Introducing a new entrant to the MP3 player market - the tiny stylish Sansa Clip from SanDisk. 

The Sansa Clip is an ultra compact design with many features no doubt with the iPod Shuffle clearly in its crosshairs. 

SanDisk has kindly provided a unit for a test drive. 

First Impressions
The Sansa Clip came in fairly standard packaging with the unit itself displayed within a circular opening in the front of the box.  The Clip was locked inside a blister pack, but thankfully not the stiff plastic type that is so hard to open.  This reviewer managed to extract it easily enough without inflicting bodily damage.  Thank you SanDisk!

The Clip itself is tiny and super light at 27 grams.  There is a toy like quality to the visual and feel of the unit given it is made entirely of scratch resistant plastic.  My 1 Gb model comes only in a slightly glossy black, with the face of the player encased in a scratch-resistance plastic overlay.  The signature glowing blue ring made an appearance, dominating approximately half the front part of the player.  The removable clip on the back is made from opaque black plastic to match the body of the Clip.

The build tolerances on the buttons are tight across the board with the exception of the power switch which has a slight give to it.  Overall it feels like it will hold up to a bit of rough treatment in the standard daily use and a bit more.  The earphone plug is on the right side of the unit and the mini-USB data/charge port is on the left, above the Power/Hold button.

Along with the Clip, the package contained:
  1 x Sansa Clip with clip accessory;
  1 x earphones;
  1 x foam buds;
  1 x USB 2.0 transfer cable;
  1 x mini-CD with User Guide; and
  1 x Warning message regarding hearing levels.


Interface
The Clip turns on when you hold the power button in the ‘On’ position for a few seconds after which the screen comes to life with a simple animated SanDisk Sansa logo.  As a new user of Sansa media players, the user interface is remarkably easy to get accustomed to.  The two coloured (orange and blue) OLED display is capable of displaying four lines of information and has adjustable brightness which is sufficient to cast light in a darkened room when turned to maximum.  The blue glow ring however is bright and there is no option to dim that.  The screen performs well under most lighting conditions except for in direct sunlight.

The dedicated "Home" button brings up the main interface with four options: Music, FM Radio, Voice and Settings.

The Music menu allows you to either play all, or sort your music collection according to ‘Artists’, ‘Albums’, ‘Songs’, ‘Genres’, ‘Playlists’, ‘My Top Rated’, ‘Recordings’ and ‘Audiobooks’.  The Music Options screen allows the selection of the standard shuffle or repeat modes.

The Sansa Clip is a Media Transfer Protocol (MTP) device and the minimum specification as stated on the packaging is Windows XP SP2 and Windows Media Player 10.  It is easy to drag and drop files onto the Clip, however, to utilise the ‘Playlist’ support it requires a MTP-based Media player such as Windows Media Player.

The Settings menu offers the ability to customise or view information about the Clip.  Options include 5-band Equaliser with presets (Normal, Rock, Pop, Jazz, Classical, Custom), Power, Display, Language, FM Settings, Volume, System Info, Reset All and Format.


Test Drive
SanDisk claims in the press release that the Sansa Clip is "one of the best sounding MP3 players on the market.”  Whilst I am not an audiophile, the quality of the sound coming from the Clip was good, in terms of clarity and warmth.  The sound improved again when I swapped the bundled earphones for a pair of mid-range Sony headphones.  Needless to say, the quality of your music source will severely impact your experience with any media player.

The FM radio reception quality was a bit under par.  It varied between “as expected” to mediocre depending where you are.  Even moving around in my 4 x 3 meter study room there were dramatic changes to the reception quality, with static cutting in and out of the feed.  In contrast my alarm clock radio never missed a beat.  By pressing the menu button in FM mode you can select to record into WAV format, the same button will bring up the option to play back the recording.  There is also an option to pause the recording.

The Voice recording feature works similarly to the FM radio recording.  The microphone is located at the top of the Clip and the result is reasonably clear based on recording my voice with the unit nearby.  There is an option to pause the recording which is useful for lectures or dictation assuming the microphone can pick up the sound at a greater distance.  Be aware that the microphone will pick up sounds from the button presses and other handling of the device.  Interestingly enough, when you are in the ‘Voice recording’ screen, there is no option to play back the recording.  You have to go back to the ‘Music menu’ and scroll through to the ‘Recordings section’.  I found that strange considering the option is available in the ‘FM menu’.


Other Information
The audio player supports MP3, WAV, WMA, secure WMA and Audiobook files, and will work with most subscription services using WMDRM10 according to the User Guide.

There is a nice little sleep timer with intervals of 10, 20, 30, 45, 60, 90, and 120 minutes for those would need that feature.


Improvements
Thre are a  few areas for improvement for the Sansa Clip that I would like to see.  The issues I see are:

There is no expansion slot for an additional memory card.  MicroSD slots are tiny and they are already capable of 8 Gb in the SanDisk microSDHC line. It would make sense to have a MicroSD slot in given that Sandisk is a flash card manufacturer and it would provide a killer edge against the competition.

The earphone plug is right next to the volume controls which is not an issue with the bundled earphones, however if you choose to use one with a larger head or a right angle plug then you are likely to run into difficulty accessing the volume controls.

As previously mentioned the FM radio reception is a weakness and it seems to perform better when it is not behind walls or bookshelves, etc.

There is no option to replay Voice recording from the Voice menu.


Conclusions
All things considered, the Sansa Clip is a fabulous little media player when you consider the ultra compact design and sound quality.  It makes for an ideal gym or jogging companion and just cheap enough to handle being thrown around in a gym bag.  The buttons are a good sized to use and have just the right amount of tactile feedback.  The user interface is simple and intuitive enough that it can be learned in a day or two.

The Sansa Clip is available in 1 Gb edition (black only) for USD$39.95, 2 Gb edition (black, blue, pink or red) for USD$59.99.  At this price and quality, it is a steal for any occasion.  Keep this one in mind for the Christmas stocking, particularly for the younger ones in the family - it hurts a lot less if they lose it!