SanDisk Sansa View (16 GB) Digital Media Player

Pros: Sleek design, sounds great, expandable memory, good display.
Cons: Costs almost as much as models with much more storage.

Almost a year ago, my son bought a S ansa e260 digital media player. To be honest, he never really liked the player, plagued as it was with glitches and issues getting his music to play. One day while out and about, he ...

Pros: Good sound quality, photo and video rendering
Cons: Cheap earbuds along for the ride

iPod, Sansa; iPod, Sansa; Sansa it is yet again. While most consumers are driven by the flashy looks and hardcore marketing campaign sponsored by Apple, many cost-conscious tech users have switched to Sansa in recent years. I recently wanted to ...

Pros: Easy-to-use software, good sound, good video.
Cons: Unimpressive ear buds, unreliable switch.

I bought my first View in December of 2007, and the on-off switch quit working within the first week. When I notified the vendor, they actually sent me a replacement View before I sent the defective one back.
Because I also received an mp3 player for Christmas that year, the View sat in a drawer for more than a year and a half.
I recently joined a gym, and the View's size made it perfect for use on a tread mill.
After two weeks of such light use, with the View tucked in a pocket on the tread mill, the on-off switch failed.
I can't recommend the View to anyone, based on my experience.

Pros: No special software, plays WMA & MP3, 16g + Micro SD.
Cons: Locks up.

I bought two of these about a year ago. Replaced the earbuds with headphones and music sounds great.

However, both devices have been plagued with lockup problems. The device will play music fine, but the display "locks up" on an image and all you can do is wait. Sometimes, it can be two minutes before the display "unlocks". Meanwhile, you cannot pause, skip to next song or adjust the volume. When it does unlock, it remembers all your steps and proceeds through them. Very frustrating.

I have formatted the drives, reloaded the music and updated the software in a futile attempt to end this problem. Since it is in both devices, I can only conclude that it is a manufacturer's flaw. If it is something I did wrong I would love to know what it is.

I cannot recommend this device.

UPDATE: I found my problem. It is true, the device will play MP3 and WMA formats. However, you cannot have them both on the device at the same time. I deleted all my MP3 files (about 25% of my songs) and replace them with WMA. The lockups quit.

Based on this, now I would recommend this device.

Pros: Great sound quality, photo, video rendering, memory expansion slot
Cons: earbuds aren't the greatest

I love how the Sansa Fuze and actually all Sansa MP3 players are ready out of the box pretty much. You can just plug it in and begin putting music on. No software to download. Plus Windows Media Player is fairly simple. No usual manual needed.

Features of the Fuze include:
1.9" color screen
FM radio
Built-in voice recorder
Memory expansion slot

I purchased my Sansa Fuze direct from the ShopSansa eStore at www.shopsansa.com so I could use a promo code they offered.

Overall I think the Sansa Fuze is a great MP3 player especially when you factor in cost and the unlimited memory capabilities with the expansion slot and microSD cards.

Pros: Nice player for the week that it (kinda) worked.
Cons: Horrible customer service. Buggy firmware.

Purchased New in box 16GB View from Ebay.
Experienced frequent lockups for about 1-1/2 weeks, After that the device would turn on but the screen would stay black. Tech support (Indian) confirmed that the device was dead. After stalling for weeks on my RMA request and getting emails not even related to my problem, I called Sansa to check the RMA status. They informed me that they would not replace the defective player because it did not ship in retail packaging.

(More Cons)
Kind of large for a flash based player.
Bigger than the old E series players. Manufacturer will not honor their warranty. Tech support has horrible english and did not always seem to grasp what you were saying. Indifferent management