SanDisk's Sansa View gets unboxed

Barely a month after getting reintroduced, the 16GB SanDisk Sansa View has been acquired, unboxed and lovingly photographed for your viewing pleasure. No real surprises here (well, aside from the Best Buy logos scattered about), but inside you'll apparently find a stash of paperwork, the player itself, a USB cable, earbuds and an Installation CD. For a closer look at what's waiting within, be sure and hit the read link.

[Thanks, Randall B.]

[euclid @ Oct 23rd 2007 5:06AM]

Definitely on my list. Gotta love Sandisk products.

[thef1re @ Oct 23rd 2007 5:32AM]

wow, it actually looks pretty decent..

[Marc @ Oct 23rd 2007 6:02AM]

I'm seriously looking at this and the latest Zunes. I do not believe this Sansa View has video-out capabilities (but neither does the low-end Zunes).

[Alex M @ Oct 23rd 2007 4:38PM]

no it doesn't have video-out. or a user-removable battery. As much as I like it especially at that price im going for the uhh insignia pilot. The pilot is 130 for 4gb and 180 for an 8gb. It also has the sd card slot instead of micro sd. And Bluetooth. This is nice and all but I wanna see the navigation and I'd wanna see a video of how it works. I see videos for the Pilot and it satisfies me :P. I see the improvements over the ns-dv that I have and I'm going for it.

[Tony @ Oct 23rd 2007 6:34AM]

Ok... going back to sleep now.

[Alex Rrrrrrr @ Oct 23rd 2007 6:47AM]

I don't like Sansa Players because my E270 broke twice within the first two days of owning it. The first time it froze on the "Refresh Database" screen and the progress bar wouldn't go past about three quarters of the way across, so I sent it back and go a replacement. When I got the second one I found that it couldn't/wouldn't play videos because there was no folder for it. Then it froze again on the "Refresh Database" screen. Same as the other one. So I sent that one back and very reluctantly bought an iPod Video 30GB. And that is why I don't like Sansa Players. Or iPods. But thats another story for another time...

[internet guy @ Oct 23rd 2007 7:05AM]

I bought a sansa mp3 player about a month ago, it lasted 2 days. Somehow the screen managed to crack while it was in my pocket along with my cell phone. Absolute junk.

[strider_mt2k @ Oct 23rd 2007 7:23AM]

My wife and I love our e280s. Just fantastic.

What I'm looking for now is something with a decent screen for videos and MASSIVE storage.

[timatl @ Oct 23rd 2007 9:11AM]

sansa only do flash memory to my knowledge if you want 60+ gigs then you will need a hard drive based mp3 player

Ipod Clasic
Zune 80
Creative Zen
Archos
Toshiba

[Jonathan @ Oct 23rd 2007 7:34AM]

Would this work on a Mac?

[Randall @ Oct 23rd 2007 7:44AM]

You can just drag files onto it with your Mac (it comes up as a UMS device). That was one of the reasons why I purchased this player.

[Randall @ Oct 23rd 2007 7:45AM]

Since it's UMS, it should work on other OS's too, like GNU/Linux.

[Jonathan @ Oct 23rd 2007 8:05AM]

Thanks! I googled it before asking but nothing really came up.

My ipod photo has been going crazy as of late, freezing and jumping and skipping. I've wanted to break free from iPods for a while. I just might have to buy this.

[Randall @ Oct 23rd 2007 10:00AM]

Well, I seem to be having trouble getting it to work with Linux. Has anyone gotten this thing to mount in Linux?

[Willen @ Oct 23rd 2007 10:20AM]

Some experiences here:

http://sandisk.lithium.com/sansa/board/message?board.id=view&thread.id=63

It seems that it doesn't have UMS support. But the original poster mentioned he did get it to mount on Linux.

[GumbyX84 @ Oct 23rd 2007 10:30AM]

They is also a discussion about the UMS support at the anythingbutipod forums:

http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19766&page=7

I am having this problem too and need a solution. :( Sadly no one seems to be having this issue or using Linux.

[Randall @ Oct 23rd 2007 6:25PM]

It only works in Mac OS X sometimes for me. I have not gotten Linux to work with it. I think the USB Mass Storage support on this thing is really buggy or something.

[Randall @ Oct 24th 2007 7:41AM]

No Linux support and OS X is barely usable. So back to the store it goes.

[bob e @ Oct 23rd 2007 7:50AM]

Zune-like qualities along with twice the capacity.

Not much of a looker... I look and think garage door opener

[master_sword @ Oct 23rd 2007 7:59AM]

Your garage door opener has a screen?

