SanDisk Sansa e140 (1 GB) MP3 Player

Currently sold for $90-120 with 1GB memory. Comes in silver, blue colors and with 512mb memory ($70-80).

After using 2 MP3-CD players, and some 2 RCA Lyra models I found that this one - is what I always wanted.

While the footprint is not as tiny as Nano, it is still a very small and light device. Its a "credit card" size, and as thick as a AAA battery. Very convenient button layout, and ergonomic design. Various extra features and playback options. SD expansion option would allow you to add up to 2 GB (or possibly even more if larger SD cards come out). Single AAA battery lasts for 6-10 hours if you don't use the sound effects and backlit display too much, while rechargeable is still an option (check capacity of your rechargeable batteries before you buy them).

Very good quality of FM Radio, if you have a good reception. Decent i-pod like ear-plugs with 2 extra sets of plastic thingies to fit the size of your ear, so keep them if you haven’t got better pair of headphones. By the way, your MP3s probably never sounded better since you get to customize the equalizer to your like. When the song plays, you can see the Artist's name, Track Name and the Album, elapsed and remaining time, bitrate etc.

I am also very happy with some other little things like custom equalizer, timer, configurable display, timeout and "sleep" option, SRS WOW sound effects similar to the ones you can find in the Windows Media Player. It comes with black arm-band and clear plastic case, which I could digest at first, but then I got to like it a lot. You don't have to take a player out of the case to replace the battery or to connect to USB. You'd have to take it out to replace the SD Card though.

Supports English, German, Italian, French, Spanish, Korean, Chinese and Japanese languages. Connects to your computer with USB2.0 and can be opened on your computer as an external drive (no drivers or interface are required). The transfer speed was not too bad.

few minor issues I've come across so far:

a) If your media is not properly tagged (such as album name is missing), you are likely to have those tracks played in alphabedical order (not by folder). So, either tag your media, or create playlist on your PC before moving your songs to this device.

b) If the player doesn't boot don't assume the battery is bad. Replace a battery with a new one, and let the old one "rest" in your bag or your pocket for couple of hours or even a day. The chances are the next time you'd use it the player would boot perfectly, and the "old" battery would play for 1-2 hours longer. In other words, through it away if it "dies" on you, not when it can't boot.

c) When use "shuffle" playback mode, the system would start from the "last played" track, but then would use a different algorithm every time you boot. In other words, it doesn't cycle through all songs completely if at some point you decide to shut it down. So every time you "shuffle" you'd hear some old and some new songs.

I hope this review helps, and if you buy it you'd be as happy with this player as I am.