SanDisk Sansa m250 2 GB MP3 Player (Black)

I didn't know if I'd use an MP3 player much when I bought this device and I didn't want to spend too much. I've now owned it for over a year and I cannot live without it. I use it for listening to audio books, news and podcasts. I used to read about 12 - 15 books a year, but now -- because I can take this on walks, listen to it while I'm driving and traveling and doing errands -- I "read" about 50 books a year and have a more active lifestyle. It is easy to download books from Audible, or using the Playfor Sure technology I can download books from my local library. I chose this device over the more expensive iPod and other MP3 devices both for the Play for Sure feature (which means free books from my local library) but also because it uses a single AAA battery so I don't have to lug another charging device when I travel or try to remember to charge it before I go somewhere. I just have to carry a very small extra battery. It has excellent quality and features for downloading and listening to books including the ability to flip through chapters, easily rewind or fast forward or hook up to speakers when I want to free myself from the earbuds. I don't worry about damaging it or losing it becaue it's so inexpensive to replace. I don't worry about it getting stolen either. I have dropped it, banged it, gotten it wet, accidentally smeared lotions and cosmetics on it and I just throw it in my purse whereever I go. It's scratched and worn, but it still works like a charm. If I did lose it or break it, I'd probably get one just like it as a replacement because it works so well and 2 megs is plenty to carry 5 or 6 books, a few newscasts and podcasts, even some music. There are two features I'd like to see on this device and I'd pay extra for them. 1) Bookmark feature so you can save a place (or preferrably multiple places) in a story electronically, and: 2) Sleep timer so the device goes off in a preset time - say 10 - 15 minutes. Given the reliability of this device, I'm confident those features will be available on this device or a similar one by the time I need a replacement.

I was shopping for MP3 players for my wife and I. We are new to this technology. After researching a great many players, including those with video capabilities, we decided on the Sansa m250. We would have liked a player with greater (than 2 Gb) capacity, but settled on this one for a number of reasons. First was the fact that it uses an AAA battery, instead of a proprietary one. I found on-line videos and instructions about replacing the battery in i-Pods models, Zune's, and several others. Besides the relatively high costs of such batteries and tools one should have to replace the battery, the operations are so intricate and prone to risk of damage to the units, that we were dissuaded from buying a model with internal, rechargeable batteries. Second was the price: less than $30 and with free shipping! Third was the many positive reviews posted here. I accidentally damaged the mini-CD that contained the manual when I was trying to open the #!%*$#@^ clamshell packaging. I went on line to Sandisk and tried to find the manual but didn't have any luck. I sent an e-mail asking for the url to download it. The first reply was one of those "knowledgebase" auto-replies that didn't address the specifics of my request and didn't help. I sent another request to customer service asking for a human to read my message. I promptly received a reply with the correct information and was able to download the manual. Great customer service is a forth reason to strongly consider this model if it meets your needs. The player, including the radio, works great, and it was easy for me to figure out its operation and change settings even though I'm a novice and did not have a manual. The Quick-Start guide was adequate to get me started. [added note almost two years later]. I see the product is still being sold, but at a higher price!! I use this player when I'm working around the farm. I play it for 1-4 hours most days. It is still going strong, despite some knocks now and then, including a couple of drops. I use rechargeable NIMH batteries, and typically have to replace them every couple of days. If I'd been buying disposables, I'd have gone through hundreds!! This is a great gadget for what it does. My wife has switched to an ipod--she has troubles keeping it charged when we travel, especially overseas. I just pack a few extra batteries and never have to worry about finding a connection and carrying voltage transformers, etc. SanDisk Sansa m250 2 GB MP3 Player (Black)

