.dr4gon
141/365 - May 21, 2009 - When Less is More (Sansa Clip Review)
SanDisk Sansa Clip Mini Review
In black is my new toy. It's the SanDisk Sansa Clip Mp3 player. It's kind of a cross between an iPod Nano and a Shuffle. It's more like a shuffle due to it's limited screen and minuscule size and I really like it. All the features (and more) of a shuffle with a screen so you know what's playing and can find the song you want.
It comes in 1,2,4,and 8GB flavors in an assortment of colors. I got the 2GB one for cheap ($20) on the deal a day site, sellout.woot.com. It was my first time 'wooting' and it shipped from nearby and came really fast. Ordered last Thursday, got a shipping email this morning with an estimate of delivery on the 23rd (Saturday) and was surprised to see it in the mailbox this afternoon, delivered by USPS. Woot doesn't have the greatest shipping time (most ship within 5 business days), but props to them for keeping their promise and getting it to me within 5 total.
As the title says, smaller is better sometimes. I have been looking for a small, portable throw-around mp3 player and this fits the bill perfectly. It is better than the shuffle in all aspects except the size, but with a beautiful screen as this one, I can certainly live with. To top it off, it can do what no other iPod can do, listen to FM radio, record from the radio, or even record voice notes and audio with its built-in microphone. Oh yeah, and then there's the price!
Surprisingly, as small as this guy is (was totally blown away at how empty the small box it came in was because it is so small), it has some incredible sound quality. One of the benefits of it not being an Apple product, is not having to use iTunes to sync my library (it's quite a big library which is already fully synced with the 60gb iPod Video). I can just drag and drop just about any song I want to the player like a USB drive. It can play your standard MP3 (including DRM ones from Napster and online music subscriptions), WMA, Audible books, OGGs, and FLACs. The last file format is the one that caught my attention. Out of the box, it can play lossless music. Lossless music (FLACs) is the de facto music format for audiophiles. It is encoded in such a way (a high bitrate) that none of the quality is lost. When MP3s are encoded, the music is compressed and music is essentially lost. With FLACs, none of this happens, you hear the original music as intended by the artist. This is one of the reasons I don't buy my songs online, it's lossy (read: junk). Of course, not everyone can tell the difference between lossless and lossy music. Try this test to see if you can tell the difference between lossy and very lossy music. Typically lossless music is encoded at 800 kbps (kilo bits per second) or higher while the maximum MP3s are encoded at are 320 KB/Sec. Anyways, getting back to the player, it can play lossless music and it can do it well. I have been listening to it with my Shure E2C earbuds all night and am enjoying every second of it. Compared with my iPod, it has a much fuller richer sounding quality to it. Certainly, not all mp3 players are made alike.
Moving on to the player itself, it's very small and quite light. It's made of shiny black plastic that seems sturdy (doesn't flex) but a bit cheap (but it makes it light and keeps it affordable). For navigation, it has a layout similar to the ipod. Instead of a scroll wheel, it has clickable directional buttons and a home button. In a song, the top button is the play/pause button. I keep wanting to press this to go to the menu (like the ipod), but that button is the bottom button (direct opposite from Apple's design). The left and right are for the previous and next song. One thing that is really neat is pressing the home button takes you to the main menu where you can select from music, radio, voice recording, and settings. Press it again and it instantly takes you to the "now plaing" song. I wish the iPod had a button like that instead of navigating all the way back to the begining main menu. On the left hand side is mini-usb jack and the sliding on/off/hold button. On the right, is the volume button (a simple up or down clicker) under the 3.5mm headphone hack. On the back is the removable clip which doesn't seem too strong, but has clipped and stayed clipped everywhere I've attached it (in the car, shirt, pockets, etc...).
The screen is a 2 color (blue and gold/yellow) 4 line OLED screen. It's a brilliantly bright crips display that can do many display many different (limited) graphics, words, and characters. It's dimmable if it's too bright or can be raised if it needs to be brighter in the sunlight. Unfortunately the little navigation wheel is not dimmable, but it's not blinding.
Conclusion
Great, you're still with me! Overall, after using it for less than 24 hours, it's a phenomenal product and I'm glad I bought it. Does exactly what it says it will do and does it well. If you're looking for an inexpensive, good sounding, small mp3 player, look no further. I'd highly recommend it. It also goes extremely well with a nice pair of headphones. I have not run into any bugs, but I have updated the firmware to the latest version and SanDisk seems to have good support. There are two forums in particular which have a large community for the Clip. One is AnythingButIpod and the official Sansa forum. I will still continue to use my big iPod but more for the longer trips and for watching movies and videos. The clip, however, is perfect for grab and go, daily use.
Bottom Line
What I liked:
Incredible Sound quality
Small and light
Inexpensive
Easy to Use
What I didn't like (could be improved):
Clip could be a bit stronger and flatter
Expandable memory via a MicroSD slot would just be over-the-top incredible
If I haven't written enough, there's another excellent review at ABI.
