It's a very pocketable device which has learned from some of the mistakes of competitors, but unfortunately not all.

Sound is excellent, and SanDisk are quite proud of the fact they use the same audio circuitry as the iPod. And there's an abundance of features too, such as radio, expandable memory slot and video playback.

It's a Plays For Sure player, which means its certified to work with Windows Media Player, however, as we found out, this only works for audio. Any movie files we tried to drag across to the player were refused. This is because you need to use SanDisk's Media Converter, which to us defeats the purpose of the Plays For Sure certification.

The scroll wheel is also based on a particular Apple player, though it's ridged and rotates (ooh er!). The only problem we had with navigation was with the transport buttons – they're too small. Unless you have skeletal fingers you can't use the raised scroll wheel and the play buttons at once. You actually need to take your finger off the wheel and press the buttons with your fingernail.

Despite some problems with the Sansa e200, it is still an excellent sounding player. And hopefully a further update will address the intermittent freezing problem. We can't wait for the next version, which is bound to be a real Pod botherer.

The e200 series comes in 3 GB ($279), 4 GB ($359) and 6 GB ($439) models.

_________ ________________________

SanDisk Sansa e200 series | $279, $359 & $439 | 

For: Great sound; logical menu structure

Against: Intermittent freezing; small buttons

Verdict: The little player that almost could – with a few modifications this could be a killer