SanDisk Sansa Clip Zip MP3 player shown off

Posted on 25 Aug 2011 at 10:02, by Gareth Halfacree

At a time when the world appears to have moved on to portable multimedia players, tablets, and eReaders, one company is keeping things simple: SanDisk has announced a new MP3 player, the Sansa Clip Zip.

Building on the company's existing Sansa Clip family of products, the Sansa Clip Zip promises rich sound quality from a variety of file types including - obviously - MP3, WMA, WAV, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis, AAC, and Audible audiobooks, plus optimisations for use with Rhapsody, eMusic, and Napster software.

The device has a 1.1in colour LCD display on the front, offering a claimed 83 per cent greater viewing area than previous models in the range and displaying album art - providing that your music collection includes such things.

The player includes a rechargeable battery - good for 15 hours of playback per charge, the company claims - and measures a mere 2.25in x 1.42in x 0.58in. Charging and data transfer is handled by the usual micro USB connector, and an in-built microphone is included for voice recording.

The Sansa Clip Zip is available in capacities of 4GB and 8GB, with a microSDHC card slot offering additional storage of up to 32GB - although the device's internal limitations mean that, regardless of how much storage you have, you'll be restricted to 8,000 songs in total.

Due to arrive in Europe later next month, official UK pricing for the Sansa Clip Zip has yet to be confirmed with US pricing set at $49.99 and $69.99 (around £31 and £43) for the 4GB and 8GB models respectively.