When I say "trash," I don't mean it's bad; quite the opposite, actually. But at $40/$50/$70 for 2/4/8GB capacities, the Clip+ is very nearly disposable—you can knock it around or drop it and not feel bad—making it an excellent player for workouts or as a spare in case your main PMP runs out of juice on a long trip.

What's New

The Clip+, unlike the Clip, packs a microSD slot for cheap expandable memory (up to 16GB at the moment). The microSD slot also supports SanDisk's own (admittedly stupid) SlotRadio cards. The clip on the back is no longer removable, and the headphone jack has been moved to the right side of the player, away from the miniUSB port. Oh, and the control pad is now square instead of circular. That's pretty much it for new features.

Why It's Great

What makes the Clip+ better than competitors like the iPod Shuffle and Creative Zen Stone is surprisingly excellent sound quality. This little guy has some power behind it, sounding as good as my Zune with a pair of decent earbuds. SanDisk clearly knows what they've got, since the Clip+, unlike other tiny budget mp3 players, supports audiophile codecs like FLAC and OGG.

It's got an FM radio, podcast support, and a voice recorder as well. It also auto-detects OS and will choose either MTP (Windows) or MSC (everything) when plugged in, meaning it supports every OS perfectly. The two-color OLED screen is bright and readable, and the player itself is miniscule and feels very tough—I've actually dropped it twice and there's nary a scratch on it.

Flaws

In terms of controls, it's not ideal—I'd really like to see a dedicated Back button instead of having to hit Menu and then select "Back to Music List," but after two minutes of toying around with the player, you'll have it figured out. The battery life isn't thrilling, rated at 15 hours, and I would have preferred a dedicated hold switch to the Home button playing double duty. Also, scrolling through long lists of artists or songs is a little pokey—it's no problem if you've only got a few GBs of music, but if you have a filled 8GB player with a microSD card, it'll be annoying.

Conclusion

It's the best low-end mp3 player on the market, without question. And did I mention it costs $50 for 4GB? That's $20 less than the iPod shuffle and the Clip+ has the shuffle handily beat on features and sound quality. I recommend the 4GB version—it's worth the $10 upgrade from 2GB, and 8GB is really more music than the little guy is built to handle. The UI's a little dated, but it's totally serviceable, and the player's strengths more than make up for its drawbacks. I've got absolutely no hesitation about recommending the Sansa Clip+ as a workout or spare mp3 player. [SanDisk]

Tiny and rugged body

Excellent sound quality and surprisingly extensive codec support

Competitively priced

UI hasn't evolved since previous model

We don't know too much about the 2.7-inch touchscreened YP-R1, as it's merely leaked onto a British online shop, but it looks like the YP-R1 is set to bring it in the audio department (with AAC, FLAC, and OGG support in addition to MP3 and WMA) as well as video (where it can read Xvid, DivX, H.264, MPEG-4, WMV, and, oddly, Real Media Video). It's got TV-out to display all that goodness on a big screen, though the only capacity we know about is a paltry 8GB, which just doesn't cut it these days. The page shows a release date of July 30th and a price of about $180 USD, which is a little pricey for an 8GB player. We'll keep an eye on the R1 for more official specs, and check out our Samsung P3 review for a look at Samsung's current PMP line. [DapReview]

The player is made by MobiBLU, best known for their tiny cube player a few years back, and while we don't have a price or even capacity yet, it's somehow set to come out this month. We can definitively tell you that the Miffy player will feature interchangeable clothes in various colors, which for a gadget like this is probably just as important as, you know, actual specs. [Akihabara News]

The lower half of the player is taken by a removable Burr-Brown amplifier, but can be easily removed and replaced with another amp, assuming the new amp fits. It's a pretty barebones PMP otherwise, though—we're talking no video support, not even any internal memory (supply your own with SDHC cards). It does support FLAC and WMA lossless, because really, what's the point otherwise, but this is one PMP aimed squarely at the audiophile market, especially with a price of $700 (or $600 if purchased before its release in June). An included, modular amp is a very cool idea, and certainly a lot of today's PMPs could benefit from the boost it would provide, we just wish it had a little more mass-market appeal. [Head-Fi via Engadget]

On Sony's "SonyRewards" site, the X1000-series unexpectedly popped up with a price, albeit in Sony's "points" currency. But if we convert from Sony points to, you know, actual money, the X1000 will come in at $299 and $399 for the 16GB/32GB versions, respectively. That's exactly the same as Apple's price on its equivalent iPod touch models.

