SanDisk Sansa e260

Reviews: Multimedia

SanDisk Sansa e260

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Bradford Day
Kurtis
SanDisk
Aug. 15, 2006

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Daily Use

I've been using the e260 for over a month now and overall I'm pleased with it, but I have some complaints as well. The battery life has proven to be sufficient, even when I leave it uncharged in my bag for a week or two at a time. At the end of June we took a 13 hour drive to St. Louis. The e260 played during the entire drive to St. Louis and the battery didn't drain. The player then saw no use for a couple days without charging. On the return trip it spit out 2 more hours of music before the battery drained completely. Upon returning home, the unit took about 2.5 hours to charge up fully. The only complaint I have about the battery charger is that it requires the proprietary cable and can only be charged through a USB port. But, considering that all the juice comes from USB only, a 2+ hour charge time from dead zero is pretty good in my book. Hopefully Sandisk is developing an DC charger for in-car cigarette lighters.

I easily created playlists using Windows Media Player 10, which was a surprise to me. Syncing the playlists with my Sansa e260 was simple and straightforward. However, I did notice that when a large playlist (over 300 songs) was loaded, the player lagged significantly when I attempted to scroll through the tracks. It must take the player a minute to load the data because after I let it sit for a bit, the lag disappeared. But once I tried to navigate to a new menu, the lag returned. Smaller playlist sizes resulted in lessened menu lag, but perceivable lag remained when navigating through the playlist section. Removing the playlists from the player proved to be another challenge. Despite instructions to the contrary, I was not able to delete playlists through Media Player. I eventually had to manually delete each of the playlist tracks in the /music folder on the player to get rid of my playlist. Very annoying.

An alternative to using Media Player to load your playlists is to use Sandisk's "Go List" option. Basically this is just a dynamic playlist created from music you already have on your player. As a track is playing, simply hit the sub-menu button and choose "add song to Go List" and there you have it. Now your Go List is populated with your favorite songs. Choose the playlist sub-menu from the main Music menu and your Go List is right there. This is a much easier way to create a play list, in my experience. Alternatively, you can also rate your music on the fly. Use the same sub-menu button while a track is playing and choose "rate this song" from the list. Using the scroll wheel you can assign a rating of 1-5 stars. Choosing the "My Top Rated" selection from the Music main menu brings up all of your 5 star rated tunes. Personally I found no use for this feature, but I suppose it is another easy way of creating your own, dynamic playlist without having to connect to your desktop.

Learning to get comfortable with the button placement takes a little training. But after a day or two I became accustomed to the feel of the flat outer ring buttons. The scroll wheel has a nice click-feel to it but does seem a bit on the cheap side. (Ed - I personally don't care for the scroll wheel. That click-feel is thanks to the big-toothed gear sitting under it, and I much prefer the smooth touchy-feely scroll-action of the iPod. Granted, that's patented by Apple, but they could have at least made it smoother.) Unlike with the iPod, menu changes are precise and predictable, but the wheel has a small amount of play that lends to the chintzy feel. But after all my use, I've not had a single issue with the scroll. The center select button also suffers from a bit of excess play, but again has not caused any issues.

I've had the player lock up on me twice since my purchase. The first time was the day after I purchased it. I immediately performed a firmware upgrade, downloaded from Sandisk's website. The issue seemed to go away but after a couple weeks the player locked up again. Simply holding the power button down for 15 seconds reboots the player. Upon powering up, the unit will need to refresh its database, which takes a minute or two depending on how many files you have stored on the e260. I've not had any random lock-ups since. I did induce a lock up when I removed the USB connection while the unit was indicating that it was "Writing." That was my fault. Do not disconnect the unit while it is being written to. Once I receive the sample unit from Sandisk (which should be any day now) I will reassess the lock up issue and see if it is just my player or a product-wide epidemic. (Ed - Brad would have had the player already, but since he already purchased one, I decided to play with the press sample for a couple of weeks myself. It hasn't locked up on me once, but I haven't used it nearly as much as Brad has used his either!)

I've been very happy with the audio performance of the unit. I mainly use the player in my car and can't complain about the audio quality or ease of use while driving!although I usually get my wife to switch tracks if I'm not at a stop light or in a parking lot (don't want to ding up the new car). The battery life is long enough to get many days of use out of the player before a recharge is needed.

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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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