Small, Sturdy, Sleek, and Stylish
Written: Nov 28 '04 (Updated Mar 22 '05)
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Pros: Plenty of features, awesome sound quality, large LCD, very small and portable
Cons: A few rare firmware glitches
The Bottom Line: A fantastic value and an incredible piece of technology- everything is fully customizable to the way you want it. Tiny, stylish, and backed up with a 1-year warranty, too.
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| audio_freak's Full Review: SanDisk SDMX1 (512 MB) MP3 Player |
It all started that one day one or two years back when I picked up the Audiophase CD315 from Best Buy. After I played around with some of the features, such as anti-shock, bass boost, and such, I was left wondering, "When will the perfect device come along, one that is portable, completely customizable, and able to resist skipping, period?" Well, I think I've found the answer, and it's called the SanDisk SDMX1 512 MB mp3 Player. Coming from a company that makes many memory cards, I thought an mp3 player might be interesting and fun, and I was right. There is almost nothing that I don't like about this mp3 player, and it has been completely perfect for me.
Appearance
The SanDisk 512 MB mp3 Player is, according to the official measurements, 2.6" long, 1.3" wide, and 0.75" thick. That converts to a player just about as long as your thumb and slimmer than all but the most expensive CD Players. The top of the mp3 player is blue, as well as two strips on the sides. The rest of the player is an attractive silver that makes the unit look professional yet cool at the same time. There is a four-way directional mini-joystick on the top within a chrome-accented circle. The LCD screen, which is refreshingly large for a player of this size, is accented with chrome as well. Headphones are plugged in through the jack at the top of the player, right next to the microphone. The "Hold" switch, "Play/Stop" button, "A-B" Button, and "Rec" button are all located on the side of the player.
Feel/Durability
The overall feel of an mp3 player is important, especially because it's so tiny. One nasty scratch to your screen and that could mean the end of the unit. Thankfully, the SanDisk SDMX is durable, strong, and finished to perfection. The buttons feel firm and sturdy; the screen isn't easily scratched and the player feels smooth and nicely put together. On my old 128 MB mp3 player, the paint began to wear off after a few months. This hasn't been the case with the SanDisk. A gripe I have, though, is that the joystick feels very slightly loose and not as sturdy as I had hoped. Also, the battery compartment is really, really, hard to open at first, if you simply try and push out on it. Instead, you have to put your thumb on the grip, and gently push downwards and then out. I found this out after a few minutes of cursing and trying to get it open the normal way. Still, this player should last until new technology comes up.
Update 3/22/05: Yep, I'm still using the ol' SDMX, and it's been great, but for one small annoying durability issue. It seems like a very small amount of dust has somehow found its way underneath the Sandisk's screen. It makes reading the LCD a bit harder, especially with the backlight off. There's no way I can think of to get rid of the dust, and I definitely don't want to try and remove the screen's casing just to get a little dust out. While it's not something that destroys the player's functionality, it IS annoying!
Side note: I'm happy to say that this mp3 player is built like a rock. Since I last updated this review, I've probably dropped the player more than fifty times onto the ground, sometimes onto a hardwood floor and sometimes onto pavement- and it's never suffered as much as a scratch! It functions perfectly even after all the abuse I've dealt to it.
Accessories
I felt surprised and happy after purchasing the player to learn that it came with a nice, clear plastic carrying case, an armband, and some nice in-ear headphones in addition to the usual installation CD and user manual. The carrying case has a circular hole cut out for the joystick, and holes for the headphone plug-in and microphone. They lined up surprisingly well. The armband was kind of hard to attach, but once I got it secured, it was nice and stayed on my arm even when jogging. Normally, headphones that come with any music player are horrible. These were good in sound quality, though, and looked cool- though they fell out of my ear often and had a short cord.
Using the SDMX
First of all, let's just say that the SanDisk SDMX is completely loaded with features- you are able to customize basically everything save the welcome screen. This abundance of customizable elements can be fun, but it can also complicate the interface at first. The basic menu layout is as follows:
-Clicking the joystick brings up the file menu (displaying all your folders and songs).
