Clip Zip vs. Clip+ (specially Display)

Hey there. I want to replace my old Fuze by a new player. As I never used films or pictures, Clip is the weapon of choice, If I stay with SanDisk Players. Besides the problem of loosing Ratings over and over again, I really liked th Fuze.

What is the exact difference between those Players?

Zip has 1.1" LCD compared to + 1.0" Monochrome OLED.

Talking about the LCD, I’d like to know more about the reability in sunlight. Is there really a large differnce between LCD and OLED?

What about the (expected) lifetime of the display?

Afaik OLED has lower power consumption, right? Given that fact, I wonder why both players have the same runtime of 15hrs?!

Both players work with any microSD(HC) card, right?

The runtime is under the assumption that you do not use the screen.

lol. as the screen is activated even when skipping a song: very realistic scenario ;D

So what about the real runtime of plus vs zip?!

@millitaryman69 wrote:

lol. as the screen is activated even when skipping a song: very realistic scenario ;D

 

So what about the real runtime of plus vs zip?!

My Clip Zip meets the Sandisk spec, if not surpases it, for battery run time *with no memory card used*.  I must emphasize that.

With no memory card, I did a test of using a 128kb mp3 file playing in loop mode.  I got over 17 hrs. of playing time; during the test I had my earphones plugged in and at moderate volume.  Not shabby for such a tiny mp3 player.

When I plug in my Sandisk 32GB memory card, the play time for the same file (the file is in main memory, not the expansion card) goes down to 15 hrs.  I also found that when there is no memory card in the Zip, power usage is practically nil.  When I have the card plugged in, it drains the battery around 1%/day approxmiately.  I tried this test with mine and my wife’s Zip and with different 32G cards (all Sandisk, class 4 SDHC).  Apparently the player is polling if the card is in the slot when off and it uses battery; why it makes battery life go down when the player is running is beyond me but I had 2 players in my household do the same thing so it’s not a bum player.

My solution to the stand-by issue is to just remove the card from the slot when the player is off and won’t be used for several days and also to run Rockbox.  The main reason to run Rockbox if you do what I do  is you won’t have to rebuild the database each time when you re-insert the card then power up the player.  Using stock firmware will force a database refresh each time, that could take over 10 min. if you have a full external card.  That pretty much solved it for me plus I prefer Rockbox over the stock firmware.  It took a bit of getting used to but after getting over the learning curve I prefer it.

@tnmats wrote:

 

With no memory card, I did a test of using a 128kb mp3 file playing in loop mode.  _ I got over 17 hrs. of playing time; during the test I had my earphones plugged in and at moderate volume.  _ Not shabby for such a tiny mp3 player.

 

When I plug in my Sandisk 32GB memory card, the play time for the same file (the file is in main memory, not the expansion card) goes down to 15 hrs.  I also found that when there is no memory card in the Zip, power usage is practically nil.  When I have the card plugged in, it drains the battery around 1%/day approxmiately.  I tried this test with mine and my wife’s Zip and with different 32G cards (all Sandisk, class 4 SDHC).  Apparently the player is polling if the card is in the slot when off and it uses battery; why it makes battery life go down when the player is running is beyond me but I had 2 players in my household do the same thing so it’s not a bum player.

 

These times are very good. Are these results with the OF or running Rockbox?

@tapeworm wrote:


@tnmats wrote:

 

With no memory card, I did a test of using a 128kb mp3 file playing in loop mode.  _ I got over 17 hrs. of playing time; during the test I had my earphones plugged in and at moderate volume.  _ Not shabby for such a tiny mp3 player.

 

When I plug in my Sandisk 32GB memory card, the play time for the same file (the file is in main memory, not the expansion card) goes down to 15 hrs.  I also found that when there is no memory card in the Zip, power usage is practically nil.  When I have the card plugged in, it drains the battery around 1%/day approxmiately.  I tried this test with mine and my wife’s Zip and with different 32G cards (all Sandisk, class 4 SDHC).  Apparently the player is polling if the card is in the slot when off and it uses battery; why it makes battery life go down when the player is running is beyond me but I had 2 players in my household do the same thing so it’s not a bum player.

