Sansa MP3 player smokes iPod nano for $39.99 shipped

Though the Sansa e260 has way more features than the iPod nano, it's $60 less.

(Credit: Buy.com)

A refurbished 4GB iPod nano will run you $99. A refurbished 4GB SanDisk Sansa e260 will run you $39.99--shipped, no rebates--at Buy.com. End of post!

Well, okay, maybe you need more incentive than a $60 savings. The e260 features a microSD slot for adding more storage, an FM tuner/recorder, a voice recorder, subscription-service compatibility, and a removable battery. The iPod nano features, well, none of those.

CNET lurved the e260, awarding it 4 stars out of 5. I have the virtually identical e280, and apart from its so-so scroll wheel and buttons, it's an excellent media player. Alas, it's not compatible with Amazon's Unbox video service (rats!), so there's no easy way to stock it with movies or TV shows. If you can live with that shortcoming, this is an impossibly good deal.

[goober_nut]

I'm glad to actually see someone who's not totally in love with Apple no matter how much more the cost is for a better music player.
I have a similar model as listed above and love it. It's great for the FM tuner for the gyms that have TVs so you can watch TV if you get tired of your music or see something interesting.

[b_baggins]

That's not it at all. It's just someone trying to prove their superiority by rejecting the popular. Happens all the time.

[hockeybandit]

You get what you pay for. I have an e260 and an iPod.

Yes, the media player is good for audio, but that's it. You have to use Sansa's media converter to get video on it and it is slow, combersome, and the files are HUGE when done.

iTMS might not be perfect, but is sure is a LOT better than Sansa's version. Also, I can't find a decent media player to sync my Sansa to. Tried Yahoo! Jukebox, Winamp, WMP11. Crashes galore. Sansa should come out with their own instead of depending on third party junk.

[rickbroida]

I agree completely, but if you take video out of the equation, the Sansa delivers a lot more bang for the buck. IMHO, of course.

[il_pirata]

Bought one for my wife and she loves it. Works seamlessly with rhapsody.

[Randmuser]

Uh, does it sync with iTunes? ... Though so.

[rickbroida]

Actually, there's a free utility called iTunes Sync that enables non-iPod players to sync with the program. You can't copy videos or DRM-protected tunes, but MP3s and playlists are fair game.

[gsekse]

I guess I'm old school, I never "sync" anything I have, I just load my memory card with the files I want and go on about my business. What is so important about "sync"ing? Is it like texting, another way of doing the same thing, ie: calling someone and saying "hello"?

[Tronman161]

Same with me, actually I just wrote my own program to randomly select X Megabytes/Gigabytes worth of music off my hard drive and transfer it to my MP3 Player. Unfortunately, not all MP3 players are mountable as drives, or take memory cards (mine does), so I think that is the case where syncing becomes necessary, because you have to use their software to transfer files to the device at all. I assume this is in part to restrict copying of DRM'd files.

[junkemail]

"syncing" with your iPod means that when you plug it in, it puts all of the music that's in your iTunes on it, automatically, without doing anything. It's far easier than manually putting songs on a card, etc... iTunes keeps your songs/playlists with ease, and "syncs" with your iPod, again, without doing anything. It's just an ease of use issue. It's not "another way of doing the same thing", it's much easier, more convenient, etc...

[Kev Orng]

I think syncing is ideal for people who want to keep multiple playlists. So you can make a Gym playlist, a driving music playlist, a family-safe playlist, whatever you want. Then if you want to adjust them, add or remove particular tracks, you can do it easily with your mouse on your computer rather than fiddling with your player or making subfolders in windows explorer.

Then you plug in and it syncs.

I'm kind of old school about a lot of things as well, but when I'm at the gym, I only want to hear certain music, and when I'm driving, I'd like a somewhat different selection of music, and so forth. Sync capabilities make this super easy. I'd consider playlist syncing to be a vital feature for a new music player.

