Having never owned one, I'm not sure what to go for. But I would like: Decent sound & battery. Radio. 8Gb minimum. Less than £50. Nice to use & good functionality. seen this one on Amazon: www.amazon.co.uk/SanDisk-Sansa-Player-Expandable-MicroSD/dp/B002NX0ME6
Though I haven't used one, for audio quality and such the sansa clips get a lot of praise. I've been debating if I want to purchase one for working out myself as the only other device I own is my android phone which I wouldn't want to exercise with.
The Clip Zip looks interesting, it has a bigger screen, a better radio & is slightly more robust than the plus. It might be worth going with the 4GB version of the player, integrated memory seems to be more expensive than the equivalent microSD card.
Another for the Clip+ again. Started using the original Clip and moved to the Clip+ when the old one died. I use it at the gym 3-5 days a week and walking in to work, averages around 10+ hours of use a week. Normally get around 18 months out of one before it dies. Either the headphone jack fails (I use different IEMs in the gym) or the battery/firmware goes belly up - probably from all the moisture at the gym. All you need is a good set of IEM's/headphones (and a Fiio if needed) as the bundled earphones are pants. Unless you need the extra info or want to watch (tiiiny) movies I would pass on the Zip, the battery life will be poor compared to the Clip+. How much info do you really need for an audio player anyway? I only need to know the song, settings or which podcast I am on and what speed it's playing at S.
The estimated battery life is identical, The larger screen isn't for watching movies, more to see text/icons etc more easily ...compared to a smaller screen.
Estimated battery =/= actual battery. The Zip sounded slightly worst to me as well. The Fuze has better battery life than all the clip models if that interests you.
Not sure what the symbols mean? ..if you mean 'does not equal' then yes you're right, but that's not what I said, the estimates provided by the manuf. & users are identical for both the zip & plus, whereas people here seem to be assuming rather than speaking from any direct experience ....if I've got this wrong can we have some actual data? First I'v heard that, from what I'v read the sound driver is identical ...apparently the only difference in sound is when using the radio ...the zip is supposed to be slightly better. Too expensive for the little extra you get ...& not really fussed about video.
Clip+ would work but if you dont mind going second hand. You can get old gen ipods with 60gb + storage and 18hr+ battery for £35-£50 on ebay these days. Its the way i personally went got a 80gb ipod 5th gen for £48 inc delivery on ebay.
Interesting, how easy to rockbox something like that?, is apple stuff still prone to bricking ? ...wouldn't want to use itunes or any apple software,
I've got a SanDisk Sansa Clip 2GB for two years now and it works like a charm, especially with a 32GB SDHC card. Nothing beats this in price vs performance really, allthough I'd wish that the Sansa Clip had a little bit more oomph, as it's rather "silent" compared to other MP3-players I had before. Oh. And it can play FLAC, which is a huge PLUS.
Could be that EU hearing safety regulation there. Using it on the US language mode (or anywhere not in the EU) removes the EU reg volume limiter.
Yeah, stupid regulations :/ Anyways, I need to have a look at that rockbox-thingy myself now EDIT: WHOA!!!! Thanks to all, who mentioned Rockbox! That's awesome and now the sound of my Sansa Clip+ is increased aswell as I was able to change the regional settings and all that. Nice themes aswell. I'm using lebellium_Samsung-like now, and it shows so much more information Again, thanks for mentioning Rockbox!
###Update: Very impressed with the Clip Zip, ended up buying another one as a present for someone else. You can dual boot between the Sansa & Rockbox firmware which is cool. Even the recording/mic quality is not bad. Rockbox is amazing, I have all 45 themes installed ...even has the Clip+ theme. For better £/GB go with the 4GB version, then add the 32Gb card. After running the Battery bench plugin a few times on both units(continuous shuffle & varied bit rates), the battery life(16hrs+) is beyond the estimate given by the manufacturer: 16:08:32, 58112, 000%, 00:09, 3303, -, -, ---Battery bench ended, reason: power off-- 16:18:11, 58691, 000%, 00:04, 3302, -, -, ---Battery bench ended, reason: power off-- I haven't tried, but apparently, if you turn back on after the battery dies, it will work for another 20mins or so,. Thanks for all the replies, very helpful Ps: Anyone replaced the earphones & if so what did you go for?
Replacing the headphones is recommended, and the only limit is your pocket I'm using my Sansa Clip+ with a cheap pair of Philips SHQ1200, as they're good enough for doing sports, but adding a portable amp and some bigger headphones sure improves the whole thing alot.
