Some time ago, I had the opportunity to review the Sandisk Sansa Clip.  It is a great, little music player, which is ideal for runners and other individuals who do not need constant access to the screen.  My only complaint about this player was that it has limited internal memory and no opportunity for expansion.  Even though it can only play music, I still found the maximum size of 4 GB to be a bit limiting.

All of that is about to change, however, with the release this week of an 8 GB version of Sansa Clip.  The 8GB Clip, which makes its debut this week, is able to hold up to 4000 songs, without any modifications to its miniscule size.  You can find more information at Sansa’s website, where you can also purchase the 8GB Sansa Clip for only $99.99. 

When I started thinking about this series, one of the hardest things to wrap my brain around was where to begin.  Then, I thought about Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music.  “Start at the very beginning.  A very good place to start.”  You know what?  That is excellent advice.  So, rather than getting into some of the more complex areas like playing music or videos, I thought we would start with what you see right out of the box.  Usually, the battery is dead or near to it when you buy a new media player, so the first thing you are going to do is not watch a video or play some music.  The first thing you will do is tear through that box and examine the hardware (pining for the ability to use it while it is charging.)  So, I thought it made the most sense to start there…right out of the box.  And we will do that in a few initial articles.

Today, I am going to take a look at the players themselves.  Turned off, and just looking at the hardware and construction.  The next two installments will look at the rest of the contents of the respective boxes, including earphones and accessories.  We’ll then wrap up this initial section with a look at the controls on each of the devices.  Then, we’ll start to look into what happens when you turn these things on and start playing with them.  So, let’s jump right in and start at the very beginning.  You slowly and carefully remove your new device from the packaging…

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