Questions About New Clip Zip

@jk98 wrote:

How is the readability of the Clip Zip when compared to the Clip+?

I find the readability on the Clip Zip acceptable.

Comparing the 2 players, the Clip+ uses a bright, almost neon blue text on the screen, enhancing the text readability.  The Clip Zip uses a white text which is a trifle less easy to see, but the album info. text is in a slightly larger text size than on the Clip+ and there is a grayed out band under that text and over the album art, making up for the white text and making the Clip Zip’s text a bit easier to read, in my opinion–and it looks kind of snazzy.

I find this to be the case indoors as well as outdoors, both in the shadows and in the sun; the Clip Zip, while harder to read outdoors as versus indoors–just like the Clip±-is no moreso than the Clip+, in my opinion.

A few extra points, though:

  –  the Clip Zip’s top line on the screen, which shows the time, a play/pause symbol, and a battery icon, is underlaid with a gray band over the album art, which is a lighter shade of gray than the gray band undeneath the album info; in my opinion, that top band of gray should be darker, like the band under the album info.–the time and other info. on the top of the screen can be harder to see/read with the lighter-shaded gray band

  –  note that the Clip Zip’s what’s playing screen for music does not have the track no./total tracks info. that the Clip+ has–helpful and necessary for keeping your place in album play–and does not have the Clip+'s screen’s elapsed time info. (or a total time/remaining time indication); I really would like to see these items come back/be added in

–  answering another of your questions, while the Clip+'s music listing screen shows 4 lines of text–the heading and 3 lines of user content data–the Clip Zip, nicely through its larger screen, shows 6 lines–the status line (time, play/pause mode, battery icon), the heading (e.g. Albums, Artists, etc.) in a larger text size, and 4 lines of user content data; perhaps SanDisk could have made that 5 lines of user content data on the Clip Zip by eliminating the top status line and making the heading line smaller.

Hope that helps–

Thanks for the responses. So far the thing that impresses me the most about the Clip Zip is the RDS radio. I wish it had HD radio instead though.  The Clip Zip looks like a nice player, however so far it doesn’t seem to me to be that much nicer than the Clip+. The Clip+ is indeed very tough competition. I guess I may buy a Clip Zip, but am not excited enough about it to rush to get one soon.

The color screen and AAC support will probably get many Shuffle owners to buy one. I am surprised that so many people care about album art.

@jk98 wrote:

I am surprised that so many people care about album art.

It amazes me too. I had several people this year tell me that the lack of it  was what kept them from buying a Clip+, even though I was telling them they were missing out on such a great little player. 

@marvin_martian wrote:


@jk98 wrote:

I am surprised that so many people care about album art.


It amazes me too. I had several people this year tell me that the lack of it  was what kept them from buying a Clip+, even though I was telling them they were missing out on such a great little player. 

 

Seeing the album art adds to the pleasure of listening to an album or even a single.  I can tell what album I’m listening to, or want to listen to, just by looking at the album art and without the need to read the name. 

@miikerman wrote:

The Clip Zip’s USB port uses the newer micro USB connection standard, as versus the older mini USB connection. 

 

Thanks for clarifying - this would be an important factor for me!  As long as it’s a *standard* connector I can buy at any random electronics store I’m happy, although I have about 10 mini-USB cables and no micro cables to date…

The Clip Zip is CUTE, but my question - did they re-engineer the “clip” on the Clip Zip?  Although cracked, the clip on my original Clips are still usable, but the clip on one of my Clip+s snapped off within months of ownership and it’s not replaceable.  I wasn’t impressed with the Clip+ clip.

@kmk_01kmk wrote:

 

Thanks for clarifying - this would be an important factor for me!  As long as it’s a *standard* connector I can buy at any random electronics store I’m happy, although I have about 10 mini-USB cables and no micro cables to date…

Yeah its standard.  Mini USB is being replaced with Micro USB, so going forward you probably won’t see many devices with Mini connectors.  

the clip on the zip has been redesigned. it is not removable but it is stronger than the clip on the clip+ .

thats a bit of a tounge twister. 

I use my Clip+ for listening to podcasts only.

  1. Are the way podcasts organized still based on the ALBUM id3 tag? I always use a custom ALBUM tag to separate the podcasts, then under each ‘album’ there will be several episodes. On the Clip+, right after selecting podcasts, you see all of the ‘albums’, then select one to see the episodes. Does it still work the same way on the Clip Zip?

