The bad: You get what you pay for in terms associated with construction quality.
The bottom line: SanDisk's tongue-twister of an MP3 player is a stupefying value and its practical clip-on design is ideal for the gym.
Like the bygone days of the horse-drawn carriage, the era from the MP3 player has quickly faded into the past. Today, the smartphone is the portable music device of choice for many people and the iPod is now just a footnote in Apple's history, outlived through the iPhone and iPad.
The MP3 player isn't dead, though. There is nevertheless one habitat left for these technological buffaloes: the gym. Yes, as cool as your smartphone might be, there's no app that is going to prevent it from smelling as an old sock if you keep it in your gym bag. You require something light, small, useful, and cheap enough that you won't cry uncontrollably in the event that it gets trampled on. Luckily, SanDisk has you covered.
SanDisk's Sansa Cut players have long topped CNET's lists of affordable and gym-worthy MP3 gamers. The latest spin on the Clip formula is called the Clip Squat. Like 2009's Sansa Clip+, the Clip Zip has a starting price of $49 for 4GB or $69 to have an 8GB model. This time around, though, SanDisk is offering the device within seven different colors (red, blue, black, orange, white, gray, and purple) and it has upgraded to a larger, full-color screen.
Design
Don't let the new title or extra colors fool you, the Clip Zip's design isn't a far cry in the Sansa Clip+, or even the original Sansa Clip. There's a four-way navigation pad about the front with a separate back button floating above it. On the sides you will find a volume rocker switch, Micro-USB port, headphone jack, and a microSDHC card slot that may support up to 32GB of additional memory.
The back, naturally, features a built-in clip that helps attach the device to your clothing and leaves both hands free for working out, or generally kicking butt. The clip is a little longer than the iPod Nano's, though the all-plastic design isn't as tough.
Really, the headline feature here is the 1. 1-inch LCD color display, which does a much better job of displaying information than the scaled-down, more limited screens of previous models. There are no options for watching photos or videos, but album art is supported (though a little grainy looking).
Functions
No, the Clip Zip isn't going to play Angry Birds or revise your Facebook status, but it does an exceptionally good job of distracting your mind with music. In fact, you'll have a hard time finding an Music player that works with more music formats, especially in this price range. SanDisk even came around to the suggestion of adding AAC compatibility, rounding out its support for MP3, WMA, DRM-WMA, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis, as well as Audible files. The company's even optimized this little thing for the Rhapsody as well as Napster music subscription services.
An FM radio is included, along with the expected variety of auto-preset detection and FM radio recording. You can't do the radio pausing trick from the iPod Nano, but at half the price, who's complaining?