How Sansa E200-Series MP3 Players Compare to IPods

Designed as an "iPod Nano killer" back in the day, the Sandisk Sansa e250, e260, e270, and e280 models failed to catch on, and are now being sold at fire sale prices by online retailers like Amazon.com. Their recent replacement, the Sansa View, has also seen massive price reductions, despite having competitive features.

If you're reading this review, you probably noticed their low price tags and wanted to know if it would be worth it to buy one. You may already be familiar with how iPods work. But what about these "generic brand" MP3 players? How do they compare?

Caveat Emptor

Let's get one thing out of the way first. To get the most out of your Sansa e200-series player, you're going to want to be running Windows XP or Vista, and using Windows Media Player as your primary, or at least secondary, music player. Why? Because the Sansa is designed to only automatically sync with Windows Media Player. You can access its contents in My Computer, and drag-and-drop music files onto it as normal. But if you want to just automatically load all the music from your personal library onto it (as well as your playlists), you need to be running Windows Media Player on Windows XP or Vista.

If you currently use iTunes, you face two additional problems. iTunes rips songs from CDs using the AAC file format by default, instead of MP3, WMA or WAV - file types supported by Sansas. So basically, if you've been using iTunes as your music player for a while your songs won't play on a Sansa, unless you knew about this ahead of time and set it to rip songs as MP3s. Worse, if you've bought any songs from the iTunes Store, you won't be able to transfer them to your Sansa either. Unless you buy or download a separate music converter program, the only way around this is to burn all your iTunes Store purchases to CD, then re-rip them (along with all of your other songs) as MP3s or WMAs.

Have I scared you off yet? If not, then read on, because it's actually a nice little machine.

First Impressions

The exterior design and the packaging are beautiful, although I may be biased because black and royal blue are my favorite colors. One thing that's not apparent from the pictures is that the main scroll wheel only glows blue when you're using it; when the player is turned off, or its screen is off while you're listening to your songs, it's just the color of cheap transparent plastic. When you power the player on or off, though, or scroll through things in the menus, you're treated to some very dramatic lighting.

Its glossy front surface is a dust and fingerprint magnet, and you may become frustrated with how often you have to clean off the screen while you're watching a video. The back, however, is a slick metal alloy, which appears to be just about scratch-proof. It's also removable, in case you want to change the battery (something you can't do yourself with an iPod).

Listening to Songs

Navigating the menus isn't hard at all. In addition to iPod-style directional buttons it has a scrollwheel, which lets you slide through the menus easily. It only took me a few seconds to figure out how to use my e250.

I'm not much of an audiophile, so I can't tell if the sound quality of the player itself and its included earbuds is on par with a concert hall or a set of Bose speakers. (It probably isn't.) But I thought it sounded good, and was able to hear it over the sounds of a running minivan just fine.

Sansa e200-series players use flash memory instead of hard drives, so they can fit fewer songs on them than an iPod Classic can ... they're more on the order of an iPod Nano, with 2-8 GB of space. On the plus side, though, they're also small like an iPod Nano, and since they have no moving parts on the inside they're harder to break. They have a Micro SD card slot, so you can technically add more storage capacity, but these aren't the same as the postage stamp-sized SD cards that you probably use for your digital camera. Micro SD cards are tiny, able to fit on your fingertip. If you want one, you'll probably have to buy it separately.

Feature-Packed

One thing Apple's iPods are renowned for is their simplicity. At a time when people were making MP3 players with a zillion features, that were so complex that you had to be a techie to figure them out, Apple made these iPods that just played music.

In some ways, the Sansa e200-series players combine the best of both worlds, cramming a number of features into an iPod-esque device that is easy to use. They come with an FM tuner, so you can listen to radio stations; a microphone and a record button, so you can dictate voice memos (or record things off of the radio tuner); and picture-viewing and video-playback software, much like modern iPods have.

Watching videos on a Sansa e200-series player is surprisingly entertaining. The screen is bright, and extremely sharp for only being about two inches across diagonally. I could often make out tiny details like words. Photos are also crisp, and the colors are very rich. You can program it to do slideshows, where it plays music while flipping through photos, or you can just browse.

There are two caveats, however. First, in order to put photos or videos on your e200-series Sansa you're going to need to download the Sansa Media Converter software from SanDisk's website - no, there is no CD in the box. And it only runs on Windows, so if you use a Mac or a Linux PC you're out of luck. Second, there are problems with the viewing angle. "Widescreen," where you hold the player out sideways like for watching a video, works just fine. But if you try to look at a picture that it decides to show vertically, like for when you're holding the player upright, you'll find that the viewing angle is so narrow that each of your eyes is seeing the colors differently.

It's kind of annoying. Fortunately, it's only an issue for photos that it thinks are meant to be displayed upright.

The Upshot

Sansa e200-series players aren't for everyone. Only people who are using Windows XP or Vista will get the most out of them, and even then it's best if you use Windows Media Player instead of iTunes or Winamp. You can't load songs from the iTunes Store on them unless you burn them to CD first, and your existing iTunes music library probably isn't compatible.

If none of this bothers you, however, you may find that a Sansa e200-series player makes a sturdy and attractive iPod alternative. Its outside is sleek and shiny, and its interface is easy to use. It plays music just fine, and it has several features that iPods don't. Plus, it's cheap. What's not to like?