141/365 - May 21, 2009 - When Less is More (Sansa Clip Review)
SanDisk Sansa Clip Mini Review
In black is my new toy. It's the SanDisk Sansa Clip Mp3 player. It's kind of a cross between an iPod Nano and a Shuffle. It's more like a shuffle due to it's limited screen and minuscule size and I really like it. All the features (and more) of a shuffle with a screen so you know what's playing and can find the song you want.
It comes in 1,2,4,and 8GB flavors in an assortment of colors. I got the 2GB one for cheap ($20) on the deal a day site, sellout.woot.com. It was my first time 'wooting' and it shipped from nearby and came really fast. Ordered last Thursday, got a shipping email this morning with an estimate of delivery on the 23rd (Saturday) and was surprised to see it in the mailbox this afternoon, delivered by USPS. Woot doesn't have the greatest shipping time (most ship within 5 business days), but props to them for keeping their promise and getting it to me within 5 total.
As the title says, smaller is better sometimes. I have been looking for a small, portable throw-around mp3 player and this fits the bill perfectly. It is better than the shuffle in all aspects except the size, but with a beautiful screen as this one, I can certainly live with. To top it off, it can do what no other iPod can do, listen to FM radio, record from the radio, or even record voice notes and audio with its built-in microphone. Oh yeah, and then there's the price!
Surprisingly, as small as this guy is (was totally blown away at how empty the small box it came in was because it is so small), it has some incredible sound quality. One of the benefits of it not being an Apple product, is not having to use iTunes to sync my library (it's quite a big library which is already fully synced with the 60gb iPod Video). I can just drag and drop just about any song I want to the player like a USB drive. It can play your standard MP3 (including DRM ones from Napster and online music subscriptions), WMA, Audible books, OGGs, and FLACs. The last file format is the one that caught my attention. Out of the box, it can play lossless music. Lossless music (FLACs) is the de facto music format for audiophiles. It is encoded in such a way (a high bitrate) that none of the quality is lost. When MP3s are encoded, the music is compressed and music is essentially lost. With FLACs, none of this happens, you hear the original music as intended by the artist. This is one of the reasons I don't buy my songs online, it's lossy (read: junk). Of course, not everyone can tell the difference between lossless and lossy music. Try this test to see if you can tell the difference between lossy and very lossy music. Typically lossless music is encoded at 800 kbps (kilo bits per second) or higher while the maximum MP3s are encoded at are 320 KB/Sec. Anyways, getting back to the player, it can play lossless music and it can do it well. I have been listening to it with my Shure E2C earbuds all night and am enjoying every second of it. Compared with my iPod, it has a much fuller richer sounding quality to it. Certainly, not all mp3 players are made alike.
Moving on to the player itself, it's very small and quite light. It's made of shiny black plastic that seems sturdy (doesn't flex) but a bit cheap (but it makes it light and keeps it affordable). For navigation, it has a layout similar to the ipod. Instead of a scroll wheel, it has clickable directional buttons and a home button. In a song, the top button is the play/pause button. I keep wanting to press this to go to the menu (like the ipod), but that button is the bottom button (direct opposite from Apple's design). The left and right are for the previous and next song. One thing that is really neat is pressing the home button takes you to the main menu where you can select from music, radio, voice recording, and settings. Press it again and it instantly takes you to the "now plaing" song. I wish the iPod had a button like that instead of navigating all the way back to the begining main menu. On the left hand side is mini-usb jack and the sliding on/off/hold button. On the right, is the volume button (a simple up or down clicker) under the 3.5mm headphone hack. On the back is the removable clip which doesn't seem too strong, but has clipped and stayed clipped everywhere I've attached it (in the car, shirt, pockets, etc...).
The screen is a 2 color (blue and gold/yellow) 4 line OLED screen. It's a brilliantly bright crips display that can do many display many different (limited) graphics, words, and characters. It's dimmable if it's too bright or can be raised if it needs to be brighter in the sunlight. Unfortunately the little navigation wheel is not dimmable, but it's not blinding.
Conclusion
Great, you're still with me! Overall, after using it for less than 24 hours, it's a phenomenal product and I'm glad I bought it. Does exactly what it says it will do and does it well. If you're looking for an inexpensive, good sounding, small mp3 player, look no further. I'd highly recommend it. It also goes extremely well with a nice pair of headphones. I have not run into any bugs, but I have updated the firmware to the latest version and SanDisk seems to have good support. There are two forums in particular which have a large community for the Clip. One is AnythingButIpod and the official Sansa forum. I will still continue to use my big iPod but more for the longer trips and for watching movies and videos. The clip, however, is perfect for grab and go, daily use.
Bottom Line
What I liked:
Incredible Sound quality
Small and light
Inexpensive
Easy to Use
What I didn't like (could be improved):
Clip could be a bit stronger and flatter
Expandable memory via a MicroSD slot would just be over-the-top incredible
If I haven't written enough, there's another excellent review at ABI.