Review: Sansa Clip+ MP3 player

Back in November 2007 we reviewed Sansa’s first generation Clip MP3 player. At the time we found the size and sound quality to be solid and named it as a great competitor to the shuffle. Since that time SanDisk has continued to innovate in its Sansa line with products including the slotMusic player and slotRadio. Of course, Apple has also been innovating with the iPod shuffle.

While Apple continues to innovate on the shuffle front, even in its 4th generation, it fails to include an LCD screen. In addition, it’s still lacking any kind of memory card support.

Now we come to present day where today SanDisk announced the successor to the Clip: the Sansa Clip+ MP3 Player. Like its predecessor, the Clip+ still plays stored MP3s, but this time around the Clip+ ships with not only a variety of capacities (2GB to 8GB) but also the ability to support Sansa’s slotRadio and slotMusic cards, and also allow the user to use their own microSDHC cards in the device.

The Clip+ also received a makeover and this new version includes a power button instead of a power slider, a square navigation pad instead of a circular one, a dedicated home button, and a more rectangular look all around. As with its predecessor, it includes a built-in clip, hence its name.

For my test I took it out of the box, plugged in the included headphones and then powered it up. The manual recommends charging it first via the included USB cable, but my test unit came fully powered. I then navigated around and immediately started listening to some of the songs already stored on the device. I then cycled through the menu and tuned in an FM station and then performed a voice recording.

Throughout all of my testing the sound quality was spot on. The included headphones do a great job reproducing the sound, and even the voice recordings were acceptable. I did notice a high pitched noise but these aren’t meant to be professional recordings so even with the noise, the recording was more than adequate.

Of course, the biggest new feature of the Sansa Clip+ is its ability to play SlotRadio and slotMusic cards. SanDisk was kind enough to include the DailyMix slotRadio card, but unfortunately, because of its tight packaging, I actually snapped the microSD card in half, rendering it useless.

Luckily I had another slotRadio card available so I popped that in and was listening to it in moments. I also was able to navigate through the pre-propulated card using its themed playlists, including Workout, Country, R&B, and more. The LCD clearly displayed both the playlist title and the song title, which made for a great user experience.

The only complaint I have is in the packaging of the slotRadio cards. SanDisk includes both a case for the microSD card and the microSD card itself in the packaging, but doesn’t ship the microSD card in the holder itself. Instead, it’s floating at the top of the package in its own area. This is why it snapped in half since I had to open the package to get at this tiny little card. I think someone needs to take a closer look at the packaging since if someone who opens packages daily can snap it so easily, I can only imagine that the average consumer would snap it, too.

They should have shipped the slotRadio card inside the case (pictured above)

Overall, the Clip+ is a fantastic new entry from SanDisk and with it starting at just $39.99 for 2GB, and sporting the ability to use not only SanDisk’s slotRadio and slotMusic cards, but also your own microSD cards, it makes this a solid competitor in the MP3 space.