SanDisk Sansa e260R

The SanDisk Sansa e260R is similar to the Sansa e260 , but this model features slick integration.

The player we tested has 4GB of memory, but models are also available in 2GB, 6GB, and 8GB capacities. A slot for a tiny microSD Card lets you expand the memory, or switch easily among a variety of media files on several cards.

The player is roughly as tall and wide as the iPod Nano, but it's a little thicker and weighs nearly twice as much. It has a relatively large and bright 1.8-inch color screen, though it's still too small for watching long videos. Beneath the screen, a rotating plastic thumbwheel lets you scroll through lists and adjust the volume. A select button sits at the center, and four directional buttons surround it. Because the thumbwheel protrudes from the faceplate and has a ridged surface, it makes operating the directional buttons difficult and uncomfortable. This strange design ruins the otherwise smooth interface.

The channels are organised by genre, or program a custom channel to your own tastes. The preprogrammed channels are a great way to discover new music and in my opinion are preferable to listening to the frequent rotations and commercials on FM radio. Plus, you can always skip ahead to the next track.

There are settings which let you switch to PlaysForSure mode

where the player behaves like the regular Sansa e260 and works with online stores such as Napster, Urge, and Yahoo.

To upload photos and videos, you must use the included SanDisk Media Converter, which converts them to its own format. Annoyingly, the player doesn't natively support any standard image or video formats, not even JPEG.

The e260R has a built-in FM tuner and you can record live radio, though there's no timer for scheduling recordings. The headphone's cord acts as an antenna, and reception can vary as you move around. The tiny built-in microphone works well for voice recording. Unlike with many audio players, you can change the e260R's battery yourself; a battery kit even includes a screwdriver for easy removal of the four small screws on the back of the player.

In our audio-quality tests, the e260R fared no better than the regular e260. It received a very low score in our frequency-response test, where we play a sequence of tones from 20 Hz to 20 kHz and measure the deviation between them. Music didn't sound as lively as it did on other players when I listened through a good pair of headphones.

However, the player's low audio quality and uncomfortable thumbwheel make it hard to recommend.

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