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APRIL 15, 2008
Sansa Clip by SanDisk
A tiny MP3 player and more
 When I say small I mean small!! This very capable tiny MP3 player is perfect for the gym, bike, walking, or just listening. Sure it doesn’t do everything that many of its bigger brothers and sisters can but what it does it does well. As an audio player the Sansa Clip supports MP3, WAV, WMA, secure WMA, and Audiobook files including those from Audible.com. It works well as an FM radio receiver with up to 40 presets. I was able to get good sound even though I live in an area with few local stations. Voice recordings can be done for memos. I must be behind the times as this is the second MP3 player I tested recently with a hold/lock that, when slid to the locked position, disables all controls. I really need that. I have found a replacement for my Creative Movo!
 The Clip I tested has 1 Gigabyte of memory. They come in 1, 2, and 4 GB versions. Although mine was Black they also come in Pink, Red, Blue, and Silver. The Clip is chargeable with up to 15 hours of operation on a charge. The included USB 2 cable does the battery charge and file transfers fairly fast. Other options for charging are a car adapter (not included) USB port/AC adapter (not included). The battery is not replaceable but should have a reasonable life. The included Quickstart manual got me going but you might want to download the completeClip manual from the Sansa site. It is quite informative.
Dimensions: 2.17”High by 1.35” Wide by .6” Thick
The one inch display is fine when I wear my glasses. The earphones are slightly large for me but give great sound reproduction. With a 3.5 mm connector it is easy to substitute our own set that fits your ears.
Music
You can drag and drop music from between the Clip and Your music folders or use Sync in Windows media player. I had the usual copyright issues when I synced some of my songs from the Lenovo ThinkPad to the Clip. Those that were current played. Those that no longer were current would not. As always I wish this copyright protection issue would go away. Maybe some day!
Audible books from Audible.com
I listen to audible books from www.Audible.com so was very interested in that feature. Unfortunately I had problems making that all come together. After several failed attempts I contacted Sandisk Sansa support and was walked through a total upgrade of my Audible downloading software. After that things worked fine.
I really like the Clip. It is small, does what I need, and does it well. I will use the Clip as my gym MP3 player. As an aside I was able to connect the Clip to an old Audio tape adaptor, stuck the adaptor into the tape player in my car and the music sounded better than when played through the car CD player Does that sound like I have too much time on my hands? I think so.
CLIP Button Reference Below.
1 Display window Display the information and status here
2 Left/Previous/Rewind Press for previous track, rewind, or move left
3 Select Button Press to select the item
4 Down/Submenu Press to move down or to options menu
5 Right/Forward Press for next track, fast forward, or move right
6 Up/Pause/Resume Press to move up one item, pause, or resume
7 Menu Return to the Main Menu
8 MIC Built-in microphone
9 Earphone Port Connect earphones here to listen
10 Volume Up Turns up the volume
11 Volume Down Turns down the volume
12 Hold/Lock Factory sets to locked position (shows orange color). Slide to
center position for controls. When locked, all controls are disabled to prevent accidental activation of controls.
13 Power/Reset Slide up to turn on the player
Slide up and hold for 2 seconds to turn off the player
Slide up and hold for 15 seconds to reset your player
14 USB Port Plug USB cable here to connect to the computer
15 Clip The removable clip accessory
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