SanDisk Sansa c250 2 GB MP3 Player (Black) by SanDisk
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List Price: Our Price: $50.91 You Save: $49.08 (49%) Availability: Usually ships in 2-3 business days Buy Used: from $18.48 (click here) Category: Network Media Player See more digital camera details and other models |
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Digital camera reviews of SanDisk Sansa c250 2 GB MP3 Player (Black)
Digital camera Review: Broken Again
Summary: 3 Stars
I got this for Christmas. The left sound channel went out on the first one after a few months. Sandisk sent me a new one but after loading a lot of songs on it the left sound channel went out after just a few hours on the first day of use.
Now I an getting the runnaround trying to get this one fixed.
Digital camera Review: Can't be beat when you consider price and features
Summary: 4 Stars
My significant other and I bought two of these at a Black Friday sale for $40 each. Can't beat that.
Had some trouble getting Vista to recognize the unit on both computers, but discovered a trick for that. In the player's settings menu, change the USB setting from Automatic to MSC. When you plug it in, Vista will install the proper drivers. After that, you can leave it on MSC or set it back to Automatic (which you'll want to do if you want Windows Media Player to manage the device).
The included headphones are garbage. Bought a cheap pair of Griffin earbuds and the sound quality is MUCH improved.
Very happy with the player itself. If the USB mode it set to MSC, you can drag albums and songs onto the player from My Computer. You're limited to the single GoList playlist though. I prefer to use it with the mode set to Automatic, which lets Windows Media Player transfer music to the player. Just drag an album to the sync list or create a playlist and drag that--click the Sync button and you're done. Transferring music that way also has the benefit that the player doesn't have to "resychronize database" every time you unplug it from the PC.
The nice thing about using Windows Media Player to manage the device is that it checks to see what you've already transferred. When you sync a playlist, it doesn't transfer duplicate songs. It only transfers the songs that aren't in the player yet.
The user's manual doesn't explain how to use the player very well, but the interface is intuitive and you quickly figure out how everything works. A previous Amazon review commented you can't jump between radio presets. You can, just press the silver select button. For a while, I was disappointed because I thought you couldn't fast forward or rewind a song. As it turns out, you can do so by holding the next/back buttons instead of tapping them. On the whole, the interface is excellent. You can select songs by artist, album, or song; you can select "play all"; or, you can select one of the playlists you transferred. I use it at the gym, so the shuffle option is also much appreciated.
Love the FM Radio function. The reception isn't as good as our car radio, but the majority of local stations come in clear. The gym we go to uses FM transmitters to let people listen to the audio from the TVs there, and I get reception from those in the parking lot. Once you set up pre-sets, just tap the select button to cycle through them.
I thought 2GB of storage wouldn't be enough, but for my needs, it's plenty. I keep a huge music library on my computer, and listen to that at home. For the Sansa, I just dragged some albums onto it and made a playlist containing my favorite songs. Right now, I have 12 albums on there and a bunch of individual songs--nearly 400 songs in total. I have about 150MB left, which will hold 2 or 3 more albums at least. If I get cramped for space, I'll just buy a 2GB microSD card, which should tide me over.
I love the size of the unit. It's small and light, but the screen is sharp and the build quality is solid. My SO dropped hers onto a tile floor in the process of opening the package. A loud WHACK was heard. No cracks, no damage, the player works fine. Advertised battery life is 15 hours. I'm finding I get about 6-10 hours on average. That's fine for me, and it is totally dependent on how long the screen is on. The less time you spend fiddling with the buttons, the longer the battery will last. I don't mind the proprietary USB cord / charger that it came with, since I have three computers, an Xbox 360, and a PlayStation 3 in the house. They all have USB ports to charge with.
Also, the Xbox 360 and PS3 recognize the music on the device, so you can listen to it while you play. The PS3 will actually let you copy music from the device to the machine, or copy music to it. Yes, you could use the player with a PS3 instead of a computer if you wanted.
All in all, extremely satisfied with the purchase. I get most of the features of an iPod Nano at well under half the cost, I don't have to use iTunes or stick to a single library manager, and I can continue to use MP3 files that don't have DRM built into them (the player does support DRM with WMA though, so you're fine if you use Rhapsody, Napster, or Wal-mart's music stores).
Digital camera Review: Caveat: Make sure it's a V1 and install RockBox!
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought my Sansa c250 a couple years ago. I used it lightly for playing MP3s but more heavily as an FM radio to listen to NPR on long bus rides. Recently the battery started not to hold a charge for very long. A little searching on the web yielded two important results:
1. The USB cable that comes with the c250 doesn't do a great job charging. I bought the Belkin Charging Kit for SanDisk Sansa c200, e200, View, Connect and Fuze and now it charges faster and more thoroughly.
2. I "upgraded" the firmware to RockBox (see [...]). The Sansa C250 is one of the best supported devices. The battery management in RockBox helped revive my aging battery. It also gave me OGG and FLAC playback support, the ability to use > 2GB MicroSD cards in my Sansa C250 V1 (the Sansa firmware supports only < 2GB), and a collection of games I can play while listening to music.
After these upgrades, I found myself using my C250 even more. I ended up buying a second battery, HQRP Replacement Battery for Sandisk Sansa C200 C240 C250 MP3 Player plus HQRP Universal Screen Protector, and a new pair of ear buds: Sennheiser CX300-B Earbuds (Black).
All-in-all, I probably spent about $40 and have turned my aging Sansa c250 in a great device that's getting more use than ever. I may buy a second one for a backup!
Update: I lost my orignal Sansa C250 on a trip a little while back. Because I had so many accessories (extra battery, chargers, etc.) I opted to order a new one from Amazon. It was fulfilled by BlueProton. The one they sent me was in the original packaging (i.e., perfectly new) and V1! I was afraid that I'd get a V2 and wouldn't be able to upgrade to RockBox. I'm quite happy that I opted to a 4-year old MP3 player instead of some flashy new device. Of course that really says something about the technology here: A 4-5 year old MP3 player is perfectly adequate (if not great) even compared to the latest offering from the fruit-named company. I do need to replace my Sennheiser head phones. Evidently a huge black market has arisen for those so I'll have to be careful.
Digital camera Review: Compact, and great sound, best deal going!
Summary: 5 Stars
This player is slightly different than the e250: a bit smaller, and seems to spec out the same.
The sound is excellent, I've auditioned it with my favorite Sony headphones as well as with a few in-ear 'buds'. Navigation is good, I think the only function I'd like to see is a 'stop' buton... but pause certainly does the same thing for my purposes.
I haven't yet figured out how to set-up my own album names, so I've just been loading raw tracks, but the player comes with sample titles and they're organized properly, so obviously it can be done.
The c250 is a great value, I shopped several players before deciding it had the best features for the price. I highly recommend it!
Digital camera Review: Confused as heck
Summary: 3 Stars
I'm writing a pre-purchase review. I have no idea whether to purchase this item or not because the dimensions CAN'T be accurate! How can the product weigh a whole pound more than it's own shipping weight?? And who'd want to carry a 2 POUND MP3 player? Why does the product dimensions say the thing is 9 inches long? That can't be accurate when everyone else is saying it's so small...well, how small??
Someone help me out here!
Concerned MP3er