hello, I am thinking about upgrading from my Clip 2GB to either Clip+ or the Zip, I don’t really know understand pro or con of the two.
Can some please eborate the main difference between the two?
A bunch of reviews of the Clip Zip, that might help you:
http://forums.sandisk.com/t5/Sansa-Clip-Zip/Clip-Zip-Reviews/td-p/242614
Of course, the biggest change: the Zip has a larger screen and will display album art. Unfortunately, it doesn’t show on the main screen certain track playing information (e.g. elapsed time and track number in an album, present with the Clip+) , apart from the track progress bar.
The Zip is also a bit hardier than the earleir players (especially, the Clip). And it will handle mainstay aac files.
Some other additions with the Zip: time-of-day indication; “sports mode” with timer and lap time; fast alphabet scrolling in lists; menu customizability; an enhanced contemporary feel; an improved microSD card fit; and an improved EQ.
Personally, if I were getting a new player, I’d probably go for the Zip. Although I miss the on-screen track info. Why SanDisk dropped it, heaven knows (I guess it was the “aesthetic” of unobscured album art).
Hope this helps–
I previously had the regular clip and now I have the zip clip. I notice a huge difference in the battery life for some reason. The manual claims 20 hrs of operating but that is definitely not even close with mine, and the charge drains much quicker than the old model. Maybe it’s the fancier color screen…
The Clip V1 had a much less efficient CPU. The ClipV2, Clip+ and Clip Zip all have the newer, more efficient CPU and so get better battery life. BTW, the speced battery life for the Clip is “up to 15 hours”, so you definitely won’t get close to 20 hours.
@aurabelle wrote:
I previously had the regular clip and now I have the zip clip. I notice a huge difference in the battery life for some reason. The manual claims 20 hrs of operating but that is definitely not even close with mine, and the charge drains much quicker than the old model. Maybe it’s the fancier color screen…
Quoted directly from the Clip Zip manual:
" . . . the Sansa Clip Zip MP3 player boasts a bigger screen now 1.1” with color, expandable
memory card slot, added stopwatch, recordable FM radio, a built-in rechargeable battery
which can last up to 15 hours* during typical use . . .
*Based continuous playback at 128 kbps MP3; actual life and performance may vary depending upon usage and settings; battery not replaceable. "
@aurabelle wrote:
I previously had the regular clip and now I have the zip clip. I notice a huge difference in the battery life for some reason. The manual claims 20 hrs of operating but that is definitely not even close with mine, and the charge drains much quicker than the old model. Maybe it’s the fancier color screen…
Quoted directly from the Clip Zip manual:
" . . . the Sansa Clip Zip MP3 player boasts a bigger screen now 1.1” with color, expandable memory card slot, added stopwatch, recordable FM radio, a built-in rechargeable battery which can last up to 15 hours* during typical use . . .
*Based continuous playback at 128 kbps MP3; actual life and performance may vary depending upon usage and settings; battery not replaceable. "
I have had 3 clips and clip+ and loved them. So when I saw the Zip Clip come out I was excited to upgrade to it. What a waste of money. I use my player for the gym mostly, its in my pocket or clipped on my waistband. The first one i purchased would refresh media when i put in the 8gb (sandisk) card i had music on, then shutdown. I took it back and the replacement did the same thing. I called tech support they said they never heard of that problem (BS) so I checked these forums and saw all kinds of the same issues, with different ideas/solutions. After way too much time on the phone with customer support I threw it in a drawer and continued to use my clip+. So recently I saw a firmware update and thought “cool they prob fixed all the issues” updated it and still exactly the same problem. I looked on the forums again and saw that maybe its too big album art files and i need to delete the large jpg files for each album. What a crock. Im not going to modify all my music file to be able to use this player. I realized after wasting my money that I dont care about really low res tiny screen album art. Yet this is causing the player to freeze up and not work. Its too late to return it now for a refund so im stuck with a piece of ■■■■ player that doesnt work with an SD card. My clip and clip+ are really great little units but this Clip Zip is a piece of junk. We have a space station orbiting the earth yet sandisk’s latest ,greatest product cant deal with sd card storage… So if you want a reliable easy to use music player, Id say stick to the clip+, I love mine. You asked 
Either player has its strong points. The Clip+ has the advantage of bare knuckles simplicity, The Clip Zip adds a new interface, RDS display for the FM radio, and of course, the big display.
