The central joystick and buttons on the sides of the H140 have been replaced on the H340 with 4-way d-pad and 5 buttons. This makes much more sense, having all the controls (bar the hold switch) in the one place instead of on either side of the player as well as the front.

The top end of the holds the audio I/O ports. From left to right in the picture above, they are: Line Out, Line/Mic In, and Wired Remote/Headphones. The wired remote port looks to be exactly the same as the one found on the H140, which led me to suspect that the remotes for both models would be cross compatible. More on this later.

The bottom end of the player holds the USB ports and the charger socket, as well as three sockets for the supporting struts on the supplied docking cradle. The power socket is a different size to the H140 and I won’t be able to use the AC adaptor that came with the H140. The USB port on the right is the standard Mini-B type that was used on the H140, as well as many digital cameras. The USB port on the left however, is more interesting.

This USB port, in conjunction with the provided adaptor cable, allows any UMS compatible device to be connected to the H340, allowing the user to transfer files back and forth at USB 1.1 speeds. One major exception is that multi drive/partition devices are not fully supported; only the first partition will be read. This includes multi flash card readers.

You can connect two H340 models together in this way, as well as a H140, but don’t forget to turn off USB charging on the second H340, as it will take charge from the host H340.

On the US models versions of the H340, the USB 1.1 port is used to synchronise with Windows Media Player, allowing the support of DRM. The USB host function is not supported. However, with a hardware modification and firmware hack, it is possible to enable USB hosting, but it will void your warranty.

On the right-hand side of the H340, on the top end, is the hold switch. Nothing special about it, just the standard hold switch that disables the use of the buttons on the player. The remote buttons function independently of this switch.

On the left-hand side is the internal microphone, useful for making voice recordings and dictations. Just below the microphone is the reset switch that will reset the H340 in case the device stops responding.

As for the weight, it’s slightly heavier than my old H140, but not too much so. Its heavy enough for you to notice it’s there, but not heavy enough to become too cumbersome.