Clip Zip versus iPod Nano - some observations

MP3 players All other MP3 players
1

Owning the iPod Nano, and now the Clip Zip, I thought I would make some comparisons between the two. Bear in mind that the Nano is almost 3 times the price of the Zip, but there are some similarities.

First some history. I owned the Sansa Clip then in October 2009 I got the Clip+. I got a Nano in October 2010, but its sleep/wake button broke and I gave it to a friend. I got the new Nano at the beginning of October this year, then the new Zip just last week.

Partly why I’m making this short review is the similarities. The Zip has a colour screen, of course, and it seems that Sandisk have perhaps copied or used the Apple interface, or maybe from Creative. What I mean is that you can tailor the menu to just show the features you want. This is excellent; in the case of the Zip I just use Music, Settings and Sport (I like to have a timer function); and, in the case of the Nano, Music, Settings and their Fitness program. In both players these just scroll horizontally and you select the mode you want.

To me, (and I’ve tried out many players in the past with some fairly good iems) they both sound excellent on a flat EQ setting; moreover, the EQ settings on both aren’t bad at all (if you have some buds or 'phones that really need it, then the options on both the Sansa and Apple are perfectly adequate - just don’t go overboard.)

The FM radio on both is good - the Zip allows you to record, while the Nano lets you pause for 30 minutes.

Playlists on-the-go are perhaps better on the Nano - the Zip will let you create 2: a go list, and a Top Rated list, (and this is better than most players) while the Nano has no real limit to the number of playlists you can create on the device itself.

Of course, the Zip lets you drag and drop whereas the Nano needs iTunes or Media Monkey to sync content.

A problem with the Zip - thus far - is that you don’t get such detailed track information - time elapsed/ track count etc. as you do on the Nano. And this is in part due to the fairly low-res screen. But this is to be expected for a £40 device versus a £110 player. The fact that the Zip is colour is pretty good considering the price point.

In short: I love them both - they have differing uses… and the Zip does offer a great deal more for a lesser price, with the promise of further firmware upgrades and Rockbox.

2

You seem to have left out what I consider to be the most important difference between the two, the Clip Zip has a card slot. It is nice to be able to put in an $18 16GB card or a $40 or so 32GB card and get plenty of extra space. The ipod Nano does have longer battery life though, and a metal case/clip. For the next Clip model, I hope Sandisk will increase the battery life to match that of the Nano. It would also be nice if Sandisk uses a metal case(or perhaps just for a slightly higher priced premium Clip model). Many will say that this request is unfar, since the Clip players are around 1/3 of the price of the Nano. As for more song information, the Clip+ provides that. Imo it does seem silly that they left it out on the Clip Zip. For the Clip Zip, they should have had a toggle setting to see either the song information, or the album art. Hopefully they will implement this in a future firmware update.

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Yes JK98 - I perhaps should have mentioned that, of course, the Zip comes in 4 or 8Gb and is expandable via a microSD up to 32Gb.

Whereas the Nano is just 8 or 16Gb.

I didn’t mention the battery life, either, and, while I haven’t tested the Zip or the Nano, I expect the Zip to be fairly close to the Clip+ - and what is mentioned in other reviews, ie. around 15hrs.

The Nano - I find - although not by doing a thorough testing, does seem to get close to its stated 24 hour battery life.

And the Zip is made from a fairly robust plastic whereas the Nano is metal and glass - again illustrating the price difference.

Again, my take on these 2 players is fairly slanted and subjective, but I do like them both a lot.

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Can anyone else not see the pictures? I used Photobucket; not sure what I’ve done wrong.

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@dreameight wrote:

Can anyone else not see the pictures? I used Photobucket; not sure what I’ve done wrong.

I can’t. I always use http://imgur.com/  and it seems to work for me. Test image…

633×611 82.3 KB

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I hope this works:

1023×575 65.1 KB

1024×575 58.1 KB

1023×575 81.5 KB

1023×575 57.1 KB

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Still no? Blame it on me being Scottish lol…

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Now I see them.

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Cool - thought I was going crazy there…

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Just to add: The Sansa Zip is the best player I’ve ever bought at that £40 price point - it exceeds the Clip+ in a number of small but important ways.

I’ve owned many different  tiny DAPs in the past: Samsungs, Sonys… the little Cowon E2 - and the Zip is better than them all… at least to me.

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@dreameight wrote:

Just to add: The Sansa Zip is the best player I’ve ever bought at that £40 price point - it exceeds the Clip+ in a number of small but important ways.

 

I’ve owned many different  tiny DAPs in the past: Samsungs, Sonys… the little Cowon E2 - and the Zip is better than them all… at least to me.

I would have to agree. For anyone that uses a Clip+ without Rockbox, the Zip is clearly an upgrade.

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Well, it was your comprehensive review, in part, which spurred me to get one.

If you had said it was rubbish, I wouldn’t have bothered… But just trusting your thoughts and Sandisk’s pedigree via Clip to Clip+ to Zip I already knew it was going to be good.

