SanDisk Sansa M260 4GB MP3 Player (Blue)
The Sansa m200 Series MP3 players offer great sound, ease of use, and high quality sound with virtually no weight. Created by the leaders in flash memory, this flash-based model provides high-quality digital music playback at an affordable price. As a replacement to our original Digital Audio Player line, this improved look also includes Sansa's excellent navigation: songs sorted by title, artist, album, genre and more. The Sansa m200 Series MP3 players are the first to provide Microsoft PlaysForSure Subscription Service for unlimited downloads. Choose to play your favorite track repeatedly, in random sequence, or play all the songs continuously Hi-speed USB 2.0 connects to almost any computer for hi-speed music transfer (backwards compatible to USB 1.1 ports) Comes with sleek carrying case and armband to protect your player and keep your hands free Easy to use - plug and play, no drivers required (except Win98SE requires driver) Indigo backlit LCD provides ID3 Tag information (v.1 and 2)
Take your music on the go with the feather-light SanDisk Sansa M260 4 GB flash memory digital audio player, which is bulked up with a surprising amount of features for such a small device. In addition to playing both MP3 and WMA audio files, it also sports an FM radio and digital voice recorder. It supports the Microsoft Windows Media Player 10 and features PlaysForSure support for portable music downloads. And it's powered by a single AAA battery, which will provide up to 19 hours of battery life. 
The Sansa M260 can hold 64 hours of CD-quality MP3 tracks on its 4 GB memory. View larger. Detailed view of the basic controls. |
The 4 GB Sansa M260 will hold approximately 64 hours of CD-quality MP3 tracks (encoded at 128kps) or 128 hours of WMA tracks (at 64kbps). It's compatible with MP3, WMA, secure WMA, and Audible audio file formats. The digital FM radio allows you to access local radio stations, as well as preset up to 20 of your favorite stations. With five equalizer types for the FM radio and music player, you can optimize your sound for your favorite style of music, such as, Rock, Jazz, Classical, Pop, and Custom (user-defined). You can also use the built-in microphone and voice recording function to capture interviews, classes, and short voice notes to yourself. The compact yet robust industrial design offers an easy-to-use interface with an indigo-backlit LCD screen showing ID3 tag information from currently playing tracks (song title, artist, and album, as well as battery level and playlist). Sophisticated music library sorting lets you browse the music in your player by artist, album, song title, genre, year, playlist, and other useful criteria. The AB playback feature allows you to select a start point and an end point within an audio file so you can play that segment over and over--helpful for learning languages. It's easy to transfer songs to the Sansa--just connect it to your PC via the included USB 2.0 connection cable, where it will appear as a Windows Portable Device on your computer. Then, just drag and drop music files from anywhere on your hard drive or use a variety of music software to move licensed music to the device. The Sansa is compatible with PCs running the Windows XP operating system. The SanDisk Sansa M260 digital audio player uses PlaysForSure technology. Look for the PlaysForSure logo if you're shopping for a portable music or video device and you want to make sure the digital music and video you purchase will play back on it every time. Match the PlaysForSure logo on a large selection of leading devices and online music stores. If you see the logo, you'll know your digital music will play for sure. Choose from a large number of digital music and video stores, including MTV's Urge, Rhapsody, Yahoo!, MSN Music, MusicMatch, MusicNow, Napster, Wal-Mart Music Downloads, and many more.
What's in the Box
Sansa M260 4 GB MB player, carrying case with armband, stereo headphones, AAA alkaline battery, USB 2.0 travel cable, CD-ROM with drivers and online user guide, and printed Quick Start guide
SanDisk Sansa M260 4GB MP3 Player (Blue) Accessories
 SanDisk Silicone Case for Sansa m200 (Clear)
SanDisk Sansa m250 2 GB MP3 Player (Black)
SanDisk Silicone Case for Sansa m200 (Blue)
SanDisk Silicone Case for Sansa m200 (Green)
SanDisk Sansa m240 1 GB MP3 Player (Silver)
SanDisk Sansa m200 Silicone Case (Pink)
SanDisk Sansa m230 512 MB MP3 Player (Blue)
SanDisk Sansa e280 8 GB MP3 Player (Black)
SanDisk Sansa Speaker Dock for Sansa e100 and m200 Series Players
SanDisk Sansa e270 6 GB MP3 Player with SD Expansion Slot (Black)
SanDisk Sansa M260 4GB MP3 Player (Blue) Reviews
BUT you can get 10 m250's for the price of ONE m260 right now. Now that the m250(2GB) player is so cheap, it doesn't make sense to pay almost 200 dollars for this unit. Don't get me wrong, i love the player, and nothing beats the long lasting battery life, and utilizing a single AAA battery is its best feature if you ask me.