 


These times are very good. Are these results with the OF or running Rockbox?

They’ve gotta be in Rockbox…unless they stuffed a bigger battery in there since the launch back in 2011.

@tapeworm wrote:


@tnmats wrote:

 

With no memory card, I did a test of using a 128kb mp3 file playing in loop mode.  _ I got over 17 hrs. of playing time; during the test I had my earphones plugged in and at moderate volume.  _ Not shabby for such a tiny mp3 player.

 

When I plug in my Sandisk 32GB memory card, the play time for the same file (the file is in main memory, not the expansion card) goes down to 15 hrs.  I also found that when there is no memory card in the Zip, power usage is practically nil.  When I have the card plugged in, it drains the battery around 1%/day approxmiately.  I tried this test with mine and my wife’s Zip and with different 32G cards (all Sandisk, class 4 SDHC).  Apparently the player is polling if the card is in the slot when off and it uses battery; why it makes battery life go down when the player is running is beyond me but I had 2 players in my household do the same thing so it’s not a bum player.

 


These times are very good. Are these results with the OF or running Rockbox?

Didn’t matter whether it was RB or stock firmware (release .20).  Same run times best I could tell.  I tried it with stock FW and RB on my player, just stock FW on my wife’s CZ, same results.  Not really complaining but there is a battery drain I don’t fully understand when running with the card inserted.  Stand-by I get, the thing is polling the card slot I’m guessing.

@marvin_martian wrote:


@tapeworm wrote:


@tnmats wrote:

 

With no memory card, I did a test of using a 128kb mp3 file playing in loop mode.  _ I got over 17 hrs. of playing time; during the test I had my earphones plugged in and at moderate volume.  _ Not shabby for such a tiny mp3 player.

 

When I plug in my Sandisk 32GB memory card, the play time for the same file (the file is in main memory, not the expansion card) goes down to 15 hrs.  I also found that when there is no memory card in the Zip, power usage is practically nil.  When I have the card plugged in, it drains the battery around 1%/day approxmiately.  I tried this test with mine and my wife’s Zip and with different 32G cards (all Sandisk, class 4 SDHC).  Apparently the player is polling if the card is in the slot when off and it uses battery; why it makes battery life go down when the player is running is beyond me but I had 2 players in my household do the same thing so it’s not a bum player.

 


These times are very good. Are these results with the OF or running Rockbox?


They’ve gotta be in Rockbox…unless they stuffed a bigger battery in there since the launch back in 2011.

Didn’t matter which FW I was running, numbers seemed consistent between the two players.  We got our CZ’s at the same time in 2011, ordered them directly from Sandisk when the 8GB CZ’s were first introduced since the price was as good as any mail order place (Amazon) plus they threw in a little carrying case, zero shipping.  So I’m guessing the batteries were from the same mfr. lot.  Sounds like we got ‘limes’ for batteries.  :-)  I never really had the batteries degenrate much so far even in my old Clip, that little bugger still has decent battery life.  It’s one my daughter uses now in addition to a Samsung galaxy MP3 player she has.

128k files were only for testing purposes as I don’t care to hear such pronounced artifacts in my music.  I typically run 320k VBR files for actual listening and just accept the reduced run time.  I generally get 10-12 hrs. with those files and the SD card is in the slot.  I use Rockbox for every day use since I want the best gapless performance possible, plus I prefer the screen selection RB skins allow me (I use one that’s all text).  The dinky screen for "artwork’ is useless to me, this ain’t a smarphone hi-rez screen we’re talking 'bout!

I will most probably rockbox, mainly because there are better tools for syncing the rating data and keeping the data (my old sansa player lost the ratings at several “incidents” like USB connect- or reinsert SDcard-events)

So main point is COMPARISON of the runtimes and readability of the display outdoor.

Note that, as far as I am aware, use of Rockbox in and of itself will not improve readability.  But the use of a different display screen/theme could, and Rockbox has many to choose from in the themes gallery.