The 'Sandisk Sansa Sport' is (besides the Jam) touted as the worthy successor to the 'Sandisk Sansa Clip+'. Since my trusty Clip+ was recently stolen from me, I immediately turned to Sansa. And this is indeed the successor. But in my opinion 'worthy' is said too much. The son does not surpass the father.
I explain myself further:
Pros:
- Sound quality is noticeably better than similarly priced MP3 players. In order to circumvent the volume limitation imposed by Europe, you must indicate that you are located in North America at the start. I'm not saying this because I wish you Tinitus, but sometimes you just need a loud output (in my case to be heard on the car radio). That doesn't matter for the rest, but you have to do it immediately at startup.
- Very extensive battery life (25 hours at full throttle)
- 8 gig internal + 32 external... you have to get a few songs on.
- nicely laid out menus.
- in addition to the 'action' menus (music / audiobooks / video / ...) you also have a "file browser". So you can also use it as a USB stick with a screen and can see what's on it (even the files that the Jam itself does not know how to use are displayed in a list of names (eg word docs and PDFs and the like)
- The 'Sport' has a screen that is twice the size of the former Clip+ and its brother the 'Jam'. (But it's still a small screen)
Based on the above alone, highly recommended for that price. If you are looking for an MP3 player with superior sound, do not hesitate any longer !!! Are you going for the Sport or the Jam? Doesn't matter much. On the Sport you still have a small menu that can register sports performance, but who doesn't have a smartphone these days that can do that 1000x better? The rest of the devices are identical in functionality.
But... now follows a small summary of what I consider negative. However, let me clarify that my disappointment stems mainly from the fact that the 'Sport' has to replace my 'Clip+' (Clip+ no longer available), and the comparison shows that the thing has lost many functionalities.
- the DATABASE is limited to 2000 numbers internally and 2000 numbers externally. So you can easily put 10,000 songs on it, but if you access the music from the built-in audio menu, it will only show the first 2000 songs that were placed internally, and the first 2000 songs that were placed externally (SD micro card). Fortunately, you can get around this by accessing the files from the file browser. But if you want to do a "play random all", then you only have the first 2000 numbers twice. Why this restriction was introduced is beyond me. Probably laziness of the programmers? (this also applies to the 'Jam')
- The screen is twice the size of the previous Clip+ but it remains very small compared to other players. I also have the impression that the brightness and purity of the screen is no longer of the same level as before.
- The included earphones don't do it justice. The Sport (and the Jam) have a beautiful audio quality, so invest in good earphones too!
*The 'Back' button is not a back button but a 'half back/half home' button. Why they changed the old house icon to an arrow and the word 'back' is a mystery to me. If music is playing and you press that 'back' button, it effectively goes "one step ". A normal person will press 'back' again to go back two menus, but no, then you are on the root. To go further back step-by-step, you have to click to the left. Very confusing and disruptive, which leads to inadmissible language and curses.
- The Clip+ also excelled in recording. You could use it as a dictaphone and the quality was remarkably better than other players. This functionality has completely disappeared. Very unfortunate, but apparently this is a trend with all brands, because you can hardly find MP3 players that can record, while this used to be standard.
- Arranging folders alphabetically is apparently much more difficult programmatically than I can imagine as a layman, because no... the folders are arranged in the order they were put on the device.
Final conclusion:
For the undemanding customer who only cares about superior sound: buy that trade! The jogger who keeps getting lost is also very well off with this thing because of the long battery life. And if you're a Justin Bieber fan and only listen to his - er - singing, a database limitation of 2x2000 songs will be your worst.
However, for those who have to say goodbye to the predecessor, this thing will never live up to expectations. No more recording, and an incomprehensible database limitation to 2x2000 songs. As mentioned, there is a work-around here by accessing the files from the file browser, although in this case you will only be able to play the folders, and not be able to 'shuffle everything on my device'. So frustrating that the built-in 'music' menu is actually of no use. But - plus - you can decide in the settings menu yourself which menus you want and don't want. So basically I've turned off everything except the file browser menu.
My wife always tells me that as a 35-year-old I should 'stop living in the past'... but here too I hear myself muttering what my grandma and my mom used to say: "it was better in my day". I miss the clip+ and the 'Sport' and the 'Jam' lose that comparison. But since the Clip+ is dead and buried, that comparison is no longer correct either. And if you compare this device with all other price players on the market, then you have a superior sound device with an inferior screen size. Choose what you feel comfortable with, but I continue to recommend this!
