Sandisk Sansa Clip 2GB Review

Overall Rating

Very Small
Excellent Display
FM Radio
Exceptional Sound Quality
Very Easy to Use
Cheap
Has a Belt Clip
Looks Cool
Just Brilliant!

None for this price

As a regular gym user, I am shocked to note that many of the MP3 players currently on the market do not have a belt clip on them. I know the iPod Shuffle has one, but I previously owned a Shuffle and was less than impressed.

After my shuffle gave up the ghost, I reverted to using my trusty old Tevion player - which was fine, but the design meant that I had to tuck it into my shorts or wear a hoody with pockets if I wanted to listen to music whilst working out in the gym. Then I discovered the Sansa Clip - a budget priced MP3 player with a built in FM radio and - shock - a belt clip!

As soon as I became aware of the Clip I knew it would be the answer to my gym-based, MP3-falling-out-of-my-pocket problems...and boy, was I right.

For starters, the Clip cost me a paltry £24.99 and when you see the features it has, it becomes apparent that this is a bargain of biblical proportions.

The Sansa Clip comes in 2 size varieties - a 4GB and a 2GB model. I bought the 2GB one, but even that has the capacity to store up to 1000 songs. The thing is, the Clip also has a built in FM tuner so if you get bored of listening to your tracks you can tune in to your favourite radio show at the flick of a switch. Not only that, the Clip will store the point you were at when listening to an MP3 so if you go back to it after listening to the radio, it'll be at the point where you left it. Nice touch, that.

So - it's got a clip, has 2GB of memory and has a radio function. But wait - there's more...

The Sansa Clip also features a voice record function via it's tiny built in microphone (not that you'll probably ever feel the need to use it).

The player itself is a tiny little thing - only slightly bigger than the Shuffle, and has really easy to use controls. There are play, fast-forward, rewind and a menu/home button and these allow for smooth navigation around the system's onscreen menus. And that's the thing that really makes the Clip shine against it's Apple-made rival. The screen is rather small and only features two colours, but it's a screen that is super sharp and perfectly readable in all lighting conditions.

Lastly - and probably most importantly, the sound quality of the Sansa Clip is superlative. There are several equaliser presets availible, aswell as the choice of creating a custom one, but even the default setting delivers powerful base and crystal clear treble through the supplied earphones. Oh, and it's LOUD!

All in all, the Sansa Clip is probably the best budget MP3 player I've ever owned. It trumps the iPod Shuffle in almost every area and the fact that it has a truckload of features that Apple's player doesnt - and is cheaper - mean that it is a system I can't recommend highly enough.