Product reviews: SanDisk slotMusic™ player, "beyond MP3"

The slotMusic™ Player from SanDisk - a truly unlimited MP3 for hip campers!

by Sarah Pendleton guest writer

[Editor's note - Sarah is a full-time freelance editor and writer]

I got my hands on a product the other day that I was skeptical about at first. I knew SanDisk Corporation makes audio/video products; I own a 4GB flash drive and I have a regular Sansa brand MP3 player, so I was curious to see what this new 'slotMusic' was all about.

The SanDisk slotMusic™ Player uses tiny flash memory cards, or microSD cards to play back preloaded music. I was puzzled. Why should I want to step backwards into the world of CDs and cassette tapes? Isn't that basically what needing a card to insert into your player means? I mean, I guess if you don't have a computer...

Well, wait a minute. The preloaded cards you can purchase featuring top artists also contain a lot of extra space, so you can add and mix your own music. I thought when I first got my MP3 that I would never fill it up to its 1,000 song capacity, but it was only a year before I had to start going through and deleting stuff to make room for more. Also it can be annoying to be in the mood for rock and have to keep filtering out the country, or want to croon and keep getting interrupted with rap. (Yeah, Ms. Eclectic Tastes, that's me.)

With the slotMusic™ Player, I can have my genres separated - and my player's capacity really is unlimited. What's more, I can yank the card, slide it into a USB port adapter, and stick it in my mobile phone, PC or any other compatible device.

My 7 year old son was begging for an MP3 for Christmas. I've already put his favorite songs off of our CD collection onto a microSD card for him. His own personalized mix of Queen's 'We Will Rock You' (his all time fave) is buddied up next to 'The Year 3000' by the Jonas Brothers. He is going to absolutely freak out.

I'm going to have to get one for my daughter, too, so she can mix and match her Taylor Swift, Reba and Kelly Clarkson. She'll need a second card for Evanescence, Demi Lovato, and Avril Levigne; she's like me that way. What happens in the country, stays in the country.

The MSRP of a Sansa branded slotMusic™ Player is just $19.99. The preloaded artist branded packages (stylish trendy players featuring likenesses and names - oh, look, there's Taylor Swift now!) include a top album on a 1GB slotMusic card with additional content from the artist; they retail for about $34.99. This is a definite win for the friend without a PC (since it makes downloading unnecessary); for the adolescent or teen in your life that needs a hip new player - or for the guy who has everything but more space left on his MP3.

copyright 2008 - all rights reserved, Sarah Pendleton for Just Camping Out
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Kaity Ocean, representing Sansa's slotMusic™ player, explains:

"I wanted to let you know about something that’s different and fun that people may take camping for those “down time” moments or to use during walks or hikes, the Sansa slotMusic™ player. Super easy to use and operates off a AAA battery so it can just be kept in the camping box ready to go for when people want to enjoy some music (it plays up to 16 hours of music)." [~Jim]