There certainly is a problem with the battery power reading in the Sansa Clip+. Today, I started with a 100% charged Clip+ - using a mains USB charger, I should add - and I checked the battery power in the info section every hour whilst playing tracks continuously. This was with either 256 or 320 kbps MP3 files, so the Sansa quoted figure of 15 hrs of playback would obviously be less. For 11 hrs of playback, the battery power reading decreased by about 5% every hour, but once it hit 45%, the power dropped off very rapidly and the Clip+ shut off before a further hour was up. This is just so irritating, as one can be in the gym with 40% power indicated and the Clip+ then just shuts off half-way through one’s work-out. Please fix this, Sansa!
Around 12 hours of battery life is reasonable for the Clip+. Since the battery in the Clip+ cab’t be swapped, you could get a second Clip+ as a backup and keep your music on a card. When a player runs out of power, you could put the card into the other player. It would have been nice if they made the Clip+ a bit thicker than the Clip but with much longer battery life than the Clip. They didn’t do that though. A hybrid of the Clip and Fuze midway in size between the two with a clip and 30+ hour battery life would be cool.
If power length is an issue, you always could get a Duracell instant power charger, for around $20 and just a bit longer than the Clip, and 30+ hours of power.
I agree that 12 hrs of battery life is reasonable. The issue I have is with the fact that the battery indicator on the display and in system settings/info aren’t calibrated properly, so that anything less than than half-full on the display or 45% in system settings/info essentially means that the unit is likely to cut out imminently.
Regards,
David
