SanDisk Sansa Clip 4 GB MP3 Player (Silver)
by SanDisk
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Our Price: $69.99 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $36.98 (click here) Category: Network Media Player See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of SanDisk Sansa Clip 4 GB MP3 Player (Silver)
Customer Review: No problems, one or two tiny gripes
Summary: 5 Stars
First off, it's really great, the sound is very good, the price very fair. I tried as best I could to compare it against my PC with a top notch audio card playing through an HK amp, and couldn't detect a difference, but that could be related to the medium. And, do you think they can make these things any smaller? Kidding, but actually I could do without the "clip". I had no problem with the FM, programmed it in less than a minute, it even picks up the college station about ten miles away. Of course, FM in Seattle isn't worth a cup of warm p**s anyway.
Okay, minor gripe number one. The earphone output is in the wrong place for offset plugs, they rotate around and cover the volume rocker. Probably not an issue for other brands, but my UE's (love 'em) cost 4 times the player, so it should be the one to conform! Very minor gripe.
Minor gripe number two is that it's a pain passing over my Winamp playlists, which I've spent years and years assembling. You can do it, but it's hardly drag and drop. Curses, but of course that could be Winamp's issue, eh? Oh well, I need to spend a few weeks with a tag editor anyway to recast the mp3's for my Samsung phone, so no biggie, it will be fun. Yeah.
Anyway, great player, very easy to use, took all of five minutes to get some songs on it and play. For 4GB, gotta be the state of the art right now, unless you want to be in the clutches of Evil Empire Jr. (Apple).
PS: Look for the dual charger/silicone case package here, great deal and the clear case works perfectly, it's on there for good.
PPS: Okay, two more minor gripes with two redacted. First, yeah, you can't read the bloody screen outside. That's more annoying than I thought it would be.
Second, 4GB turns out to be too small. Yes, I would like to have my total music collection on my fingernail, but 4GB is what I paid for and 4GB is what I got, so this gripe isn't even fair. Anyway, I'll redact this gripe because of the superior ease of moving subdirectories in and out of the "music" folder through the PC. I haven't even bothered with my Winamp playlists, so I'll redact that gripe as well. I just copy files into new directories on the PC, hit them with a tag editor, and kazaam, instant Clip playlists that can be moved in wholesale. That's just fine, applause to the Sansa software people, who got that right.
PPPS: A word of explanation regarding Clip music organization. There are three ways to access music aside from playlists, and in fact I find myself using "artist" the most often, fits my mood. If you use "artist" it will break up the songs into "albums" automatically. Therefore, in tagging a directory for the Clip, plan accordingly. For example, my goth playlist is best tagged with "goth" in both the "artist" and "album" tags, which is trivial with something like MP3tag. You could also use the useless "genre" tag as a quasi playlist via tag editor. That's not how you want your archived music tagged of course, it loses information, which is why I keep a separate set of Clip subdirectories. Additional hard disk space (so?), but you want to trim your archive anyway to save space on the player. Very rarely will you listen to all the songs archived for an artist, usually you just go with your favorites. Anyway, you can go simple or complex to please yourself - freedom of choice, I like that.
Customer Review: Great for running
Summary: 4 Stars
After all this time, I've finally hopped on the MP3 player bandwagon. Here were my criteria for this purchase:
-Drag and drop file transfer. I didn't want to be tied to any proprietary program, particularly one cluttered with DRM nonsense. Check. The supplied USB cable is pretty short, so I use the one that came with my camera. Someone said the cable is proprietary. It's obviously not.
-Format compatibility, especially MP3 and WMA. Check.
-Compatible with running. Check. The Sansa Clip is small and extremely light. And the nifty clip obviates the need for an armband or sewn-in pocket. Also, battery life is well up to long runs. As for durability, the player seems sturdy enough overall, but I bought a silicone cover as insurance against the inevitable moisture problem. So far so good.
