SanDisk Sansa C240 1 GB

Author's product rating:   

Sound Quality	Excellent
Ease of Use	Very Easy
Look & Design	Excellent
Range of Features	Excellent
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	affordable price, amazing sound quality, colour screen, easy to navigate menus, range of applications
Disadvantages:	As a change in design I would incorporate a neck strap for peace of mind when exercising

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Not being a slave to fashion or one to follow the crowds I resisted the temptation to buy an iPod, iPod mini or the Nano when they were first released onto the market initially due to the expense and the fact that I rarely listen to music on the move. A recent change in lifestyle and a move back into the gym combined with the fact that I now commute rather than drive to work lead to long periods of me twiddling my thumbs. I have my PSP, but I really craved a bit of music to keep me pumped on the treadmill. Rather than splashing out 150 Euros on an iPod, I looked around and was surprised to see that SanDisk had started to produce MP3 players in addition to flash drives and memory cards. In the end I parted with only 55 Euros (approximately £30) for the SanDisk Sansa C240, a MP3 with 1GB of flash memory.

There are a number of MP3 players available in the Sansa range all with varying little features such as increased memory, smaller screens and different capabilities. I decided on the C240 because 1GB was more than enough memory for my little music collection to fit on easily, the fact that it was just over half the price of the iPod and just frankly looked a lot cooler and more durable than any other MP3 player I had seen.

Prior to considering any purchase you should ensure that your computer, which you will need to install any tracks and photographs on the flash drive is compatible with the C240. The minimum requirements are:

Windows XP or Windows Vista
Windows Media Player 10+
CD-Rom drive
USB port

The minimum requirements in this day and age should not rule out compatibility with most computers, but if you have an aging operating system, please check with the supplier or endeavor to upgrade your operating software before purchase.

The box when it arrived contained:

The C240 MP3 player
Lithium Ion battery
USB 2.0 transfer cable
Software CD
Stereo headphones
Quick Start Guide
Instruction manual

On removing the MP3 player I was surprised by the weight and size, it was really light and roughly the same in size to my cell phone. The actual dimensions of the player are 14cm long, 5cm wide and only 2.5cm in depth. The main weight of the player is the Lithium Ion battery and once this is inserted the total weight is 209 grams.

Not being one to read page after page of boring instructions (and trust me the instruction manual whilst being thorough is not the most exciting of reads) I opted to follow the quick set up guide and started the software installation process. As with every other SanDisk product I have ever used, the installation process is very user friendly and in the same way that Windows have step by step installation prompts, the software is not complicated to upload and takes approximately 10 minutes. Whilst this was taking place I connected the USB cable to the MP3 player and my laptop to commence charging the battery. It is recommended that the first charge is for 12 hours and I followed this instruction to the letter leaving it overnight to charge. When fully charged the C240 has a playback capacity of 16 hours, and I have found this to be a fair assessment. Rather than letting the battery drain completely I tend to plug it into my laptop as soon as I get home to make sure that I’m not left with a drained battery when I really need it.

Personally I have not used the SanDisk software to download songs from the Internet but instead have uploaded songs from my CD collection to my laptop and subsequently uploaded them to the MP3 player. The software reads music CDs literally at the speed of light and copies very quickly. I copied across 10 albums to fill up the 250 song capacity in around an hour and the transfer process to the MP3 player took a further 5 minutes.

Once fully charged and my music had been uploaded the MP3 player was ready to go. It is worth stating at this point that although I only utilise the C240 as an MP3 player, it also has the capacity to store photographs to be viewed on the small colour screen, store up to 20 preset radio stations, play WMA files and can also record audio for future playback.

As far as the user interface is concerned it is very straightforward and could not be made any easier by the people at SanDisk if they tried. There is a power button which doesn’t requirement any explanation while there is only one navigation button that controls application selection, track selection and movement between files stored on the device. As the button is square actually making a selection is a little bit fiddly at first as you have to press down on one of the sides until it makes a reassuring clicking sound. As soon as the navigation button is pressed, the colour screen lights up and a series of basic menus appear. These are menus are simple to use and easily distinguishable on the screen despite it not being the largest I’ve seen on an MP3 player.

With a display to view photographs and navigate through the various with a colour depth of 65,536 it adds a little bit of charm and sophistication to the C240 and makes it look rather more expensive and ahead of its time than it really is. One thing is for certain, it stands out from the crowd as much as an MP3 player can do.

The most important things in my view once a purchase of an MP3 player has been made are sound quality, durability and playback time. As I have already stated above, playback is exceptional and to date my C240 has not picked up any bumps, scrapes or scratches despite being dropped and knocked around in the gym. I was apprehensive that the display would be delicate but these fears now appear completely unfounded I’m happy to say. The headphones that come with the C240 are not the greatest and when I first used the player I was disappointed with the quality of the audio playback. It was a little dull, lacked serious bass and crackled a little. After replacing the headphones I found that it wasn’t the C240 that was faulty and the playback improved ten fold with the audio quality being crisp and clear. The bass and treble were out of this world and combined with the loud volumes the C240 can reach all make this an amazing product in my opinion, especially when considering the price paid in comparison to other MP3 players available.

If I could make one improvement to the design I would incorporate a neck strap to secure the C240 when exercising. It currently has no way of being secured and this has led to the bumps and scrapes it has endued since purchase. This is a minor problem in my eyes as the coating has managed to withstand these without any deterioration in the quality of the player.

If I was asked to recommend an MP3 player I would have no hesitation in pointing people in the direction of the SanDisk Sansa C240. 1GB of memory is enough for me, but if I feel the need in the future to upgrade I can thanks to the removable memory so all I need to do is purchase a new flash memory rather than a new MP3 player. SanDisk have thought of everything when they designed the C240 and that is what makes me feel blessed to have stumbled across their new range in MP3 players.