Sandisk Sansa Shaker MP3 Player review
REVIEW: The Sandisk Sansa Shaker comes in 2 different colors Blue and Pink and in two types 512mb or 1 Gig its made by Sandisk and they were made specifically for children. Most Mp3 players now days from the ipod shuffle, nano, to the other makes usually cost anywhere from $100 upwards but what is nice about this is you can pick this up at the cheapest prices of $27 SANDISK 1GB SANSA SHAKER MP3 PLAYER W/BUILT-IN SPEAKER & SD CARD SLOT (Blue) (Retail) that I have seen online and trust me I shopped around for 2 of these for my kids in pink and after not being able to order them through amazon.com which is where the lowest deal is, I ended up buying two from a canadian based company for just around $37 yet I did see people trying to sell them on other websites and on ebay for over $45 which is a bit over priced.
I came across this and decided upon buying it after looking at all the various MP3 Players that were out there specifically for kids. It was a bit of a toss up between this one and the Digital Blue 671 Disney Mix Max Princess Flower Personal Media Player which is a tad more in price at $99 and based on CNET review of it, the Sandisk Sansa Shaker seems to be favoured more. The other one which I was tempted to get was also from Disney and its called the Disney Mix Stick High School Musical which is priced at $44
How to put Music on your Sandisk Sansa Shaker
Its really easy you have 2 ways of doing it
1. You can take out the SD card and insert it into your computers SD slot, and drag mp3s on to it
2. You can hook up the USB connector to the player and your computer and add your mp3 files that way but remember it will be a bit slow as it only uses USB 1.1 not 2.0 technology. You wont be able to add WMA ( windows media files or subscription music ) but it does deal with MP3 and Wav files and it only works with windows computers not MAC
What you get in the Box
Sandisk Sansa Shaker Mp3 Player
1 AAA battery
Stickers for the player
Earbuds
USB connector
Preinstalled removable 512 mb sd card
A Carabiner Clip to attach it to your belt
How it Works
Basically its made to be simple to use you power on and off with the play/pause button holding it down for a few seconds until you hear a sound ( see video ). You can skip to the next song using 2 methods, the white ring at the bottom to go back and forth or you can hold the play/pause and shake the device to make it jump to a random song you also get a nice sound effect when it does it, this is why kids love it.
Now the downside to it, is you dont know when the battery is going to die as their is no light to indicate it so its just a case of playing till it doesnt play. You can get though 15 hours of battery life if you use the headphones vs having it come out of the main speaker which it also has saving you having to use head phones.
It has another white ring for volume up and down just twist it to adjust the volume.
What others said in their reviews
anythingbuyipod wrote The Sansa Shaker is not intended for the person reading this review,but rather for their children. If you are an adult considering this asa legitimate audio player, there are better choices, with better audio quality, sold in the same price range. Although clearly aimed atchildren, I could see this player used by adults as a quick and easy way to listen to podcasts without headphones. For around forty bucks,
the Sansa Shaker is a great way to get your kids started early with technology. The Shaker is a kids’ toy with the durability and funfactor that will keep them entertained.
Crunchgear says Overall, the Shaker is cheap enough ($39.99) to be a fun stocking stuffer or gift, and that’s sure to be its main attraction. Is the Shaker exciting for adults, with its quirky features and sound effects? No. But judging from the way my two 8-year-old neighbors fought over it, this has potential to do OK with the kiddies.
Video Demo
