SanDisk Sansa C250 2 GB

Author's product rating:   

Sound Quality	Poor
Ease of Use	Very Easy
Look & Design	Good
Range of Features	Excellent
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	Good extra features, easy to use
Disadvantages:	Bad screen, poor sound quality

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

This mp3 player is called the SanDisk Sansa C250, it is a budget mp3 player that offers upto 4Gb of space and has a good set of features, It is competing with many offerings from other companies but it's good set of features may just persuade you to buy this player as it offers great value for money when compared with other mp3 players in the same category.

SOUND QUALITY
The sound quality on this player is not the best but you could kind of gather that from the price that this little player costs. The sound is on budget quality and is not the best, the music can sound a little lacking in bass, as well as a little tinny on occasions which is quite annoying and the sound level is not great, you cannot turn this player up that loud, it does not have a good enough sound range for that. I'd say that the player offers average to poor sound quality, poor with the supplied earbuds and only slightly better with Sennheiser earbuds. All in all the sound quality is not a great selling point for this player.

LOOK & DESIGN
It looks alright, the player has a nice design which looks good. It is sort of medium in size and fairly flat, not to big and not to small if you like. It fits comfortably in any pocket which is good and it doesn't give you a huge bulging pocket. The player is rectangular in shape and has nice soft rounded corners and is a suitable for both men and women. Unfortunately there is no choice of which colour the player comes in but the black finish looks fairly good. The little player also seems well made and feels like it could survive being dropped on the floor or being sat on or whatever else may happen to it.

RANGE OF FEATURES
The player is good in this department and offers a good selection of features which is rather impressive for a budget player. Of course some of these little extras are not of the highest quality but they are still good nonetheless. The first good extra feature is the screen, often 2GB mp3 players don't have screens but this one does and although it is of poor quality it is still usable and makes it easier to navigate through lists of songs on the player. The player can record voice, useful in meetings and when you want to remember stuff. The recordings are not the best but they will do. The player also has an fm radio onboard which in my opinion is a must have on mp3 players, the fm radio is decent enough and serves its purpose well. The best feature though is the expansion slot. This is where a micro SD can be inserted into the player to extend its storage capacity upto 4GB. As this player can be bought for around £40 it is great value as micro SD cards can be picked up for around £15. That gives you a total cost of £55 for a 4GB mp3 player, great value considering the iPod Shuffle costs £55 as well and only offers 1GB and doesn't have many features at all. The player also has support to show pictures on it's small screen although they don't look great on it. The player doesn't have any video support on it but you probably wouldn't want it to considering the poor screen quality.

SUMMARY
Good value is what the player is built for, it offers good value for what it is, you don't get anything special with this player, it is basically a simple and basic player with average quality written all over it. Although there is a great set of extra features that other similar players don't have the players sound quality is disappointing. The menus are simple to use yet boring and they lack that cutting edge feel. For the price there is nothing to complain about but if you want a player of better quality you will have to be looking to spend a bit more but if your after a budget player with a good set of features this is a great option. But if you you want something with a bit more quality you'll probably have to look elsewhere as the sound quality on this player really lets it down.

Thanks for Reading, I have listed the specs of this player below for anyone who is interested.

Tech Specs
General
Product Type Digital player / voice recorder

Digital Player Type Flash based

PC Interface Supported Hi-Speed USB
Audio System
Capacity 2 GB

Digital Storage Media Flash memory - integrated

Sound Output Mode Stereo

Features Voice recording
Built-in Display
Built-in Display Colour

Colour Depth 65,536 colour
Digital Player (Recorder)
Supported Digital Audio Standards WAV, WMA, MP3, protected WMA (DRM)

Features PC Connection via USB
Connections
Connector Type 1 x USB ( 4 PIN USB Type A ) ¦ 1 x headphones ( mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm )

Slot Provided 1 x microSD
Battery
Battery - rechargeable

Included Qty 1
System Requirements
OS Required Microsoft Windows XP

Software Requirements Windows Media Player 10.0 or later

Peripheral / Interface Devices CD-ROM, USB port