SanDisk Sansa Shaker 512 MB MP3 Player (Pink) by SanDisk
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Digital camera reviews of SanDisk Sansa Shaker 512 MB MP3 Player (Pink)
Digital camera Review: Fantastic kid's alternative to an iPod!
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought the 512MB Sansa Shaker in pink for my 6-year-old daughter. She has long coveted her teenaged sister's $300 iPod, but there was no way I was getting her one. I chose this because of several features:
*Size makes it easier to keep track of
*Two headphone jacks for sharing with her brother in generous moments
*Single AAA battery provides power
*Pink color would be a big hit
*The seperate speaker lets her listen without headphones
*Easy copy and paste when adding music (no complicated iTunes to use)
*No digital readout to deal with (child doesn't have to be able to read)
She's had it for a week, and I think it's become grafted to her body! To her, it's just as good as her sister's. It came with 5 children's songs included, so it was ready to use right out of the box until we could add more music for her. It also includes one AAA battery, a set of earbuds, and a 512MB card. To add music, just load the music onto your computer, then drag or copy and paste onto the card, and you're set.
The battery says it will provide 8 hours of music. In practical use, she got about two days out of it, and that was heavy use. Walmart sells these in a 4-pack for 99 cents.
The earbuds were a bit hard for sich a little girl to manage, but my mom gave her a set of earbud-looking things attached by a piece that goes over her head (it's a fold-up set), and these have worked perfectly for her.
The speaker doesn't have a loud capability, so I don't have to wake up to music blasting throughout the house. Not bad sound at all for such a little unit, though you won't be DJing a party with it. She's perfectly happy with it.
The 512MB will hold hundreds of songs; more than any kid that age could ever need. If for whatever reason you decide your child needs more space, just pay $20 for a 1G card later on.
The size is a bit smaller than I had expected. It appears to be the size of a pop can, but I'd liken it more to the size of a salt shaker. Just the right size to grip in a child's hand, but big enough to find in a messy house. The flat iPods can become lost under as little as a sheet of paper.
It comes with a D-clamp to attach to a lanyard, but does not include the lanyard itself. The stores were closed on Christmas Day, so I just made one from an old shoestring.
Bottom line: It comes with everything you will need to run it right out of the box, including pre-loaded music, and it has been a fantastic hit with my 6-year-old. The battery life is satisfactory (keep more handy). I love this so much that I'll be buying the blue one in November when my son turns six!
Digital camera Review: Go with an I-Pod
Summary: 1 Stars
Very frustrating. I been working with this shaker for over an hour. It loads the music fine, but will say Uh-oh when trying to play. I have changed formats and nothing is working. A big waste of $30 + shipping times two. Both of my daughters are very dissapointed. I will be getting them I-Pods and sending these back to Amazon. This little "gem" had very few instructions and the CD that came with it didn't have much more information. I'd like to think I'm pretty well versed with a computer and couldn't crack the code on the shaker. Good luck to the 8 year olds out there- maybe they will have better luck.Digital camera Review: Good Enough
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought this for my 2 1/2 year old because I was sick of having her music blasting out of my laptop. I particularly bought this model because of the speaker - I didn't want such a young kid using earphones.
So far, it's done pretty well. It goes through batteries quickly - but it only uses one AAA. Once in a while, it will play a new song really slowly, like the wrong speed on an old record player, but we just turn it off and back on and it's fixed.
I'd say the biggest pain is that I had to work around all of my itunes music being protected in order to get them onto this device. But once I did that, it's been pretty useful.
Digital camera Review: Good Product
Summary: 4 Stars
We bought this product for our 1 year old and she loved it. Unfortunately, she dropped the product (as babies tend to do) several times and the battery latch malfunctioned. I don't think the product was meant for babies but nonetheless it doesn't seem to be very durable. But I gave it 4 stars because it was worth the price we paid for it.Digital camera Review: Good value, good player
Summary: 4 Stars
Overall, I'm happy with this MP3 player. The only issues we have had are that yes, the headphones are too big for my daughter's ears (but this isn't that big of a deal, as she rarely uses headphones anyway), and the MP3 format problem. I was about to be upset about this...I didn't realize just how many of our songs were in WMA format. But I found a free program online that you can download that converts files. It's quick and easy to use. It's called Switch Sound File Converter. Since I figured that out, no problems. Is it a pain in the butt? Yes. But this thing was cheap, and I'm not paying big bucks for a more streamlined MP3 player that might end up getting broken or lost. Overall, worth the money.