SanDisk Sansa Shaker 1 GB MP3 Player Blue
July 2, 2009 by Mp3 Players Review · Leave a Comment
SanDisk Sansa Shaker 1 GB MP3 Player Blue
The Sansa Connect MP3 player is the first Wi-Fi based MP3 player from SanDisk’s audio line. Created by the leaders in flash memory for wireless entertainment, this flash-based player keeps you connected to your music, friends and fresh new entertainment streams wherever you are. All from one wireless mobile player, it plays music, photos and Internet radio.The very attractive, sleek design includes a 2.2″ TFT color screen with advanced navigational features and an easy to use interface. The Sansa Connect provides a microSD card slot for additional capacity for your player.
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Great Gift
I purchased this for my 4 year old granddaughter and she just loves it. Since it has a speaker and “2″ plugs for earphones both girls listen togeather. The only downside is; I am afraid the earphones may grow in since they seem to be always in her ears.
1 Star If only it worked
I bought this item twice and both times it didn’t last a day. I sent it back twice and did not dare try it a third time. Too bad my daughter really liked it.
4 Stars No Problems
I got this player for my 5 year old and so far we have had no problems with it. She uses it often and its great for travel. She is able to operate it and the fact that it has a speaker is great so that she doesn’t have to use head phones. I use a mac so loading music was a simple drag and drop onto the player.
5 Stars LOve it! I can’t find another pink 1 GB. I would love to buy another one.
I bought this for my niece. She is loving it. She showed all her friends and they also loved it. I’m trying to find another pink 1 GB for my daughter.
5 Stars Fantastic for the Younger Kids!!! We love it!!
I am able to type this review because my kids are dancing around the house with thier little pink shakers, having a ball! They are 5 and 3 and have no problem at all using these. They are great (the shakers, but the kids are great too!)!! We got the 1 gig and it fit 120 songs, which is more than enough for them. The player comes with software and a cord to transfer the music to the shaker, but I just put the gig card right into my laptop, copied the music onto it, and they were off and running. It couldn’t have been easier!! I never, ever, write reviews but I just had to with this product. I am going to get them for all the kids in the family this Christmas!!! 
If your kids want more music or want audiobooks, you can do what we did….I got another gig card and put their audiobooks on it. Now if we are stuck in line at the store or waiting at the Dr office, I pack these little beauties into my pocketbook with the extra memory card with the audiobooks, and we have music and stories that will last for hours!! I can’t say enough good things about this product.
SanDisk Sansa Clip 1 GB MP3 Player Black
June 25, 2009 by Mp3 Players Review · Leave a Comment
SanDisk Sansa Clip 1 GB MP3 Player Black
The colorful Sansa Clip is a tiny MP3 player that boasts an array of cool features, as well as distinctively big sound for its small size. Perfect for the fitness buff or traveler, the compact Sansa Clip comes with a fashionable clip for wearing anywhere. Other features include: FM radio, microphone, long-lasting rechargeable battery and a bright screen for exceptionally easy navigation of tunes.
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Lived through the wash!
I bought this as a gift for my husband. The sound quality is as good as my ipod and the feel of the casing quality and interface are better. It comes with a clip, so ne need for an external case. So light-weight, it doesn’t pull on clothing.
Two weeks later, I found it in the washing machine. I thought for sure it was toast, and was about to replace it because the quality was good and the price was so low. On a whim, I tested it out first. Not only did it still work, it retained its memory. It’s still working perfectly two months later.
HIGHLY recommended for teens who are not so careful with their belongings.
2 Stars Highly unstable
I’ve handled three units over the past year or so. One had to be returned because the battery drained fast and the down button wouldn’t work. The latter was actually fixed by formatting a few times, but nothing helped the battery. Customer service was responsive and they quickly replaced the unit. My dad only uses it for the radio function. So far so good.
My unit’s more heavily used though, and it’s run the gamut of problems:
- computer won’t recognize it, can’t read files
- won’t recognize connection to wall outlet, won’t charge
- crashes on some long music tracks
- freezes upon restart
- no volume
These problems happened more frequently and with increasing severity as time went on. I haven’t bothered to return it because I’ve been able to figure out solutions so far with help from Sandisk forums. Try:
- Menu > Settings > Format (deletes everything!)
- Get a USB wall charger. I use an OEM Motorola cell phone charger with typical male “B” type mini-USB plug, 5V 550mA. Get the guaranteed OEM unit from Amazon: Motorola Mini USB Travel Charger for Motorola Phones If you have a problem, try switching back and forth between computer USB and wall charger first–sometimes that helps “reset” the player. Try also turning off the player and plugging it into the wall outlet.