Now, a lot of these players do have some kind of software for syncing, or they work with Windows Media Player, or whatever. But the software is usually Windows only, with the Mac option basically being Drag-and-Drop your files, if anything. Since my primary home computer is a Mac, then Mac-compatible syncing is a vital feature for me. So until these other manufacturers provide cross-platform software, I'm always going to choose an iPod. But that's just me.

[mreiher]

I think the thing that reviews often seem to ignore is the overall user interface, the product quality, and the overall user experience a product can provide. They tend to look at feature lists and price and make a determination of competitiveness.

Where Apple wins is with the simplicity of the software in an iPod and how easy it is to stay up-to-date on software and content with a click of the button. Same goes for the iPhone.. the software and user experience is what makes it great. I'll gladly pay the extra for the simplicity Apple brings to the market.

[rickbroida]

I agree 100%: Apple has the edge in this department. It all depends on what you consider important and what you're willing to pay. For example, I'm a runner, and I sometimes like to listen to NPR instead of music. Thus, I need an MP3 player with an FM tuner. The Sansa has one; the nano doesn't. Plus it's $60 cheaper. Taking other factors out of the equation, it's a no-brainer.

[hockeybandit]

I know you don't HAVE to sync, you can always copy files to it using Windows Explorer. But how do you get playlists on it? So you have to have a third party app. It is also easier to organize a library and manage your device. I would LOVE Yahoo! Jukebox, but it crashes too often.

And most average users don't want to move files and do everything manually...

[j_a_s_p_e_r]

Either use Rhapsody, Napster or Windows Media to manage playlists

[protagonistic]

Yet another disappointing "me too" article. When are you reviewers ever going to learn that it is not about the feature list. Most people want something they can learn to use without carrying around a 10 pound manual. Admittedly, I have not used a Sansa, but then my only iPod is 5 years old.

When I shop for electronic devices the most important factors are does it have the features I need, and is it easy to use. Maybe one day you reviewers will figure that out and stop focusing on the feature list. But I am not going to hold my breath on that one.

[rickbroida]

I agree that iPods are incredibly easy to use. However, this is not a review: It's a post about a great deal for people who like great deals. :)

[goober_nut]

It is a very easy to use player. Sure it's not the iPod, but it doesn't require a 10 lb. manual to figure out how to use it.

[b_baggins]

rick, just a basic lesson in economics.

It's $60 less for a reason. That reason is, the demand is so low, you have to drop the price by that much to move the product.

[wasimraja1982]

We all understand that Sansa demands are much lower than ipod's and I dont think we need to worry about the fact that they actually reduce prices since demand is low. Who cares anyway? The point is you can get an mp3 player that is cheap and that it can do lot more things than its costlier competitors. Price:Value ratio. Sansa rules here.


Too bad that it has only 90 days warranty.

[Zen-Masta]

mreiher have you used windows media player? Well I have for a long time and with several pmp's including a sansa (not this model a cheaper one) and the stay up to date with content witha click of a button applies to more than just apple. Windows media player can be set to sync on connection without actually clicking things, windows update will update without clicking anything. Real Rhapsody updates automatically and can sync on connection. Zune can sync over wifi or by usb and it syncs automatically or manually per user configuration. I used all these 3 services so I'm not just going off of information you can find on the web. So yeah other people are competing. Go ahead and pay the extra for the premium Apple charges for the same features other companies are offering too.

[ibeetle]

I curious. You say that Apple is charging premium for the same features found on similar players?

4GB iPod $149
4GB Zune $149
4GB Samsung P2 $179
4GB Sony NWZ-A816 $149

So where is this more expensive premium that Apple is charging?

[Kev Orng]

I agree with iBeetle. When I was in the market, I carefully considered all my music player options, including price, features and compatibility. Barring random refurb deals like the one this article is about, I didn't find sufficient differences in price or specs to make any one more attractive than the others (this was also pre-Zune, or at least pre-Zune-in-Canada but I don't see much difference there either). So my decision came down to other factors: usability, and OS compatibility. These are why the iPod won the sale for me. The price was no different, or at least not sufficiently different, so it was not even a factor.