-Holding down the joystick brings up the configuration menu (where you modify audio, system, and display settings).
-Clicking the "A-B" button while playback is stopped will bring up the menu to switch modes (between audio, FM radio, and voice recording)
-All other selecting and navigating is done with the joystick.
It is a little complicated at first, but I got used to it within a day. And it's worth it. Customizing the audio settings allows you to change the equalizer settings (including create a setting of your own) so that your music has just the right amount of bass, midranges, and treble. Here, you can also change the way your player repeats between songs, and you can put it on shuffle to play a random song. You can also change the playing speed (which is mostly useless but incredibly fun) to make your favorite songs sound like a chipmunk chorus or an elephant ensemble. Finally, you can tell the player to remember your last place in a song and start playing from there even after you press "Stop" or restart the player, which is a very useful function.
Under the display settings, you have complete control under many elements of the player, mostly related to the LCD screen. Customizable features include the contrast of the LCD, the time the backlight stays on after pressing a button, the speed at which the text scrolls across the screen, and the "rotation" of the screen. That's right, you can flip the screen upside down if you want, which is more convenient for some people because it allows them to operate all of the functions on the player with one hand.
The system settings aren't really anything you need to mess with- basically, you can change the language of your player (it comes with only English, but I suppose you could download more from the SanDisk website), the idle time until the player automatically shuts off, and check how much memory you have left on your player.
Overall, I've come to really like the SanDisk SDMX's functionality, even if it means an interface a tiny bit more complicated than some other players (though not as bad as the notorious iRiver players and Creative Zens). It really gives you a sense of personalization- a feeling that this player is uniquely yours and is just suited to your style.
Some other important aspects of the SDMX, such as the FM Tuner and Voice Recorder, are flawless. The FM Tuner stores up to twenty preset stations on your player, so that you can cycle through the "best" stations any time. Of course, you can still scan through every station until you find something you like. The FM sound quality is spectacular, much better than on many standalone radios. One thing I noticed, though, is that the sound setting for the radio is always on "mono" when you start the radio, forcing you to change it back to "stereo" every time to get better sound quality. It seems kind of pointless to even have a "mono" feature, I mean, isn't stereo always better than mono?
The voice recorder records sounds surprisingly well. My old mp3 player had a voice recorder, but the sounds would come out incredibly static-y and distorted. With the SanDisk, the sound is completely flawless. As a plus, the player stores all of your recordings in ".wav" format, so that you can play them on your computer.
Finally, transferring songs to your player is an absolute breeze. If you're running Windows XP or Mac OS X, all you need to do is connect the player to your computer through the included cable and it shows up in "My Computer" or the Mac desktop as a drive, and you're free to drag all your songs into it. The cable is USB 2.0, which means blazing transfer speeds- I got 200 songs onto the player in about two minutes. On my old player it would take about five (to transfer about 60 songs).
All in all, the features are definitely the strongest part of this player. It comes equipped with more features than most flash-based mp3 players (i.e. Rio Cali, Samsung Yepp) and even some hard-disk players which hold thousands of songs. I was impressed with the player when I first ripped it out of its packaging; I still feel impressed every day when I find out about yet another trick that the little SanDisk can perform.
Update 12/13/2004: There seems to be a very minor firmware bug within the file manager system. Very rarely, when you are scrolling through your list of folders and reach the last folder, it will not jump back to the top if you keep scrolling. Instead, it might keep scrolling downwards and duplicating the name of the last folder. It's a really weird problem, and an annoying one, too. I'm not sure exactly what causes it, either.
Display
The LCD display is another strong part of this player. It shows four lines, and is incredibly easy to read thanks to the large, bold font. The screen itself takes up about half of the player's top surface, which is definitely an improvement on some of the old dinky one-line displays that came on early mp3 players. The indigo-colored backlight is fantastic and makes everything clear in the dark as well as dimly lit rooms. I also love the navigational menus on this screen, which are divided into tabs and sub-menus that pop up.
