My old iPod nano died recently, so I bought a new mp3 player to bring with me when I practice sport. Following Moro’s suggestion, I looked for a SanDisk sansa. The player comes in a very essential packaging, with a USB cable, headphones, and the documentation, which is practically not necessary because using the player is very simple. No additional software is necessary to transfer your music, because it works directly with all the players supporting MPT (Media Transfer Protocol). Clear and useful information can be found on SanDisk’s support site, where it is possible to download the firmware updater, the updated documentation and a media file converter for Microsoft Windows.
The player works perfectly under Linux. It is possible to manage it as a mass storage device, by simply dragging and dropping songs in the Music directory, or using players like Banshee and Amarok for enhanced functionalities.
Interesting functions are the radio tuner, and the possibility to expand the storage capacity with a memory card with a maximum capacity of 16GB, that can be bought separately. I do not need it, but it will be surely appreciated by users with a large music collection.
The player interface is very clear, and translated in various languages that can be selected the first time the player is turned on. The look is clean and essential, and the build is solid. But what is really amazing is the very high sound quality. I tried different genres, songs, volumes and the sound is always very clean. Kudos to SanDisk!