I have a Sansa Scan-disk. Not this model, but a lightly older version. It is my outdoor/gym MP3 player, and the battery life is amazing. It's battery lasts far longer then my 'daytime' MP3 player (which has far more storage).

... where is microSD memory slot??

Sansa Clip is one the better sounding players.

But unlike other Sansa players it does not have an SD card slot.

An 8GB SDHC card can now be bought for under UKP 2 per GB and 16GB and may be 32GB cards are on the way.

This omission is surprising, since Sandisk if the original manufaturer of SD cards.

I fear of being a grammar prick - its: "shufti" - arabic, appropriated miltary slang.

1GB - £25, 2GB - £25 and If so..... Why?!

Have to ask, where would one purchase a "trusty Register ruler"? Don't tantalise us with products without an RRP or outlet details!

I only want one if it is marked out in the official Register units of measurement.

Which is a pretty fundamental decision point for those whose travels take them out of reach of mains electricity.

It seems to me that the small scale of the device could have been illustrated a lot better than putting it next to a golf ball and a coin. I'm thinking... I'm thinking of the Eee lady. If she has any sense, she should hire herself out to companies as a means of illustrating the small size of their devices.

Unless she herself is only three feet tall, in which case I understand her reticence. But Photoshop can work magic.

It's my 'workout' mp3 player (actually my only one, but that's all I use it for) - it's small, light, cheap & gets the job done. I'm not that bothered about sound quality - it seems fine to me. I think there *may* be a 'increase volume' option somewhere as there was with a previous Sansa mp3 player I had.

Works both with Linux & Windows - can plug it in & it's recognised as removable device. Also, you can create your own playlists (m3u files) under either OS & have them appear in addition to the 'Go list' - useful if you have some tracks that you have to listen to in a specific order (i.e. live albums, etc).

Once complaint is that outside (in the sun) it can be extremely difficult to see the display. Which makes it hard to switch tracks, etc, while running. Aside from that, I love it. I use my own (el cheapo) headphones, so can't comment on the quality of the included ones..

That's all very nice, but can you access it as a USB mass storage device? I hate having to use crappy proprietary Windows only applications to manage my music.

"Loading the Clip is a straightforward operation as either an MTP or MSC device and it picked up ID3 tags with 100% accuracy."

MTP: Media Transfer Protocol (access with a sync protocol or application)

MSC: Media Storage Class (access as a removable disk)

So you can sync with a crappy software stync tool or by drag & drop as an external hard drive.

Lurk Moar...

In a fit of "antiPod" sentiment, I recently purchased an iRiver LPlayer. It is a little larger (approx 6 x 4 x 1.2 cm by my ruler) but is still smaller (though fatter) than the iPod nano. It might be a good alternative to the reviewed player.

It has a 2" LCD screen and a nifty control system whereby you click the edges of the screen.

Sound quality is very good as long as you are using decent headphones. I use Sennheiser CX300 - the genuine ones not the fake £8 ebay ones - and they sound great for the price.

It reads a whole host of formats including mp3, ogg and flac. No AAC though. There is a little bit of a hiss at low volumes but this only starts when I play an mp3 so it may well be the fairly low quality encoding of my tunes. Most of my music is downloaded from eMusic at 128kbps.

It's not an iPod and won't win any awards when compared on the iPod's traditional strengths: user inferface and software integration. That said I use it on a Mac in drag and drop "MSC" mode, but I am told that on Windows it comes with a nice client called iRiver Plus 3, which works in MTP mode. Either that, or apparantly it will sync with Windows Media Player.

Personally I am very happy to leave it in drag and drop mode and use it as a USB drive too. That, and the sound quality, makes it a worthwhile purchase and perhaps an alternative to the Sansa range?