The Clip's screen is a 24mm OLED affair showing a sort of aquamarine text against a black background. It works just fine for the job in hand, displaying main menu options one at a time then displaying four lines per screen in other settings. The firmware upgrade has increased the screen's maximum brightness making it more legible in direct sunlight than before.
The main controls on the fascia bear an obvious family resemblance to the rest of the Sansa family though on the Clip the circular control doesn't actually rotate, but simply click at the four compass points. The action feels a little cheap, but then this is a small, cheap MP3 player and at least the control wheel surround glows a soothing non-budget blue when activated.
The clip shuts and stays wherever you put it
The front-mounted Home button, a great idea on the Fuze, is no less of a great idea on the Clip while the side mounted volume and on/off/lock controls both fall easily to hand.
Menu navigation is rapid and straightforward and as always we were happy to find an artist/album/track menu structure.
Loading the Clip is a straightforward operation as either an MTP or MSC device and it picked up ID3 tags with 100% accuracy.
COMMENTS
@USB mass storage device
"Loading the Clip is a straightforward operation as either an MTP or MSC device and it picked up ID3 tags with 100% accuracy."
MTP: Media Transfer Protocol (access with a sync protocol or application)
MSC: Media Storage Class (access as a removable disk)
So you can sync with a crappy software stync tool or by drag & drop as an external hard drive.
Lurk Moar...
USB mass storage device?
That's all very nice, but can you access it as a USB mass storage device? I hate having to use crappy proprietary Windows only applications to manage my music.
Ooooh I have one of these!
It's my 'workout' mp3 player (actually my only one, but that's all I use it for) - it's small, light, cheap & gets the job done. I'm not that bothered about sound quality - it seems fine to me. I think there *may* be a 'increase volume' option somewhere as there was with a previous Sansa mp3 player I had.
Works both with Linux & Windows - can plug it in & it's recognised as removable device. Also, you can create your own playlists (m3u files) under either OS & have them appear in addition to the 'Go list' - useful if you have some tracks that you have to listen to in a specific order (i.e. live albums, etc).
Once complaint is that outside (in the sun) it can be extremely difficult to see the display. Which makes it hard to switch tracks, etc, while running. Aside from that, I love it. I use my own (el cheapo) headphones, so can't comment on the quality of the included ones..
Scale
It seems to me that the small scale of the device could have been illustrated a lot better than putting it next to a golf ball and a coin. I'm thinking... I'm thinking of the Eee lady. If she has any sense, she should hire herself out to companies as a means of illustrating the small size of their devices.
Unless she herself is only three feet tall, in which case I understand her reticence. But Photoshop can work magic.
Re: Where can I buy?
I only want one if it is marked out in the official Register units of measurement.
