SanDisk Sansa e260

Reviews: Multimedia

SanDisk Sansa e260

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Bradford Day
Kurtis
SanDisk
Aug. 15, 2006

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Testing & Features

Display / Interface

After charging up the player for a few hours, I turned on the unit and was greeted with a shimmering Sandisk logo on the screen and a neon blue lit scroll wheel. Twelve to fifteen seconds later the player finally booted up and reached the main menu screen, a bit lengthy in my opinion. It is worth the wait. The menu screen is brilliantly lit and crisp. The selection icons are large and straightforward. Menu navigation takes a little getting used to at first. Selecting icons with the scroll wheel is easy enough and the menu is quick and responsive. But navigating back and forth within the menus requires the use of the outer circular buttons. At first I was quite frustrated with the nearly flush buttons, but after a little fiddling I realized there is a trick to it. If I tried to press the buttons with the tip of my thumb or finger it was next to impossible. But, if you just roll your thumb up, using the scroll wheel as a fulcrum, you can easily actuate the flat outer buttons. Actually, after several weeks of use, I am completely comfortable with them and quite like the interface.

One complaint about the menu navigation remains, however. At times moving back and forth within the menus requires the side buttons, but sometimes also the center button. I still get a little confused now and then as to which button takes me back to where I want to be inside the menu. The dual role that the power button plays as a main menu button sounds like it would be annoying, but I have no issues.

The screen is brightly lit and of decent resolution. This player will play videos, so a quality screen is a must. Generally I have been very pleased with the quality of the screen. Colors are rich and I've not noticed any shadowing. But, in the direct sun it can be difficult to see the screen. The display also starts to get hard to read when viewed from extreme angles. But as I rarely find that I can't hold the unit squarely in front of my eyes, this has never been a problem. I have noticed a glare reflecting off the glossy screen at times as well.

Music Playback

Loading music onto the e260 can be accomplished in one of two ways. After plugging the unit into your Windows XP based PC it should be recognized as a media playing device. If you are the playlist type of person you can create a list of music within Windows Media Player 10 and then use that software to sync up your music with the player. Alternatively you can also just drag and drop music files into the e260's music folder. The e260 can also be used as a portable file storage unit if you need to move info between computers. Just be warned that the unit is only recognized by Windows XP and no other operating system, Microsoft or otherwise.

Once you've loaded up your music, select the Music menu (an icon of headphones and a CD) with the middle button and then scroll to your favorite artist or album or song or genre or playlist or!well, there are a bunch of ways to get to your tunes at any rate. Keep using the middle button to make your selections until you've got some tunes pumping through your headset. Speaking of which, the included earbuds were sufficient for my music needs but I personally can't stand earbuds anyway. They were on par with my $10 set of Sony earphones.

To change your music playback options, you can either press the lower outer ring button (sub-menu) while in mid-song or press the power/menu button to get back to the main screen and choose the Settings menu. Music will continue to play while you screw around with the various other menus until you choose a new track or operation. From within the Settings menu you can choose repeat and shuffle options as well as change the equalizer. There are 8 pre-set EQ options, most of which I found to be pretty crappy. I was disappointed to find that there was no option to choose your own EQ settings. I preferred either the "Normal" or "Pop" setting as all the other options sounded muffled and weak in the mid or high range. However, overall sound quality is quite good. Even when I play music through my car's dash unit there is little loss in musical quality. Bass response isn't overwhelming, but is smooth and deep when it needs to be. Of course extremely heavy basslines do a number on the little earbuds so upgrade to a powered headset if you plan on ruining your hearing with heavy bass tracks.

Pressing the center button while music is playing will alternate display modes. Normal display shows a time progression with time left and time passed displayed numerically and graphically. Press the button once and the out put changes to a graphic equalizer display. Press it again and the next song in the queue will display. After a few seconds the display returns to the normal, default track time graphic.

Voice Recording

To test the voice recording capabilities of the Sansa e260 I recorded the last meeting of my local car club. I recorded about 1 hour of our proceedings and found that it took up about 320MB of space. While in record mode, the e260 will keep you informed of how much time you can spend recording voice with a running tally of remaining space in hours/minutes/seconds. Unfortunately voice recordings are saved only as .wma files so their size can get quite large. But despite the large file sizes, recording quality was in the medium range. Voices from across the table, 5-10 feet away, sounded muffled and definitely depended on which direction the tiny mic port, located on top next to the hold button, was facing.