-At least 4 GB capacity. Check. I'm glad this version came out because I really like the convenience of loading my whole song collection and forgetting about it.
-Good sound quality. Sort of. Most reviewers rave about the sound quality. I don't think I qualify as an audiophile, but I find my music lacks the detail I really enjoy hearing. The bass is a bit muddy, and the highs are bit weak. Customizing the EQ helps some, as does using better headphones or speakers, but not as much as I would have liked. I will add that I have no experience with other MP3 players, so perhaps this middling audio is par for the course.
-Headphones? Related to the above paragraph, people often say you should replace the stock headphones right away. Maybe that's true for the more substantial players, but I don't think this unit's processor is up to the task of producing excellent sound through any device. I've experimented with a pair of decent Sennheiser headphones and my desktop Creative Gigaworks speakers (which are surprisingly good) to little avail. That said, I might buy a pair of inexpensive sport-oriented earbuds to address the occasional slippage I experience.
-A display, any display. Check. I disqualified the iPod Shuffle from the get-go because of iTunes, but the lack of a display certainly would have done it, too. The Clip's screen is basic and easy to read in all conditions except bright sunlight.
-Good control interface. Apple does this one better, but the Clip's works quite well all the same. The on/off slider could be a little easier to use, although I do like the lock feature.
-Stability. Pretty good. The player locked up once and came back to life after a simple reset. I updated the bios (or whatever it's called), and it hasn't caused any trouble since. On that note, the update was extremely smooth. Kudos for that.
I'm pretty happy overall. I'd buy the Sansa Clip again for running and piddling around the house. For occasions when really good audio is more important, like flying, I'd invest in a more robust unit.
Customer Review: Good Luck Trying to Get SanDisk to Honor Their Warranty
Summary: 1 Stars
I loved my Sansa Clip while it worked. Three months after I bought it the battery stopped taking a charge. Instead, it just gets hot when I try to charge it. It has 9 months left of the one year manufacturer's warranty. No problem I thought.
I registered the warranty on SanDisk's website (answering all of the questions that they asked). I then reported the problem and requested replacement or repair.
SanDisk responded with an e-mail listing possible software fixes. I tried them all and responded that it still did not work.
SanDisk responded with another e-mail asking a list of questions. I responded with answers to all of their questions.
SanDisk responded with another e-mail asking another list of questions. I responded with answers to all of their questions.
SanDisk responded with another e-mail asking another list of questions. I responded with answers to all of their questions.
I am waiting for their next list of questions. Other reviewers have reported getting similar runarounds.
UPDATE:
"Thanks for emailing SanDisk Technical Support. It is our goal to make sure you have all the resources you need to get the most from your product.
We appreciate your continued response and cooperation in trying to resolve the issue with your device. We will go ahead and process the RMA request.
Once the RMA is created, RMA department will review it in 24 - 48 hrs. If RMA gets approved you will receive two emails, first email will have the Return Instructions with the RMA# mentioned in it and the second email will have the link for the prepaid UPS Shipping label.
Do you agree to allow SanDisk to share your address, email and phone number with our shipping provider in order to create a shipping label for you?
Please print the label within 10 days as it will expire after that.
Once you print the label you are required to put the product in the padded envelope without any accessories, tape the label on top of it and take it to any UPS drop box or store, you can also use a UPS envelope available at most of the drop boxes and UPS Stores.
Once we receive the product it will take 7-10 business days for the processing then we will ship out the new product."
The saga continues ....
UPDATE #2:
It has been a month since I shipped the defective Sansa Clip back to SanDisk. Both UPS and SandDisk's website confirm that it was received by SandDisk. So far, no replacement or any indication if or when a replacement will be sent. I have e-mailed SandDisk about the status, but have received no response.
It is clear that SanDisk has no interest in even pretending to honor their warranty. They simply want to make customers jump through hoops until they give up.