While playing an mp3 normally, the top line of the screen shows a little symbol, either a "play" symbol or a "pause" symbol, showing the status of your player. The next symbol shows the "track number" of your song, at least on your mp3 player (so the last song on your player could be track 120 or something). It also shows the elapsed playback time, and finally, the battery meter. The second line simply shows the folder that the current song is in (if you don't use folders, it will read "root"). The third line scrolls, and shows the name of your song and the artist. One thing I noticed, though, is that it only works for mp3 files- for WMA files, it only shows the filename. Nothing too bad for me, but it could be annoying for some people who use only WMA files. The fourth line on the screen has a little box with either the words "WMA" or "MP3" written inside, depending on what file format your song is. It also has a little progress bar that shows your position in yours song, but you can customize it to instead show the equalizer or left/right balance.
Sound Quality/Audio Playback
The sound quality on the SanDisk SDMX is simply amazing. I never knew that you could squeeze that much bass out of a tiny player like this. The included EQ settings, "Normal", "Classic", "Rock", "Pops" (Pop?), and "Jazz" are alright, but if you really want your music to sound a certain way, make your own EQ setting and feel free to tinker with the base, midranges, and treble however you like. To me, this really makes the whole player. The ability to have your music sound just the way you want it, anywhere, without needing a computer and some advanced software, is simply amazing. The sound never gets distorted as you crank up the volume (and it gets pretty loud, too). Therefore, I declare the sound quality on this player completely perfect for anyone, as it is completely customizable.
This player plays three kinds of music files- standard old mp3; Microsoft's new WMA file format; and probably one of the oldest audio formats ever created, the Wave file, or WAV. With mp3s encoded at 128 kb/s (which is the "bit rate" at which most mp3s are encoded at, whether you download them or rip them from CDs), the sound quality is great. However, you can only fit about one-hundred songs onto the player using the mp3 file form at 128 kb/s... so enter WMA. WMA is Microsoft's new audio format- it stands for Windows Media Audio (mp3, by the way, is short for Motion Picture Experts Group Layer- 3). Microsoft's claim is that WMA has just as good sound quality as MP3 with file sizes about half as big. This is mostly true. If you encode a WMA file at 64 kb/s, the file sizes are about half as big as an mp3 at 128 kb/s without about the same sound quality. Given some really good headphones, though, mp3 does sound a little better. However, you can fit almost two-hundred and forty WMA songs onto the SanDisk SDMX versus one-hundred mp3s. Is it worth it? In my opinion, definitely yes- I can hardly tell the difference in sound quality, so I'm happy. WAV files, on the other hand, are a definite no-no; while they have the best sound quality by far, the file sizes are HUGE and you'd probably only be able to fit about ten songs onto the entire player. If you're really after flawless, pristine audio, though, I guess WAV would be the way to go. As an added note, this player is compatible with DRM (Digital Rights Management), meaning any songs you download off Napster, Rhapsody, MSN Music, etc. will work fine.
Update 12/13/2004: I've discovered that the Sandisk SDMX can also play VBR (Variable Bitrate) files. These files have different bitrates (quality) at different parts of the song (for example very low quality during silence, but high quality during a complex guitar solo) to cut file sizes by a lot and make your songs sound better. Do a google on "Variable Bit Rate" to find out more.
Portability
There's no question that the SanDisk SDMX 512 MB mp3 player is extremely portable and fit for going anywhere. The player itself is incredibly small, again, just about as long as an adult thumb, and very sturdy. The carrying case helps a lot in further protecting the already durable screen. The armband is great, too, if you want to go jogging. Since there aren't any moving parts inside the player (like a laser or disc rotator in CD players), you basically have infinite anti-shock and you won't experience a second of skipping during your playback, even if you go on a roller coaster, run a marathon, swing it around on a rope, chuck it into the air, or stomp on it with baseball cleats (OK, maybe not the last one). The "hold" switch on the side is perfect for slipping the player into your pocket- it disables all other buttons so that your song won't suddenly change in the middle or something else annoying like that. Durability is also a plus on this player- I've dropped it a few times (even onto a hardwood floor) and nothing at all has happened to it.
