I looked for an MP3 player that had a speaker because there is too much research out there about damaged hearing on young kids who use earbuds or headphones or whatever. GG wanted an MP3 player, but I just wasn’t comfortable with the possible damage to her hearing. So, this seemed a good solution.

I debated between the Creative Zen Mozaic and the Sansa Shaker and decided on the Sansa Shaker. Not because GG couldn’t handle the controls of the Mozaic, but because I think the Sansa Shaker will hold up to abuse a whole lot better. Oh, and because the Sansa Shaker costs a lot less so if it is lost or destroyed then it’s not as big of a loss.

I’m pleased with the Shaker, and GlitterGirl loves it.

The good:

• USB Cable is supplied and it’s easy to load songs onto it (drag and drop, doesn’t get much easier than that).
• Uses an SD memory card so if you want to upgrade memory later you can.
• Decent sounding speaker – more than enough clarity for what it is used for.
• Can go forward and backward through the songs (not just forward).
• Uses one AAA battery and the battery life is excellent. I haven’t kept close track but I would guess somewhere between 15 and 25 hours. (We use rechargeable batteries, so it varies.)
• Three controls: On/Off button and two “control rings” (the white rings you see at the top and bottom are twistable). One ring scrolls backwards and forwards through songs, the other turns the volume up and down. Even a three year old (now four) can work it. When her big sister lets her, anyway.
• Comes with a lanyard and clip so kids can clip it to their beltloop or backpack to keep up with it.
• It’s rugged. It has taken a good deal of abuse and it still works just fine.

The bad:

• They aimed to keep it simple (and rugged, I think), so there is no LCD display to let you scroll through songs and no way to make playlists. The songs play (and are scrolled through) alphabetically by folder, then alphabetically by songs inside that folder. (But we’ve got two SD cards loaded with songs now, and GG numbers the file names in the order she wants them to play, so it kind of acts like two playlists even if it wasn’t really designed for it.)

That’s the only bad thing I can come up with. The “shake” feature is kind of hokie, you hold the button and shake it to get a random song, but most of the time GG scrolls back and forth. She doesn’t really do random all that much.

I think if you wanted to get an MP3 player for a technologically challenged adult this might also be a good choice. If they can work the tape player or CD player in their car, they can work this. If they can work the TV remote, they can work this. And you can plug earbuds into it, but the speaker option is there as well.

We bought GG the 1 gig model, but knowing what we know now the 512mb model would have been fine. She has a lot of songs, but it works better for her to have two SD cards and put one type of song on one card and another type of song on another card, and then load whichever card onto it before she leaves the house. Without the ability to scroll through an LCD readout, 1 gig of songs is just too much at a time.

I highly recommend this little thing.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 12th, 2009 at 9:56 am and is filed under Reviews: Tech, Reviews: Toys. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.