Customer Reviews

SanDisk Sansa Clip 1 GB MP3 Player (Black)

5 star:		(292)
4 star:		(114)
3 star:		(21)
2 star:		(24)
1 star:		(35)

 

 

The Sandisk Sansa Clip 1GB is a great value MP3 player. It has the same capacity as the iPod Shuffle at $35. It also has a screen, FM Tuner, voice recording and more. You can get the 2GB version for $25-40 more.

Pros -
+ good sound
+ nice capacity for a decent price
+ light-weight
+ FM tuner (20 Presets)
+ voice recording
+ nice design with color options
+ Nice format compatibility (MP3, DRM WMA, WMA, Audible)
+ USB 1.1 and 2.0 connectivity
+ Can be used as a USB drive / mass storage
+ Can sync music with drag & drop or via software
+ 15 hours battery life is better than Creative Clip Plus

Cons
- larger than the 2nd and 3rd generation iPod shuffles
- for just $20 more you get the 2GB Clip with added features

The new Sandisk Sansa Clip has the advantages of the iPod shuffle with some of the compatibility, feature, and price benefits of other MP3 players. Unlike the Sansa Express, which you can plug in directly into your USB port, the clip uses a standard USB B cable.

The Clip is definitely a little bigger than the iPod shuffle, but not by much. It has a great feel and a nicer clip. It is also priced VERY well for the holidays. It fills the market for a starter MP3, workout unit, or gift.

The rechargable battery seems better than the Creative Zen Stone Plus and gives you a respectable 15 hours. The sound is nice. The earbuds are passable for beginners but most people will replace them. As for durability, only time will tell; so far it's holding up nicely.

The Zen Clip also has a larger 2GB option. For those needing more space, you will have to explore the Creative Zen, Sandisk Sansa View or new iPod Nano. All of those units have higher price tags.
Sandisk 2GB Pink Sansa Clip
SanDisk Sansa View 8 GB MP3 Player
SanDisk Sansa View 16 GB MP3 Player
Creative Zen 4 GB (Black)
Creative Zen 8 GB (Black)
Creative Zen 16 GB (Black)
Sandisk SDMX4-4096 Sansa e260 4 GB MP3 Player with SD Expansion Slot
SanDisk SDMX4-8192 Sansa e280 8 GB MP3 Player (Black)
Apple 4 GB iPod nano AAC/MP3 Player Silver (3rd Generation)
Apple 8 GB iPod nano AAC/MP3 Player Black (3rd Generation)

Overall, an awesome starter unit that deserves a try. Enjoy!!!

This thing is amazingly small and light. The display is not much, but it will hold 3 lines and is well lit and easy to read. The menu system is good and lets you scroll through songs by title, artist and album. It uses a standard mini-USB for data transfer and charging. It requires no software or drivers as it uses Windows Media Player to sync songs.

This player has a few things greatly improved over their older ones (like the Sansa e260 I own). It has about the best sound quality out of any MP3 player I have seen. It also has a nice seemless quick fade from one song to the next. I use my MP3 players for listeming to audio books in MP3 format. Some of these are 20+ hours long. My old player took forever to fastforward through, about a 20:1 fast forward, so yes, fast forwarding 10 hours would take about 30 minutes. Now this one has a progressively accelerated fast forward that can run through hours of MP3s in 10 seconds. Also when you turn off the MP3 player it will start back at the exact spot you left off and if it was playing when you turned it off then it will start playing automatically when you turn it back on. It also start up in only a few seconds.

The only issues I see is lack of colors on the 1GB version and maybe a few more colors overall would be nice. The only bug I found is that it does not change the hours on the time elapsed counter and leaves it at 0, but the progression bar is still right.

I was so impressed with the 2GB pink one that I got for my girlfriend that I got a 2GB black one for myself... yes to replace my more expensive 4GB Sansa e260. If I could give it 6 stars I would.

I have the 2gb version of the Clip. I own other mp3 players but this is by far the best. Few players have the features of the Clip for such a reasonable price.

Pros: It's small- the size of a matchbox- and easily and firmly clips to shirt or pants. The controls are very easy to use and the screen is easy to see. The sound quality is very good when used with better headphones than those that came with it. You can play and record from FM radio. And, most importantly for me, it works with Audible downloads.
It also looks good. I have the red one and many people have asked about it and where to buy one.
Cons: The sound quality of the voice recorder could use improvement. And, as someone mentioned, there's a glitch in the counter that impacts files that are over an hour in length other than Audible files. Supposedly Sandisk is working on this and there will be a firmware adjustment at some point.

For anyone who wants a player with storage of 2gb or less, the Clip is the best available.

We bought one of these for a Christmas gift, and a second one for my wife. What I really like about it is that you just drag and drop your MP3s into the Sansa music folder. No special software needed.
Sounds great, although we used earbuds we already owned, rather than the ones included.
It is slightly bigger than an IPod shuffle, but it has a very clear OLED display. Makes it easy to select the songs.