Pictures and Video

I'm not sure what the fascination with viewing movies and digital photos on a 1.8" screen is all about lately. It seems every phone or music player has to be able to watch episodes of Lost in addition to playing music. So if you are one of those folks that needs to get your fix of must see TV on a screen the size of a special edition postage stamp, then you'll be happy to hear that the e260 actually does a good job of displaying videos and photos. The video processing power is adequate enough as to not be a complete choppy mess and the bright display handles things nicely. However, getting the video onto the player will require the use of the included Sansa Media Converter software. Any video or photo will need to be converted for viewing on the e260. A wide range of image files are supported: JPEG, TIFF, PNG, BMP and GIF. Video file formats include: AVI, MPEG-1 & MPEG-2 in MPEG, MPG, MPE or VOB (unprotected) formats. MPEG-4 in AVI format, DAT, ASF, QuickTime MOV, and WMV. Please Note: QuickTime 6.5 or higher and Windows Media Player 9 or 10.0 are required for QuickTime MOV file. An error message will appear if these are not installed.

FM Radio

While it is rare that I will be using the FM radio feature of my e260, it is a feature I wanted for those "what if" times. What if I'm at the race track and want to hear the local track broadcast? What if I'm away from a radio and Car Talk is on? What if there is an impending tornado!you get the idea. I was quite impressed with the FM capabilities. I was able to pick up radio stations at home that my car stereo has issues with. And the e260 can record live radio!just in case you can't live without your Prairie Home Companion archives.

Settings

Various settings can be accessed from the Settings menu. Typical settings such as menu language, brightness, auto shut-off and music and radio options may be adjusted here. Additionally firmware version information is available as well as USB mode selection. The Sansa e260 operates in two different USB modes, MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) and MSC (Mass Storage Class). In MTP mode, Windows XP will treat the e260 as a media player. This mode is required for playlist syncs from Media Player 10. MSC mode is used when you want to drag and drop music or other files onto the player. Windows will recognize the unit as a storage device in MSC mode and if you installed a microSD card it will appear as an additional storage device.

The Sansa e260 also has a built-in date and time feature. The date and time are synchronized when you plug the unit in to recharge or load music. Other than from the Settings menu, I've only seem the time displayed when the unit is first turned on and the main menu is displayed. Once you start playing music the only way to see the time is to go back to the settings menu.

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Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: First Looks
Page 3: Testing & Features
Page 4: Testing & Features, cont'd...
Page 5: Conclusion

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11 User Comments

1 - Posted by andrea on December 1, 2006 - 4:28 pm

This is a really great review! Im getting this for Christmas. My mom and I were at Best Buy and it was either this or a 4 gig Ipod nano and the sales guy (there and at circuit city) suggested this one. Im worried though because Ive seen a number of reviews saying they're player froze up a lot. Have you had anymore problems with it? What is firmware?
If you could email me (wishfulthinker37@aol.com) that'd be great! Thanks!

Andrea

2 - Posted by EmoMakesMeCry on December 1, 2006 - 5:38 pm

Personally, if you're not going to go the iPod route, I'd go with a Samsung YP-Z5AB. After playing around with various 2-4gb mp3 players, I much prefer what Samsung has to offer.
Then if you want to go the smaller storage space route (512mb-2gb), iRiver's are awesome.

But I'd still purchase an iPod over anything else. I heart Apple :)

3 - Posted by Kurtis on December 2, 2006 - 1:51 pm

I believe all you need to do is go to SanDisk's website, under Downloads, then download the Firmware Updater: http://www.sandisk.com/Retail/Default.aspx?CatID=1...

After installation of Sansa Firmware Updater
* Please make sure your Sansa player is in MSC mode before plugging it in.
* Plug in your Sansa player and it will automatically check for updates.

Common questions about the Sansa Updater

Q: What does the Sansa Firmware Updater do?
A: The Sansa Updater is an application that checks for the latest firmware updates then downloads and installs the firmware to your Sansa device. The Sansa Updater is NOT a firmware.

Q: Why do I need to install the Sansa Firmware Updater to download "firmwares"?
A: Once you install the Sansa Updater, you don't have to worry about which firmware to download for your device. Sansa Updater downloads and installs the right firmware for your Sansa device.

