| Sandisk Sansa Connect |
| Written by Luck Kanthatham | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Friday, 06 April 2007 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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It is finally here. I can hardly believe it. I had been eyeing the Sansa Connect since I first saw it at CES a few months back. I even wrote numerous emails to Sandisk to let me review it but there was no reply. Who can resist the first mp3 player to actually put the Wifi feature to good use; unlike the Zune which uses the Wifi connection as if it was using Bluetooth. Introduction
First let me give you some technical specs on the Sansa Connect.
The Look
The Sansa Connect bears its resemblance to the Sansa e200-series players, except that is a tad bit wider and has a bigger screen. Coincidentally, its width and height are almost identical the the Motorola RAZR.
 
The player is equipped with a gorgeous high-resolution 2.2” LCD screen. Unfortunately, I was not able to find any information on what the resolution is; it is not provided in the user guide nor it is available on Sandisk's web site. Whatever it is, it is bright and crisp.
Like the e200-series players, the Sansa Connect has a thumbwheel at the bottom, which glows a warm blue light when you scroll it. Gone are the dedicated home, fast forward, rewind and pause buttons available in the previous players. Rocking the thumbwheel in different directions now mimics those functions; yes, just like the iPod.
There two dedicated volume buttons on the left. The power button has been moved up to the top instead of at the bottom. And the earphone jack is now at the bottom instead of the top. The MicroSD slot is still available to the right of the player. A built-in speaker is located in the back, piping out decent audio but otherwise very useful.
The Interface Rundown
First off, to really get the most out of the player, you'd need a Wifi network. Connecting the Sansa Connect to a Wifi network is rather straight-forward. The only problem I have is that I had to scroll through a one-line display of characters. Since my WPA password is quite long, this process took me about a minute or so. But once I entered the password, I don't have worry about it again.
At the heart of the Sansa Connect's navigation is the Home Menu, which comes up when you press the top portion of the thumbwheel. Here you'd find the following selections:
 
I am most excited about is being able to stream music via LAUNCHcast. It doesn't require any subscription fees in order to listen to some of the best music from a multitude of genres from Pop to Rap; yes, I'm cheap. Once you have selected a song, it takes about 1 – 3 seconds to load. Since the music is streamed, fast forwarding or rewinding the song takes about a second or two to rebuffer, depending on the internet connection.
The player is tightly integrated with Yahoo! Music Connect To Go (that's a pretty long service name in my opinion). You can sync the music on the device with Yahoo! Jukebox via USB or you can use the “Get More Music” option to directly download the music to the device. You can do this in two ways: you can either click on the song you like or use the soft ZING key to tag the song or the whole album for download. The download happens instantly but this is all done in the background so you are still free to interact with the unit. To check the progress of your downloads, you can use the built-in Download Manager to track them. Once the tagged music is downloaded, it magically shows up in the Music Library.
 
But what fun is listening to music all by your lonesome self? With the Friends function, you can find out what others (either on another Sansa Connect or Yahoo Messenger) are listening to. You can also recommend songs to your friends. This functionality is a little bit different from Zune's “social” feature in which one Zune sensd songs to another Zune. With the Sansa Connect, one sends the recommendation so the other can download it from the service.
Like most mp3 players, the Sansa Connect can display photos. However, this one kicks it up a notch (Emeril must be proud) by allowing the user to browse the photos from their Flickr account. This works flawlessly. Once you are logged on, you can begin browsing through the different albums on your account. Photos show up as thumbnails; just click on the desired picture to display it in full screen. You can also display photos from the inserted MicroSD card. Now, the only drawback is that you can't actually store photos on to the internal memory. I guess Sandisk doesn't want your photos to intermix with the music on the Sansa Connect.
A Tad Bit of Disappointments
I guess, it is just impossible to make a perfect mp3 player. Normally, most products retain their functionality while adding more features. This is not the case with the Sansa Connect. Yes, it does have Wifi support, speakers and all the other enhancements from the e200-series players. But Sandisk also took out the movie support, the FM radio, and the voice recorder. I am not the designer of this device so I can't say for sure why they took all those “important” features out. There must be some technical reasons for that. However, I'm disappointed nonetheless.
Another down side is the slightly-confusing interface. When a list of menu selections shows up, I do tend to get confused whether to use the thumbwheel to scroll, click on the center button, or click the forward button. I guess that is just a personal preference since I am just so used to the iPod way of navigation. I kept scrolling the thumbwheel to adjust the volume, forgetting that I have to use the dedicated volume buttons instead.
Lastly, it would be nice if I could sync the music stored on the computer wirelessly instead of via the USB cable. It would be much more convenient.
