I bought a refurbished e250 for around $30 a few months ago and I am completely satisfied. The battery life is just incredible compared to the two other MP3 players I've owned, which were AAA battery powered. The fact that this player cannot be charged except over the USB connection is really not an issue for me. The sound quality is very good for the audio books that I use it for. The output level is much better than what I've been used to. I use an FM modulator to feed my car stereo and the other MP3 players I've owned required me to crank the radio to hear them, but this one does much better.

The only thing I didn't really like about the player was the firmware. I had a hard time finding my way around playlists while on the player. Downloading using Windows Media Player however was a total snap. Luckily, I heard about the Rockbox open source firmware package (www.rockbox.org). Let me tell you, when you put that on you will never go back to the standard firmware (though you can if you like by holding down left when you turn it on).

I haven't bought a microSD card yet, but when I do I will laugh all the way to the bank at getting a quality 10GB player for around 50 bucks!

If you do not want to invest in an IPOD this is a good alternative.

SanDisk Sansa e260 4 GB MP3 Player with SD Expansion Slot (Black) I am truly happy I purchased my Sansa. I have only 2 regrets. 1. I am not "tech-savvy" and 2. An instruction booklet explaining all the options and details is not included. But, I wouldn't have any other MP3 player. Sansa e260 is easy to "figure out" and suits my desires perfectly. I enjoy listening to my FM Stations, the different types of music I enjoy as well as AudioBook downloads, while I am working around the house, gardening etc...I strongly recommend SanDisk/Sansa products.

With the expansion slot. you have a unlimited source of music by just adding another chip of music. With the price of 2 gb micro chips you can increase the size just by adding the chip and with more chips of different genes listen to all kinds of music.

It's a very good mp3 player, just that to put photos you most have to converted to it's own format.