The X1000-series includes a lot of features the iPod touch doesn't, like the all-important OLED screen, noise-cancelling technology, an FM tuner, and Sony's vaunted sound quality, but the iPod touch has been an established smash hit for years now and we wish Sony would have undercut to make more of a splash. This is just a rumor, at the moment, but an appearance on an official Sony site is pretty solid evidence that these will be the final prices. [Sony Rewards (16GB, 32GB) via Engadget]

The P3 is a followup to Samsung's successful P2, and while it makes quite a few changes, this is an evolution, rather than a revolution. The P3 boasts a few new tricks from Samsung's galaxy of phones, like haptic feedback, a teeny-but-clear speaker, "desktop" widgets and an improved GUI, but this is assuredly not a competitor to the iPod touch. The P3 is not a platform: There's no way to expand the player's catalog of programs or widgets, and, most importantly, it doesn't have Wi-Fi. Despite its big ol' touchscreen and appearance of a fully customizable experience, the P3 is a closed environment, like the nano.

It is, however, one of the best standard flash players on the market—possibly the best. Available in 8/16/32GB sizes (priced at $150/$200/$300, respectively), the P3 comes with a bevy of great extras, a sleek body, and a (mostly) intuitive and pretty GUI. Most importantly, its touchscreen and broad video codec support makes it the best compact video player for the money, and something anyone not suckling at the iTunes teat should get a good look at.

The Physical
The P3 retains the same form factor as its predecessor, which means a gorgeous 3-inch WQVGA touchscreen covering most of its front, a few physical buttons—volume and power/hold, moved to the top for easy in-pocket use—and a very thin metal body. No, it's not quite as thin as an iPod nano, but there's only a tenth of an inch difference. Underneath the screen is a marginally useful touch strip, a bit like the upcoming Palm Pre's. On the bottom is the headphone jack, a mic and Samsung's proprietary USB port.

The P3 feels really great in the hand; it's slightly heavier than the P2 and feels very solid. It's also quite the looker, with a brushed aluminum back, matte front, and chrome accents. To give you an idea of the size, it fits perfectly in that little change pocket of a pair of jeans.

The GUI
The P3's user interface is, for the most part, similar to the P2's—a very intuitive, simple, touch-based design. The main screen has three pages, like an iPhone or T-Mobile G1, that can be turned by a swipe in either direction. The center page has the icons you'll be using most often (Music, Videos, Pictures, FM Radio, etc), and the ones on the left and right house the widgets. Some of the widgets are pretty handy, like a calculator, a calendar and a lightbulb that adjusts screen brightness when tapped.

There's also a goofy but sort of handy "quick tray" with speaker toggle, Bluetooth and other actions that pulls down from the top when you tap, almost like the system tray on the Android G1.

Some of the widgets are poorly executed, like the 24 subway maps from around the world—the NYC one is awful, devoid of an actual geographic map, making you zoom to view specific stops. Do not rely on this to get you around Hong Kong, or you'll be sorry. Some of the widgets are overtly purposeless, like a gingerbread man that crumbles when tapped. That's all he does. Crumbles.

The touch interaction features haptic feedback, that's supposed to rumble when an item is pressed, thus confirming the selection. Unfortunately, it's more a gimmick than anything else: It's fairly weak (more of a buzz than a rumble), inconsistent, and in the end it doesn't seem to aid the overall accuracy of the touchscreen.

Menus are very easy to navigate and are very intuitive, but scrolling through lists of artist names, albums or what have you isn't quite as simple as it should be. Lists can be dragged up or down with a finger, but the system isn't as smart as it is on an iPhone—you can't turn the "drag" into a flick at the last minute. So when you do drag, you only view about 15 items before you have to pick up your finger and drag again.

