In writing any kind of review there is always a considerable amount of subjectivity involved. After all, it is one person’s opinion. I became tired of reading such reviews and decided to take a different approach, by also having twenty of my close friends and family test and give feedback to myself. Luckily, about half were female and the total split about equally between over and under forty. I thank them all for helping me with this review. They all used the same headphones; Bose, (with no enhancements on the players for sound, even if offered) and all had the players for the same amount of time, 1 week. In all cases, their feedback was based on performance and not price or appearance.

Another difference in my reviews is that I do not include jargon and just state the bottom line. If you want to know how many songs, video hours, etc then look elsewhere. Suffice to say, 4GB is only useful for audio and 8GB upwards is good for video. Common sense really. Even the 4GB Sansa Clip can hold 400 songs. Should you need more than that, then you will be sacrificing portability. Not that any of these devices are that big anyway: the Clip is the smallest at 1 inch x 2 inch, but pretty much all of them can fit comfortably in the palm of your hand. All players were downloaded with the latest firmware as available this year when being tested. Video conversion is based on files from Cucusoft Ultimate Video Converter and transferred via WMP 11. Frame rate (FPS) and Bit rate determine the smoothness or choppiness of video. The resolution (320 x 240 etc) is very important, since incorrect encoding means the video may not play on your device. In testing all these players, I chose Noreve handmade leather cases to keep them safe from harm. Best cases on the planet, but not inexpensive: http://noreveusa.com/ . Be prepared to wait sometimes for up to 4 weeks for some of the colors. It is well worth your time though.

JusTech'n editors' rating
Features Design Performance Warranty Support Price

• Review: SanDisk Sansa e250 MP3 player