I dunno, I think at that size it would tend to crawl out through a hole in my pocket in short order. I'd also be worried about durability.

At 89 x 44cm the e260 has a near identical footprint to the nano (90 x 40mm)

cm? thats about 10 times larger, or is it 100? my maths sucks :P
Anyway.. disregarding that error as im being picky today, Nice review. looks like a tastey piece of kit! Now, if I only had a use for an mp3 player ;)

Please bear in mind that it is a very future proof player, unlike other companies, Sandisk actually ALLOW firmware upgrades submitted by coders and has a very large fan base due to this community link. I am definitely going to buy the low end or mid range player and wait a little while for larger capacity memory cards to appear, with firmware unlock for the following: 1. Unrestricted card size 4gb hopefully ;) 2. Radio feature enabled - uncluding the ability to record radio stations dont forget 3. GUI changes and customisable features 4. Video playback enhancements . I have many other reviews for this player and it also has a much brighter screen in direct comparison to the nano.

Erm one question as ive gone throught the review twice and see the answer, what music formats does it support? I can see the movie and picture formats but not music?

Damn, it's cheap: found it for 171.49 € = 119.031 ₤ :)
e260 to be exact. Screw iPod you're saying? Yep, you're right. Might be something I'll suprise myself with as 'early christmas present'.

Originally Posted by whisperwolf
Erm one question as ive gone throught the review twice and see the answer, what music formats does it support? I can see the movie and picture formats but not music?

Some quick searching reveals that it supports wma (protected and unprotected) and mp3 at the least, it'll probabily support more.

Looks like a really nice little player.

I'll buy one of these when they can cram in a 2.8" VGA+ 16 million colour screen and at least 32GB of flash memory for under £400 ;)

FLAC and OGG support would be nice to.

This is one hell of a product and seems that it is the "new sheriff in town" I own a nano after my 4G iPod crashed out on me after little over a year.... to be expected with apple products e.g. the iPod and I did'nt get an extended warranty, but when and not IF, the iPod bites the dust I will give this a good going over for a replacement in the portabilty market, but perhaps the lack of space, like that on the nano will stop me from buying one....
Because in relative terms 4Gb only hold about 1 3/4 - 2 thousand songs, if only it has a larger big brother with a tad more trunk space.... ah well

Originally Posted by aon`aTv.gsus666
Damn, it's cheap: found it for 171.49 € = 119.031 ₤ :)

it works out about £150 in the UK after it's been taxed.

I may have missed this... but... is there any way to interface it (card slot) with a digital camera? It would be a great portable storage device for pics shot with my camera and when I'm not using it for that purpose I could use all the other features. Plus I'd then be able to review on this instead of on the camera.

I've owned quite a few mp3 players so far, Iriver h120, h320, h10, Ipod Video, And this Sansa, but the 2 gig version.

I have to say, the Iriver h120 is still my choice, provides amazing sound quality, user interface is a little tricky, but I use rockbox.

This play, I eventually just gave to my dad. He loves it so far, I thought it was a great player when it was in my possesion.

Oh, and yah, Ipods suck. I know from experience.

can you change the article title from "e620" to "e260", it looks a little odd the way it is :)

-walker

hey. wonder if the bit-tech staff could review the toshiba gigabeat X30/X60. I believe they have the new 1.8" hdd and use the new windows media portable OS or something to that accord - and a mate says theyre top stuff. wouldn't something like this also be in the running for iPod contender/killer/whatever?

bether than the ipod nano and no reward :( bah
its an ipod killer anyway so HURRAY!!!!!! finaly something decent to kick the ipod to the dirt :D

welcome to bit-tech tkdwarrior.

Good review, and just in time to go on my short list.

Cheapest prices ive found so far (Amazon):

e260 - 4Gb - £124.99 inc del

e270 - 6Gb - £149.99 inc del

OMG it works without DRM!? I think the time has come to replace my SupportPlus 128MB player with something more substantial :D:D :D (i refuse to buy DRM'd players) Thanks bit-tech!

-ed out

15fps and only quicktime support... my freinds zen vision owns that.

Looks nice, I still love my 30Gb iPod though. I don't reckon it will be that long until hacked firmware appears, how obvious is it that they disabled the radio option just to avoid tax. I bet it is VERY easy to unlock. I just hope they copy apple - iPods are impossible to destroy by hacking the firmware (Well, at least very hard) otherwise no-ones going to want to mess around with it. Defiantely a nano contender, although the lack of SandiskLinux puts me off a little.

(Kurosawa started the screen-wipe thing, starwars pinched it from him) :p

sorry, very petty ;) nice looking player, good review

Originally Posted by eddtox
OMG it works without DRM!? I think the time has come to replace my SupportPlus 128MB player with something more substantial :D:D :D (i refuse to buy DRM'd players) Thanks bit-tech!

-ed out

Not to flame, but are you honestly that ignorant? All players support one type of DRM or another, and only Sony's miserable failure that were Minidisc players (which had all sorts of awesome potential) required it.

I'm very happy with my 60GB black iPod, and have no intent to trade it for anything else. Strictly speaking, I wouldn't mind something that I can just squeeze into that little inner condom-pocket thing in my jeans, but I rarely have that much stuff in my pocket so it's a problem.

I'd consider it as a secondary around-town player (if the price is right in the US), though I'd honestly prefer something that interfaced with iTunes. Really just because it's so much easier to manage playlists that way than through drag-and-drop.

Firehed, READ!

He refuses to buy DRM'd Players, not whether they support some kind of DRM or not. What he means is that he cant be doing with separate software like iTunes or Creative Media dodar cause drag and drop is FAR easier and can be done on any 2k/xp machine.

a decent drag and drop player at last, im ****ing sold! \o/

Best Firware available for a handful of mp3players.

www.rockbox.org

wwooow........

4gb, good price, and VIDEO!! plus long battery life and audio+video drag n drop wit auto converter...... new sherif in town indeed...

but, can it work as a flash drive as well? to store regular files?

ive been using my 1Gb shuffle for the last year and i dont find any problem with.. plays music, (almost) enough storage as usb thumbdrive + mp3s, and beautiful drag n drop for the files.....(audio using winamp, pretty simple too).... maybe time to change... hmm.....

anybody knows where can i find them in canada?? :o

I'm a little skeptical of the video feature. The screen looks much too small. The only time I can imagine using it is on a plane and to be honest, most long haul flights have movies anyway. Not sure who reviewed this but how many times during the two weeks of the review did they genuinely want to watch a video? How much can you get out of such a small screen?