  2. The Clip+ had a bug regarding using the bookmarked positions in a podcast. Say you have two episodes in a certain podcast. You play the second one half way through then stop. The bookmark is recorded behind the scenes. Then you play the first one all the way through. At the end it jumps to the second episode, at your previous spot. However, the time starts counting from 00:00 instead of the bookmark position. If you just keep listening all the way to the end, it’s not a problem. The problem only occurs if you interrupt playback and a new bookmark is created. The playback starts from the bookmark, but the timer does not. When you next stop the playback, it will record the TIMER’s position, effectively losing your real playback position. Can someone with a Zip try this out and see if it’s still happening?

@drlucky wrote:

the clip on the zip has been redesigned. it is not removable but it is stronger than the clip on the clip+ . 

That’s great to hear.  SanDisk is getting clip (with a lower case “c”) technology down!  The Clip Zip’s clip certainly looks solid. 

As to the micro connector:  there are inexpensive nifty mini => micro USB adapters around.   How about $1.08 shipped, off of eBay?  (I plan on getting a few.)   http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-USB-Micro-USB-Adapter-Data-Charger-Converter-5-/260768831661?_trksid=p5197.m7&_trkparms=algo%3DLVI%26itu%3DUCI%26otn%3D5%26po%3DLVI%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D2314448810242572875

@color43 wrote:

I use my Clip+ for listening to podcasts only.

 

  1. Are the way podcasts organized still based on the ALBUM id3 tag? I always use a custom ALBUM tag to separate the podcasts, then under each ‘album’ there will be several episodes. On the Clip+, right after selecting podcasts, you see all of the ‘albums’, then select one to see the episodes. Does it still work the same way on the Clip Zip?

 

  1. The Clip+ had a bug regarding using the bookmarked positions in a podcast. Say you have two episodes in a certain podcast. You play the second one half way through then stop. The bookmark is recorded behind the scenes. Then you play the first one all the way through. At the end it jumps to the second episode, at your previous spot. However, the time starts counting from 00:00 instead of the bookmark position. If you just keep listening all the way to the end, it’s not a problem. The problem only occurs if you interrupt playback and a new bookmark is created. The playback starts from the bookmark, but the timer does not. When you next stop the playback, it will record the TIMER’s position, effectively losing your real playback position. Can someone with a Zip try this out and see if it’s still happening?

I can only speak to #1 as I dont bookmark podcasts. It is based on Tags so your method should work fine. The way you have outlined is exactly how it works.

I can update you on #2.  The graphic interface has undergone a facelift with the new Clip Zip.  You select Books > Podcasts > then you will see your podcasts listed like “albums”, nicely separated.  An individual bookmark is stored for each podcast episode, so you can click forward / back between episodes, and it will automatically resume within each podcsat at the last played point.

If you pull up the episode list, it’s a little different; you will, upon opening the episode, get the handy option to start from the beginning, or resume playback right where you were last time.

This option is nice of you’d like to start the episode from scratch.

Another change is that the time elapsed / time remaining displays when in audiobooks or podcasts, making it easier to locate the desired spot.

Bob  :smileyvery-happy:

If you  have an album of podcasts and press rewind, will the rewind be continous to the previous file?

No, unfortunately.  With podcasts , a brief press of the back or forward button will bring you to the next or previous podcast episode.  Holding the “rewind” button stops at the beginning of the currently loaded file.

I like having the device run back from the end of the previous file.  The e200 firmware does this with podcasts, I like it best that way.

Bob  :smileyvery-happy:

Oh well Hopefully these things will be addressed later. Hopeffully there will be a number of firmware updates. The Clip+ had so few updates compared to the original Clip.

@jk98 wrote:

Oh well Hopefully these things will be addressed later. Hopeffully there will be a number of firmware updates. The Clip+ had so few updates compared to the original Clip.

It really didn’t need as many, I don’t think… perhaps because the developers had learned a lot during the life cycle of the original Clip.

I do think, having “lived through” the original Clip years, that continued development of firmware, adding new options and features and perfecting/tweaking others, while still fixing bugs, adds to the excitement of a player and extends its marketing life and popularity, it seems to me–would love to see SanDisk adopting that approach here. 

What about replay gain? Is everything the same as the Clip+ in that area?

@color43 wrote:

What about replay gain? Is everything the same as the Clip+ in that area?

It works just fine for me with my foobar-scanned files.

Can you leave the display on when it is plugged into an external power source?

I suppose you could but I leave it set the same when its plugged in as it is disconnected.