I have only recently bought a Clip Sport and must say I am very impressed by the little beast. For many years I was a Creative Zen fanboy, but with their demise and the rise of smartphone, I graduated to listening to music on my DAB radio when I walked the dog.
Recent though I had a hankering for another mp3 player and relive the naughties dream. There isn’t a lot to chose from out there now if you don’t want iPod or generic Chinese ■■■■ so I opted for a Sony Walkman NWZ A15. It cost nearly £120 and I was not impressed. The sound was hampered by European Union nanny state volume regulations, navigation was lousy, bookmark options crappy and it doesn’t support audible!
In desperate I bought a refurbished 8gb Sport on eBay and I was knocked out enough to buy another brand new one. So here are the reasons I like it so much…from a non tekky point of view:
For the price, the sound is super, and can be eardrum bothering if you wish. It supports audible with logical bookmarking. The FM radio does a good job too and it actually supports station info and information scrolling - eat your heart out Sony with your crappy FM display. Ok, it’s plasticy but the clip is great and you can tart it up with a silicone skin. No, I am pretty much bowled over by it.
So would I change anything? Well, the time displayed permanently on top of screen would be nice and probably feasible. DAB radio would be fantastic but I know that is dreamland because of size and hardware as well as budgetary constraints, and it is only because I can’t get my favourite radio station 6music on FM, so no big deal. Of course Bluetooth would be nice but can live without that too. I believe the Sport Plus has Bluetooth but then it doesn’t have a card slot. I know which I would prefer.
So there you are, I’m a happy dog walker at the moment!
Stop press: Just sent away for a Clip ZIP so I can play around with Rockbox.
