Gadget Graveyard - Speck Toughskin for Sansa 200 series

Tech moves so damn fast that by the time I write up a review it’s been discontinued or upgraded.  So let’s got walking through the graveyard…

If a e200 series sansa took a semi-truck tire out behind the middle school and got it pregnant (tm Tracy Jordan), this would be their love child. Ugly bastard, but damn, did it live up to its name.

First, the bad news.

Cons:

- Added weight and bulk (though imo this partic skin is much more sleek than current versions– tho to be fair this might be due more to the sansa design than the  skin itself.)

- Screen protector seems to now be permanently attached to unit.

- Belt clip cracked and broke, but honestly that was after a good summer’s worth of 1hr a day  walking attached to my hip pocket. And when I get my stroll on I swung my hips, dammit. It fought a good fight.

- Plastic “hinge”(?) for clip wore a small circular mark on unit. Fortunately it has that “liquid metal” backing, so the damage was minimal compared to if it had been plastic.

Pros:

- Props to both skin & sansa on this point. I dropped this bad boy so often. On grass, on dirt, on pavement and sidewalk.  Sometimes the ToughSkin absorbed shock and unit kept right on playing. At worse it powered-off, but on restart it was fine, and after double checking there were no scratches or dings on the unit.

- This silicone was not of the cat-hair magnet variety. It’s tough and matte like an eraser.

- Grip “treads” are great if you are holding mp3 player w/ sweaty hands.

- The skin actually made it easier to use the buttons surrounding the scroll wheel.

* * *

As I’ve noted above, Speck continues to make skins for zune, ipod, etc. but sadly the sansa model is no more.  Something about its proportions made it so tomboy-cute, moreso than the successors.

I TOTALLY recommend Speck ToughSkin. It completely lived up to the name, and more than a year later I’m glad I dropped $20 on this instead of some generic silicone for half the price and 1/4 of the protection.

*Also, I suggest picking up a refurb 2nd gen sansa for <$50, stick a cheap microSD card and throw in RockBox.  Have fun, lemme know how it goes!