The Sansa m250 is a great mp3 player for the price. I use to own an I-pod mini and when the space ran out, I bought the Sansa. At first I was hesitant of the new MP3 player, I really liked my Ipod. However, I found the features offered on the sandisk product gave it the edge over the I-pod.

Pros-

*The voice recorder and FM radio/ recorder.
These features are great, considering I'm a college student. If I need to remember important parts of lecture/ hear myself give a speech, I can always turn the player ( which I use to play music while studying) into an academic tool. I also enjoy the FM radio. At first I didn't use it much ( I figured the quality would be crap and I wouldn't pick up any stations) But I found the reception quite good for some of my favorite stations. The MP3 player also gives you an option to record the FM broadcasts, ( also a plus since I hear a song I like but never can remember the lyrics to find out the song). The playback is pretty grand, although it varies on the audio/ reception quality of the FM station. The draw back is when I go to load the music/voice I recorded off of the MP3 player onto the computer, I convert it to MP3 since it only records in Wav format.

*The SD mini slot.

This is what hooked me into buying the player. I get 4Gs and I have option to add more MUSIC storage space, which the I pod mini I owned didn't have. I currently have a 4G mini SD in there, worked with no issues and I can load it w/o having to take it out of the system. Now I have 8G, and it didn't cost me an arm and a leg.

*You can copy and remove songs to your computer unlike I-POD. That's right, , why should I have to download programs just to rip it to my computer or another computer I own, or a friends computer?. I don't have to worry with sansa because I can go into my own MP3 player (without using awful I-tunes) to edit and copy my media files. This is a plus with any other MP3 players other than i-pods but I thought I'd bring it up!

Ok so there are some Cons-

*The navigation

Navigation, going from the I-pod to the Sansa, was a bit tricky. It's not as flowing as the I-pod but after using it for a while you get the hang of it quick. I don't like that I have to go to a menu from my current song playing to press an option to get back to the list of songs (unlike the I-pod mini with one click) but it's only a step extra and I'll put up with it any day of the week for the storage.

*navigation buttons

I like the wheel on the sansa, I enjoy that I can actually feel it turning unlike the I pod. Just that there is no way to turn off the blue wheel light ( which can be distracting if I'm a passenger in a car at night, or lying in bed listening to music.) I can try to avoid turning on the wheel light by using the navigation buttons on the side of the wheel instead of said wheel, BUT the buttons are hard to press. So I deal with the wheel light ... the plus is I can always turn the brightness of the screen down. or cover the bright wheel up while someone is driving (:


So there you have it, I enjoy the sansa e260! It's closer to the i-pod in functionality than other MP3 players I've seen and used AND if has extra features to boot. Also, I enjoy that I don't have to buy a whole new player to get more storage. So if you're looking for affordable MP3 player with something more to it than an i-pod (like space and access to your music), give this a go, in my opinion it is worth the money. And If you find something better (for the price), let me know.

-ericka