This is a four star player out of the box. However, with a free Mediamonkey download, you can make this a five star player. First, let me start off by saying that I have owned an Ipod and other popular mp3 players in the past. I have probably gone through four different music players in the three years. And in the course of dumping my money into both music and hardware, I found this Sansa player to be a diamond in the rough. Why? : Pros: 1. Removable AAA battery - You can get the fanciest mp3 player but in about a year, expect to shell out another hundred bucks (or so) for a new battery. You can also do it yourself, but that's not the real problem. How about when you want to listen to your player all day at work, while commuting, or while camping? If you use your player on a regular basis or where a power is scarce, battery life is the limiting factor. It doesn't matter how many songs the player holds if it doesn't hold a full charge or the battery can't be changed on the go. This Sansa will have an excellent battery for the life of the player. Just buy another four pack of rechargeable AAA batteries. It only takes one to power this baby. No getting stuck with a player and only one battery. The people who review audio players on Amazon rarely do so six months later when their battery only holds half the charge. Do you really want to pay for a new player next year because of the battery? 2. No special adapters needed - Guess what? All you need is a USB cable (which is included) to transfer files. I lost my adapter for my IAudio player a few months ago and I couldn't charge it or transfer files for a week. I had to wait for a replacement to come in the mail. Yet another way some other companies make a killing off the consumer (you). They'll make you buy proprietary cables. Not here. 3. No DRM - I like my files to travel with me. No restrictions on what computer I can use my player on or what I want to do with my files. It also support subscription services and windows files. It also comes in handy as a flash drive for presentations and files. Apple forces you to use only ONE computer with your player. 4. Flash Based - No more waiting for an internal drive to find my song. I hated the lag with my Ipod and Iaudio player when selecting a song. Being flash based, it also helps the battery life if you like to skip through songs. Being a guy, I like to skip through my songs like I do my TV stations. With a hard drive based player, this type of skipping will drain the battery quickly. Cons: 1. Poor software - This is why this player only receives four stars. Don't even waste your time using the installation disk or Windows Media player with this thing. It will cause you to lose your mind. Instead, download Mediamonkey for free. It will index your player and Windows will install your files for you. ***Important*** Even though the manual and Sansa website shows that playlists are supported, it may be a mystery as to why they don't appear on your player. Here's how you do it. Using Mediamonkey, Right click the Sansa Player --> go to Properties --> go to Synchronization Properties --> and ensure that copy playlists is checked with " \Playlists\ " in the destination directory. The player also needs to be in MTP mode while this is done. Settings --> USB --> Auto Detect. This will solve any headache that you may have in automatically entering playlists onto the player. 2. Clicking Sound - when scrolling through playlists, you will notice that the music breaks up slightly during playback. 3. No Alarm - I wrote to Sansa asking for an alarm feature in their next firmware update. It would be nice to wake up to some music. Both good and bad: 1. Armband: The include armband is thin and functional. However, it's not that attractive. I spent an additional $[...] on the silicone liner. Now sexy's back. 2. Thick and light: This player is ideal for runners. The controls are strategically placed with large navigation buttons. It can also sustain much more wear and tear than an Ipod or a hard drive based player. 3. Monochrome screen - a color lcd screen would be nice but by having a simple interface with no frills, the battery lasts much longer and it lowers the production cost. 4. Small memory size - Even at 4 gigs, the largest Sansa m200 player can only store 5% of my music collection. However, I found that after buying this player (to hold me over until my 60 gig player was serviced) that I really don't need all of that music with me all the time. I began to discover my songs all over again with a smaller capacity player. 5. Backlight - I think the backlight is bright and the screen is very clear. However, when using rechargable batteries, about 15 hours into playback, the backlight turns off. This tells me that I only have a few more hours of playback left.

Pros - uses AAA batteries, plays for 12 hours, easy to use, computer hookup is straight forward, plenty of features like radio, voice recording, storage space is great. Cons - could use more volume. This thing is great. The 12 play time, not just a one time deal, but day after day 12 hours worth of play time. Change the AAA batteries and play it again Sam. Easy to use buttons and functions. Computer hookup and file transfer is easy and straight forward. I use this when I ride my Sportster to help reduce wind noise and to hear some tunes and I luv it. Use it when I ride my street bike also or when working in the yard. Just pop in some rechargeable batteries, takes about 30 seconds and play it all day long. Way better than those usb charged players. Dec 31 13, Happy New Year I still luv this thing. New Con - When loading music it seems to hit a point and no matter what you try it will not load more than 1/3 its capacity. I do not know if it is just my Player, and age has gotten to it or it is subject to all. But after about 10+ CD's it says can not create file. Yet I still have, about, 1.4 Gig of room left. I have tried putting all my music in one folder and it does the same thing, loads about 1/3 and stops or from individual folders same thing. Just stops. My play time may have been off, with a Duracell rechargeable battery I get over 12 hours of play time and with the high output Duracell I get over 15 hours. Still a great little machine. I do not remember where, but when I bought this machine it was less than $50 brand new.

I had recieved this item as a gift must have been 5 years ago or more. After i lost it and started to experience other MP3 players of the like, I have missed this item every since. The features are no bs, the purpose of the MP3 player si to play music, no fancy lights, colors, it plays music, and has exceptional sound quality. Plug it into my reciever at home via stereo 3.5 cable and get amazing clairity. Batter is incredible, if you need a AAA battery go to the store if ur in the car, or anywhere. You can buy one anywhere and are tecnicly never left without music which is one feature I LOVE about this mp3 player. Head phones that come with it are some of the best headphones Ive ever used for the price. I went out of my way to find just this make and model after not having this particular mp3 player for more than 5 years. It is by far the absolute best MP3 player money can buy. One reason I went out of my way to purchase this item was for this reason, to touch on durability... I HAD BELONGED TO A GYM A FEW YEARS BACK AND WOULD TAKE THIS ITEM INTO THE STEAM ROOM AND SUUNA WITH ME... DID THIS FOR YEARS, AND THE ITEM WOULD WORK EVERY TIME... NOT SURE IF IT IS RECOMENDED FROM THE MANUFACTURER BUT I DEFFINITLY BRAOUGHT IT WITH ME IN THE STEAM ROOM AND SAUNA, THIS ITEM IS INCREDIBLE. Few mp3 players hold their value, and this one is still priced over 50 bucks and is nearly a half a decade old. People see the value in this and are still willing to pay for exceptional quality... I am one of those people... and I dont blame them.

