Well not long ago I was in hunt of a portable player, and got the sandisk , which I simply love now .
The purpose of this device was something slim, small, durable with a good amount of space with a option to expand , and easy to surf .
I consider the following before buying this .
1.Creative Zen 4 GB
2.Sandisk Sansa – e260 – 4 GB
3.Meizu Mini Player 4 GB
Then I went to check out the creative personally in a store , I wanted to check it out because meizu mini player and creative would be of the approx same size , I saw it herd it , it sounded fine but I found it very big be carry it in my pockets considering I have to carry a P990i to carry also.
That was the main reason the other two players went out of consideration, another reason for not buying the meizu was that it did not have expandable memory the creative had it , but then I found it big at the same time.
Some that the meizu had and the san disk did not was support for FLAC, so I downloaded a few flac files and herd them comparing the same song with a normal 320kbps mp3 , okay there was a difference in the sound quality FLAC was better on my Harman/kardon speakers at least but not so such an extent that I would compromise on for a bigger player with no expansion slot considering the fact that FLAC files are huge.So I went on to order the san disk player after reading in about it over the net , even read UK’s “STUFF†magazine that placed at the 6th position over all in the portability player category considering there are 100’s of them.
[BREAK=The Player]
[FONT="]The Player[/FONT]
[FONT="]Packing:[/FONT]
The player was packed in a nice box , with all the needed accessories with it, the earphones ( though they are still packed ) using the ep-630 , the small manual , a neat pouch to carry the player around , a CD for the sandisk player , to convert videos and other sync software for the player, the USB connection cable for transfers and charging. The player came with a protective layer on the screen also, so no chances of damage in transit.
[FONT="]Looks:[/FONT]
[FONT="]The player is jet black, the back body is hard metal type feel and feels strong and nice which can not be easily scratched, the 1.8inch screen is just right for me , not very huge and very small either makes surfing of songs easy and quick. The buttons are nicely placed and are easy to be surfed for someone with medium sized hands considering I have medium sized hands.[/FONT]
[BREAK=Features & Tech Specs:]
[FONT="]Features & Tech Specs:[/FONT]
Display Screen Size 1.8" Screen Format TFT
Memory Storage Capacity: 4GB + Support Cards Micro SD
Video Playback Formats MPEG4/WMV/AVI/ASF/MOV/VOB Images
Text Viewer Images Formats BMP/JPEG/GIF/PNG/TIFF
Digital Audio Supported Audio Formats MP3/WMA/WMA with DRM Supporting Bit Rate 32 - 320Kbps Microphone Built-in EQ Rock, Pop, Classic
Radio Tuner Bands FM Connections
The player does not play all the videos and images directly you need to convert them with the software that sandisk player bundles along, its not a hassle and gets done quickly. Just for testing I converted a song video of about 50 MB from the laptop 1.73 Centrino with 512 ram and it was done in about less than a minute. The songs can either simply be copy pasted into a hidden folder of music which u can find once u connect the player, or just drag and drop with WMP without any hassles. The copy paste and reading is fast from the USB cable that it comes along with is of pretty good quality. The weight of the player is not really a lot, its just nice, I wont call it as light as the shuffle but I think I find it lighter than the K550 SE that I have, I don’t have a ipod nano at home to compare it with on the aspect of weight but its not heavy to keep it simple. The back panel of the player is very sturdy and of great material supposes to be some titanium based material from what I had read on the net and it really feels that it can’t be scratched.
The top side of the player has a small key lock function which is very useful when you are on travel and the player is in your pocket so that there are no chances of you accidently switching off the player , or changing the song or something accidently.
[BREAK=After Booting IT]
[FONT="]After Booting the Player[/FONT]
Once you are into the player you have a host of options that you get to see to begin with music, FM, photo, settings, voice recording and video. All the divisions are self explanatory and you really don’t need to be a geek to understand them. The theme is a blue based and is pretty neat and clean, the font used is easy to read for a distance also and does not make it tiring while browsing through songs. The mechanical based dial that they have is also very nice at least for my pair of hands, I have no trouble using it, works like a charm for me even if used constantly. The browsing of the player is also nice , the songs are divided into albums , artists , all songs , year wise almost all the categories you could have thought of for day to day use the songs can be searched for that way.
Even after loading in the whole player with songs and videos to its limits the browsing does not slow down at all, though when u boot it up it takes a little time to refresh the data for the first time after which it is fast. After that I even loaded in a 2gb micro SD card into it which worked very nicely , the card be just used for music and not for pictures or videos , the browsing of the card is also not slow. There are a lot of equalizers that come loaded in, and we can even use our own customized settings. The sound recording feature, the FM player also does a very decent job and the FM reception is clear without any problems.
[FONT="]Playback and Battery Backup
[/FONT] The sound play back of this device is excellent, the various equalizers make the things better depending on your taste for music. The ear plugs that com along with it are decent as good as the ones paired in with the creative or the ipods , with the EP – 630 they sound even more cleaner and crisp. The bass produced on the ep -630 with these is good and there is no lack in sound if compared to any others. The video play back is also very nice, and the videos don’t blur or seem to be unclear in any other manner , the flow is right does not get stuck or anything in the middle. The player can actually easily play for 17 – 18 hours with all the fiddling on the settings, changing songs and again without any problem. Am sure a non stop play for 20 hours wont be difficult as claimed by them, I did not play videos at a stretch to verify the video play back time but it must be close to 5 hours as claimed by san disk .
[BREAK=Conclusion]
[FONT="]Conclusion[/FONT]
[FONT="]
The player is real value for money , it cost me a little less than 5.3 k shipped to my place. The player as of now on newegg comes with a free 1gb minisd card also which is a added bonus if you guys looking for it, because as soon as I got it from a Indian website the prices seem to have increased there , lucky me , but even via KMD it would cost you around that mark only. The player even can have replaced batteries at a cost of 13 – 14 $ which is pretty nice as batteries will die out for any device after 2 years or so. The player from what I have read can support upto 8gb of micro sd cards on one review on the net but nothing is clear about it, I have tested in the 2 gb card which works like a charm. The things that they could have done is provided better and more comfortable ear plugs, and make it even FLAC compatible , it can be done by the firmware change to the rockbox but the firmware has some issues with it as of now. To sum it up all am pretty happy with what I have got and would recommend it to people who just are looking for some good music lots of space and good portability. [/FONT]
Reps adde .. Congrats on the player 
, cause m getting one soon