SanDisk portable media players
The SanDisk Sansa is a line of flash memory based digital audio players produced by SanDisk.
Current models
Sansa Express
The Sansa Express has a built-in USB connector and a 1.1" OLED display, microSD slot, FM tuner and a microphone for voice recording. It is currently available at a retail price of $59 in a capacity of 1GB. A 2GB version is expected to launch in the future. The Express comes with an internal battery that charges when connected to a USB port. However, the Express cannot be considered as a descendant of the c200 series, as it does not has picture support.
Sansa Shaker
The Sansa Shaker is a kid-friendly DAP and comes in colors of blue and pink and a SD card slot. (A 512MB card would be included.) The tubular shape is designed for the smaller hands of children. The Shaker plays approximately 15 hours of music with an AAA battery, and has twin headphone jacks and a built-in speaker, which is intended for sharing music with friends. so that children can share music with a friend. Besides using the controller band, the Shaker will randomly skip to another song when shaken. When the memory card is taken out, the Shaker is rumoured to emit an "uh-oh" sound.
Sansa Connect
The Sansa Connect is a Wi-Fi-enabled player that allows the user to connect to any open network in the area. The Mono/Linux-based device has a 2.2" TFT LCD screen, but unlike SanDisk's previous player, the e200 series, the Sansa Connect does not have the ability to play video or tune to FM radio. The player was developed by ZING Systems in collaboration with SanDisk and Yahoo!, which provides music streaming via LAUNCHcast radio and a subscription download service. Uploading or downloading pictures to Flickr is also possible with the device. The Sansa Connect is currently available in most countries, in capacities of 4GB (expandable with microSD cards, giving the player up to an extra 2GB) At the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show, the Sansa Connect won the Best of Show award.[1]
Sansa View
The Sansa View is SanDisk's first attempt at a portable media player. This 8GB device is 0.66 inches thick and a large 4" widescreen display, with built-in speakers. The player displays photos and plays music and videos, and it is equipped with an expansion slot for flash memory cards. Like other Sansa players, the Sansa View is Playsforsure-certified.
e200 series
The e200 is the flagship product from the Sansa series. It features a 1.8” (4.6 cm) TFT color display. It enables the user to view pictures (JPEG format) and watch movies in QuickTime format (.mov) through conversion on the Sansa Media Converter. The player comes in 2 GB (e250), 4 GB (e260), 6 GB (e270), and 8 GB (e280) capacities. The MSRP is contengent upon the capacity it holds.
The e200's display is a 220 x 176 resolution. It can display album cover art while playing songs through ID3 tags via your music management program.
The e200 Series feature a user-replaceable rechargeable lithium ion battery, an expansion slot for microSD, an FM tuner (in North America), FM recording and voice recording. Players have a liquidmetal titanium alloy backing. The FM tuner and recorder are not available in some parts of Europe.
The microphone can record up to a couple hundred hours of voice data in the e280. (in 2 hour incriments, since it records in low kbps WMA)
Many new accessories were released in late 2006 [1] through the "Made for Sansa" program.
e200R series
The e200R is released in October 2006 and is physically identical (besides model number markings) to that of the regular e200. This player is sold exclusively at Best Buy, or directly through Rhapsody. The main differences in the e200R in the Firmware. The different firmware has 2 main differences.
The e200R has Rhapsody Channels capabilities (which is similar to podcasting through the Rhapsody program). The 2nd difference is that the Rhapsody Firmware also renames the USB tansfer modes from MTP to "PlaysForSure" and MSC to "Rhapsody".
The e200R comes pre-loaded with content from Rhapsody. Preloaded images, music, and Rhapsody Channels are included in this content. In the e250R the pre-loaded content takes up roughly 1.0 GB. However in the e260R and higher the pre-loaded content takes up roughly 2.0 GB of space. To erase all this preloaded content simply format the device in Rhapsody mode to fully erase everything (doing this manually through the folders often leaves things behind).
The Firmware to the Rhapsody player only works on the Rhapsody player, the fimwares are not interchangeable between the e200 and the e200R. In other words, you cannot apply a e200R firmware to a normal e200 to turn it into an e200R series player.
c200 series
The c200 has a removable Lithium-ion battery, FM tuner and voice and FM recorder, 1.4" color display, and a microSD™ slot for expansion up to 2 GB. It was also designed to be compatible with many of the e200 series accessories, such as the docking bay. The c200 is available in 1 GB and 2 GB sizes. The c200 is NOT compatable with audible files audible.com like the c100.
m200 series
The m200 series has four models: m230, m240, m250, m260, which hold 512 MB, 1 GB, 2 GB, and 4 GB respectively (the m260 is no longer produced). The players have a built-in FM tuner and microphone It is compatible with MP3, WMA, and Audible (.aa) audio file formats.
Discontinued models
c100 series
File:C100.jpg
The c100 series players have color displays and are able to show cover art and small picture thumbnails. They are 1 GB or 2 GB of capacity.
e100 series
File:E100.jpg
The e100 series is the least expensive series. The MP3 player features a black&white screen with blue backlight, FM tuner with 20 presets, SRS WOW technology, an SD expansion slot for cards with up to 4 GB size, internal memory of 512 MB or 1 GB depending on the model, and uses a single AAA battery for power. It supports MP3, WMA and Audible file formats. [2]
Marketing campaigns
In May 2006[2] SanDisk launched an anti-iPod campaign labelling iPod users as iSheep, iChimps, etc. These campaigns featured graffiti-type posters around urban areas and a website, iDont.com. SanDisk has since replaced the iDont campaign with LilMonsta.com.
Maki Goto, a Japanese pop artist has also endorsed the SanDisk Sansa e200 series in a full length promotional video featuring one of her songs.[3]
References