It is easy to use and holds a great number of songs. This brand provides a high quality, easy to use mp3 player available in many different formats. This Christmas I decided to get one for each of my parents (a 4GB and a 1GB) and they are both thrilled with theirs. Though it is not considered to be the "coolest" brand or model, I would continue to buy SanDisk products before any other. They are combatible with many different types of music files and digital books. I have had a 2GB Sansa for a couple of years now and love it.
They're rechargeable. Also everyone knows sound quality is only as good as the source material so low quality encodes = poor sound. But still, 5% of the time is still NOT GOOD ENOUGH for a piece of consumer electronics gear. If you turn off the unit, turn it back on, reactive Shuffle, and select PLAY ALL, the M260 will play the same songs, X, Y, Z in the exact same order. -Uses 1 AAA Battery: Some people might consider this a CON. Yes, the plastic case is cheap and not likely to withstand rough use or repeated trips in and out of tight fitting jean pockets. I just pop another one in.
SanDisk doesn't provide release notes with it's new firmware updates so there's no way to determine what problems/fixes are being addressed. Poor software/firmware expertise: As a software developer myself, I'm rather shocked at SanDisk's level of technical expertise, or lack there-of. This is a multi-million (billion). Now Sandisk tells you NOT to update the firmware unless you are experiencing a problem that's addressed in the new firmware. The included elastic armband and clear plastic case work fine for running and gym use.
I strap it to my arm and hardly know it's there. -Backlighted display: The display has a nice blue backlight that allows operation in the dark. With 4GB's, I can go weeks before feeling the need to rotate new music onto my player. I was hoping the new firmware would fix this. The rectify either problem, you simply have to pop out the AAA battery and restart the thing.
dollar company. What's the point. It's not fancy but it's very functional and allows me to operate the unit during early morning runs or in the car at night. Instead it plays all music alphabetically by title. If not, you can set the Sansa to mass storage mode and just drag and drop files onto the unit. Windows Media Player: In general, WMP works just fine as a syncing/music manager. certainly not huge but MORE than enough for exercising and about just right for normal daily listening.
The display becomes unreadable. This Sansa allows me to take a handful of AAA's and just go without worry. Takes like 5 seconds. I've owned this mp3 player for almost 2 years. This Sansa does not obey the ID3 tag for TRACK #.
it looks like the Klingon alphabet. some might even say, "well you did the update, so it's your fault" I say total B.S. But occasionally, it does not recognize the Sansa upon plugging in the USB adapter. Random Lockups / Crazy Static sounds - Now this is NOT a huge problem. Flimsy battery cover: I'm not a huge stickler for build quality.
I've found some inexpensive JVC headphone at Wally World that do just this. The other end has a really weak plastic clip that holds the battery cover on. Don't get me wrong, this player is NOT unlistenable OK. When I go on vacation, I travel on a sportbike, sleep in a tent, and hike a lot.
Specifically, bass and mid-bass are really poor and neither the custom EQ nor the handful of sound Presets (rock/jazz/etc.). The good news is that my player still "plays" music. The biggest problem is that the firmware updater seems to interfere with the m260's ability to sync with WMP. I typically use both MP3 and WMA's encoded using VBR 128 / 96 respectively and my player easily holds 30+ FULL albums. Personally, I like WMP. In summary, this is not the worst player out there. well we know how that turned out.
deeper and tighter bass, fuller mid-range and clearer highs. Also when I release code, I perform a little thing called Documentation in order to explain exactly what my code is doing. This is a must have feature for audiobook and podcast listeners becausing fast forwarding though huge.mp3 files is a pain. You then have to go through the process of unplugging, waiting, re-plugging, waiting.
Oh, and their auto firmware installer is a horrid piece of software that automatically loads on boot-up and runs continuously in the background monitoring for new firmware updates. If I had to do it over again, I would not buy this unit. This is beyond annoying if you listen to audio books or podcasts. In order to get ANY KIND OF ACCEPTABLE bass out of this Sansa, you need to buy headphones that WAY OVER EMPHASIZE BASS. When I'm not traveling, in order to save money and be environmentally conscious, I use 850mAh NiMH rechargeable batteries. One NiMH easily gets me through a workday. In other words, the display just continues to transpose song data on top of the previous song's data.
It happens infrequently, maybe 10 times in 2 years. - Small/Light/Flashbased: The #1 reason I bought this player. I don't require my things be made out of aircraft aluminum or titanium for me to be happy. But in the 2 years I've had it, it's be useful. It's great for exercising, but so are a TON of other players on the market today. As you skip through music, the ID3 tag info like Artist/Title from the previous song is not erased from the LCD display before the next song's data is displayed. A solid state piece of equipment should not randomly lockup. I don't generally have access to electricity, nor do I carry a Laptop which many of today's MP3 players rely upon for recharging via USB.