Navigating through the music collection is different on the Zip, as we have a lot more real estate on the display.
Just this last week, I was in the mood for a little change, and have been using the Clip+. Every time I use it, I can’t help but be impressed with its speed. Navigating about is simple, though it takes a moment to “switch gears” back to the older interface.
With your music on microSD card, fixing the problems is silpler than you may think. SImply mount the card in the Clip+ and verify that everything plays normally. The Clip+ ignores the album images, making it easy to rule out whether the images are causing the Zip difficulty.
If the album art images are too large, or aren’t basic jpeg files. Progressive JPEG images are not supported, and are one of the most common issues I’ve seen with files that can cause problems.
The Sansa supports both embedded album art and separate album.jpg images. You can check, and correct, images using Mp3Tag , on that card.
Bob :smileyvery-happy:
@2312558 wrote:
[Rant shortened] My clip and clip+ are really great little units but this Clip Zip is a piece of junk… So if you want a reliable easy to use music player, Id say stick to the clip+, I love mine. You asked
We did? 
Just messin’ . . . feel free to vent your frustrations. Eveyone else does. 
Yeah I would have rather tech support aknowledge and offer support/solutions (2 were supposed to email me back but never did) back in February when I contacted them instead of typing a rant on here…
One good difference important for me:
In Clip Zip you cannot change to an specified song while listening a Playlist.
At least you can’t with Sandisk operative system. (You can do it in Rockbox).
@2312558 wrote:
Yeah I would have rather tech support aknowledge and offer support/solutions (2 were supposed to email me back but never did) back in February when I contacted them instead of typing a rant on here…
Surer than email: simply telephoning SanDisk customer service. Even a toll-free call in the U.S.
I telephoned them 3 times with no results except “please return the item for an exchange” I told them it wasnt a defective unit and that if they would read these forums they would see that it is an existing problem. I exchanged the unit for another one and promptly called again to say that it has the same problem. The promised unsent emails were follow-ups to the phone conversations…
clip v1: RockBox stable
clip v2: RockBox stable
clip +: RockBox stable
clip zip: RockBox UNSTABLE
When I buy a PMP I have four requirements
* ZERO proprietary software required
** including loading firmware (neither requiring windows or osx)
* plays FLAC
* treats internal storage and external card as ONE
* can be crossflashed [to RockBox]
Now that someone updated the manual with screen shots for the Clip Zip, it’ll be marked stable whenever we get around to updating the website.
@saratoga wrote:
Now that someone updated the manual with screen shots for the Clip Zip, it’ll be marked stable whenever we get around to updating the website.
And it has worked just fine for a long time now…I’ve had it on my Clip Zip for over a year now!
Wow! Did they updated the Zip manual with pics of the Zip?
Really i don’t get your post…
Hi Christian,
The post you replied to was quite old and referred to how rockbox.org previously listed the Clip Zip as unstable when using Rockbox - just because the Rockbox team had not completed the work with a manual containing pictures of the Zip. Sick, isn’t it?! Rockbox has been fully functional for the Clip Zip for a long time, but just because there were some pictures missing in the manual (and a simple game that wasn’t optimized for the Zip screen, I think) they left the status of the rockbox port for the Zip as “unstable”…! Crazy, if you ask me!
If no one wanted to fix those last little, insignificant things for the Zip, they could have gotten around the problem about a year earlier by just spending a few seconds to come up with a new category name for ports that are functional, but with non-operational-essential issues… *OK, that wasn’t a good name suggestion right there - I’m sure someone else would have come up with a better one promptly! :-)*
