MaximumPC 2005 10

N

o matter how ugly somebody’s kid is—even if he looks like a goat—eti-

quette prohibits discussion of the malady. No such rule exists for

hardware reviewers, so let’s get this out of the way: SanDisk’s flash-based

Sansa MP3 player crawled straight out of the ugly ditch. No one will stop

you on the street to ask you about it, and Newsweek won’t be putting it on

the cover. Ah, it’s just as well—the Sansa leaves much to be desired in an

MP3 player.

Let’s consider the controls first. How do you turn on the player? The play

button? Nope. You have to hold down the menu button instead. Fine. How do

you flip through tracks while a song is playing? You can’t. The scroll wheel

only controls volume during playback. Speaking of the scroll wheel, it’s a vic-

tim of the same kind of poor industrial design that led to the Chernobyl disas-

ter. It’s so stiff that it requires considerable effort to move—so much effort

that fine control with one hand is virtually impossible. You’ll end up advancing

the volume by four clicks instead of one, and even using a fingernail to scroll

had us struggling to target the desired menu selection.

Audio reproduction falls below average, and well below that of pre-

mium players like the iPod or those from Creative Labs. Fortunately, there is

a custom EQ facility, and the SRS WOW effects add welcome dimension. And

SanDisk wisely includes a pair of earbuds with bass-boosting nubs that deliver

a macho bass punch, which is great for running, working out at the gym, or

indulging in other active-lifestyle customs.

We appreciate that you can augment the 1GB of built-in storage with

additional memory via the SD card slot, but we can’t recommend the Sansa

unless your grandmother recently passed away and bequeathed to you several

high-capacity SD cards. And even then, we’d still urge you to consider the

good woman’s sage advice: You

better shop around.

—LOGAN DECKER

SanDisk Sansa 1GB

MP3 Player

On the bright side, there’s plenty of room for improvement



SANSA MP3 PLAYER

$150, http://www.sandisk.com

A

lot of sweat and R&D dollars were obviously spent making the Exilim

P505 camera stylish and ultra-compact. Sadly, all this engineering- and

marketing-muscle effort is lost on us. The P505 is a capable 5.1-megapixel

camera, jam-packed with features, but Casio’s focus on delivering the

smallest possible formfactor has resulted in a camera that sacrifices prac-

ticality for looks.

What is the point of making the camera’s body so small it’s a challenge

for users with even average “man hands” (let alone the big meaty variety) to

navigate its buttons, if the 5x optical zoom lens is too big to let you slip the

camera into your pocket? If, however, you plan on toting your camera around

in a purse, backpack, or (horrors!) a “man purse,” the P505 might be worth a

look—particularly if you require above-average video performance.

The camera produces good-looking MPEG-4 video (640x480, 30fps,

AVI format) that won’t torture your eardrums—thanks to dual stereo micro-

phones. The extra bulk from the lens actually makes the camera easy to

balance and shoot with one hand. And the P505 sports a generous mix of

newb- and enthusiast-friendly program modes, making the camera suitable

for a wide range of skill levels.

The P505’s still-image capabilities are just average outdoors (where the

2-inch LCD can be tough to use). Indoors, however, it ups its game. The pow-

erful flash lights a fairly large room with ease and is excellent for portrait use.

And the macro mode is also very good. In challenging low-light situations the

camera does have some auto-focus issues, which would have been helped

by a focus-assist lamp.

We’d be able to more easily forgive the P505’s shortcomings—average

still-image quality; lack of a focus-assist lamp, viewfinder, and continuous-

shooting mode; and relatively high price—if it were truly an ultra-portable

camera. It’s not, so we’d rather have a slightly bulkier body, a bigger LCD, and

(most of all) better pics, than the

camera’s compact “wow factor.”

–STEVE KLETT

Casio Exilim EX-P505

Lots of features crammed into too small a package

reviews TESTED. REVIEWED. VERDICTIZED

78 MA XIMUMPC OCTOBER 2005

Sansa gives its

rather homely

MP3 player a

jump with cutie-

pie bass-boosting

earbuds.

Too small for a camera bag and too large for your pocket,

the P505 would have been better served by a more practical,

slightly larger design.

CASIO EXILIM EX-P505



$500, http://www.casio.com

3.88"

2.19

"

2 "

2.75

"