SANDISK DESIGNERS TOOK A COLD, hard look at their widescreen, Archos-esque prototype and decided to scrap it, opting for a simpler design. Back to the drawing board they went, and the result is a new View that continues in the footsteps of the Sansa e200 line. The View vaguely resembles the new Zune flash player oblong, with minimal controls and a screen that takes up roughly half the player. At 4.3 by 2.0 by 0.4 inches, it's not exactly tiny (I'd compare it to an average-size cell phone), but it's still pocketable.

The rubber navigation wheel is easy to turn and flies through the menus quickly, lighting up blue LEDs on the player's surface in the process. A small home button above the wheel is your quick ticket back to the main-menu screen. The player's side panels host a microSD memory expansion slot and power/hold switches. So-so earbuds (which should definitely be upgraded for maximum musical enjoyment) and a proprietary connection-to-USB cable are included.

Name: 12315.jpg Views: 23 Size: 24.0 KB

Well, just like the iPod, the mechanical jog wheel acts as the volume control. There is a voice recording feature, just next to the power slider. The same slider button when slide towards the bottom acts as a HOLD function. On the lower¬right is a card slot for expansion, capable of hold¬ing up to 8GB, which means that you could have a View with up to 24GB capacity, definitely a good thing for a video player.
There is a direct support for JPEG photos and MPEG4, WMY, and H.264 videos. The Sansa Media Converter, available as a download, can transcode other (unprotected) formats for View. As for audio files the View supports WAY, AAC (unprotected), Audible, and both protected and unprotected WMA. Well for radio lovers, you can switch over to the onboard FM tuner any time, which features auto scan and 20 preset slots.

The Sansa View will not elicit the "oohs" and "aahs" that the Samsung P2 or the Apple iPod touch will. Those eye-catching players, however, fetch a lot more cash. SanDisk has made a no-frills, high-capacity flash player with a quality screen, memory-expansion capabilities, and that all-important feature: a low price. Use the money you save to buy some quality earphones and laugh at the people with fancy players and lousy earbuds.