The P3 does support the flick motion, but you have to do it deliberately. Besides, it's more of a delayed reaction and doesn't feel very organic—one flick will move the list exactly one full page, every time, regardless of how enthusiastically you've flicked. There's also a scroll bar on the side that's nice for jumping from the As to the Ms, but it's not particularly accurate. All in all, it's a little slower to navigate long artist or track lists than I'd like.

There are other gestures as well—tap, double-tap, circle. Some of them will grow into usefulness as people carry and use the P3 for a while, though out of the gate, they're a little specific to feel intuitive.

Playback Quality
Samsung's PMPs are some of the best-sounding players out there, and the P3 continues the trend: Bass is full but not overpowering, treble is clear, and mids are focused. Basically, the P3 sounds great, and is powerful enough to drive big Sony MDR headphones while sounding halfway decent in my 16-year-old car's crappy stereo, too. It supports MP3, WMA, OGG, AAC and even FLAC for you lossless-loving audiophiles.

Video quality is absolutely beautiful—this is the best flash-memory video player I've ever seen. With a firmware update (already available), the P3 will play DivX and Xvid files up to 800x600 resolution, which means yes, pirates, this will play your torrented episodes of 30 Rock perfectly without any conversion necessary. In addition to DivX/Xvid AVI files, the P3 supports MPEG-4, WMV and H.264 (though not clear on how high a resolution is supported), which makes it one of the most well-rounded video players on the market. As I mentioned above, the screen is stunning, with nearly flawless viewing angle range.

Nuts and Bolts
The P3 also has an FM radio, though at least out in the suburbs, reception was barely listenable.

Bluetooth works perfectly—it paired with my BlackBerry quickly and easily, and since it has a mic and speaker, it can be used as a speakerphone.

Battery life is rated at 30 hours for audio and 5 for video.

Its default setting is for MTP, which means that, out of the box, it may only work on Windows machines. Fret not, because you can also switch it to UMS to run on Macs and Linux machines. In Windows it will show up as a drive for easy drag-and-drop, and is happily compatible with media software like WinAmp and MediaMonkey. On the Mac, it's going to be as drag-and-droppable as any USB disk.

Overall
We've come to a crossroads in the world of PMPs. High-end devices with Wi-Fi, like the iPod touch, Archos 5/7 and Sony's upcoming X1000, are the future. The Samsung P3 is not one of these players.

The iPod nano is the elephant in the room here; The P3 is priced to go head-to-head with the nano at the 8/16GB range, although the P3 offers a $300 32GB version as well. I think the P3 holds its own against the nano, besting it in quite a few categories. The hardware looks and feels great, the GUI is prettier and more customizable, the touch interface can be useful, and most importantly frees up real estate for what matters most: a bigger, better screen.

As my catalog of nitpicks above will tell you, the P3 may not have the simplicity of an iProduct. Nevertheless, if you use Windows, or use a Mac but not iTunes, if you download a lot of video, and if you don't have a hard drive full of DRM'd music—if that describes you, then you would be a fool to buy an iPod nano instead of Samsung's P3. [Samsung MP3 Players]

Both the Ibiza Rhapsody Mini and Ibiza Rhapsody Touch are equipped with Wi-Fi capabilities for content browsing and instant downloading. While they are still working on getting YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter accessibility, the Mini and Touch are already set to go with Rhapsody, Flick, Audible, and Internet radio.

Although both MP3 players will be 3.5x2.0x0.4 inches—and will come in sizes ranging from 8GB-32GB—the Mini has a 2.2-inch color screen with a four way d-pad and supports MP3, AAC and WMA, while the Touch is equipped with a 2.8-inch touch screen, bluetooth connectivity, and is able to play MPEG-4, H.264, VC-1 and DiVX 3/4/5, and stream stereo audio.