Battery Life
One AAA battery does the job in this tiny mp3 player. The official specs rate battery life at "Up to 15 hours", but those figures tend to be a bit blown up. I got about 6 or 7 hours of continuous playback on the included battery, including lots of fiddling around with the menus and toggling the backlight. While that's not anywhere near the promised number, it's still good for only one AAA battery and isn't anything to complain about. The 15 hours probably could be achieved with a disabled backlight and playing songs at a low volume. I recommend using Ni-MH rechargeable batteries; they can be used over and over again (which is perfect for a high-drain device like an mp3 player) and are a better deal in the long run than continually buying expensive one-use batteries. Ni-Cad rechargeable batteries are another option, but they suffer from 'memory effect' (you must fully deplete the battery before recharging or else you will shorten the life span of the battery). Stay away from "heavy-duty" batteries, they are generally much weaker than alkalines and cost just about as much.
Overall
This mp3 player is a fantastic value and an incredible piece of technology. It is a tiny player that is sturdy and stylish. The ability to customize almost anything from bass settings to text-scrolling speed is amazing and extremely useful. The included accessories are great, and the battery life will last you long enough for a complete play-through of all your music. And of course, the player is built perfectly so that you can take it any where you want and use it any time. I highly, highly recommend this player; it is available year-round at Circuit City and at the SanDisk website (see below) for about $149.99, which is a sweet deal for a player like this when some 256 MB models cost in the low $200's. Lastly, this player comes with a one-year warranty, which tells you that SanDisk is confident that this player won't break down. If you're looking for a small, sleek, inexpensive, but fully-featured mp3 player that will last a long time, the SanDisk SDMX1 512 MB mp3 player is definitely the way to go.
Update 1/1/2005: Prices on the SDMX-512 just keep falling! It's now possible to buy this online at Newegg.com for around $100, brand new. Check it out!
Statistics
File format: .mp3, .wma, .wav
Dimensions: 2.6"x1.3"x0.75"
Display: 4-line backlit LCD display
Radio: FM Tuner with 20 Presets
Voice Recorder: Built-in
Features: User-defined EQ, Repeat, Shuffle, Playlists, ID3 (song title, artist, album) support for mp3s, four-way directional joystick, and more
File Transfer: USB 2.0
Battery Type: 1x AAA
Battery Life: Up to 15 hours
Warranty: One Year
Links
SanDisk Official Spec Sheet: http://www.esend.com/sandisk/product.asp?sku=SDMX1-512-A18&mscssid=R8NE4K0LVP2F9NDVBS70KX3PH76GA4J7
BestBuy: SanDisk 512 MB mp3 player: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1091099665950&skuId=6800875&productCategoryId=pcmcat10200050002&type=product
Circuit City: SanDisk 512 MB mp3 player: http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/SanDisk-512MB-MP3-Player/sem/rpsm/oid/108446/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do
Photos
http://www.circuitcity.com/IMAGE/product/enlarged/sdk/EC.SDK.SDMX1512A18.CN.jpg
http://images.bestbuy.com/BestBuy_US/images/products/6800/6800875_ra.jpg
http://images.bestbuy.com/BestBuy_US/images/products/6800/6800875cv1a.jpg
Interactive 3D View (Check it out)
http://www.circuitcity.com/flashdetection.jsp?ModelID=/IMAGE/nueweb/sdk/NW.SDK.SDMX1512A18.SWF&OID=108446
Comparable Players
Samsung Yepp YP-55 256 MB - $159.99
iRiver iFP-195T 512 MB - $219.99
iRiver iFP 790 256 MB - $149.99
Mpio FY200 512 MB - $179.99
Related Players:
Sandisk SDMX1-256-A18 (256 MB, as low as $69.99 as of 3/05)
Sandisk SDMX1-1024-A18 (1 GB/1000 MB, as low as $159.99 as of 3/05)
This review by audio_freak. Written for epinions.com only.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 149.99
Recommended for: Beginners - Easy Enough for Tech Newbies
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Epinions.com ID:
audio_freak
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Member: Willy C
Location: Seattle, USA
Reviews written: 8
Trusted by: 8 members
About Me:
I'm young, single, and I love music!
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