Customer Review: seems good to me
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought the Sansa 4gb clip to study for a comprehensive promotional test; I needed something small that had a large storage capacity. When the Clip arrived I was pleased at how small the device was, but it looked like it was limited in features. The screen display was not impressive when I turned the unit on, but I was in for a nice surprise. The screen uses OLED technology and as I navigated through the many different screens I was more than satisfied with the display. I already have two Sansa e260's and they were nice, but synching, updating and maintaining the e260's is nothing close to flawless. The clip however is very easy to update with Sansa updater, downloading files is easy and I have not had any problems with the device thus far. Promotional audio is not the best material to rate the playing quality of the device, so I listened to some music. I was impressed with the sound that came from this very small device and the capacity it holds. I loaded all the cd's in my promotional collection, (I tried to load them, (15 cd's), into a 40 hour digital recording device, but that held only a fraction of the material), which this held with room to spare. The e260's in my opinon do not deserve to be in the same category as the clip. Although the e260's are made from the same manufacturer and have the advantage of playing video, they do not scream with quallity as the clip does. I have also compared the clip to the ipod shuffle and they both offer an exceptional sound experience, it is hard for me to comprehend that devices as small as these can provide such a high quality music experience. The headpohones that came with the clip had excellent sound reproduction, but they would occationaly fall out if I accidentally pulled on the cord. I bought a high quality set of earphones that stick inside your ear canal, but they offered little improvement and the sound quality remained about the same, although they did sound different with possibly more bass, but I'm not sure which set I like better, so I use them both. The clip is noticeably thicker than the shuffle, but if you compare both of them with their retaining clips they are similar in size. The apple shuffle is probably around an eigth of an inch thick and it is amazing that it can hold as much music as it does, (ranges from 512kb-2gb models), the clip I bought has 4 gb storage and is about 1/4 of an inch thick. I like it so much that I might buy 2 more for my daughters and give away the e260's. The 2gb and 4gb are different animals and the displays are not the same. I saw the 4gb clip on sale for $50.00 in the sunday paper, what an unbelievable value. Good luck.Customer Review: Awesome performance, great value
Summary: 4 Stars
Sandisk Sansa Clip is defenetly a great idea for an extremely portable, affordable and high quality audio player. Doesn't only combine small size and weight with high capacity, but it also has a great sound quality, decent battery life, and an extraordinary codec support.
Launched probably as a low-end digital audio player, people soon started to realize that the built in sound chip was more than impressive, and the quality of the audio beats a lot of more expensive players in the market.
With a 4GB of capacity and an 8GB version coming soon, it has plenty of room to fit a mini music collection in there and not having to worry about changing your music in quite a while.
Also, with the latest firmware update, you will be able to play OGG and FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) high quality audio from this tiny little device.
A piece of advice... as soon as you get yours, proceed with the firmware upgrade to get the best out of your player. Also to avoid losing your personal customizations. FW Upgrade always resets the device to factory settings. If you already own it, backup your settings and music, and perform upgrade.
PROS:
-Sturdy
-Extremely Portable, small and lightweight.
-OLED power saving screen.
-MP3, WMA + Audible 4 support.
-OGG Vorbis support (After 1.01.29a Firware upgrade)
-FLAC support (After 1.01.30a Firware upgrade)
-Over average battery life
CONS
-No expandability slot (c'mon Sandisk)
-Not the best radio reception
-Included headphones are cheap (get decent ones, Sennheiser are great and mostly unexpensive)
-Fingerprint and scratch magnet (get a case ASAP)
-OLED screen stays on while charging (Oleds tend to die after ~5000 hrs of use)
The only reason why I'm not giving 5 stars is because I'd love a MicroSD slot to add some extra room to fit half my music collection in there if possible. I'd say this is 4.5 stars.
If you like to exercise, jog, play, or do whatever it is that you like, you don't want to carry a heavy delicate device with you that you must be aware of not dropping to protect valuable LCD screens, you don't need photos or movies, and you like to have great sound quality in your music or audiobooks, this player is for you. It's also great as a spare or second media player for active people.