Despite the widespread installation of Wi-Fi both at home and on the street, downloading of music to portable players has largely remained a corded affair, with the device wired to a computer. But if you're keeping up with the times, you may have noticed that Wi-Fi now beckons anyone sporting earbuds. Competitors of Apple's iPod see today's Wi-Fi hot spots, whether in the home, office, or a public venue, as a more convenient option for downloading new music. The first generation "WiPod" to download music from the air was the MusicGremlin (see Experts' Guide to Great Gifts). Though it didn't stream Internet radio, it did let you enter a title or artist for on-the-fly downloading.

Now comes a more sophisticated model, the Sandisk Sansa Connect portable music player, which streams more than 150 Internet music stations — a selection that bests anything you can get from terrestrial or satellite radio. And if you like what you hear, you press the Zing button to download the song from a library of more than 2 million tunes directly into the Sansa Connect to own for keeps, or to rent as part of a monthly all-you-can-download subscription plan. If you've been walking around with a conventional music player, that may sound like a pretty attractive proposition.

•Photo Gallery

SETUP
About the size of a deck of cards, the Sansa Connect contains 4 gigabytes of internal memory, enough to store about 1,000 4-minute MP3 tunes encoded at 128 kilobits per second. There's also an expansion slot for a micro SD card. In the box are an AC charger, USB cable, earphones, carrying pouch, lanyard, and an installation CD with user guide. You need a Windows XP or Vista computer with Windows Media Player. I installed the Yahoo! Music Jukebox software and created a Yahoo! ID. A 30-day free trial of Yahoo! Music Unlimited To Go is included on a card in the box. After that a subscription is $14.99 monthly, or $11.99 if billed as $143.88 for the year ahead. Songs can be downloaded to keep for 99 or 79 cents with a subscription. The Music Unlimited To Go plan lets you download all you can hear, but the music becomes inaccessible when you stop subscribing. There are other benefits as well that accrue to a wireless connection: Yahoo Messenger users, for example, can "recommend" a song that's streaming live to anyone in their friends list who's online or on another connected Sansa Connect at the same time. You can also see what your friends are listening to.

•Photo Gallery

The Short Form

Price $250 / sandisk.com / 408-801-1000

Snapshot

Despite cutting-edge Wi-Fi for wireless streaming from the Web, a lack of reliable public hot spots may make the Sansa Connect more of a curiosity than a breakthrough.

Plus

•Streams Internet music wirelessly from your home Wi-Fi network or a public hotspot •Instant downloads of currently-streaming songs •Downloaded songs can be rented via monthly subscription or purchased outright •Built-in speaker

Minus

•Internet radio stations limited to Yahoo LAUNCHcast •Wireless songs available for download only when a station is streaming it •Battery charge runs out twice as fast when Wi-Fi link is active

Key Features

•Plays music and displays photos •Streams Yahoo Music's Launchcast stations •4 gigabytes internal memory; microSD slot for expanded storage •2.2-inch TFT color screen •Inputs/Outputs: proprietary port for USB or power adapter, embedded Wi-Fi, earphone •3.6 x 2 x 0.6 in; 2.7 oz

I disconnected the Sansa from its charger (awkward to dislodge when you leave the abutting earphones plugged in) and sat down on my living room couch ready for it to find my own Wi-Fi network or a neighbor's. Upon booting up, it found several networks, but mine, being the strongest, topped the list. I went straight to Internet radio in the Sansa's menu, at which point I was prompted to use the rubberized scroll wheel to enter my Yahoo ID and password one character at a time by scrolling through the alphabet. That's a bit of pain, but it's necessary only on the Sansa's inaugural run. Once connected, I browsed a list of stations specializing predominantly in rock, urban, pop, and country music, but less popular genres are included as well. All the stations are part of Yahoo Music's LAUNCHcast service, which is both good and bad: There's a nice selection, but if you were hoping to listen to public radio from San Francisco or another more esoteric favorite that's not part of the service, forget it. I chose a Yahoo smooth jazz station, and the artist, Boney James, started soothing my soul. I liked what I heard so I pressed the Zing button to download the tune. Nice.

One thing you cannot do wirelessly, however, is sync or drop and drag your MP3 or WMA files from your PC into the Connect's memory. Although this would have been a great convenience and a good use for the player's Wi-Fi connection, that remains a standard USB-tethered operation. Wi-Fi is available only for streaming or downloading from the Internet.

PERFORMANCE
The Windows Media Audio format used by Yahoo is pegged at 128 kilobits per second for streaming radio and 192 kbps for downloads, which are the same rates you'd get if you were logged on at your computer. Thus, if you decide to download a tune, the Sansa Connect doesn't simply capture what's being streamed. Your request is put into a queue for a download that occurs later in the background or when you stop streaming but still have Wi-Fi access. Those bit rates, incidentally are on the high side of what's typical for streaming and downloading, and I had no problem with the music quality.

•Photo Gallery

Unfortunately, the only place I could depend on for free Wi-Fi was my own apartment, and not for any lack of public access. For example, I found several unencrypted networks listed on my screen while standing in and around New York's Bryant Park, a location extolled for its free Wi-Fi. Yet the Sansa failed to connect to any of them. To be fair, I had the same problem with the MusicGremlin as well when I tested it. Sandisk says the fault lay in these networks putting up flash pages — promotional welcoming screens compatible with notebook computers but not handheld music players. Sandisk is pushing a standard that would make such networks friendlier to small Wi-Fi devices. Meanwhile, a spokesman suggested that if I had a T-Mobile account, I should be able to connect at any Starbuck's. I chose instead to continue my pursuit of free access, and I did manage to connect in the lobby of my health club and at my office by piggybacking on a neighboring company's Wi-Fi. The lesson: Although the Sansa's wireless function worked as promised in compatible hot spots, the vagaries of public Wi-Fi still presents some practical limitations on what you can do with it. I also noticed that the battery drained more quickly — actually about twice as fast — when the Wi-Fi function was engaged.

Sansa Connect doesn't do video, but it does do slide shows. You can view Flickr photos, either your own or those from anyone who has chosen to go public, even as you play music. And, unlike a big-screen TV, the Sansa Connect can be turned sideways for landscape mode without giving you a hernia, though as on many portables the screen can be difficult to see in direct sunlight. Pull the earphones out of their jack, and the mono speaker on the back of the Sansa kicks in. It makes a tinny sound, but at least you're finally listening wire-free.

BOTTOM LINE
There's really only one reason to choose the Sansa Connect over a conventional iPod: WiFi connectivity. Streaming Internet radio straight to your head without a computer is cutting-edge stuff for sure. Sorry to say, then, that the dearth of reliable Wi-Fi hot spots outside your own home may make the Sansa Connect's most compelling feature more of a curiosity than a practical alternative to loading your player with a computer and USB cable.

Photo Gallery
Test Reports RSS Feed
More Test Reports
Back to Homepage
What's New on S&V