Weighing not much more than its power source (a single AAA battery), the Sansa m230 512 MB flash memory digital audio player is a full-featured, ultra-portable MP3 player. The m230 includes FM radio and voice recording, a backlit LCD screen that displays ID3 tag information, support for multiple file formats, and full compatibility with most subscription services.  | The Sansa M230 can hold eight hours of CD-quality MP3 tracks on its 512 MB memory.
Detailed view of the basic controls. | 
The Music LCD screen. | 
The FM Radio LCD screen. | 
Top Level Menu. |  | Take Your Music With You
The 512 MB Sansa M230 will hold approximately eight hours of CD-quality MP3 tracks (encoded at 128kps) or 16 hours of WMA tracks (at 64kbps). It's compatible with MP3, WMA, secure WMA, and Audible audio file formats. The backlit LCD screen shows ID3 tag information for the currently playing track (song title, artist and album). Navigate the music on your player with ease, sorting by artist, album, song title, playlist or other criteria. With five equalizer types, you can optimize your sound for your favorite style of music, such as, Rock, Jazz, Classical, Pop, and Custom (user-defined). Keep the music coming with up to 19 hours continuous playback using one AAA Battery. FM Radio
The M230 includes a digital FM radio tuner for portable radio listening. Easily access your favorite stations by adding them to one of the 20 presets. Voice Recording Included
Use the built-in microphone to capture interviews, classes, short notes to yourself, or anything else you might feel inspired to record. Peace of Mind With PlaysForSure
The SanDisk Sansa M230 digital audio player uses PlaysForSure technology. Look for the PlaysForSure logo if you want to make sure the digital music and video you purchase will play back on it every time. Match the PlaysForSure logo on a large selection of leading devices and online music stores. If you see the logo, you'll know your digital music will play for sure. Choose from a large number of digital music and video stores, including MTV's Urge, Rhapsody, Yahoo!, MSN Music, MusicMatch, MusicNow, Napster, Wal-Mart Music Downloads, and many more. Ease of Operation
To transfer songs to the Sansa, simply connect the device to your PC via the included USB 2.0 cable. The device will appear as a drive in the Windows Explorer. Just drag and drop your compatible music files and be on your way. Additionally, use a variety of music software to move licensed music to the device. Works with Windows XP and Windows Media Player 9 or later. What's in the Box
Sansa m230 MP3 Player, Earphones, Armband and Case, AAA battery, USB 2.0 travel cable, CD with User Manual, and Quick Start Guide.
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 No problems; significant advantages over iPod |
| Review Date: March 7, 2006 |
| Reviewer: Twain, |
The Sandisk Sansa is a small flash-based mp3 player that runs for many hours on a single AAA battery available wherever. It is so easy to use I did not and have not even looked at the instruction manual. The sound quality is really good and the price can't be beat.
As others have noted, the array of mp3 devices is really bewildering. Basically, there is iPod and everything else. Ultimately, this product seems to be the best of the "everything else" category - and there are some significant reasons why I think people are better off with this than with iPods. Firstly, and most importantly for me, the Sandisk player functions as a drag and drop drive into which you can just put your music files and they play right away. There is no proprietary interface such as iTunes required. This is a huge advantage for anyone who does not use or like iTunes, as I do not. Loading and unloading files can be done easily and seamlessly through the regular windows desktop interface. This results in a device that is considerably more useful and robust than iPods which require the use of the stupid and childlike, yet strangely frusterating, iTunes software - one of the biggest problems of which is that you can only use one computer at a time to sync to your music library. This is really not cool. If, however, you want to use a designated piece of software to sync to the Sandisk, you can use musicmatch or a number of others and it works without any of the hassle of iTunes. In fact, with one click, you can sync whatever is playing on your Musicmatch playlist to the player... something that I never really figured out how to do with iTunes. Furthermore, you can easily use the flash memory to hold any other kind of file just like a pen drive.
In the end, I can only attribute the success of iPods to their marketing blitz and to their kind of catchy designs. But these are not really good reasons to buy a music player. I had an iPod for a while before I spilled coffee all over it and I don't miss it one bit. I only wish I had gotten one of these sooner and had given away my iPod to someone who likes them instead of the unfortunate end that it met. I think if you buy one of these you won't regret it. It's not quite as tiny as the iPod shuffle and it does require AAA batteries but it is a much more useful piece of equipment. |
Great Product but recommend the next one up
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| Review Date: March 24, 2006 |
| Reviewer: M. Barnett, Michigan |
I love the quality of the Sansa M230. My only regret is that I didn't spend the extra on the next model up. Although the advertisement and manual say 120-240 songs, realistically I've only got about 100-110 on it and it's full. It's possible I'm ripping at too high a quality...128-160 kbs. In all fairness though, I knew going into it that I only needed 11 or 12 CDs on the player at a time. After a week or two I get tired of them and re-sync using Windows Media Player v10. The sync process was the hardest part to figure out but once I got that down it's great. You can also drag and drop to and from the player through Windows Explorer. Windows sees the player as just another drive but you cannot create playlists with this method. As far as quality, sound and features go it's simple and fantastic.
Update May 1, 2006 - Ripping from CDs at 96kbs is very adequate. The quality is still very good and you can fit significantly more music on this device....that is 150-200 tunes. |
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