SanDisk Sansa e140
It was brought over from the States and cost about $100.
I chose this particular one because
1)It supports USB 2.0. That means it takes about 4 minutes to fill its gigabyte of built-in memory, which is convenient.
2)It supports SD memory cards, of which I’ll probably have quite a few.
3)According to reviews, after installing the firmware update from the SanDisk website, it has no significant drawbacks.
The sound quality with the included earphones is so-so. With my full-size Sennheiser HD555 headphones, it’s better, but the player can’t properly drive them. In about a week, I’ll compare it with the iRiver H10 player and report back.
After several days of use, I discovered a couple of unpleasant quirks that I hadn’t seen mentioned in reviews:
1) The write speed to the memory card is terribly slow—less than 600 KB/sec. That’s slower than USB 1.1 and means waiting 20–30 minutes to fill a 1 GB card. USB 2.0 didn’t help; apparently, the built-in card reader’s controller is the bottleneck.
2)The backlight is blue, and the letters are small. It looks nice and is informative, but it isn’t very easy to read, especially while moving or from a distance—when pulling it out of a pocket.
Overall, it’s a decent player and you can buy it without much concern, but it’s always better to read reviews first.