Saying that, it’s simply engaged me in a similar way to the Nano - some other brands are just dull. It’s one player I don’t tire of using.

13

The wee Clip Zip has a very interesting combination of niceties from previous Sansa models, a mix that makes it very nice indeed.

I still really like the feel and heft of the e200 device, the dependable predecessor to the Fuze.  It simply works _righ_t, and has nice controls.  The Fuze always felt a little odd, its case being thin and oddly square, but the scroll wheel is a wonderful control, with near-perfect feel.  The Clip has always had the advantage of packing a great device into a very small package, with the Clip+ offering an even better combination, when the microSD port was added.

The latest player, the Clip Zip, throws an odd mix into the equation, borrowing the graphic interface of the touch-screen Fuze+, but going back to the base platform of the Clip.  We get a cool new full color OLED screen as part of the package (note that the contrast / gamma don’t change much when the device is tilted, as an LCD screen does).

The Zip is a small and definitely rugged machine, a lot of fun to work with.  With its overall combination of interface and display, navigating about is simple, and the color screen makes album art a part of the experience.  The biggest advantage to the Nano I see is the larger display’s real estate.  The controls of the Clip Zip are very nice.

Hey, I really like being able to associate the album art with the listening experience, as it’s part of the overall package.  Of course, I grew up hefting a collection of 12" LP albums about, so the visual part of the music experience is still important.  The Zip adds this dimension to the package, as does the Nano’s display.  Having a color display adds this dimension to the tiniest of the Sansa product line, making it  a welcome addition to the Sansa family in my book.

Bob  :smileyvery-happy:

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It’s actually strange your mentioning that, Neutron Bob… I’m not familiar with previous Sansa players before the Clip - I mean, that was the first Sansa I owned.

But I knew straightaway that this was an OLED screen - without any doubt… you can tilt it any way/whatever the blacks are black, so I couldn’t quite get people who said it was an LCD. The differences are so obvious to me… It isn’t of a high resolution - that much is clear - and I think that’s part of the cost thing - how much would Sansa have to charge if it was, say 200 x 200?

Also, what I find particularly clever is that Sansa seem to have successfully borrowed (and maybe it was their idea in the first place) features from other manufacturers and quite successfully incorporated them into the Zip.  I’m talking about the menu options, FM recording, podcast/audiobook etc.

So, the player is pretty spectacular for the money… looking at other manufacturers, Philips failed, Creative failed… Sony don’t have anything this good, I can’t quite think of any other small player that does everything (that I would want) and does it so well.

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@dreameight wrote:

So, the player is pretty spectacular for the money… looking at other manufacturers, Philips failed, Creative failed… Sony don’t have anything this good, I can’t quite think of any other small player that does everything (that I would want) and does it so well.

To think, before I bought my Fuze 3 years ago, which was my first ever mp3 player, that my two finalists were the Fuze and the Creative Zen…I think I made the right choice. The Zip is actually the seventh Sansa I have owned, more by far than any other manufacturer’s players.

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Third time Sansa Owner… It’s like I’m in Elko, Nevada and all the bells in the Casino are chiming - all the time!

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@dreameight wrote:

Just to add: The Sansa Zip is the best player I’ve ever bought at that £40 price point - it exceeds the Clip+ in a number of small but important ways.

 

Personally, I disagree . . . unless you just have to see washed-out, pixelated album art covered up by grey translucent bars with fonts so thin and small you can’t read them or are in love in RDS on the FM radio. I’ve already gotten used to not seeing album art on the Clip+, and I’ve gone years without ever seeing RDS, so I don’t miss that at all. I already know what station I’m listening to by the frequency numbers; I don’t need to see the Call letters. And trying to see what album is playing by looking at the pitiful rendition of the cover the Zip displays? Fuhgetaboutit!

The Clip+ is the clear winner in my book . . . but then this thread is supposed to be about comparing the Zip to the Nano, not the Plus. :wink:

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No, leave me alone…

I was only singin…

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The display looks washed out because SanDisk has not calibrated the display properly.  With some image manipulation (a combination of lower brightness, lower gamma, increased contrast) the album art can be made to look quite colorful.

21

I’ve had zero database issues with my Zip, and my only microsd card, a class 2 16GB SanDisk model, is read perfectly by the player. The buttons work just fine for me, when I clip it to my shirt pocket as I always have with my various Clips (and Shuffle) and the screen is decent enough, as I’ve always been in the habit of ducking into the shadows or stepping indoors to select what I am going to listen to.

RDS? I never use the radio anyways…which brings up my favorite part, hiding the unused menus. All mine shows is Music and Settings. There was one week where I had the Books section showing when I used the Zip for podcasts, but dealing with the database refresh twice a day, even as quickly as it refreshes for me, was annoying.

I wouldn’t mind seeing that X track is number 5/12 on the album, sure…but I don’t find it to be quite as big a deal as some others seem to.