The Sansa M250 can hold 32 hours of CD-quality MP3 tracks on its 2 GB memory. View larger. Detailed view of the basic controls.

The 2 GB Sansa M250 will hold approximately 32 hours of CD-quality MP3 tracks (encoded at 128kps) or 64 hours of WMA tracks (at 64kbps). It's compatible with MP3, WMA, secure WMA, and Audible audio file formats. The digital FM radio allows you to access local radio stations, as well as preset up to 20 of your favorite stations. With five equalizer types for the FM radio and music player, you can optimize your sound for your favorite style of music, such as, Rock, Jazz, Classical, Pop, and Custom (user-defined). You can also use the built-in microphone and voice recording function to capture interviews, classes, and short voice notes to yourself.

The compact yet robust industrial design offers an easy-to-use interface with an indigo-backlit LCD screen showing ID3 tag information from currently playing tracks (song title, artist, and album, as well as battery level and playlist). Sophisticated music library sorting lets you browse the music in your player by artist, album, song title, genre, year, playlist, and other useful criteria. The AB playback feature allows you to select a start point and an end point within an audio file so you can play that segment over and over--helpful for learning languages.

It's easy to transfer songs to the Sansa--just connect it to your PC via the included USB 2.0 connection cable, where it will appear as a Windows Portable Device on your computer. Then, just drag and drop music files from anywhere on your hard drive or use a variety of music software to move licensed music to the device. The Sansa is compatible with PCs running the Windows XP operating system.

The SanDisk Sansa M250 digital audio player uses PlaysForSure technology. Look for the PlaysForSure logo if you're shopping for a portable music or video device and you want to make sure the digital music and video you purchase will play back on it every time. Match the PlaysForSure logo on a large selection of leading devices and online music stores. If you see the logo, you'll know your digital music will play for sure. Choose from a large number of digital music and video stores, including MTV's Urge, Rhapsody, Yahoo!, MSN Music, MusicMatch, MusicNow, Napster, Wal-Mart Music Downloads, and many more.