[zsyco @ Oct 23rd 2007 8:53AM]

This looks like it has the same interface as the 2GB Sansa I used to have long ago (last year). I got a Zune 30 for $100 after the recent price drops and I'm definately more impressed with it than I was the Sansa. The software update due out next month will make it even better so, unless Sandisk has plans to improve the interface, I'll pass on this one. As a device, the Sansa is great and it's definately my second favorite in the list of media players that I've tried.

[Dan @ Oct 23rd 2007 10:19AM]

The proprietary long slot USB link was more than enough to disqualify it from my ownership. I thought SanDisk was wiser than that.

[Willen @ Oct 23rd 2007 10:43AM]

Just curious, why does it having a proprietary connector on the player end make it unsuitable for you? Many manufacturers use them; Samsung, Creative (HDD models), Microsoft, Sony, and of course the daddy of them all - Apple.

[Dan @ Oct 23rd 2007 11:25AM]

It's standard policy 'round here to avoid as much proprietary stuff as possible. Some can't be avoided, but where I have the choice....
Versatility/ease of connectivity is big on my list of gadget characteristics. I'm wanting companies to pay more and better attention to the consumers, not their bottom line. If the companies will take care of their consumers the bottom line will shine. They oughta know that. Oh well.

[perpetualtranze @ Oct 23rd 2007 10:48AM]

What...Engadget isn't going to blast this thing for having a navigation WHEEL? This is a shock, but then again it's not a Microsoft product, and from what I have acquired from this so-called "blog" only Microsoft deserves to get blasted about their products. Anyways Sansa=Piece of crap.

[Jill @ Oct 23rd 2007 10:52AM]

I'm surprised no one else is as annoyed as I am by the appearance of the SanDisk players. I realize that I should probably be focusing on its performance, but I can't get past the awful blue navigation wheel. Although the View looks more sleek than the e260 I used to have, I still can't stand the look of it. I also dislike the SanDisk interface.

[Johnny5 @ Oct 23rd 2007 11:23AM]

It isnt talked about, but Im sure this uses sorry WMP. I for one would sure would love to see Apple turn iTunes into an open platform so that I might buy other DAPs like this. I would think the added iTunes revenue would more than make up for whatever might be lost in iPod sales. Thoughts?

[carl @ Oct 23rd 2007 11:55AM]

UMS or MTP, there is a variety of good non-iTunes software that you can use.

[carl @ Oct 23rd 2007 12:20PM]

According to Amazon, this puppy weighs 9.8 pounds. Up till then, everything was looking pretty good.

[LeadingZero @ Oct 30th 2007 5:07AM]

Do you really think the Sansa View weights 9.8 pounds? Given it's dimensions, I don't think it would achieve that weight even if made out of solid lead.

For the record the Sansa View weighs 2.9 ounces.
:-)

[faztang @ Oct 23rd 2007 1:16PM]

curious how this matches up against the new zen which to me is it's direct competitor. looking forward to some reviews.

[Markus @ Oct 23rd 2007 1:52PM]

As a former e280 owner a few things:

That GUI really sucks the bag! It's almost two years old, looks more like five, and should've been scrapped for this model.

When i bought mine last year i immediately taped over the MicoSD slot to keep dust out. By the summer i didn't care anymore and after just a few runs without it, crap began to accumulate under the screen. Thankfully the "balloon static across the screen" trick worked to pull it away. If you plan on getting one of these you really should cover that MicroSD slot.

[charlize @ Oct 30th 2007 8:54AM]

Love the design, especially the appropriation of the very cool round subwoofer thingy as controller that the Zune stupidly changed for its 2.0. Love my present Sansa, so I'll probably upgrade to this since it supposedly has gapless playback (big plus). I just don't like the over-done graphics and rainbow colors of the navigation. Doesn't look like they changed that. They need new, slicker graphics.

[Robert Boyd @ Dec 9th 2007 10:24AM]

If you don't use Windows, this is a piece of crap. Getting it to mount on OS X is typical Windows experience of rebooting, plug USB in, out, in, say three Hail Marys and cross your fingers. Should have known. Even after getting it to mount, I haven't been able to transfer files (showed in Finder that they did, but Sansa kept saying "Writing..."). Firmware updates are Windows only. Yes, the product requirements say Windows, but so many of these non-iPods say they work with other OS's in a drag and drop fashion, maybe not 100% of the features. SanDisk couldn't even get that right. I may try Rockbox, but probably will ditch it.