Sansa Connect Mobile
Review by Robert Young-Pullman | Published November 2008 | Review Archives

Every month it seems there's another contender to try to capture a tiny portion of the iPod's mobile media player market. Sansa is a spin-off company of SanDisk, the folks that make those tiny flash drives that used to power things like digital cameras and the like. Their new "Connect" has a bland name, which I think is part of the marketing - you may like your new iPod in vivid colors, but this is an MP3 player for your grandmother - easy, comfortable, and a little boring.

Intentional or not, the Connect will appeal largely to those who like a closed box. It uses Wi-Fi to hook up to Yahoo's rather stale "Music Unlimited" service, which will cost you a $15/month subscription fee. The good part is you get to listen to full albums. The bad part is that you're totally at the mercy of the RIAA's bizarre posture toward digital music: these songs really won't be yours, and the minute you cancel that subscription service, this turns into a glorified Internet Radio player. It already seems rather crippled as you can't search for specific songs (really quickly: try to match your 10 all-time favorite songs with the album they were on. Get it?) and really only functions well with the Yahoo subscription. Oh, and it also doesn't work with those slick Macs that all the kids are using these days.