SanDisk Digital Audio Player

Reviews: Multimedia

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Mike McCormick
Kurtis
SanDisk
Oct. 30, 2005

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Testing

Battery life

I decided to sacrifice the battery that came with package for the greater good of TheTechLounge. Putting the battery in the sacrificial battery slot of the MP3 player, setting the player to random repeat at a reasonable volume, turning the MP3 player counter-clockwise 13 times, and 15.5 hours later! abracadabra one battery offered up to the electronic universe. In plain terms, the battery lasted about a half hour longer than predicted by Sandisk. He was such a brave little battery.

Play

Great play. There is nothing quite like having your own adjustable equalizer built into the MP3 player. You can't ask for more than settings you can customize. If you don't like to customize, you can use one of the presets for the type of music that you rock to. Several play modes allow you to have directional, random or single songs played to your heart's content. One of the coolest features that this MP3 player boasts is the ability to slow songs down to 50% of the original speed (your insomnia is getting the best of you) or speed songs up to 130% of the original speed (better than cappuccino). The FM stereo setting allows you to adjust the station reception sensitivity, meaning you can filter out the weak signals if you so desire. You can also select between mono or stereo, but I still haven't met a person who likes to listen to mono.

Display

Not only is it crisp and clear, but highly informative. The display shows the scrolling ID3 tag, track number, sound quality (e.g. 128 kbps, 44 kHz), current folder, play time, battery life, and play mode simultaneously, but you can choose visualization of the progress bar, volume level, output level of left and right side, or the equalizer settings. In the display mode, you can tweak the contrast, length of time for the backlight and even flip the display vertically for using the player in your other hand.

I was quite impressed with the Sandisk's display, at first that is. The display is visible up to around a 45° viewing angle in any direction; beyond that the display becomes illegible. It's easy to read in direct sunlight as well as while wearing polarized sunglasses. As far as brightness is concerned, the backlight is about as bright as a Timex IndigloÂ® watch. Now for the bad part... The backlight actually burned out after about a month of use. With that said, I contacted SanDisk's tech support and they are shipping me a new unit. I'll update this review later if that one has problems as well, but I'm hoping for the best.

Armband

Using the armband and plastic case for exercise with the MP3 player was interesting. Some wrestling is needed to get the MP3 in its plastic restraints. This was also the one time that I found it necessary to use the hold switch to prevent the plastic casing from pressing buttons. The clear plastic case was so tight that my songs would occasionally skip mid-play, or the MP3 player would shut down in the middle of listening. I guess this is a great way to conserve battery life. Accidental button pressing was diminished after the plastic case was stretched out from using it a few times. The armband was snug and bouncing of the MP3 player was minimal when I took it running. I would like to have seen a belt clip on the MP3 player, or at least a belt clip attachment to the plastic case.

Earbuds

I'd have to say that the earbuds were the biggest disappointment of the package. By having a much longer wire on the right side, it was difficult to wear the MP3 player on the right side or even the center of the body without having the left earbud pulled out. The earbuds worked well when used with the armband, but I did have problems with the shorter left earbud being pulled out occasionally when the MP3 player was in my pocket.

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Page 4 of 5

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Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: Styling & First Impressions
Page 3: Taking a Closer Look
Page 4: Testing
Page 5: Conclusion / Update

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1 User Comment

1 - Posted by Kurtis on November 11, 2005 - 1:31 am

The article has been updated on 10-30-05 with new information about the replacement sent to Mike by SanDisk after the backlight burnt out on the first.

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