SanDisk Sansa m230 (512 MB) MP3 Player

I decided to buy first MP3 player after finding out how reasonably priced the non-Apple brand players are now. I saw that Circuity City had these on sale for $64.99, so I went to Best Buy (Because I had gift cards from Christmas) and had Best Buy Price Match Circuit City. This was nice because they match the price plus 10% of the difference. My purchase price ended up being around $59 before tax. Although there are some great deals on eBay for the same thing. I just thought I would share with you the price I paid so you can compare prices for it wherever you decide to purchase it.

Now onto the Pros and Cons of the unit...

Pros-

Small and compact

Voice Recorder built in.

Flash Memory instead of Hard Drive. Better for Running with.

512mb ideal for fast and simple transfers. I didn't want a huge amount of
memory just for a 2 hour workout.

Comes with the armband, headphones, USB cable AND one AAA battery to start you out with.

Acutally can play FM stations, unlike a lot of the other brands out there. Very nice for picking up the TV stations at the Gym.

Sandisk website has Firmware updates which are easy to install and update your player. Do this first when you buy one as it deletes all your stuff in the process.

Backlit, Equalizer, Shuffle, etc. are also nice little features.



Cons-

Small buttons sometimes hard for large fingers.

FM receiver a little weak indoors.

Wearing this unit with the supplied armband is a little bulky because of it's shape is like a lipstick container. Unlike some of the more flat models out there.

Menu takes a little getting used to, but has optional features that make it more simplified if needed. (ie. advanced menu & smart menu on/off)



All in all, I really can't think of many things that are terribly wrong with this MP3 player. It is doing well for me and I am planning on grabbing another one for my wife before the sale ends. I was stuck between this model and the e130 model with the expandable Sandisk SD slot, but I like this one for it's voice recording and compact size. I like Sandisk's customer support 800 number. They were really helpful on a couple of features that I was trying to figure out.

If I can offer one bit of advice about purchasing MP3 players, don't buy more memory than you absolutely need. The transfer times for some of these 30GB players is insane from the people I talk to. Figure out when and how long you will listen to it at a time and go from there. I like being able to quickly change all of the tracks. I actually use the MusicMatch Program for Windows XP, and it works very well with this unit.

Anyway, thanks for reading, and enjoy whatever unit you decide to buy.