My wife and I have owned two SanDisk Sansa m240 Players for years and have loved them. Recently I wanted a Sansa that had more memory so I could load it up with old time radio mystery shows to listen to. We're retired and we walk long distances every day for health. These old radio shows are 30 and 60 minutes in length so I wanted an mp3 player with more memory that could hold a lot of shows, this model holds over 300 shows which is a lot considering how long each show is. We really like our m240 Sansa's because they use just (1) simple AAA battery and I wanted another Sansa that also used just a single battery. We just carry a couple of spare batteries with us when we walk and if one goes out while walking, which has happened more than once, we just pop in another without even having to stop walking. If we were using a USB rechargeable type of mp3 player, it would be really inconvenient! Plus I do not like having to always remember to plug in my player to my computer to recharge it, I know I would always forget to do it! The built in radios also work excellent, no skimping and you can have preset channels. these Sansa players are simple to use, have simple battery use and great sound. They also record, but since we haven't tried that function I can't say how well it works, but probably works just as well as the rest of the unit. I should add that when we bought our m240 units, they were refurbished units and have worked flawlessly for years. I bought the m250 as a new unit. These are great units!

I originally purchased the 1 GB model 2+ years ago. I use it when I run or work in the yard (10+ hrs a week). Day in, Day out this rugged little player keeps on playing. So much so that I've bought this newer model as a gift for my sister for her to use for the same purposes. Sound Quality is exceptional. I'm on my 2nd set of earbuds. The little wires broke at the hook in to the player. I found it wise to loop the earbud wire around the player leaving some slack so that the inadvertent pull doesn't strain the little wires. The little LED is surprisingly readable. Selecting particular songs (out 1-2 GB) is laborious. But to load and let them play, its fine. I keep my tunes in Windows Media Player. The Sansa only seems to allow a single playlist; so, I've established (and continuously modify) various playlist in WMP and then upload (which is simply point and click) from WMP to the Sansa when I need a change (every month or two). 1 GB of WMA tunes (as I've recorded them) is about 150 songs; so, I don't quickly get bored. Its very good on batteries. I use standard rechargeables which I recharge with a Maha/Powerex MH-C204W (best little charger I've found). It charges in pairs. I have four batteries and continuously recycle them every day or two. Note that if you switch the unit off, when you switch it back on, it plays where you left off. However, if the battery dies, you replace it and restart, it restarts where it was restarted before. Hope that makes sense. In summary, I'd recommend this player to anyone for basic usage. If you must carry ALL your tunes with you ALL the time, selecting this one and then that one, you'll want something with more storage and selectability (iPod, etc.)

The player has good sound and the ear buds are OK. I do prefer the less tangly heavier wires of Apple iPod ear buds. The control buttons seem robust and nearly flush with the surface so inadvertent presses are unlikely. The hold button works as expected. The shutdown requires a long press which is a nice feature for similar reasons. The included case is a bit cheesy plastic, and it does not come with a lanyard, but has a hardware loop for attaching one. For MacUsers, you simply plug the player into the USB port and drag MP3 files from iTunes or Finder windows into the player icon on the desktop or into its Finder window. For PCfolk, Microsoft WMP software is apparently supported (I am a MacUser, so I cannot attest to that). The minidisc that comes with the player has PC software on it...so I cannot comment on that either. The player will ignore the fact that you have grouped music files in folders. It does not recognize or organize iTunes playlists. The player manual has no instructions for MacUsers. According to SanDisk support folk, unless you are willing to use Microsoft products (WMP), playing by playlist is impossible. However there is a workaround that I figured out for myself. The workaround is to edit the entries in the Album or Artist fields for the iTunes information for each file...because the player will play by Album or by Artist...before loading them into the player. The iTunes Grouping field is NOT recognized by the player as one might hope. The default Play All of the player plays all of the tunes on the player alphabetically by the song Title field regardless of the other field entries. I would have preferred that the player recognize files in folders as belonging to a playlist. My old iRiver had that feature. The player is somewhat hard to use at first mostly because if you stop the player by powering down, it will start up continuing from where you stopped it. But if the player gets to the end of the Album or Artist list of files and naturally stops on its own, pressing play will not restart the player. You have to power down and restart, open the menu, and then select what to play from the menu again. Otherwise the player seems to be frozen, showing a track but not able to start playing it, and no amount of clicking of buttons (play/pause, skip forward, skip backward, stop, or select) will get it to play the file shown on the screen. It seems frozen...until you power down. This was VERY frustrating in learning how to use this player, and the manual does not detail this "feature." So you can expect to need some experimentation to get comfortable with this player. I would have given this model two fewer stars because of all this difficulty of use, and the failure of the company to support MacUsers, except for the very low price of the player. It is a bargain in terms of memory capacity and price at the time of this review (12/2008). After losing the battery compartment cover of my iRiver unit and the fact that iRiver could not supply a replacement, I strongly urge users of this SanDisk player to keep the cheesy case on the player or to purchase the much nicer silicone skin which I have reviewed elsewhere.