SanDisk has been known to pack some pretty powerful audio into their small, easy to use, economical Sansa MP3 players, and while the Shaker doesn't quite live up to this legacy, we're not exactly sure that it's supposed to; rather, it is something between a toy and low-cost digital music player that is geared toward kids eight and older.

The Shaker comes in two colors: pink and blue, presumably for girls and boys, respectively. It is available in 512MB and 1GB versions. There's no display, but it does feature an FM tuner and a voice recorder. It runs on one AAA battery, and because the estimated battery life is just 10 hours when this unit is used with headphones, you should expect to go through them fairly quickly.

The Shaker offers two headphone jacks for sharing, as well as an external speaker; the sound from said speaker is more powerful than you may expect, but it is somewhat tinny. When using the included headphones, the sound quality isn't bad, but with a pair of higher-quality ear buds, it greatly improves. Given the target demographic, heavy bass probably isn't highly recommended, however, and you may want to consider picking up a pair of kid-friendly earphones with volume control to better protect your child's hearing.

The Shaker's operation has its own twist -- holding down the pause/play button and shaking the device causes it to advance to the next song. The player emits a variety of gurgling, blipping and chattering sounds to accompany any action, including turning the power on and off. Two "control bands" at the top and bottom of the player let you adjust the volume and navigate songs.

The Shaker's big flaw is one of design. Its USB port, battery slot and memory card slot are located on the bottom of the player, which twists off easily -- too easily, in fact, as every time we use the control band just above it to navigate songs, the bottom twists right off. Since it's attached to the player with just a cord, it's hard to imagine it staying put for very long.

Overall, the Sansa Shaker gives kids something with which to play music, but it might not be sturdy enough to last very long.


Pros: Good sound quality, FM tuner, voice recorder
Cons: Scroll wheel doesn't fully function, bottom comes off very easily

Warranty
1 year