Update: 9-17-2009: Although there are a few books that still do not work with Apple iPod/iProducts, OverDrive books are now transferable to most Apple iProducts. The trick is to open iTunes AND the OverDrive console and it will convert the protected content for your iPod etc.

Because of the conversion process, it does take MUCH LONGER to transfer an audiobook to an iPod so in my opinion, the Sansa Clip a still the superior product for this usage.
--------------------------------------------------

Update: Battery on my Clip gave up charging just before the one year warranty period was over. I use it almost daily. I contacted Sansa and was able to obtain a replacement Clip at no charge. They did need to know when I purchased it (Amazon makes this easy with a shipping invoice available in your purchasing history.) Sansa did want to know if I had the original box but when I did not, it was not an issue. Sansa provided a postage paid label to return the dead Clip. My replacement is working great. This was very good customer service experience for me.
--------------------------------------------------

I got this mp3 player in order to listen to Overdrive audiobooks that I download from the public library. I have an IPod that I happily use with my Audible books but Ipods were not compatible with Overdrive at the time I purchased this. This is no longer the case. See above.

The Overdrive audio software works perfectly with the device and books transfer very easily.

Update: It is a good idea to go ahead and install the SanDisk Firmware Updater on your computer at [...]

It automatically checks for firmware updates whenever when I plug in my Clip.
--------------------------------------------------

Now the player works beautifully with the Overdrive books. It holds my bookmark (stopping point) if I remember to click hold (top of the circle) and fast forwards perfectly if I need to find my place.

It has great sound, the FM tuner works wonderfully. I love the small size and the clip feature is fantastic.

There is not a reference to the firmware updater site anywhere in the product literature which is unfortunate. Happily I was able to find the information I needed on the Sansa Forums.

When I first got this item I was really impressed and thought I had made a really excellant purchase. The item is very attractive with an excellant design, and despite what some others have said I found the sound quality to be good. I also found it to be too loud, however, and since the device only allows for "normal" and "high" volume settings I was not able to lower the sound to a level I could tolerate in bed. My primary use for the device was to be for at work and for workouts at the gym so I tried to overlook this. I was pleased that the device has such a nice, bright display, records songs off the radio and had a clip for my clothing.

The thing that made me return it, ultimately, was the fact that it would not download any music files from my computer! I tried at least 4 times, and my computer clearly showed the music transferring to the Sansa but when i later tried to play it on the Sansa it was nowhere to be found. I called Sansa direct and no one answered the phone. So then i emailed them and got some good Customer Service that way but no one was able to offer a solution that actually worked, though they did try hard. Another problem with the Sansa was that after the first day or two it suddenly wouldn't stay charged more than about an hour; it's charge life kept getting shorter and shorter. It's supposed to be good for 12-15 hours after the last charge-up but mine clearly didn't-and I was not even playing it continuously. I also found that it was unable to get much radio reception outside the city limits, which doesn't bode well if your local gym is on the edge of the city. I was lucky to get maybe 2 or 3 stations tops there, and none of them the ones I wanted.

I think in the future I will look for a player that has a longer battery charge life and better volume control, in addition to finding one that downloads files. This one turned out to be nothing more than a glorified radio, I am sorry to say, and failed even at that in some ways. I'm guessing it's going to cost me more...

Anyway, given the mostly positive reviews on this little player, maybe your experience will be different than mine. Just don't throw away the packaging or receipt right away when you get it home, in case you have to return it.

Recently had my Sansa e260 4GB stolen, and was going to replace it with another e-series Sansa player. I was leaning toward getting the e280 8 GB player. However, after reading the reviews for the Sansa Clip I was intrigued and decided to get it instead of the e280. I wanted the 2 GB version, but Amazon didn't have it available at the moment, so I went down to my local Best Buy and bought it.

After 5 days of use, I have to admit, I'm really impressed. It is very small, light-weight, easy to use, and sounds really GREAT! No need to install any software because Windows Media Player syncs your audio files to the Sansa Clip quickly and without problem. You can also just drag and drop your files to the Clip if you wish. Either way works just fine.

The only negative for me (and this is my own subjective opinion) is the earbuds that come with the Clip. Although I think the supplied earbuds sound pretty good, they are too big and uncomfortable for my ears, and don't fit very well. I bought a set of Jbud earbuds for under $20 (available at Amazon), JBuds Hi-Fi Noise-Reducing Ear Buds (Black) which are much more comfortable and sound better than the stock Sansa earbuds. Another good alternative is the Coby earbuds sold at Amazon, Coby Super Bass Digital Stereo Earphones which are a very good value for the money.

Sandisk has come out with a big winner here. The Sansa Clip raises the bar for micro audio players and in my opinion, gives the most "bang for the buck" of any comparable device on the market at this time, including the over-rated iPod Shuffle and the Zen Stone. If you're still debating over whether you should get the Sansa Clip, I highly recommend that you wait no longer, and order it right now. I don't think you will regret it!