Conclusion
Sandisk has another winner here; I have no doubt. I am thoroughly impressed with the features available on this little device. Once you hooked this player up to your wifi network, it is almost impossible to put it down. This is what the Zune should have been. Instead of sending songs to one another and then separately listen to the music, you can just unplug the earphones and actually listen to the music while interacting with your friends. With this device, I can honestly say “Welcome to the Social.”
Pros:
Cons:
Verdict: Highly Recommended
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Comments (38)
Scott
said:
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"But Sandisk also took out the movie support, the FM radio, and the voice recorder. I am not the designer of this device so I can't say for sure why they took all those ?important? features out" 1. An FM player would be added hardware, resulting in added cost. Does anybody really listen to radio on their portable players anymore anyways? You've got a device to store over a thousand songs, plus you can listen to internet radio if you're connected via WiFi. This is a feature I wouldn't miss. 2. Voice recorder? Movies? Seems like you want the device to be an all-in-one device. Just give me a portable player that plays music well, not does a ton of things only so-so. And who wants to watch movies on a 2" screen anyways? "I kept scrolling the thumbwheel to adjust the volume, forgetting that I have to use the dedicated volume buttons instead." I definitely don't fault Sansa on this one. This is the thinking of an iPod generation. Before iPods, pretty much all volume adjusters were dedicated buttons. I think iPod was the first to integrate it into the wheel. That doesn't make it the standard by which all other players should adhere to. I think it's nice to separate out the volume adjustment from menu browsing, so you don't accidentally adjust the volume while you're trying to pick a song to play. |
Jeff
said:
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Thanks for putting together this review so quickly! I've been looking for a mp3 player that would play Wifi internet radio, and hoped this would be the one, however am a bit disappointed that it is limited to Launchcast. Does this service have advertising? Is there no hope for accessing non-Yahoo radio sites like NPR or podcasts? |
Luck Kanthatham
said:
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You are welcome, Jeff. As far as I know, there are no advertisements on LAUNCHcast service. As for non-Yahoo! Music content, I really don't know if there are future plans for that. |
Andy
said:
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Nice review Luck, thanks! Sweet device. I picked one up yesterday. The WiFi integration is really nice. Downloading directly to the device is awesome! Last night, I had a bunch of songs in the download queue. I then turned the device off for the night. This morning when turned it back on, all the songs in the download queue were downloaded! Wow! I guess I didn't really turn it "off". That was really cool. Since I had the device plugged into the wall wart, it didn't drain any battery. I don't know if the device would have downloaded overnight if it were running on battery. I'll have to play with that a bit today and see what happens. Luck, have you tried this? For the UI, it was a bit clunky for me at first, but now I'm getting used to it. I too wish we had other choices for music services, but until we do, I'm going to be an active Yahoo listener (I signed up yesterday). SanDisk, please add Rhapsody support! SanDisk, terrific device you put together here! Congratulations! |
JohnnyJ
said:
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I have a question on this device. Can you choose the song for download? Suppose i want to certain song can i somehow type in the artist or song name to get the song like the musicgremlin can? The lack of this would be a dealbreaker for me since i would like to download anysong wirelessly if i have to pay for the service every month. |
dave
said:
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thanks for the review. i'm psyched and am going to buy one. one question: if i'm in a WI-FI hotspot that requries entering a key, does the Sansa have some kind of keyboard UI to enter this? Or are the WI-FI features limited to open hotspots? |
Clint Johnson
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The lack of support for movie, FM and voice recording... that takes it completely out of consideration for me. I both create and consume webisodic content and so movie support is every bit as important to me as music support. This makes as much sense to me as a portable movie player that can't play music. An FM receiver isn't as important but it is a really nice feature. I have access to a Sirius Satellite Radio far more often than I have access to WiFi. The voice recording... I can see where that wouldn't be terribly important for most people but I am constantly taking notes and there are times when it would be really handy to dictate the notes rather than stopping the car, truck or boat. I wouldn't miss the voice record all that much but the other two aren't optional for me. |
iNsuRRecTiON
said:
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Hi there, this one is nice, but the lack of features is very bad! All missing features like support for movie, FM, voice recording, etc. is already present in the Sansa e200 series, so why not here?  And these features are cheap, the hardware modules and chips are really cheap. Scott movies on an 2" screen?! Yeah, this is better than 1,8" on Sansa e200 series, but there you can playback videos..! I hope you get it, very strange..! So this is a no go for me. Wait until a better one. And it's bad, that you can't exchange songs with other Sansa Connect user directly..   If you don't have an WiFi access point, but another Sansa Connect user, you can't send them songs or receive songs from them directly -.- :- best regards, iNsuRRecTiON |
Tuxxy
said:
