A friend asked me today what MP3 player he should buy. He has a budget of around £150, and apparently has an ‘irrational objection to Apple’. So, I thought I’d post my answer here.

Sansa e260 4GB - £144.99

This seems to be the iPod Nano competitor that everyone’s talking about. It offers a good feature set, according to the product manual:

• Digital Audio Player – supports MP3, WMA, and secure WMA, audio files. Other file types need to be converted to these formats.
• Video Player – supports video files transcoded and transferred to the device through the included Media Converter software.
• Photo Browser – supports photo files transcoded and transferred to the device through the included Media Converter software.
• Voice Recorder – supports voice recording function with built-in microphone.
• EQ effect – you are able to select an EQ mode to personalize your music experience.
• micro SD Slot – supports read or write from external micro SD cards.
• Internal Memory – allows users to store data on the internal memory
• Compatibility with Microsoft PlayForSure subscription services

In the US, an FM radio with recording is added to the feature set. But for some reason, not in Europe. Even without this feature, it is an impressive set of capabilities, offering features not found in its rival, the Nano. The killer features for me are the ability to expand the memory with MicroSD cards, as this offers a very cheap way to upgrade the capacity now that flash memory prices are so low, and the support for PlayForSure subscription services. This support means that it matters less that the Sansa doesn’t work with iTunes, and that it will be compatible with the new URGE service from MTV and Microsoft. All in all it makes a very good choice for a budget mp3 player, especially if you do have an ‘irrational objection to Apple’.