Q: Do I need to install the Sansa Firmware Updater everytime there's a new firmware?
A: No, once the Sansa Firmware Updater is installed, future firmware updates are done by just plugging in your device.

Q: What does a "firmware" do?
A: Firmwares contain miscelleneous bug fixes and enhancements.

Q: Which Sansa players is the Sansa Updater compatible with?
A: The e200, c200 and m200 series

Q: Should I "Open","Run" or "Save" when i click on "Download Sansa Firmware Updater"?
A: "Open" and "Run" would automatically start installing the software,. "Save" would save it to your computer and you can run it in the future. We suggest you "Open" or "Run" the installer.

Q: How to change to MSC mode:
A: On your Sansa device, press "menu" and go to "Settings" then "USB" choose "MSC"

Q: How to check for firmware version?:
A: On the e200 and c200, press "menu" and go to "Settings" then "Info"/ "System Info". For m200, press "menu" then "Information".

4 - Posted by handrail on December 4, 2006 - 12:34 pm

i've been using the e260 about every day since the review was posted and it hasn't locked up on me since. i think it locked up 2 times when i first had it. i did use the firmware installer/updater and everything seems to be good so far.

that said, iriver does make good stuff too. it depends on your personal preference. iriver tends to have more aftermarket stuff like car chargers, FM transmitters and the like. the sansas have a few cases and aftermarket chargers and FM transmitters on the way, but they aren't available just yet.

i like the e260 just fine. i don't use windows media player to sync the player though...i found that to be too annoying. i just drag and drop my songs using the windows explorer file tree.

5 - Posted by EmoMakesMeCry on December 5, 2006 - 3:25 am

I just bought an iPod Shuffle, and I must say...they're pretty friggin' sweet!

For only $79, I love this little thing. It works great for when I just want to take a single playlist with me instead of my big ol' 60G iPod. The clip is a pretty cool idea as well.

6 - Posted by Radiobob on February 5, 2008 - 9:21 pm

I have had my Sana e260 for about a week now and have not experienced any lockups yet. It works fine. I do disagree with one of your comments. You said it only works with Windows. WRONG. I and running Ubuntu Linux and it works and integrates perfectly. I have loaded 450 songs and a bunch of pictures on it. The only thing I cannot do from Linux is video but I don't care.
I have one issue. I installed a 2GB micro SD card and cannot access it. In info it says it is there but no access.

7 - Posted by Dilbeert on March 22, 2008 - 7:33 pm

To Radiobob: I was having the same issue. I read some fragment in an old CNet review that clued me in to something that may help you, too. The unit has to be in MSC mode to access the storage slot. Having said that, I can only say I have gotten far enough to add content to the microSD card, but am still playing around to see if there is anything special you have to do to use the content.

8 - Posted by Evan Glueck on June 18, 2008 - 12:06 am

Pros:

Well priced
Long battery life

Cons:

Unit freezes
Difficult to delete multiple songs
Weak secondary market for add-ons

Evan Glueck

9 - Posted by SanDisk on September 24, 2008 - 12:38 am

Sansa players are quite good. Though there's always space for improvement. I've Sansa e260. I like it because I can store lots of music and my videos

10 - Posted by klaus on September 24, 2008 - 12:56 pm

Thanks for the USB MSC mode hint to upload files to the microSD card !
I couldn't find my additional 2GB memory.

11 - Posted by feathermonkey on October 2, 2008 - 9:28 pm

I have a Sansa e260. It is giving me a lot of trouble lately. I bought it refurbished, but I have not had any problems until now...

A couple days ago it started not letting me delete certain songs even when I reformat the songs are still there, but they are not when I try to listen to them. I can only access them through my computer. Then, I decided to leave those there and I tried to readd the music that I wanted on my MP3. I spent 30 minutes. When I tried to listen to the music that took forever to sync, my MP3 said there was no music on it. But again I can see it when I look at the device using my computer. Then today I tried to reformat it and readd the songs. Again it seemed to have "ghost" files. Then when I tried to add my music again the screen went black with white vertical lines through it and stayed that way until the battery went dead.

I got on to try maybe update the firmware to see if that would help. Apparently my MP3 is in MTP mode, but there is not a "USB" option under settings to change it.

Please Help!

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