Originally Posted by hyedipin
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It is just not bad. It is refurbished, and I read that a few people had them die after a few months of usage, that's why they have abundance of refurbish units.
I would go for brand new, Zune 30GB, factory warranty for $99.
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somewhat of an "apples vs. oranges" deal there. The Zune is a HDD DAP, whereas the Sansa is a flash DAP. The refurbished Sansa's are factory refurbished, and usually are DAP's that users for various reasons could not get to operate, or thought were broken when it was user-error, or just returned for refund because they didn't like it. Sandisk just corrected what the users did wrong, run a diagnostic on the player to make sure it does in fact work, and repackage them as refurbs. Occasionally you may get a player with some minor scratches or scuffs, but usually they look as-new, and the Sansa's durable plastic face is more scratch-resistant than the plastic of the 1G Nanos and 5G iPods, and it's metal back is more durable than the new iPods' chromed steel backs.....
A little flash DAP such as the e200 Series Sansa makes a great companion for work-outs, jogging, or the quick escape from the mundane during commutes. They are durable, hardy players that you can just toss into your pants pocket, purse or backpack when you don't use it.
The $30 price tag is a steal when you consider that you get FM, voice recording, video and photo support. It has 20+ hours of battery life for audio playback, and has a user-replaceable rechargeable battery. The e200 series Sansa is also MSC/UMS compliant as well as MTP (PlaysForSure1) compatible, which means it is recognizable as an external device with most PC operating platforms. There's no need for any media managing programs for loading audio content, although it will be required for photo and video content.
The geek in me also favors the fact that you can Rockbox the e200 series Sansa. This brings many additional features to the player, such as SDHC support, so you can expand your 2GB Sansa up to 10GB currently with available 8GB SDHC microSD cards. You also get gapless support, crossfading, games, as well as support for OGG, FLAC, ALAC, WAVPack, AAC, and MPEG1 and 2. You can also install countless theme and font customizations that change the appearance of the Sansa's GUI.
About all you get with the Zune is 30GB of storage, and a larger video screen. I would not recommend the Sansa as a video player: not that the screen is lousy, but because it's too small for my tastes......it's functional for short clips and animations (cartoons and personal videos), but nothing with great detail, IMO. But as a pure throw-around audio player for on-the-go uses, it's perfect.
By the way, Woot! sold up to 31,000 units in one day on that deal...one of the greatest sales they've ever had. They will do another one of these soon, so keep an eye out......
