Hands-on Review: SanDisk Sansa Shaker

SanDisk has made an MP3 player for 'tweens, and it's darn cute. Better yet, it works pretty well, and holds the interest of the mid-range 'tween (age 10) in my house.

She was skeptical at first when she turned on the Sansa Shaker and heard songs like "Wheels on the Bus" and "Three Blind Mice" already on the SD card that comes with it. "It's for little kids," she said. When I told her she can add her own songs, her interest was rekindled. She likes the hourglass shape and the deep blue color. (It also comes in hot pink, not this 10-year-old's favorite.)

She went to Yahoo! Music Unlimited to find some of her favorite tracks. But we quickly realized that the Sansa Shaker does not support WMA music files; it only supports MP3 or WAV files. So it became a teachable moment to learn how to convert some of her favorite tracks from her CDs to MP3 files to transfer to the Shaker. (See my next post.)

The best way to transfer music to the Shaker is to use the USB cable that connects the Shaker to your PC. After using Windows Media Player to rip some of my tween's favorite songs from her CD's to MP3 files onto the PC, we simply clicked on the files she wanted on the portable player from our PC's My Music folder onto the Shaker's SD card drive.

So if you're thinking about an MP3 player for your 'tween, the Sansa Shaker is a good choice for a portable music beginner. One of the main reasons is the price: At $40, it's half the price of an iPod shuffle, the smallest of Apple's portable music players. Even with the shuffle's fun colors, the Shaker may appeal more in appearance to 'tweens, too. One fun feature (and the source of its name) is you can change songs by holding down the on/off button and giving the player a shake. Two white bands, one at the top to move forward or backward on the playlist, the other at the bottom to turn volume up and down, make it extremely simple to use.

One drawback is you can't use iTunes (obviously, since it's not an Apple player) or another online music store like Yahoo! Music Unlimited. So it means converting songs to MP3 files to transfer to the player if your 'tween is on the older end of the 'tween spectrum. Also, the player automatically shuffles songs, and there's no way to see the playlist.

A nice feature is the speaker: kids can listen to music together without sharing earbuds. And the sound is pretty good, better than expected. But my daughter and I both agreed the earbuds that come with the Shaker seem big for 'tween ears.

SanDisk has made a good MP3 player for a good price for kids who are just figuring out what music they like. It's worth a look.

Related: SanDisk Aims to Shake up 'Tween MP3 Market