If you want your MP3 player to be small and lightweight, you’ll need to go with a player that uses flash memory for storage. Hard drives — even the smallest ones — take up more space and add more weight. Hard drives also draw additional power, which in turn may require a larger battery, adding even more bulk to the player.
The Sansa brand from SanDisk has evolved into a highly competitive line of media players. The top-of-the-line Sansa e280 features 8 gigabytes of onboard flash, as well as a microSD slot that can accommodate another 2 gigabytes. With a total of 10 gigabytes, the e280 lets you carry an impressive amount of music and video. Best of all, the sound quality is top notch when combined with premium earphones or headphones.
My favorite feature is the ability to make uncompressed audio recordings from the built-in FM radio. The 16-bit stereo WAV files take up a whopping 220 megabytes per hour. Even so, it’s a great way to time-shift radio programs, such as A Prairie Home Companion, that broadcast at inconvenient hours.
On the downside, the e280’s video playback could be better. You have to convert any video files to a screen resolution, frame rate, and file format that will match the device. SanDisk makes the process relatively easy with the supplied conversion utility, however the resulting 208×160-pixel MOV video files are a bit jerky at a sub-par 15 frames per second. The bright 1.8-inch LCD screen is very good for a flash-based media player. Just don’t expect seamless video playback with this or similar-sized players.