SanDisk Sansa m240 1 GB MP3 Player (Silver)
by SanDisk
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Our Price: $99.95 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $39.99 (click here) Category: Network Media Player See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
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for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of SanDisk Sansa m240 1 GB MP3 Player (Silver)
Customer Review: Lightweight but Heavy in Features
Summary: 5 Stars
After three weeks of heavy use, I can confidently say that the Sansa M240 is an excellent buy. Although small and light, it is reasonably durable in terms of short drops and the occasional bump. It has been in and out of my pockets for over forty days now, and I have yet to scratch the screen--don't get me wrong, the plastic facing isn't invulnerable, but it is definitely strong. The earbuds would satisfy any user but an audiophile; for the audiophiles, they'll hold you over long enough for your outrageously expensive substitutes to arrive in the mail.
Cons: Aside from the "Favorites" list, the Sansa lacks any built in playlist feature whatsoever--however, there is a workaround (see below). Also, it has an odd power-saving feature that I wish the user could switch off at will: When the battery level reaches 50% or so, the backlight only comes on when the forward, reverse or menu buttons are pressed. At 25-30% remaining power, the backlight seems to shut off completely. This allows the Sansa to continue playing for much longer, but due to this undocumented feature, the backlight only works for around half of the power cycle.
Tips:
--If you're into FM radio, let it seek out and number stations for you; you can later go through and delete all but your favorites. This is much quicker than going through the FM band and selecting your choices by hand.
--Playlist Workaround: Although playlists cannot be created by the Sansa, it will play m3u playlists (such as those generated by Winamp) with only minor modification of the list. After creating a playlist with your favored program, open it in a text editor and delete all absolute path entries (but NOT the actual filename!). For example, say you have an item in your playlist that looks like this:
C:\My Documents\Music\MP3s\thissongrocks.mp3
You would have to delete everything but the actual name of the file. The result would be:
thissongrocks.mp3
Once Saved on the Sansa, playlists can be accessed through the "Playlist" entry under "Play Music" menu. I've added twelve playlists so far, and haven't yet reached a cap, so I assume it can hold a fair number.
--A pair of cheap AAA batteries and a recharger work wonders. While one battery is charging, the other is inside the Sansa; when the one in the Sansa gets low, switch! I prefer to switch them out once the backlight goes into powersaving mode.
Customer Review: Good device but bulkier than creative labs Zen Nano Plus
Summary: 4 Stars
My Zen Nano Plus finally gave out after approx 18 months of use and abuse (read dropping onto the ground a number of times), so I got the Sansa M240 as a replacement. I went with Sansa instead of buying another Zen Nano Plus because my local stores do not carry Zen Nano Plus these days and Sansa is on sale (~$35). I mainly use the flash drive based MP3 player for listening to audio books during commute. I have had the Sansa for about a week by now and found it to be an excellent and easy to use device. Compared to Zen Nano Plus, it has the following advantages and slight shortcomings (all relative depend on your listening habits):
-- Sansa has a button for "repeat/AB" so access to this function is readily available without needing to go thru menu items. I guess this function is probably more appealing to music listeners; it doesn't make a difference to me for I have no use of it in listening to audio books.
-- Sansa has a button for "hold" to prevent changing current listening session by accidental press of the buttons.
-- Sansa has separate (and larger) buttons for fast forward and fast backward, so moving between tracks is easier than using a scrolling wheel on Nano Plus. However I have found, e.g., fast forwarding within a track is harder to accomplish on Sansa as the control appears to be too sensitive and often skips to the next track instead.
-- Convenience has a price. Sansa is significantly bulkier than Zen Nano Plus. Don't get me wrong, it's still a small device for which you can fit it in your pocket or hold it comfortably in your hand, but the Zen Nano Plus is so much more compact.
When the Zen Nano Plus went out of order, I have come to accept treating MP3 players (in particular the flash drive based ones) as disposable devices, that's why I went with 1G instead of spending some more to get the 2G version. I do wish creative labs make a 2G version of Zen Nano player with replaceable battery - like the Stone Plus but it uses rechargeable battery (heard many complaints about battery life) and the MuVo line is a little larger in dimension than Zen Nano Plus.
I should also mention that I have never considered an IPOD: (1) I don't need to make a fashion statement, and more importantly (2) the audio books I download from library are WMA based thus not compatible with IPOD.
Customer Review: Sansa M240 1 gb MP3 player
Summary: 4 Stars
I got this mp3 player mainly for working out and for background music when I study, and so far I'm very pleased with my choice. I knew I didn't have the money or need for an iPod, so I compared a lot of smaller players on Amazon before deciding on the Sansa; it seemed the best deal for the money, and people were generally very happy with their purchase. Fortunately, I made a great choice, because the player is great on price and functionality for what I'm using it for.
