Sandisk Sansa Clip 2GB

small and light looks good and sounds good, radio worked fine. Disapointed to find that after loading up my music it died on me after one day!!!. Perhaps not much build quality not very robust don't sqeeze it too hard.

I decided not to be drawn in by the 'must have an ipod' brigade and look for an alternative non-Apple player that would offer the same quality, as well as featuring a navigable screen instead of the relatively random song selection of some cheaper models.

After reading several positive reviews, I decided that around £30 for a Sansa Clip sounded a bit of a bargain. I found that 2GB of memory is plenty and the sound quality is excellent. I have changed the headphones for another pair which sit further inside my ears for added security. The player is very small and light, and the clip is very secure - ideal for listening on the move. The screen is clear, with logical, hierarchical navigation and the controls are easy to use.

I have read elsewhere that the Clip is not compatible with Apple Macs, but decided to risk it after reading one or two reports to the contrary. Believe me, it's absolutely fine, and files can be dragged into the 'music' folder using the Apple Finder without any problems. Just in case though, I use a utility called 'Finder Cleaner' which is supposed to remove all the invisible Apple-only files which sometimes go along for the ride.

To summarise, the Sansa Clip is fantastic value for money, especially if, like me, you don't care about not having white headphones!

I saw the Sandisk Sansa Clip 2GB featured on 'The Gadget Show' and it looked pretty good. I bought my 2Gb red one from Amazon for £29.99 along with a pair of Creative EP-630 in-ear phones (around £9 and stay in my ears!). I am very impressed with whole package. Great sound, very easy and quick to load from Windows Media Player (the USB link is included), charges from my Motorola mini-USB charger in under an hour and it's simple to use. The FM radio works very well in my area and it has a voice recording facility built-in.

The clip part is removable by just pushing it down, if you want to make it even smaller for any reason.

No downside, especially at 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.