klb3284's Full Review: SanDisk Sansa m230 (512 MB) MP3 Player
A couple weeks ago, I was very excited to find this mp3 player on sale at Best Buy for $40. I thought it was a great deal, and I decided it was finally time to get a portable music device. Here's what I found.
The Sansa m230 mp3 player is the best cheap mp3 player out there. Its user-friendly menu, quality sound playback, and ease of transferring and playing music make this the best low-priced bang for buck player on the market. However, the low price does have its drawbacks. The limited size, 512 MB or 10 CDs at 128 kb/s, leaves one wishing that more songs could be put on the player. Also, Sansa does not make drivers for other operating systems besides for XP.
OUT OF THE BOX
Out of the box the player comes with headphones (as shown above), 2.0 high-speed USB cord, one AAA battery, a cd-rom with extra features (user manual, etc), and a convenient, scratch-proof carrying case, complete with a velcro carrying strap.
THE PLAYER
The m230 has a menu/power button and menu button on top, play/pause, forward, backward, repeat, and selection button on the face, and a lock button the bottom. Its dimensions are about 3 inches long x 1 1/2 inches wide x 3/4 inch thick. The LCD screen is about 1 1/2" x 3/4" and easy to read. The LCD screen conveniently lights up in the dark when you press any button (like a cell phone), so you can see what track you're selecting. On the left side is the headphone jack and the USB connection port. The microphone is located on the bottom.
COMPATIBILITY
As mentioned earlier, if you are a Macintosh enthusiast or if you're running an older version of Windows, you're out of luck. I found this out the hard way. Despite it not being written anywhere on the exterior packaging, this mp3 player is only compatible with Windows XP, and my laptop runs Windows 2000. Luckily I can use it on my desktop. Also, many of the subscriber download songs don't work. I have a few songs downloaded from the Walmart site that the m230 won't play. However, if you convert the songs to .wav format and back to .mp3 format, then they will play. It does support Microsoft PlaysForSure Downloads.
EASE OF USE
This is an extremely easy mp3 player to use. File transfer is simple, and the menu is very use. As soon as I plugged it in, I could start transferring my music over using the drag and drop method. Two minutes later I took it out of the USB port, pressed play, and all my favorite songs were readily accessible. The menu is well done and easy to navigate, so you can sort songs according to artist, album, title, genre, or custom made playlists. The shuffle mode also makes it nice when you want to mix things it up a bit.
SOUND QUALITY
At first the sound comes out a little flat, but after messing with the equalizer, you can really bring the music to life. I hooked it up to my home stereo and even at high volumes the sound was fairly good quality. The volume, unfortunately, doesn't get too loud, but still loud enough to hear in public places.
HEADPHONES
The headphones have decent sound and are comfortable enough for extended listening. However, the style (earbud) may not fit some people's ears.
FM RADIO
This neat little device also serves as an FM radio, voice recorder, and flash drive. The FM radio doesn't get the best reception, so it's probably best suited for users in metropolitan areas. Unfortunately, you can't record the radio.
VOICE RECORDER
The voice recorder has excellent quality and the files are fairly compressed to allow for lengthy recordings. However, it does not record too loud, so you might not want to use it in large rooms. Also, as this mp3 player works off a flash memory chip, it also works as a flash drive. This makes transferring files from computer to computer very convenient.
BATTERY LIFE
It only requires one AAA battery, and the first two batteries I went through lasted more than ten hours each. Not bad for one AAA battery. Also if you want to preserve battery life, you can turn off the backlight for the LCD screen.
This is a great mp3 for those who don't need huge amounts of memory and want to save some money. Just don't be disappointed when all-to-soon the following message box appears: "Error, not enough memory." I would definitely recommend this over the iPod Shuffle, mainly because of the lower price and LCD screen.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
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