Stay tuned as there is still no word on pricing or release date. [CNet]

SANDISK INTRODUCES THE STYLISH SANSA(R) FUZE™ MP3 PLAYER Multi-Faceted Music Player Rounds out the Sansa Product Line

MILPITAS, Calif., March 11, 2008- SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK), a
leading seller of MP3 players in the United States, today unveiled the
multi-faceted Sansa(R) Fuze™ MP3 player. The stylish music player is loaded
with capabilities and features to keep consumers well entertained while on
the go. Not only is it easy on the eye, it's easy on the pocketbook. With
availability planned for early April in the United States, the Sansa Fuze
player comes in a wide array of colors (pink, red, blue, black and silver)
and capacities (2, 4 and 8 gigabyte1 (GB)) with an expected starting price
of only $79.99 MSRP.
In addition to playing music, video, photos, FM radio and audiobooks, the
thin Sansa Fuze is packed with extras, including a microSD card slot to add
and transport content with ease; a voice recorder to capture thoughts on the
fly, and a bright, 1.9"color screen that allows users to easily navigate
their music or watch videos in landscape mode.
"The Sansa Fuze is an eye-catching player that consumers will enjoy for its
looks, capabilities and incredible value," said Eric Bone, vice president of
product marketing for Sansa, SanDisk's audio/video product line. "This new
MP3 player combines some of the best features found on other Sansa products,
including great sound quality. It's yet another strong offering by SanDisk
in the sub-$150 music player market."

A distinguishing feature of the Sansa Fuze player is its microSD™ card slot.
This memory slot provides consumers the ability to quickly add content onto
their device and expands storage capacity, giving ample space for thousands
of additional songs, hours of video and numerous photos. Plus, by using a
SanDisk microSD card, users can easily carry their music and other content
from their Sansa MP3 player to their mobile phone, or even their PC.

The Sansa Fuze MP3 player gives users access to subscription download
services from numerous sources, including Rhapsody To Go(R), Napster, eMusic
and others. In addition, it supports playback of a wide range of popular
music formats such as MP3, WAV, Audible (for audio books) and Windows Media
Audio (WMA) in both unprotected and protected files. Sansa Fuze supports
MPEG-4 video and JPEG photos. Its internal rechargeable battery will play up
to 24 hours of audio and five hours of video between charges.2

The MP3 player works with computers running Windows XP or Windows Vista. It
also works with Mac and Linux operating systems (under MSC mode).

Expected Pricing, Colors and Availability

The Sansa Fuze player is expected to be available in U.S. stores in early
April. The music player comes in a 2GB capacity (holds 500 MP3 songs3) with
an MSRP of $79.99, 4GB (1,000 MP3 songs) for $99.99 and 8GB (2,000 MP3
songs) for $129.99. The 2GB Sansa Fuze is available in black; the 4GB Sansa
Fuze is available in black, red, pink or blue, and the 8GB is available in
silver. For more information visit http://www.sandisk.com/sansafuze/.

The player is expected to be available from retailers in Canada and Europe
in late spring, with other regions of the world to follow.

The flash-based Sansa Fuze player rounds out the Sansa product family,
joining the popular, tiny Sansa Clip and video-centric Sansa View. The Sansa
audio/video line offers consumers highly affordable, yet fun and fashionable
music players loaded with appealing extra features.

The 2.4-inch (320 x 240) LCD display may be on the small side for serious video viewing, but the PMPs are sliver thin at 9.3mm wide and weighing in it at only 59g, the screen size is easily excusable. Add to the mix a 36-hour battery life for tunes, or a 10-hour life span for video viewing, and it seems like the new Network Walkmans have quite a bit to shout about. No word on pricing or shipping dates as yet, but we can't wait to give them a go. [Akihabara]

First, there's a $330 unit available in four colors, with 30GB hard drive and Bluetooth for wireless headphones and A2DP streaming. It will also have an FM radio and "custom skinning" for a personalized UI. Next up, in the "near future" will be a $230 4GB flash-based model, and a $250 8GB one. Neither of those will have Bluetooth. Prices don't include Rhapsody portable subscription, which at last check was $15 per month.

In addition to browsing all of Rhapsody's content, you can pick up free AOL Video clips, subscribe to podcasts directly from the device, and update firmware without going to a PC. [Rhapsody and Haier via Electronista]

Like lots of other weird gadgets, the MC Square X1 is only available in Korea. By the looks of it, you're not missing much, unless you plan on reenacting scenes from The Tomorrow People. – Nicholas Deleon

Product Page [MC Square via dapreview.net]

Musicmug whacky speakers for your iPod [newlaunches]