What follows is the text from most of the accompanying video review. There are, however, somethings that require more than the written word...
The SweetPea 3 is well thought out and nicely built. If ecology is important to you then you'll be happy they used minimal packaging while still keeping everything safe and secure. I also liked that you can open the box with your bare hands. They did toss in a USB cable for loading music and I guess you can never have too many of those.
The player has a rubberized feel. It doesn't make it any softer if your child chooses to use this as a weapon but it does provide a better grip when they're using it to play music. While it is extremely durable it is not waterproof so you'll have to take a bit of care around the pool or at the beach.
The front of the device has three buttons, a very nice speaker, and a clear (but unlit) display. When the player is powered on it displays the battery level, volume level, song number, playlist number, and status. There is no child accessible volume control.
Holding down the two outer buttons for six seconds brings up a menu that allows you, the adult, to select from three play lists (collections of songs or stories, set the volume for the speaker and headphones, and set other options.
The back of the player has the battery compartment, secured by a couple screws, and a convenient reminder about how to invoke the menu. The headphone and AC adapter jacks are on one side and the USB connector is on the other. Before you ask, the player will not recharge batteries the AC adapter is not included.
When you connect the player to a computer it appears as a disk drive with three folders representing the three play lists. You load audio by dragging the files (MP3, WMA, AAC, or OGG) into the folder of your choice. If you are connecting via a PC then you can also load audio books from [...].
The player comes preloaded with 11 songs and one story. Since I'm a lazy typist I'm providing them as a picture.
BTW, I feel that honest, effective reviews, accompanied by detailed videos, can take the place of first-hand experiences that are often lacking in online shopping. I've always appreciated the help I've received from other reviewers and try to return the favor as best as I can. I hope you found this review helpful and the video at least entertaining. If there was anything you thought was lacking or unclear leave a comment and I'll do what I can to fix it.