SanDisk Sansa m240 1GB USB 2.0 MP3 Player/FM/Voice Recorder

When my iPod died several months ago I was distressed since I listen to music on campus to pass the time more easily in between classes. I also used it extensively for extra stimulation in outdoor journeys and in transits. The warranty had run up and Apple wanted over $250 to get it 'repaired.' After my attempts at fixing it failed, the time was finally called, and the deceased discarded.In the interim period between my iPod and the SanDisk Sansa M240 I used an old, scratched up, taped together, barely functional CD player with no sufficient shock protection that had been collecting dust in the bottom of my closet for a few years. The CD player was not a sufficient substitute: it was bulky, only held about 80 minutes of audio, would skip frequently, had poor audio fidelity and was increasingly becoming unusable due to structural damage.Clearly I needed an MP3 player to fulfill my needs. I picked up the SanDisk Sansa M240 and must say I am quite pleased with the result. The only other contender was the 1 gigabyte iPod nano. I have no experience with the nano but I do know is that it costs about 30 dollars more, doesn't have an FM tuner or onboard mic and also must interface (like the regular iPods) exclusively with the extraordinarily frustrating program iTunes.The first thing you will notice about the M240 is that it is only a few inches long and only weighs a few ounces. I almost fear that I will break it in my hands simply by applying too much pressure to it's face. In the end this becomes a highly desirable design feature because it is extremely mobile and even comes with a carrying case and armband for exercise or other intense activities (although I haven't had any experience using those items). Luckily the buttons are big enough for even the thickest of fingers to navigate easily.Although the M240 is physically tiny it has identical capacity to the iPod nano and also more features. It has a built-in FM tuner that has surprisingly good audio quality and reception (it has no antenna by default, you can attach a USB cable for extra reception but won't need it if you are above ground and in a suburban or urban area) and a onboard mic that is useful for taking notes. I was amazed to find that inside my kitchen I was getting perfect radio reception without the USB attachment and could walk around with no audio distortion. The M240 also has some other minor applications like an alarm clock feature that may come in handy.Installation of the 240 is incredibly simple, all you do is connect it to your computer using the USB cable that comes with it and it will be added to My Computer. From there, all you have to do is drag files from your computer into the MP3 player's "data" directory (which comes up like a USB pen drive would once inserted). I find that this method of adding and deleting files from the MP3 player is much more dynamic, natural and speedy than using the cumbersome, restrictive and poorly designed iTunes. If I want to add "Tentacles of Whorror" by Leviathan to the player and its full, all I have to do is go to My Computer, double click on the player icon, go to the data folder, delete a album or two that is already on there and then simply drag the Leviathan over (or copy and paste). Performing the same operation in iTunes would take at least twice as long and be frustrating to boot. You can supposedly synchronize the M240 applications on your computer to transfer songs to the player, but I prefer to do it myself through Windows.The most important aspect of any audio device is of course how it sounds. The M240 has surprisingly high audio fidelity and comes with a versatile suite of tools to customize the sound to your liking such as a fully programmable software equalizer. I found that once I had tweaked the equalizer and sound settings that the audio output from the M240 was phenomenal, sounding comparable to my home audio setup in terms of fidelity. I was also surprised at how loud I could make the volume (With no audio distortion). The ear bud phones that come with the player are also of surprising quality. As is the case with all ear buds, there is little bass, however this particular set has more bass than the stock iPod buds. The buds also fit comfortably in my ear and cause no irritation, a problem I have had with most ear bud phones. I would recommend getting a cheap pair of Sennheiser HD-212s or HD-220s for a proper listening experience: hearing the piece how the artist intended for it to be heard. As I have said before and will say now, if you aren't listening to music with a good pair of headphones you are not listening to music.The software of the M240 is very easy to manipulate to have it do whatever you want. A problem with the cumbersome iPod software was adding multiple albums to the current playlist, but this is easy with the M240. The buttons are easy to use and very responsive to your actions.Some other random things of note. The M240 has great battery life, requiring only one AAA battery for about 15-20 hours of continuous usage. The LCD fully reads ID3 information including properly formated album and title names.Overall, the SanDisk Sansa M240 is a great value for the money, being superior to the iPod nano and cheaper as well. I couldn't think of any better alternative for a low capacity MP3 player, it has no obvious cons.

I'm quite happy with my 1GB Sansa M240. It's a little clunkier in shape and size than some other MP3 players, but the price is good, the controls work well, and it's easy to load music.The profile of the player is a bit different; the back is rounded rather than flat (to conform to the battery compartment) and the sides have a little step in them to accomodate more control buttons. In practice this hasn't been an issue for me, since it still fits in my jeans pocket comfortably. The included plastic case works well to protect the player and allows access to the controls and the USB connector (but not the battery compartment) without taking the player out of the case.My previous flash player was a Creative Zen Nano. The Sansa definitely has better controls; the Nano basically just played songs by directory and displayed the file name, ignoring the ID tags in the song file itself. The Sansa, on the other hand, will automatically sort out songs into a hierarchy by artist and album, using the embedded ID tags rather than the directory structure to drive it. This means I can just copy a bunch of files into any directory on the Sansa, and it will organize them for me. Nice. No need for additional software (like iTunes) either; it's just a flash drive.The controls are simple but effective: the usual play/pause, volume up/down, and skip back/forward things. A separate button gives access to menus for play modes (shuffle, repeat) and other stuff. These work well, and I've only rarely had a button get pushed in my pocket by accident (a problem with small players when you don't lock the controls all the time).Battery life is good; I've been getting a few weeks on each AAA battery, with an average of an hour per day or more of use. The low-battery indicator hasn't been real helpful, though, as it seems to register 50-80% right up until the unit dies because the battery is gone. Not a big problem if you carry a spare battery, but you could be surprised sometimes.I've used the FM feature only a little. It has the same problems as other flash players with FM, in that the selectivity is poor and there's a lot of static. Unlike other players I've seen, the Sansa uses the USB cable as an antenna, which probably improves the reception. I don't know because I don't carry the cable around with me when I'm using the player, though. They do supply a cute short little USB cable (about 4" long).I have no strong opinions on the supplied earbuds, since I use some I already had. They seemed like ordinary earbuds.Overall, I'm happy with this player. It remains to be seen how long it lasts (my Nano flaked out after about a year), and that will probably be the big determinant of how cost-effective this player is, but given the low price and good features, it's been a great deal so far.