Is the Sansa E280 Versatile Enough?

Recently my RCA model RD1028A MP3 player died. I wanted something else. Something new. Something that looked good!

So I set about my search for the perfect MP3 player.

My Criteria:
Expandable so I could add memory
Plays a wide variety of music formats.
Can receive FM radio
Can record directly off the radio it receives
Can record lectures, etc.
Easy to use
Easy to read screen
Feels solid
Small
Battery can be changed so I don't have to throw out the unit when the re-chargeable battery dies.

Bonuses - plays variety of movie formats

After spending hour upon hour, upon hour of researching. Reading every review I could find and narrowing down players, I finally settled on the Sansa E-200 series.

Expandable so I could add memory -- Yes
Plays a wide variety of music formats. -- Yes
Can receive FM radio -- Yes
Can record directly off the radio it receives -- Yes
Can record lectures, etc. -- Yes
Easy to use -- Yes (with some caveats)
Easy to read screen -- Yes
Feels solid -- Yes
Small -- Yes
Battery can be changed so I don't have to throw out the unit when the re-chargeable battery dies. -- Yes

Bonus It plays movies too! (but there is something you need to know -- more on that later)

Now for the dilemma. Do I get the smaller internal memory? Medium or biggest internal memory (8 gig).

All were expandable, so I thought why not get the smallest internal memory and save money, since I would be expanding the memory anyway.

But then I saw it...
An ad that would change my purchase.
Best buy had a Rhapsody Sansa E280 (8 gig) on sale. And it was something like 10 bucks more than the E260. SO for 10 bucks and more memory I decided to take the plunge.

So I went in to Best Buy found it on the rack and bought it.

Now when I saw it on the rack, I almost missed it. The size was smaller than I had pictured it to be. But the glow of value and quality of this feature rich gem should have stopped me in my tracks.

I grabbed it, and went up to the cashier to pay. I wish I had grabbed some accessories too. But unfortunately I didn't.

The accessories included is where the Sansa E280 falls down.

A look inside the box.

Manual - Yes
Quick Start Guide - Yes
Warranty card - Yes
Ear buds - Yes
Battery - already attached
Power cord to recharge the unit - Yes and amazingly the ONLY way to use it to plug a special(included) USB cable into the back of your computer. There is NO I repeat NO wall plug in included. Want one? Go buy one.
Oh, and there is a free subscription to a Rhapsody account (as long as you are not using Linux because from what I saw there is no Linux version of Rhapsody)

The instructions to the unit keep stressing how I needed Rhapsody to manage the music on it.

But I found out music can be managed just using drag and drop. So you can use your unit if you use Linux... partially. No movies can be loaded on your unit if you use Linux. Really STUPID on Sandisk's part. Another vendor with myopic vision.

Fortunately for me, my system is a dual boot Linux and Windows.

Movies - pass the popcorn please

I was excited and wanted to test out the movie capability.

So I dragged and dropped some movies onto my Sansa and low and behold they would not play.

I went back and read the instructions and it said I needed to use a piece of software that comes with my Sansa that converts movie formats to be able to play on the Sansa units. So I installed the software on my computer. I used it to convert and load some movies on to my Sansa E280 and they played perfectly. They also have the same extension (mpg stays mpg) but I'm just not sure what is changed. Who cares about the internals, I just want portable movies and pictures.

By the way, get the biggest size memory you can on your unit.
Why?
Because the movies ONLY load on the internal memory.

However, the music loads on the expandable or the internal memory.

I started to get frustrated with Rhapsody to manage my music. SO I searched and on a Saturday afternoon, found a toll free phone number for support.

I called technical support fully expecting to get a recording telling me it was closed and call back during regular business hours. When a live tech support person picked up the phone on a Saturday afternoon... I almost dropped my phone in shock!

And when he was extremely polite and sincerely trying his best to help. I was more amazed.

Sandisk deserves the Highest Praise for this. It sows me they really care about their ultimate customer - me the consumer.

He walked me through everything. Patiently answered ALL my questions, and explained that I did not need to strictly use Rhapsody to manage my music, but if I did not use Rhapsody, I would not get all the benefits.

Who cares!

So I started loading music on my Sansa.

My advice to you is to spend 1/2 hour reading the manual and getting used to everything BEFORE you start doing anything. It makes life a whole lot easier.

After converting a movie to Sansa mpg format, and loading some spoken word, and a variety of music styles (Jazz, Rock, R&B) I plugged in my Sennheiser headphones (no they do not come with the Sansa units. You have to buy those yourself :) )

I unplugged my unit form the computer cable. By the way, you can not use a USB hub, the cable has to be plugged in directly into the back of your computer. The USB hub I was trying to use, is even powered by a separate power that plugs in to a wall outlet, but that still apparently was not enough. This was confirmed by the friendly and helpful service tech.

So after unplugging my unit, I pushed the on button.

The dial started glowing brilliant blue - really cool!

The screen lit up with great looking graphics. I rolled the dial to Music, and selected artist, then the song and started playing it.

The sound was crisp and clear. It really sounded great. No matter what style of music I played, even the spoken word.

There are a variety of pre-sets for different music styles. Though I really wish there was an Equalizer built in rather than pre-sets.

Then I tried playing a movie. I backed out of the music got to movies, selected a movie and started playing it. The sound was excellent. The picture was brilliant. It was very clear. Just like watching on a mini TV set.

I tried recording something (talking into the unit). That worked fine. I stumbled around a bit for the radio. But that worked as well.

All in all I give the unit a 10 out of 10.
I give the accessories a 1 out of 10.

And the Sansa software included a 1 out of 10.

They are cheap when it comes to accessories. Would it really hurt to include a cheap case to protect the unit and let me strap it on to my arm when I am exercising or working in the yard, or whatever?

Would it really hurt to include a wall outlet charger?
The units are expensive enough.

Would it really hurt to give software for movie loading and conversion that works on Linux too?

Not really too much to ask.

But again, don't let that stop you. The unit is excellent. It does exactly what it is supposed to do. And it does it really well. And it looks really cool too!

Get one for yourself. You will be glad you did.