[ibeetle]

This article is pure Yellow Journalism and iPod bashing for the sake of sensationalist headline and just because someone needed an opportunity to bash the iPod.

The level of inaccuracy and misleading information is such that I would go so far to say that this article and it's writer is a complete embarrassment to c|net.

[j_a_s_p_e_r]

What is inaccurate in the article? At the price it smokes a nano. I guess since your handle is ibeetle you have an fixed ipinion in your imnd

[rickbroida]

Hmmm. Could you give me at least one example of "inaccurate and misleading information"? There's none that I'm aware of. Also, not sure I really "bashed" the iPod. In fact, I love my iPod touch almost as much as I love my children (some days are closer than others). Ultimately, anyone shopping for a flash-based media player would be nuts not to consider one that's 60 bucks less than the equivalent iPod, yet offers way more features.

[Kev Orng]

I agreed with you on your previous comment but now I don't. I found nothing misleading or inaccurate in this article at all. And this from a guy who's household has twice as many iPods as people

[b_baggins]

what's misleading is the implication that the sansa is equivalent to the nano but $60 less.

If the author understood economics, he/she would know that the reason the Sansa is $60 less is because the demand is so low, that's the price point needed to move the product.

[hockeybandit]

@ Zen-Masta-

I know there are other players with other interfaces, but my personal experience with the INTERFACE to the e260 has been crap. The interface experience is just as important as listening to music on the player.

The business model for a Windows Media player needs to be fixed. A company like Sansa can get a bad rep on their players because they depend on third parties (Microsoft, Yahoo!, Winamp) to get music on their players (from an average user perspective). What is the incentive for those third parties? All the software you can get free!

By having Apple responsible for the hardware AND software, they are in total control of the ENTIRE experience. If there is a mess up, they will fix it and not depend on a third party at risk of ruining their brand.

I actually like my Sansa e260. But the process of getting music on it is terrible. I want playlists, therefore I HAVE to sync. I'm guessing most people would want playlists on a player that can hold 1000+ songs.

Sansa needs to step up and release their own software to sync. Period.

[ausernamenoonehaschosen]

I tried, using online help files and everything and couldn't get my old sansa to sync with WMP the way I was hoping. It only does a complete refresh, which is rather ridiculous.

Also, you have obviously never used the Zune software or Rhapsody, Zen. I took 30 minutes of trying and failing before I uninstalled them from my computer. Zune is featureless, and using Rhapsody is not a pleasing experience (won't even begin). WMP and iTunes are the only viable versions of music management software.

[leganx]

Good deal. I got a Sansa fuze recently and love it. It tops the nano.
Paying premium for just a name? that's crazy.

And features are important to me. I never had problem synching with WMP. People love itunes, but itunes is not unique on being easy.

[j_a_s_p_e_r]

I bought one this morning even before reading the blog
Worth the price. Rhapsody allows up to 3 portable devices with their unlimited $15 per month plan. Not great for video, but works well enough with subscription audio

[goober_nut]

Who really in their right mind wants to watch video on such a small screen? (I'm talking about the iPod too...well not the touch). I buy an MP3 player for the ability to play music on and a TV to watch video on. So, who really cares about how good the video is or if you can get video on your MP3 player?

[FWPunk]

Wow, it really pisses the Apple crazy's off for somebody to point out how they paid way to much for an mp3 player.

I've had a E280(the same thing just 4 more gigs) works great! They have this model too just twenty bucks more!

http://www.buy.com/prod/sandisk-sansa-e280-8gb-mp3-player-fm-tuner-fm-on-the-fly-recording/q/loc/111/206531557.html

[swingerofbirches]

The Sansa has a 90 day warranty. The refurbished iPod nano has a 1 year warranty. Also notice in the video on the buy.com site the unit comes with a huge stamp on the back that says REFURB. Apple refurbished products are not marked in this way. In the refurbishing process, if a metal piece is scratched, a new piece is put in. We design them to look and act brand new, which is why they are eligible for the same AppleCare Protection Plan as brand new iPods. The iPod nano deal, IMO, is solid. The Sansa also looks fine for those who want more features (more features is not a feature to everyone, though).