My only gripe is the organization of the music. I haven't figured out how to make playlists on the thing, and even if you make them on MediaPlayer they don't convert and play on the Sansa (and trust me, I've tried many different things). The "playlist" option is there and I can see my playlist titles, but when I try to play the music it says "no files found". And the instructions that came with the player are extremely basic (what buttons do what), so they are no help. So what I've had to do to combat this issue is make the artist name what I want the playlist to be (ex: random 80's songs have the artist name of "80s"). This works well, because you can play music based on artist/album/genre/etc, so you bypass the playlist issue completely. It can just be time-consuming to change the properties of all your music; an artist name has to written exactly the same in order for the player to group the artist's music together (ex: Elvis vs ELVIS vs Elvis Presley). But I imagine this is a common complaint of most players, so please don't think it's unique to the Sansa.
The Sansa will work fine without the organization, and many people might not care about how their music gets grouped once in the player. But I'm a type A, so I care and have taken the time to make sure things get grouped correctly. And if you do something like I wrote above, the organization is fine; it's just something I didn't anticipate having to contend with. So please don't let that personal gripe dissuade you from purchasing this player, because it's really a nice player for the price, so long as you don't plan on storing all music on it at once. I update my music every 1-2 weeks and the system has worked well so far. My only suggestion is if you have the extra cash, you might want to splurge and go for the larger 2 gb Sansa; I wish I had.
Customer Review: Great little player!
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought my Sansa as an upgrade from my dinky little 128MB. I couldn't be happier, I got 1G for under $100, and it's so easy to use. Just drag and drop your music folders into the Sansa window! The earbuds that came with it are adequate, if you're not an audiophile, but the cord seems very lightweight, I don't expect them to last long. Invest in an better set of headphones. The UBS cable is short, like 6", so you might also want to make sure you have a longer one. I did, so it's not a problem. The instruction booklet is useless, it lost a star there. I also recommend buying the $14 silicone case for it, the plastic thing that comes with is cheaper than cheap. The FM feature works well for me, but I live in a urban area, where the radio signals are really strong. I'll have to see how well it picks up the signal when I'm out in the country. I also like the AAA battery, I bought rechargeables designed for digital devices, when my battery runs out, I can just pop in a new one, I don't have to wait for it to recharge.
Pros:
PRICE - DIRT CHEAP!
Features - FM radio and microphone recorder
Display - backlight makes it easy to see
navigation - I didn't have a problem, it seems like even large fingers wouldn't have a problem
Battery life - I get about 8 hours on a fresh battery. It probably varies depending on what features you're using.
Easy to use - Simply drag and drop. That's it. Foolproof. Or at least fool-resistant.
Cons;
Extras are cheap. - included case, earbuds and ubs cord are bottom of the line
UGLY - It's designed for function, not form. You can get a couple of colored cases for it though.
Doesn't fit well in a pocket. It's kind of uncomfortable to carry in a hip pocket, but with the case I bought, it has a belt clip.
Useless instruction booklet. Seriously, it's completely useless. The instructions that came with the carrying case were just as long. As if you needed someone to tell you to put the player INSIDE the case.
Basically, if you want a nice, cheap little mp3 player for music or audio books, this is for you. If you want a stylish, trendy thing, buy the Ipod already! I couldn't be happier with mine. 1G is plenty for me.I don't know what I'd do with the Ipod's 30!
Customer Review: Interface Could Be Better
Summary: 3 Stars
This player does work well, sound quality and volume, but it's interface and playback choices could be better. It will not playback folders of music installed on it but will sort all music by artist, album, genre, song and let you play them under these choices. It will let you form a 30 track playlist but only 30 and only one list. So if you want to throw together a couple of folders of various music that you want to listen to without dealing with the rest of the GB of music on the player, you are out of luck.
It's battery life could have been way better than it is touted by making it AA rather than AAA. AAA makes this player no smaller then my years old 1GB iRiver iFP 799T player which was AA. This player is larger, though lighter, and less sturdy. AAA batteries I've come across seem to be only available in 900 mAh or less compared to 2000+ for AA. The backlight on this player seems to stop working after the battery is down to half power which doesn't take long. This wouldn't matter to me if the interface was an easy couple of steps to get you to the next song(s)you want. But you are required to first hit the Menu button, select Play Music, chose one of the following Play All, Artist, Album, Songs, Genre, Playlist, Spoken Word, Recordings, then select again from another choice of Play All, artist name, album name etc... If they had only went with folders these steps could have been boiled down to Menu, select folder and if you wanted, the specific song. All of which can be done without ever looking at a screen that is not backlit for half of the battery's life.
One of the good things about this player is the seperate button for volume but not it's placement. If held in the left hand you have comfortable access to the play,<<,>> buttons but the volume rocker button is buried at the base of your thumb when everyone knows it should be at the tip, on the side of the player next to your selection buttons. Held in your right the situation is reversed with easy access to volume and Menu?? buttons but your play, <<,>> buttons are left in the center of your hand to be fought over for control by your pinky, ring and middle fingers.
For under $50 this player would be worth it but not for anything higher.