The Sandisk Sansa 200 range is currently topped by the e270 which is the model we have for review. This is a 6gb flash memory MP3 player which measures 44 x 13 x 89 mm and weighs just 75 grams, it's not quite as thin as an iPod Nano but it's no fatty either. Styled in black with a large 1.8" screen and a rugged construction not seen on previous Sandisk products the Sansa E200 range is a serious bit of kit as opposed a cheapo challenger for the Nano.

Power up and the 1.8" 220 x 176 pixel LCD colour screen leaps into life and you get your first glimpse of what is a colourful and yet simple menu system, this is vital given that the e270 packs a feature list longer than an European parliament gravy train. The main user interface device is a wheel like control which mimics the iPod's click wheel but it differs in that this is a mechanical item and not a touch sensitive control. Instead you purposely wheel round through menus or dial through the content of the player in a more tactile fashion which can become a little hard work if you have lots of MP3's to get through.

The player supports MP3 and WMA audio files including the DRM wrapped WMA files used by many online music stores, the 6gb disk should be good for around 1500 tracks and these are transferred onto the unit using the USB 2.0 connection. Choosing files to play is child's play and we really took to the simple menu system and the blue glowing control wheel with its central selector button. Around the wheel are some traditional buttons which also have context sensitive functions when in certain playback modes. These are a bit cramped and we managed to hit them when using the wheel a few times and daily use isn't quite as ergonomically perfect as the iPod but we can forgive Sandisk this as the audio performance makes up for these small imperfections.

With the Sansa e270 hooked up to our Shire E2C's the sound was really very good across a whole range of music including LP's favoured Hammond grooves. Bass is tight and accurate while the mid range and top end add the detail to the music extracting the best you can from the compressed MP3 files, testing with 192kbit encoded files proved to be the best compromise of quality V's disk space. The only downside to the sonic quality was a background electronic whine which is really only noticeable when nothing is playing, which in itself shouldn't be an issue but it just annoyed us knowing it was there.

While playing the Sansa shows a rather good screen with all the track detail and the ID3 tag and even album art if it has been transferred over from your PC, when you are off navigating elsewhere and the item is still playing the track details scroll at he bottom of the screen which is a nice and thoughtful touch.

The finish of the Sandisk Sansa E200's deserves high prise and it's an area we rarely comment on. Sandisk have said this unit is built with liquidmetal? no that's not some sort of indie rock band it's the surface coating applied in particular to the rear of the player which means that our sample had no scratches. That's quite something given that all the press hacks which seem to be in the queue before Lordpercy normally dent, scratch and generally desecrate devices, but not the Sansa, which while not fresh as a daisy only had 2 scratches. This compared to all the shenanigans Apple had with the scratchy iPod!

Battery life is a stonking 20 hours playing a 128kbit file size, this is down to the good quality lithium ion battery which is also user replaceable meaning that the Sandisk unit may be a keeper for more than 18months. Tucked away on the right hand side of the player is a micro SD card slot which can be used to add another1gb of media to the Sansa which appears as an extra drive. This is a very weird feature as 1gb isn't really anything to write home about and the Micro SD format is only really used in mobile phones so it's not as if you are going to use your CF or MMC card from a digital camera so that you can view the photos.

That leads us on nicely to the extras, tucked in the attractive Sansa is an FM radio with recording feature (not Europe), voice recorder, limited video playback and a photo viewer. Sadly all media has be be pushed through the supplied software (including images, even JPEGS) before they can successfully be viewed on the Sandisk player.

Overall we were very impressed with Sandisks efforts and the Sansa E200 series is a worthy player for your attention and something a bit different to consider when looking at the more obvious iPod Nano and Creative V Plus. It's advantage should be price but at the time of writing the 6gb model is still being held at £154 which is iPod money. However Sandisk have confirmed that n 8gb model is due very soon and this will almost certainly lead to a price drop in the rest of the range which also includes 2gb and 4gb models.

Published - 20/08/2006

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