[cp256]

I bought a 260 for my daughter quite some time ago. I asked her how she liked it and she said it was great. She didn't care if she had an ipod. I was happy about that as I have never liked companies that milk sheeple with proprietary technology. Me? I still have my ancient Frontier Labs Nex II that shares CF cards with my cameras and it still works just fine. If I happen to need tunes somewhere I don't want to take one of my notebooks, I load or whip up a playlist in winamp and save it to a temp dir, then run a perl script I wrote to upload the mp3s to the Nex, pre-sorted to play as I want. Yeah, this is on windoze. Sync? No thanks, I prefer to tell my gizmos exactly what I want them to do.

I'm sure I'll pick up a good bluetooth enabled non-phone mp3 player one of these days, but I like cobbling up my own solutions that work just the way I want them to work.

[gtbrian22]

I am tired of all these Apple fanboys whining and complaining on these boards. BOO HOO! At least your iPod is unable to gauge your ignorance and stupidity.

[posershadow]

The iPod fails in that it requires you to use iTunes and uses proprietary connections. The Sansa also uses a proprietary connection but doesn't required a mandatory service to load music. I personally like using my MP3 players in the same way i use a USB flash drive. Quite simply, not everybody in the world will want to use iTunes, but Apple requires it with the iPod. To the Apple fanboys above, you may want your playlists, but there are just as many people out there that don't want playlists. You are a bit short sighted by saying since you like your playlists, that everybody else will like playlists just like you. You people are a bunch of sheep. Instead of trying to fix issues you have, you wait for Cupertino to issue the fix. Plainly you people are tethered to the mothership. The iPod is overpriced by around $60, which isn't bad considering iMac's are around $1000 overpriced, but still however you slice and dice it, Apple products are overpriced. You guys just play stupid when people start naming off features that the Apple products don't have. The Sansa has every feature the iPod has and more, yet its cheaper and you guys have the audacity to say, oh well not everyone wants those features. Well for God's sake, you are getting the Sansa for a lower price in the first place, so who wouldn't enjoy the extra features, they're free! Come on smug complacent Apple fanboys, get rid of the egos. I'm ashamed to admit that I simply don't care for Apple, first it was AOL now it's Apple. More then the company I really disagree with the majority of it's customers that have this "you use a pc? your soooo a sheep of the government"-type of attitude. To me apple is a company that takes a concept, makes it somewhat idiot proof (I've seen my fair share of broken iPods) and calls it revolutionary. Afterwards we have the army of zombies claiming individuality left and right with the strong need to buy what everyone else is buying..... yes my friend your truly one of a kind.

[AllenKids]

Naaa, looks butt ugly to me, Sandisk can make a decent DAP with the advantage of maybe the cheapest flash chip.

what I don't get is: how can they make things so ugly and expect people want to buy one? With a tight budget people may have to buy one though...

[hockeybandit]

Man, you Windows Fanboys really come out of the woodwork when someone mentions Apple. Let's give some examples:

PlaysForSure = Dead
Urge = Dead
Zune = Soon to be dead

Microsoft CANNOT compete with Apple through indirect means. Zune is their latest attempt to COPY Apple. They even said they're changing their business model to more reflect Apple's!
I know I payed a little more for an Apple, but you know what? It doesn't crash. My e260 crashes my WinXP box and the player continuously reboots. Who do I go through for sync support? Sansa? I don't think so.

If iTMS isn't working, go to Apple. If iPod doesn't work, go to Apple. Problem solved. Word.

[oxrandyyxo]

The Zune is soon to be dead? Didn't they out-sell the iPod last Christmas?

I'm not a fan of either Microsoft or Apple. They are both just companies that want to make a sale. I can't see why anyone pledges such an allegiance to one or the other.