Addendum, Jan. 19, 2008: I've now had the Sansa Clip for just over 2 months, and my initial assessment has proven to be true. With an attractive compact design, decent battery life, and really great sound, I love my Sansa Clip!

I have been thinking of getting a new MP3 player for a while now. I don't need video (I don't like watching video on a 2 inch screen, I think a lot of people think they need this feature and just end up listening to music anyway), so I just wanted something small that sounds good, well this is it! I bought the 2 Gb model and holds more than enough music for me (it charges off the USB slot on the computer anyway so its no big deal to add or take something off the player once in a while for new music). I had an older sandisk mp3 player and it worked fine but this one just sounds so much better. I have a decent pair of ear buds(Sennheiser CX300)and I am knocked out by the quality this thing puts out, sounds great when plugged into the input on my car stereo too. No extra software to install, plug it in and Media Player 11 recognized it right away, super easy to add music. Easy to use and you will be listening to high quality music in minutes. Very small, light and the clip is very handy, display is easy to read in all light conditions. This is a great buy.

If you're reading this review, then I know just what you're thinking. You're in the market for an MP3 player, but you're utterly confused about what to get since there's only a few hundred of them out there. You probably are thinking, " Maybe I should just get an Ipod. ", because Apple's mighty music player can't be beat right? Uhh, wrong.

Forget the Ipod shuffle, or the Nano or anything else and get the Sansa Clip. I got mine after doing a lot of reading up on different MP3 players. I initially just wanted to listen to music while walking, jogging, or biking. I liked how the Ipod shuffle had a clip, but I didn't like that it didn't have a display or that it's primarily designed to be used with Itunes. The Ipod Nano was nice, but too expensive. Then I considered the Creative Zen Stone, but again it had no display, and had received some questionable reviews.

I was still going to buy the Zen Stone, because... well at $40 who cares? But, the salesman at the Staples where I bought showed me the Sansa Clip and mentioned that it had a display, and I decided to try it. Several hours later, I'm one extremely happy customer. For the excellent price, ease of use, superb sound quality, and ingenious bundle of features you simply cannot beat this little thing. Use the money you saved on this to get some other gadgets. Apple beware. You are not the King of The Hill.

After wanting an mp3 player for quite some time, I received a Sansa Clip 1gb for Christmas and have been very pleased. I love it and recommend it to anyone for several reasons.

- More audio formats allowed than on iPods. Great because I already have quite a few songs on my computer that iPods wouldn't have allowed without reformatting or having to pay to replace all of them with the appropriate file types. Who wants to pay extra when you already have the files on hand?

- Files are transferred by dragging & dropping (or copy & pasting) directly from one folder to another. No need for the iTunes software (which I hate and seems to lock up my computer for some reason). Even the most technology challenged user should be able to figure out this process without any hassles.

- Holds a lot of music for just 1gb. I am a music-a-holic but as easy as it is to add and remove files, I don't see the point in buying a player that has more than 2gb of space (unless you just feel the absolute burning need to have movies with you all the time and want to watch them on a teeny tiny little iPod screen.) I doubt I will ever need to upgrade in size. Mine has around 180 songs in it right now and still has room for a few more. All of mine are mp3 format right now and some are super-high bit rate, which makes the file size huge, so it would actually hold a LOT more if I was using lower bit rate files or other formats that compress smaller than mp3s.

- Still has the clip and the shuffle feature like an iPod clip, but on this one you can turn the shuffle off if you want and use the screen to find and play specific songs, artists, albums, or playlists, (unlike the shuffle which once you shuffle the song into your playlist you never find it again without skipping through all your files until you bump into it accidentally.)

- Has easy to use backlit buttons and a bright, clear screen that is easy to read.

- Built in FM tuner, which is nice when I am out I can catch up with local news & weather reports without being tied to the car radio or a TV somewhere. (Also has a voice recorder, which I could see as being helpful for some folks, but so far I have not used this particular feature.)

- Good battery life. I wear it around a lot and have never actually ran completely out of juice so far. And it's super easy to recharge- just hookit up to your computer and leave it for a while. (For those of you who aren't near a computer a lot, I hear you can get car and wall adapters for it, but haven't used any of those so can't comment on how well they work)

- Great sound for an inexpensive player. I personally like the ear buds that came with it just fine, but if you can always change them out for a pair you like better if they don't work as well for you. To me, the player itself is worth the cost even if it didn't have the buds with it, so I am definitely not complaining!

- AND best of all-- you get all these features (plus some I probably forgot to mention) for half the cost or less of an iPod shuffle!

The only things I have found that I didn't like are that the menu is a little bit tricky to navigate sometimes, especially if your files are un/mis-labeled or categorized. Also, I have found a couple times that if you have been listening to it a while and pause it to take a phone call or something long enough for it to go to sleep, when you turn it back on, it has a tendency to try and play the same group of songs it played after you turned it on the LAST time you listened to it. It's not that big of a deal because you just skip through the ones you just heard and then it gets back on track again.

Overall, I love it and would recommend it to anyone who wants the new music technology but doesn't want to break the bank to have to buy it. Great little product!