you get the back off (you'll need a tiny screwdriver), changing the battery is simple and you can buy a spare/replacement for about a tenner.

It's slightly harder to find accessories for Sansa products, but if you look around you'll find that pretty much everything you can get for the iPod is available for the Sansa too, although you might have to order from the US or Europe. I've been able to source a spare USB cable, protective case and charger quite cheaply.

The various problems I've listed above really aren't serious enough to make me regret choosing the Sansa. SanDisk still seems to be actively working on improving the firmware, which should mean that the minor niggles with the startup speed, volume, EQ and so on will be sorted in due course. For the price I think it's an unbeatable iPod alternative, especially given that you can expand its capacity with a MicroSD card. In hindsight I should have waited and gone for the e280 instead, but I still really love my e270.

This was my first purchase of a "proper" MP3 player, although I have tried a few out. I was not disappointed. Very simple to load up - rip with windows media player, drag and drop with windows explorer. There is an included software package for video/photo conversion as well which is easy to use, although I've only tried it with a video (a parody of the Sony Bravia advert) my son created for You Tube. It works well and re-orientates the video to suit the screen.
People have commented about the lack of mains adaptor - I obtained one in Tesco which had all continental adapters included. However, it's almost not needed. I just went to Greece for 2 weeks - using it for a couple of hours each day, It was still half charged at the end of the holiday!
All in all an excellent piece of kit.

I have been looking for a mp3 player for a while now. I nearly went down the Ipod route , until I was informed that it is a sealed unit so you can't replace the batteries!! Which seemed a silly idea when you are spending all that money. So I went for this product and how glad was I . It is compact, neat looking and built to last. It is so easy to transfer the files from the pc, it must be if I can do it! It's literally drag and drop ,easy peasey all done. I have found the volume plenty loud enough and produces a rich sound. The menu wheel runs smoothly and makes navigation simple. I haven't as yet loaded any photo's but think it would be as easy as tranferring music. The only down side is there is no radio as advertised , seems to be only on uk models which is a shame. But overall a great product and would recommend it to any one thinking of buying a mp3 player.

10/10 !!

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1.0 out of 5 stars RUBBISH
Bought this because I wanted something different to an ipod. But this is a rubbish alternative. The media converter is useless and I can never sync and videos onto it.

Published on 13 Dec 2008 by Andrew F

1.0 out of 5 stars Totally unreliable
After looking at the reviews for this product it seems that they fall into two categories; those whose purchases work as theyre suposed to and those which break pretty soon after... Read more

Published on 9 Feb 2008 by Edward Noel

5.0 out of 5 stars Sandisk Sansa E270 is a real 5* product
I have had this player for almost a year now and it has frozen on me twice. The battery life is excellent, i get about 15 trips to the gym about 18 hours before the battery needs... Read more

Published on 1 Feb 2008 by John Jones

5.0 out of 5 stars Value for Money
Hey Folks

I have used this product for acout 2 months now and it is very good. I have been recommanded by my friend to buy this in small budget with the competition... Read more

Published on 19 Nov 2007 by A. Upadhyay

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice little machine!
I bought this a couple of weeks ago because I was going travelling and so far so good. There are a few times where admittedly its turned itself off or frozen but nothing major... Read more

Published on 23 Oct 2007 by A. Greenhalgh

5.0 out of 5 stars Not sure why people have had problems...
I bought my player a couple of months ago and it's by the far the easiest MP3 i've ever used. The uploading system is brilliant, either media player 10 or drag and drop like any... Read more

Published on 17 Oct 2007 by N. Yaxley

5.0 out of 5 stars Top Notch - Eat your heart out Nano.
I'd been on the search for a non-Apple player for some time. Having owned 2 flash drive players and found the navigation clunky and one Chinese Nano clone that had extremely buggy... Read more

Published on 23 Sep 2007 by D. White

5.0 out of 5 stars Top notch! Nano killer!
Easy now wagwan blad! This mp3 player is heavy man. Looks and feels miles better than a grimey ipod nano u get me bruv. Read more

Published on 20 Sep 2007 by Shahid Ahmed

4.0 out of 5 stars Superb value for money
Being much cheaper than its competitors, this Sansa player is excellent value. I've been using it nearly every day for 2-3 months now and find it's very easy to use, the sound... Read more

Published on 15 Aug 2007 by Hawkeye

1.0 out of 5 stars looks good...thats about it
decided to ignore the reviews about the many faults. might have been a mistake. taken the player out of the box, loaded in the software, turned on the player...and nothing. Read more

Published on 9 Aug 2007 by Baggy Trousers

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