2. Connect And Convert

Videos play back in landscape on the e270's excellent screen.

The e270 has a proprietary cable with a connecter that's almost the same as an iPod dock and SanDisk hopes for third-party accessories as well as the ones it's developing itself. Copying files across converts them to WMA, which does take a little less space; this is only slow in older versions of Windows Media Player and a 6 MB file copies in around six seconds. Images and videos also need converting to MJPEG, which you need to do in the SanDisk MediaConverter, but this puts them at the right resolution for the screen, avoiding the jagged look you sometimes see. You can also switch the USB mode so you can copy files directly to the device.

Sound quality is good, with excellent detail and clarity and good bass. You won't hear all of that through the earbuds supplied and you'll want to replace them pretty quickly.

The LCD screen is sharp, bright and colourful. The viewing angle is reasonable, and better when you turn it sideways for landscape and videos. Having to convert photos and videos makes it rather tedious to transfer them, but you can enjoy watching them on the screen and the software converts VOB, AVI, MPG, MP4, MOV, WMV , JPEG, GIF, BMP, TIFF and even DVDs. Video files can only be ten minutes long but if you convert a longer file the e270 will link the sections and play them back one after another. Performance is usually good, with the odd stutter. You can't zoom in on photos but you can play a slideshow. The built-in FM radio is disabled in the UK (to avoid an EU tax which would increase the price).

There's no line in option so recordings are limited to the built-in microphone but the quality is clear; just as well as you can't change the recording options which save in WAV rather than MP3. Battery life is close to the advertised 20 hours and sometimes even longer. That may be because the player shuts down fully after the timeout (and startup takes a few seconds longer than you might like). You can swap out the battery for a new one if you need to; you have to undo four screws to do it, so it's not quite practical just to get longer listening time, but replacement batteries are cheap and come with a screwdriver.

Thicker than an iPod Nano, but the e270 is still sleek and stylish.

Other players have more options and getting photos and videos onto the player is complicated as it stands, but the sound quality is good and the screen is one of the best we've seen on a flash player. Unlike many small flash players, the e270 feels robust and well built. If your fingers can cope with the small buttons, you can happily hang this around your neck and use the money you save to stock up on miniSD cards.