Review of the Sansa e200 series

Specs:

Dimensions: Width: 1.7 in. Depth: 3.5 in. Height: 0.5
Memory Capacities: 2GB, 4Gb, 6GB
Special Features: Fm radio with presets, Video viewer, User Adjustable EQ.
Supported audio formats: MP3, WMA
Media Transfer types: MTP, MSC
Hardware: Flash Storage, TFT 1.8 in LCD screen, and a Lithium Ion battery.
Weight: 2.6 oz.
Expandable Memory: Yes up to 1Gb, Micro SD.

Out of the box:
Out of the box, you will receive a neck lanyard, a technical support booklet, the Sansa e200 MP3 Player, sandisk head phones (junk), some advertisement papers, extra ear bud covers, connector cord, and some "lil monsta" stickers.

Pictures:














The Sandisk Sansa e200 series, which consists of the e250, e260, and e270 models, were released in January 2006 replacing the e100 series. They are flashed based players, which comes in 2GB, 4GB, and 6GB versions. This player is packed full of features, such as an FM radio, User Adjustable EQ, and Video viewing.

Audio:
The e200 supports only a few formats, they include, MP3, WMA, and windows plays for sure. The overall quality of the e200 is very good. But sometimes there is an annoying scratching noise in the background, when music is not being played. Other than that the e200's sound quality is above par, beating it's competitor the iPod Nano. Along with the great sound quality that the, e200 delivers, it also has a user adjustable EQ (EQ means Equalizer. An Equalizer is a series of settings which control the audio adjustment), which is not super tweak-able, but is better than nothing, and can really make a difference in the player's sound. One thing that disappointed me was the fact that there is only one playlist (called the "go list"). I would have liked to have seen the ability to create and edit new playlists. With my testing, I can get just about 20 hours of music out of it.

Video:
One feature that helped me decide to purchase the e200 was the fact that it supported video. The video quality is not the greatest, but is quite good for the screen size. It can handle up to about 24 FPS (Frames Per Second), which is pretty good. From my testing you can get close to 3 hours of video out of it, but that depends on the brightness of the movie, and other factors.
Video Conversion:
This is where Sandisk really slacked off. The video converter is really fussy, and is the only one you can use to convert video for the Sandisk firmware (This player can also be enhanced with an open source firmware, called Rockbox. We will get to that in a bit.). And don't even think about trying to drag and drop videos onto the e200 because even if looks like it is in the same format, it doesn't work. The converter also chops longer videos ( full length movies, etc) into chunks, which can get annoying. Other than the fact that the converter is kind of a pain, once you have converted the video, it will play at a very watchable quality (This depends, of course on what the quality of the video is before conversion.)

Player UI (User interface) :
The UI on the e200 is quite normal. There is really nothing special to it. The menu is a circle that you use the scroll wheel to scroll around, and choose what you want. On the Menu screen you will find: Video, Music, FM Radio, Voice, Settings, Photo.

Media transfer:
The e200 can be connected you your computer via a Proprietary cable, and media and adding files is as easy as dragging and dropping (with the acception of Videos, you can but you won't be able to view them, we'll get to that in the Video Section.)

Organization:
Music can be organized by Artists, Albums, Songs, Genres, Playlists, My top rated, and recordings. It does not do any special organization section for podcasts, which annoyed me alot, but is not that big of a deal. I like how the player organizes my music.

Videos are organized in a simple list by title, sweet and simple.

Photos, can be viewed in a list, by thumbnails, or a slideshow.

Product Feel:
This product feels quite sturdy, it has a metal backing, and a plastic front cover. It is really durable (once I feel asleep while using it and rolled on top of it, and it is still working like a champ). Another thing that is also a plus on any player, is a user replaceable battery.

Rockbox on the E200:
One thing that I simply Love about the e200 is the fact that it can be modded with Rockbox, an open source jukebox (firmware). With Rockbox you have the ability to: Change/edit/create themes for your device (if you have the know how you can make your own, other wise you can download ones that people share, on sites like Anythingbutipod.com, themes.rockbox.org.). You can also view videos in MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 formats. There is a text editor/viewer, and so much more. So if you want to unleash the full potential of your player then check out Rockbox.org for more info. (Once you have put Rockbox on your player you can take it off at anytime, and while it is installed you can still use the Original firmware.) I Highly recommend using rockbox on your e200. And if you don't have an e200, check out all the other players that you can put Rockbox on, such as :

• Apple: 1st through 5.5th generation iPod, iPod Mini and 1st generation iPod Nano
  (not the Shuffle, 2nd/3rd/4th gen Nano, Classic or Touch)
• Archos: Jukebox 5000, 6000, Studio, Recorder, FM Recorder, Recorder V2 and Ondio
• Cowon: iAudio X5, X5V, X5L, M5, M5L, M3 and M3L
• iriver: iHP100 series, H100 series, H300 series and H10 series
• Olympus: M:Robe 100
• SanDisk: Sansa c200 series, e200 series and e200R series (not the v2/AMS models)
• Toshiba: Gigabeat X and F series (not the S series)

Conclusion:
Overall this product serves as a great Player for either someone looking for a cheap, Feature packed device, or someone looking to purchase their first player. Over all I highly recommend this player to anyone.

Availability:
You can order this product off of Amazon.com from about $40-$80 depending on capacity.