SanDisk SDMX22-004G-A57K Sansa Clip Zip 4 GB (Black)

I am a big old fat geek that recently got into doing...(GASP!)...exercising.

I have many MP3 capable products and reasons why I am very fond of this little one for my new found effort. I have the following list of products and have tried my:

Nexus S (too big and heavy for running, no physical buttons)
iPod touch 4th Gen (Big, expensive at the storage size i wanted and no buttons for music controls)
iPod Nano 4thGen (little, has a clip, but why the hell can't they include buttons?)
iPod shuffle (not enough storage and I don't want to mix in my metal songs from lifting weights into my up beat running songs...)

Likes:
The clip Zip sounds great, is very small, has a clip and has physical buttons.

It fits every need i want. The bonus is the MicroSD slot, I can not stress this enough. Skip the 8GB version and get the 4GB and pair it with a 16 or 32GB card. Bam 20-36GB of storage, insanely small and still... Read more

The pros:

-- all the benefits of the Clip+: great sound; small; microSD card support; FM radio (with record capability); recorder; gapless play; optional folder navigation; multiple formats support (mp3, wma, ogg vorbis, flac); file drag-and-drop capability; ad hoc playlist creation; cute and appealing

-- new: aac file support for DRM-free aac format files; small color screen with album art display; time-of-day indication; "sports mode" with timer and lap time; fast alphabet scrolling in lists; menu customizability; enhanced contemporary feel and, perhaps, sturdiness; improved microSD card fit; improved EQ

The limited cons:

-- internal memory maxes out at 8GB; limited what's playing screen information; underlying folder art can make screen readability harder; missing some play-all options; for some users: battery life remains rated at 15 hours; no video capability; greater functionality could be provided to the user... Read more

The Sansa Clip Zip sounded like just what I wanted -- a small, inexpensive, clip-on mp3 player to use while I exercise. I was wrong. I listen to audiobooks while I exercise, and despite Sansa's product description the Clip Zip doesn't do that.

When I manually load audiobook mp3 files on the Clip Zip, it classifies them as songs on different albums by one artist. If I select "artist" it plays all the 'track #1s' in sequence and then all the 'track #2s', etc. If I choose "album" it plays that set of files but then I have to search around for the next cryptically-named "album" in the book. That works, sort of, but who wants to stop exercising to fiddle around with an mp3 player for 10 minutes searching for the next section of a book?

When I use Windows Media Player to make a playlist of an audiobook's tracks and then sync them with the Sansa, the process fails -- no playlist is on the Sansa and the book is organized exactly as it was using drag-and-drop... Read more