I've had an MP3 player before, a Philips + Nike number. It did as it advertised: it played MP3's. However, it was a really basic player and was nothing much to speak of.

When I ordered this particular media player, I had done quite a bit of research into the field. Kids in class used to ask me, "Hey, Spencer, why don't you have an iPod?", somehow equating my tech savvy with Apple loyalism. I'd rant back some statement about poor software user interface design (never have liked iTunes), DRM lockdown by the kings that popularized the concept, and lockdown between iTunes and the iPod.

After UPS finally decided to deliver the Sansa I bought from Best Buy, I immediately knew this was different. I had seen Sansas in stores and online, but now I actually owned one. I quickly threw on some music and left off to where I had to be at that moment. This is a paradigm shift from any other combination of media players (Apple, Microsoft, et al.): this truly was the epitome of the plug-and-play concept. I plugged in my Sansa, opened Windows Media Player™ 11 (it comes preinstalled on Windows Vista™), and copied over my highest-rated music. I didn't have to bullshit around with installing extra software (yet) and didn't have to do anything special to make things just work.

It's now day two with the media player, and I am still in love with the device. I've put up close to 200 songs, a full-length movie and some smaller clips, and am still thinking of ways to fill up all 4GB of space. I especially love all of the preloaded content that comes with the Sansa: the music spans several genres and includes Rhapsody content as well as free-use content, something very intelligent to bundle in the package.

The only criticism I do have with the setup is that WMP doesn't convert video or pictures to the device's screen size, so the player rejects the new content unless you use Sansa's Media Converter software. However, the software is well-made and top-notch, with no complaints outside of a spelling error (it's "writing", not "writting"), so the detraction is ameliorated.

The actual interface itself is similar to other media players in the way the different types of content are organized (album, track, artist, etc.), but the entire interface is so beautifully laid out and the main screen is so well done, you hardly notice. The wonderful combinations of blue, white, orange, and green in the interface leave you feeling confident in the product, and the UI touches like Rhapsody channel expand-on-hover and main-screen carousel icon rotation set this media player apart.

Music playback, video playback, picture playback, radio listening, and voice recording: everything's so easy to use, so simple and straightforward, and so perfect that I really can't complain about much. I especially love the built-in radio tuner and the voice recorder, two features I had wanted in my MP3 player when I started my search.

I would not hesitate to recommend this device to anyone in search of a media player, and when caught in a sale, this device is a steal. My hat's off to SanDisk's engineers: well done, guys.