SanDisk Sansa View 16 GB Video MP3 Player (Black)

This is a sleek-looking, overpriced and poorly engineered MP3 player. I bought it because I really liked my Sansa e200, but wanted more than the 4G of storage I had (2G of built-in memory, plus a 2G micro SD expansion card). I should have gotten an 8G e200 instead of the "View 16".

The worst disappointment about this device is the short battery life. The manufacturer's claim of 32 hours of continuous music play time is sheer fantasy. I have never been able to get it to play more than 5-6 hours of MP3 without needing a charge. Moreover, charging is very slow. I had it plugged into the USB port of my PC at work for about 4 hours this morning (it had been nearly dead at the end of the day yesterday). I got maybe 2-3 hours of play, then it shut down and gave me a red battery icon when I tried to start it.

The controls are also considerably inferior to the Sansa e200. The e200 has buttons around the blue volume dial that do what you would expect them to do--like traverse a menu vertically or horizontally. The View has a weird rubber-like washer that you're supposed to turn in order to navigate the menu or change the volume. It gives no tactile feedback whatever. I had to draw a mark on the rubber "washer" to determine whether it was actually turning or not (yes, it does turn, but the effects appear to be completely random).

There are other bugs as well. For example, the display will often lag behind considerably; it will indicate that it is playing a song other than the one it is really playing...then suddenly it will update.

I'm giving it two stars because it DOES play MP3s. For a short time.
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Update, 4 Sept 08

I still have this player, and am using it regularly at work to drown out the noise. (Yeah, and the voices...) Obviously, I'm not so dissatisfied that I returned this player. However, I still wish I'd bought the tried and true Sansa e-series instead.

The mechanical design of the View is actually pretty good--though I still hate the rubber washer that you're supposed to turn to choose menu options. The problem was and remains the firmware. I've updated to the latest version (the one released in June 08), and I think play time has improved by about 25%. It's still far short of the promised 35 hours, but it will do for my purposes.

However, the player continues to emit novel mutant behaviors. For example, the songs seem to multiply like bunnies. I'll select an artist or an album, and there will be about 8 to 10 entries for each of the songs that should be in the list. I'm sure the content hasn't actually been duplicated--I had about 20G of MP3s on there to begin with (have the 16G model with an 8G Micro SD card)--I think it's a database corruption issue. There's just numerous pointers to the same song. I have no idea how this happened--I've just been playing the music, and haven't downloaded new content via my PC. This is a major hassle, as I have to manually fast forward to the next song by skipping over the spurious entries. Putting the Sansa on random play means hearing the same songs over and over again, as it keeps finding the duplicate entries. Bah.

Overall, I really like this player. The few drawbacks are:
Non replaceable battery (though I never did have to replace the one in my e280

Battery life isn't what it should be. I can get over 24 hours, but mostly I get around 15 hours. I really don't like the "sleep mode". With the e280, if you leave it on pause, it will shut off after a few minutes. It would be nice if it was an option. With the View, it goes into a suspend mode that drains the battery faster than if I just let it keep playing.

I got used to/setup all my music/audio books using the e280, so I don't mind using tags for navigation, though folders would be nice to have as an option.

I find the size decent enough. I have it in a clear plastic case and just throw it in my pocket.

Sound quality is very good for a player, probably not as good as the Clip (never listened to one, but gets high marks)

Good: great picture and sound, radio w/ record, large memory & can swap between computers (use as flash drive), unlike ipods.

Bad: Battery life not great(have jumped between video and music, so this might be harsh), sometimes freezes, not often, but I gather ipods do also.
Must convert video, even avi, to work on player (not a problem w/music)

Overall very happy with product.

pros; Its small,moderately easy to use, looks Prim

Cons: when you watch a video, instead of viewing the item portrait-wise(iPod) you have to watch it sideways. the screen is literally about an inch long. WARNING WILL CAUSE MIGRAINS FOR LONG TIME VIEWING PERIODS.and the screen displays movies in widescreen

inch long screen + widescreen display = migrain :(

I have always been interested in SanDisk after my friend introduced it to me. Preferred it than ipod. But the view has a great layout of everything pretty much the same as the previous ones. Its really simple to put your movies, music, pictures in it. But I had a hard time getting my laptop recognize it. So I'm going to end some of the peoples misery.

Here are the steps:
1. Plug your transfer cable into a USB port on your PC.
2. Fully shut down the View (hold up power/hold switch for 5-10 Seconds)
3. Turn the View back on
4. After the View has fully booted up, place it in hold mode
5. Press down the left side of the scroll wheel
6. While still holding down the scroll wheel, plug the cable into your View
7. Keep the scroll wheel pressed down until the device is mounted in your selected OS

And now your View is now connected to you PC through UMS/MSC mode.