Sansa Clip+ 4GB

Music is an important part of our lives and we love to have our favorite songs with us whenever we want to hear them. MP3 players make it easy to carry and play hours of music that we can listen to whenever we want. What makes a good MP3 player? Plenty of storage capacity, small size, ease-of-use and compatibility with multiple music file formats. Today we have the newest player from Sandisk - the Sansa Clip+. Let's see how the Clip+ fares against the biggest competitor - the iPod Shuffle.

Design

The SanDisk Sansa Clip+ is a portable music player that fits in your pocket, or as the name suggests, clips onto your clothing. It is very small – about the size of a matchbox - and is extremely lightweight. It holds several hours of music with its built-in memory of either 2GB, 4GB or 8GB. It comes with a USB cable for transferring music from your Mac or Pc, which is also used to charge the Clip+ from any USB port.

Specifications

• Size: 2.16 x 1.36 x 0.6 in.
• Weight: .85 oz.
• Colors: Black, Maroon, Blue
• Capacities: 2GB, 4GB, 8GB
• MSRP: $40, $50, $70
• Supported Formats: MP3, WMA, WAV, FLAC, Ogg, Audible
• Battery Life: 15 hours
• Features: Sleep Timer, FM/ FM Recording, Voice Recording, Music Subscription Capable

Usage and Controls

The Sansa Clip+ 4GB stores enough music to play several hours continuously and the battery life is excellent - our tests matched the claims that it lasts near 15 hours per charge. Charging the device is easy; simply plug it into any powered USB port. Charging time takes about 3 hours and 15 minutes and you can plug it in overnight because it will stop charging when the battery is fully charged. Menu navigation is easy with a simple click interface to scroll through the options.

The Sansa Clip+ does not play video nor does it have a full color LCD, but it does have an OLED screen with a simple 2-tone (blue and yellow) display that is easy to read. When playing a song the display shows the band name, song title and time count. It also shows the volume bar and battery indicator, which are standard features on nearly every MP3 player.

Going further into the features, you can use the preset EQ choices or set a custom 5-band EQ to your personal tastes. You can pull up track info. to see more information about the current track playing, including compression and codec used. You can browse through the folders in the memory and pick individual songs or albums easily. You can also delete songs from the menu if so desired. The user interface is easy to navigate and allows you to quickly find and play the song or album you wish to hear.

The Sansa Clip+ is compatible with Windows Media player and is automatically recognized by Windows Vista as a storage device and MP3 player. Transferring music from the computer to the device is easy and fast using a USB 2.0 interface.

Sound Quality and Further Usage

The sound quality depends a lot on the quality of the MP3 bit-rate and the headphones employed, but the Sansa Clip+ plays digital audio 64-320Kbps for MP3 and 32-192Kbps for WMA. The digital sound quality is on par with other audio players compatible with the same bit-rates. In addition to excellent sound quality, it also has a slot for adding a micro-SD memory card for extra storage adding several more hours of play time. The headphone jack is a standard 1/8 inch stereo jack making it compatible with almost all headphones, studio style headphones may require an adapter. The volume control is a simple toggle on the side of the device and easy to use simply by feel so you can change volume without having to see what you're doing.

Sansa Clip+ 4GB

While not a revolutionary improvement over the original Sansa Clip, the Clip+ does make evolutionary steps to improve upon the already better-than-average Clip MP3 player. The biggest improvement over the original Clip is the addition of the MicroSD memory slot give you the ability to add another 16GB of music or more to the playlist. Having all these features in such a small device is very appealing for the price.

If you are looking for an affordable, easy-to-use music solution the Sansa Clip+ MP3 player is an excellent choice. It holds hours of music with expandability to hold even more. Its small and easy to carry around for those who like to have music when running or jogging. Its compatible with the latest Windows and Mac computers and operating systems. Overall it is an excellent little portable music player that beats its major competitor - the iPod Shuffle - in nearly every category.

Pros:

• Small size
• Lightweight
• Built-in mic with voice recorder
• Built-in FM Radio
• Charges quickly
• Supports multiple audio file formats
• Simple navigation
• Long battery life
• Excellent sound quality

Cons:

• No color display
• No image viewing
• No video playback capability

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

www.sansa.com