I'm a developer. It has 2 TINY plastic points on one end that act as a hinge. The bad news is that the display is totally hosed. Even my cheap and outdated Creative C100 Sport sounds much better. That said, the battery cover on the M260 is definitely CHEAP. I recently applied their newest firmware, hoping it would fix the music shuffle problem, and had disastrous results. It's fast, has a small memory footprint, and doesn't have processes that continue running memory resident even after I exit the application like iTunes. Poor Sound Qlty: OK 1st off, this is not an audiophile product nor is it meant to be.
This brings up the question of why a firmware updater needs to run 24x7 in the first place - especially if SanDisk says don't update unless you need to. These headphone sound terrible with a normal mp3 - way too bass heavy & boomy. Also on a few occasions the unit just starts putting out static laced music and really low audio volumes for no reason. do anything to improve the sound.
I actually TEST MY CODE before releasing it to the general public. You have to uninstall the firmware updater application to get syncing to work again. Today, given the strong competition out there and this Sansa's many flaws I'll detail below, I'd recommend most people look for a different mp3 player. At this bitrate the music isn't anywhere near CD quality, but it's good enough for when I'm out-and-about. - Capacity: This model is 4GBs. but useful. But regardless, this Sansa like other SanDisk players I've used has "relatively" poor sound.
Me thinks they're sending mixed messages. I like WMP. But it's still not very assuring. Again, not a game stopper by any means, but just one more negative issue a "modern" mp3 player should not have. Even with the screwed up display, I'll continue to use my m260 for my morning runs, but I'll have to find a better behaved unit for daily use. If you press too hard on the snaps, it puts pressure on the battery door and can easily break door's plastic tabs. But paired with my Sansa, these earbuds fill in the low-end hole of the M260's audio spectrum.
For me, this was the #2 reason why I chose this unit. It's your choice. Again, this doesn't happen very often. The backlight duration is adjustable and can be turned off completely to save battery power. It won't make your ears bleed :) It's just not a GREAT sounding player compared to other brands, even those considered to have middling sound qlty like the iPod Video and iPod Shuffle in particular. With players without removable batteries, I've read these types of issues can be terminal. maybe I'll have an issue 5% of the time.
the physical size of this unit and it's solid state flash memory are perfect for runners. The rechargeables only last about 6-7 hrs, a little over 1/2 the runtime a normal alkaline battery provides, but who cares. CE gear should work 100% of the time. If you are not an extremely careful person like myself, I can easily see you breaking the plastic points or clip off the cover. Music Shuffle doesn't Shuffle: This unit has a "shuffle" feature but it doesn't do anything. The plastic case has 2 snaps on the back to keep it secured. Plus the Creative's EQ is actually practical unlike my Sansa. You'll have to go in and rename all your files alphabetically like "Chaper_01-01.mp3, Chapter_01-02.mp3, Chapter_01-03.mp3" instead of relying on the ID3 Track# tag.
Auto-Bookmarking function: If you power down the unit while it's playing or PAUSE the unit and allow it to automatically power down after X number of minutes of inactivity, upon start-up the M260 will automatically resume playing from where it left off. Do these people understand the concept of Software Quality Assurance Testing. painful and annoying at times YES. I have ebooks that are made up of hundreds of MP3 and this renaming is a royal pain in the a$$. - Doesn't play songs in Album order, uses Alpha Order instead: This is a huge problem if you listen to Ebooks, podcasts, or are the type of person who enjoys listening to music in album order. If you activate Shuffle and select PLAY ALL, the unit will play Songs X, Y, Z. Windows Media Player or straight Drag-and-Drop for music management: In MTP mode, the unit utilizes WMP for music library mgmt and syncing.
As long as something is constructed fairly solid I'm good. But this freebie is good for keeping light rain and sweat off the unit.
Actually, the presets make things worse. Cons:.
At the time of my original purchase, this was pretty good player given it's price/capacity/size. Even just putting on the included plastic carry case can be dangerous to the battery cover.
with the Sansa until WMP recognizes the unit.
You may not. Pros:.
Of course, there are still daily calls for their own "iPod", but they love being to fill their MP3 with all new music on a daily basis if they choose. My 2 eight-year-olds both love their Sansa MP3 players. As an anti ipod parent this is a great thing for me. Sansa has created an easily usable sturdy MP3 player that is $50 and can be used with Napster and Yahoo. Music.
4) The sound quality is very good. Don;t even need included software. I have had zero problems with this unit. I often drag files to it over the usb cable. Sounds awesome when connected to a set of good computer speakers or a boom box. 2) Drag-n-drop. 6) Tough, yet very light.
1) It syncs perfectly in Windows XP and Vista. I've had it for over a year. 5) AAA battery provides about 16 hours of listening - sweet. It gets banged around and always works. 3) It's easy to find and play songs.
|
