SanDisk Sansa View 16 GB Video MP3 Player (Black)

All I can say the View is !!wow!!!, specially after I replaced the headphones it came with for the Nexxtec Ultimate. It really brought the full sound forward, heard every instrument. I am really happy with it.

I've been using the 16 GB Sansa View for a little over 2 weeks now. I am genuinely impressed with it so far.

For starters, there's been a lot of talk about this unit freezing up after being on for a while. My Sansa arrived with the new firmware installed already. Needless to say, I haven't had any such problems.

The battery life isn't as great as Sandisk claims, but it does get better after several full charge/discharge cycles. The first time I used it, it died after about 3-4 hours of music playback. At this point I can get around 8-9 hours out of it. Hopefully it gets close to the claimed 35 hours one day...

This player is pretty small, though it is bigger than an iPod Nano. It never feels like it's bulging out of your pocket, so no complaints there. It looks very slick and the piano black finish is a nice touch, though it's a fingerprint magnet. Getting a protective cover is recommended.

The layout of the controls is great, but takes some getting used to. Although the layout is very similar to that of an iPod, a few of the functions are opposite. So if you're switching from an iPod to this, be prepared to stumble for a few days.

The overall user interface is very simple and thus makes navigating all the features a breeze. The addition of the "home" button is a big plus. It allows you to easily switch from whatever menu you are in and the home screen. Pressing it again brings you to the "now playing" screen. This is a small gripe with the player. I wish the home key allowed you to toggle between the home screen and any other menu back and forth. It's a very, very minor issue, but it can get very tedious if you are changing the wallpaper, and you hit home to see what it looks like, but if you want to try another wallpaper, you have to go through about 5 menus to get back to it. It would be nice if hitting the home key from the main screen took you back to that same menu item each time. No biggie. Two other minor issues with the View's UI are as follows. 1) You are not able to scroll alphabetically through your lists. Trust me, this can get pretty annoying if you have several hundred (or more) artists/albums/etc and you have to scroll through the entire alphabet. I'm surprised this feature wasn't included. 2) You cannot fast-forward in the songs. This is usually not an issue, but it would be good if you could skip over those annoying intros that are found in some songs.

The player is easily connected to a computer via a proprietary USB cable. Synching with Windows Media Player is simple enough (or you can copy and paste your music directly into the player), so filling up your View will take no time at all.

Another unfortunate aspect of this player is the low variety of accessories. Don't expect to walk into Best Buy or Circuit City and get an official Sansa View accessory there (other than cases possibly). They are out there on the internet though. I've seen all the essentials (FM tuners, AC/car chargers, cases, and even A/V cables), and plan on trying them out soon.

As for the other features, I can't provide much feedback. I have not tried putting videos on it, nor have I tried the voice recorder. Photos do look great on this little screen though.

Overall, I am extremely satisfied with this player. The few minor issues are just that, minor. It's packed full of features and comes at a relatively low price. I would definitely buy this again.

Sandisk has long had a name for its flash memory. Sandisk has also been in the mp3 player market for quite some time now. It's latest offering, the Sansa view makes a serious effort to compete in to the video side of the market.
At first sight, the player appears to have had a major increase in size from its predecessor, the e200. This is further emphasized by the excellent video playback the unit offers. Yet the screen size is only up by 0.6 of an inch. San disk accomplished this with a few different tricks. First, Sandisk , the company did with its e200 players, has the video set up to play length ways across the players screen. meaning, you turn the player sideways to play video back. This gives the player a wide screen effect. Second, Sandisk installed 320 x 240 screen on the unit, making the video look incredible! While 320 X 240 may seam a little on the low resolution side, let us remember that that resolution is being shown on a screen just under 2.5 inches in size. Also, 320 X 240 is the same resolution as a standard deff TV is putting out. this Makes the screen seam larger then it actually is. I find it to be the perfect media/mp3 player for the commute on the subway. It fits right in the Palm Of my hand. Meaing I can hold on to the hand rail with one hand and hold the Sansa View in the other. This is all with out blooking the screen or feeling like Im going to drop it.
speaking of video, Unlike the the views predecessor, the e200, the view will sync video through windows media player. This means that there is no need, at least for PC users dont know if windows media play is on the mac, to use Sandisk video converter which, form my own experience, was very poky and dose not support that many file types. The best thing about being able to sync video though windows media player, is the ability to take "non protected only", media center recorded TV shows and sync them to the player. Just, like any other video, open the sync tab drag the videos in place and click start sync. While this may take time,the results are stunning! The file size is kept so small that I can fit something like over 22 1 hour TV episodes on the 16gb version, and yet, this does nothing to effect the quality of the video or sound at all! the secret appears to be in the way the video is converted in windows media player. As to just what it is, I don't know.
The players micro sdcard slot will allow the playing of MP3's form the micro sd cards but NOT!! vidoe. My advice is to put you music on sdcards to maximize the amount of videos you can fit on the player.
like any peace of technology this player has bugs. Most notably is a bug that cases the player to fast froward music and video instead of rewinding. The latest firm ware seams to have corrected this and a few other problems.
Over all, this MP3/Video player is a great value!

Product works great. Battery last a long time on a charge. I wish I had the 32G because with movies in MPG4 they take up a lot of space. I also wish they would include software to convert movies to MPG4. I had the purchase the software. All in all it is a great product and I am pleased. Easy to drag music and moives into product as it show up as a drive/disk.

I purchased this item to replace a 2 year old Sansa 8GB MP3 Player. I love the improvements to the new 16 GB Sansa View--a bit larger screen with some new video features (esp "last played" which lets me continue listenting where I was when I quit listening previously, power on/off/lock button much easier to use, FM radio seems better, battery lasts at leat twice as long before needing recharge, and it holds many more songs!