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Thanks for the review. I am on Linux (with no plans whatsoever on booting into XP), and I think Sandisk has a history of requiring WMP, so I assume you can't just throw your files onto this thing or maybe they decided to be cool by recognizing they were using Linux and made it simple for us? Also what about Ogg support. Not really that important since I can always go to jamendo and download the mp3s. |
Luck Kanthatham
said:
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JohnnyJ. No, you can't actually key in what songs you'd like to download. You tag the songs from a list of top songs available in a specific genre. But you can always use Yahoo! Music software on the PC to download songs you like then sync with the device. You just can't key in the songs you want to download on the Sansa Connect. |
Luck Kanthatham
said:
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Dave, the Sansa Connect doesn't have a keyboard but does have a way for you to key in the WPA/WEP password using the thumbwheel. You basically scroll through a list of letters then the select the letter you need. Not very elegant but it is still better than the one available on the Sony PSP. |
Mak
said:
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I was all set to buy this player until I heard that I need a subscription service to use the WiFi. I will never use a subscription service, and it takes away from what makes this item unique. Still, nothing is perfect, and it is still a top contender along with the Cowon D2, the major negative of which is the touch screen -- but practically perfect in other ways. Here is my big question which will help me decide between the two: 4gb is just not going to cut it, and I will definitely use the memory card slot. Is there a difference between the types of memory each of the two players use? Cowon specifically says the D2 uses SDHC, which seems to be available in large capacities. SanDisk just specifies MicroSD, which doesn't seem to be common in capacities larger than 2gb. Is this correct, or are the cards actually of the same SDHC standard? Also, nobody has mentioned the sound quality or output of the Connect. What are the specs? Should I be able to run high impedence Etymotic IEM phones? Thanks. |
dave
said:
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Thanks Luck, That's kinda of what I figured...I don't mind the scrollwheel for entering a key as long as I can get in. Does it remember the key for future use? |
ian c rogers
said:
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FYI, here's the official post from Yahoo! Music Blog. http://ymusicblog.com/blog/200...nd-flickr/ ian |
Luck Kanthatham
said:
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Mak, keep in mind that with LAUNCHcast Internet radio, you don't need to subscribe to any service. Also, you can play encrypted WMA files from other services (URGE, Yahoo! Music, Napster, etc.) and don't forget the always-unencrypted MP3 files. The only thing is you have to sync the songs via USB. Regarding memory expansion, MicroSD tops out at only 2GB where SDHC can go up to 32GB. However, MicroSD's form factor is smaller. For more information go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Digital_card The sound quality is good. I ran it through my Shure e2c and it delivers as clear out as my iPod. But this is subjective. I suggest you go down to Circuit City, bring down your own mp3 player with you and do the comparison yourself. Lastly, if you are comparing this player to the Cowon D2, then you are not comparing apples to apples. Yes, Cowon D2 has more features (touch screen including) but it does not have wifi support. The major selling point for the Sansa Connect is its wifi functionality. I do feel that further down the road the wifi functionaly is going to expand to support other services. You can't really add wifi to the Cowon via firmware update. It all comes down to whether you want the wifi functionality or not. |
Luck Kanthatham
said:
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Dave, yes it does remember the key for future use. I can't imagine having to key my long WPA password every time I want to connect to a wireless network. |
Craig
said:
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I'm disappointed it doesn't include voice recording or seemingly any? podcast support. I take audio notes on my e200 and had hoped I'd be able to use this as a wireless microphone and to stream audio for podcasting and VoIP (after hacking with Rockbox). I don't care for the lock-in subscription model or any of the LAUNCHcast channels. I never use the FM radio in my e200 so won't miss that but I'm really disappointed by the lack of a mic. The software I can hack but the hardware has to have it! |
barb
said:
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Scott said: 1. An FM player would be added hardware, resulting in added cost. Does anybody really listen to radio on their portable players anymore anyways? You've got a device to store over a thousand songs, plus you can listen to internet radio if you're connected via WiFi. This is a feature I wouldn't miss. Scott, I use the FM radio every day. I listen to it in the mornings on my commute and I listed to talk radio. I listen to music in the evenings. So I would miss the fm radio. Sure I have a Launchcast "station" but I don't use it very often. Heck I don't think I've even touched the thing since 2004, but that's just me. Maybe it would inspire me to go back and update it some... but maybe not. 2. Voice recorder? Movies? Seems like you want the device to be an all-in-one device. Just give me a portable player that plays music well, not does a ton of things only so-so. And who wants to watch movies on a 2" screen anyways? I'll grant you the movies are a bit over the top. They are small although the picture quality is great. I do keep at least one show loaded in for moments where I might be bored or tired of listening to music. The voice recorder probably doesn't get much use but it was one of the things I bought it for (although I don't really use it). If that went missing it would be okay. |
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