- switch USB mode from Auto Detect to MTP or MSC and try connecting again. The unit may switch back to unreadable; change USB mode to something else. Keep doing that as long as you can stand it.
- Sandisk is good about releasing firmware updates, but often they seem to introduce problems of their own. “No volume” was fixed, I think, by updating to v01.01.30A firmware. My player still crashes on problem files.
Other notes: the player won’t charge if it’s off. It will also refuse to charge from a computer that’s off.
Build quality seems solid enough. The clip on back is hefty. Sound quality is great. I miss my old Samsung YP-U2 though–never had problems with it, but I gave it to my sister. Unfortunately, the U3 looks like Samsung was skimping on build quality.
The Sansa is simply the most unstable device I’ve ever owned. I’ve wasted a good part of my life trying to fix various problems with it. Maybe it’ll be better with this latest firmware, but can’t recommend the player to anyone unless they like to tinker. It’s the equivalent of a vintage motorcycle–beautiful when it works, but out of commission for at least 50% of its life because something blew out.
Next go around, I think I’ll try a Cowon iAudio 7.
5 Stars Technology never ceases to amaze……!
This little gadget is simply amazing to me! How in the world they can pack so much high quality music performance, let alone the fm and voice features, into such a tiny package I’ll never know.
Documentation not very detailed. Thankfully, the display options and controls are pretty intuitive. You’ll figure it out.
We bought two and when they arrived I immediately connected both to pc usb ports for battery charging and file loading. Then I read the little 2-3 page booklet. I haven’t tried the bundled software disk but I gather that it’s just for downloading internet music which we don’t need.
Winamp recognized both players and listed them under “portables”. I deleted the 5 songs which were already on the players. I already had a playlist for jogging so I right clicked and sent the entire playlist to my player. It only took about 5-10 minutes to xfer 550mb to the player.
I’ve been manually loading songs to my wife’s player. It’s also just a matter of right clicking each file and sending to her player. No problems at all. I would assume that Windows Media Player, MusicMatch, etc. would work about the same way.
The fm tuner sounds like any high quality stereo tuner to me. With no visible antennna (probably uses the headphone cable), the little Clip picked up about 10 local fm stations and we’re 10 miles from town. Even has station presets and an auto scan for strong stations. Amazing!
We have not tried the voice recording feature but I can see where it may come in handy. The bundled ear buds actually sound pretty good for their size but don’t compare to good headphones. If you’re not picky, listen to fm or audiobooks mostly, and don’t mind something stuck into your ear canal, the ear buds may be all you need. They look very cool.
The player automatically inserts a few seconds of silence between songs. My songs are not volume leveled or equalized but I didn’t notice much difference in volume between songs.
Overall, we’re both very pleased with these Clip players. At this price, I don’t see how anyone could ask for more.
5 Stars Sansa Clip
This is a great product and well worth the money. I bought it for listening to music when studying, and it works great for that. The size is small, which is great for keeping it in the pocket, and the screen really helps out when searching through music. Another big bonus is the radio.
4 Stars First time MP3 player user, buying it mainly for the radio capability
I have never owned a MP3 player before this one. I wanted a player that is compact and allows me to listen to radio (mainly NPR).
For this purpose, the Sansa Clip is likely the best choice. Easy to use. Clip to anywhere. Good battery life. The layout could be better. For example, it’s hard to press the volume+ botton when the headphone is plugged in and you have a fat finger. But overall a good device. I would have given it 5* if mine had not failed after 2.5 weeks of use. For no reason, the FM radio stop working. But this could be just my bad luck. I don’t see a lot of complaint by others. Return to Amazon is real easy. That’s what good customer service ultimately should be.
After this “test drive” experience, I can’t help but wonder if my demand in a radio-capable MP3 player is really an outdated concept. Most NPR programs can be downloaded and played as podcast. Yes, there will be a delay and you can’t call in. But how often do we really want to call in? There were enough times when the Metro went underground or when I was in a big building that I had to switch to music because of bad reception. To this regard, perhaps listening to the podcast is really the way to go and that may be why the Apple insists on not including the radio capability in its iPod. So I am going to try the podcast of the NPR programs. If I am convinced that this is the right way to listen, then perhaps I will consider the iPod Shuffle.
By the way, I thought 1 GB is okay given that I don’t listen to music that often. It turns out to be the opposite. If one uses this mainly during workout or if one swaps the music in and out of the device often, then 1 GB may be okay. Since I only listen to music occasionally, I tend to be more picky on what I want to listen each time, and I don’t swap music in and out of the device often. If I were to buy it again, I would have chosen 2 or 4 GB and keep a bigger collection of music on the device.