C4 iPod shuffle Clip

The iPod shuffle is Apple’s only audio player that has been designed to withstand day to day abuse that average people can deal out. The shuffle doesn’t have a display to scratch, or chrome to mar. It is made of rugged plastic that can withstand multiple drops, flings and tosses. Unlike the full sized iPods, minis and Nano, this player does not require a case to protect it. But, that sure hasn’t stopped companies from designing them anyway. Once such company and product is the C4 iPod shuffle Clip from Clips4.

Available in 4 colors: Piano Black, Non-colored Translucent, Lime Green Translucent and Pink Translucent. Clips4 sent me all four colors to take a look at. The green and pink look almost like glowing neon, while the clear and black look… clear and black ;o)

The C4 clip adds very little bulk and weight to the already small shuffle player. A naked shuffle weighs 1 oz., while a shuffle inside a C4 weights in at 1 oz. That’s right, the weight of the C4 is so minimal, that my electronic scale can not even tell a difference.

The clip has a 2 piece design. The front is solid except for a circular nav button cutout.

The back is solid with a pocket clip. The clip is thin and flexible. It isn’t tight enough to hold on to the material of a regular cotton shirt. I did a test where I fed standard 3 x 5 inch index cards under the clip to see how many it would take before I could hold the C4 (with the shuffle inside) upside down by the cards without it falling off. It took a total of 10 index cards under the clip. My next test was to see how much pressure it would take to snap the flimsy feeling clip off the back of the C4. I didn’t have any way to measure this, but I found out the clip is stronger than what I thought it would be. It didn’t snap off until I bent it almost 180 degrees around. That said, I still feel that it is much too thin and flimsy to trust it to hold your shuffle securely.

There is a thin groove that runs along the bottom edges of the main shell. The back plate slides into these grooves and snaps securely shut.

When the shuffle is inside the C4, it is completely protected except for the nav button cutout.

The back plate covers the power button and battery status button… This means you’ll have to slide open the plate to access these controls. Depending on the C4, this may or may not be a pain in the rear. The clear C4 was very hard to open, while the green one only required reasonable effort. You’ll also be required to remove the shuffle from the C4 when you need to sync / charge with your computer.

The C4 iPod shuffle Clip is one of those accessories that you really don’t need all that much, but it doesn’t hurt to have anyway. The only problem is that the C4 seems a bit too expensive for such a thin, light weight plastic cover. Especially since the clip is so lame. All that said, I do like the fact that the C4 goes almost unnoticed as far as adding bulk and weight to your audio player. The neon colors are pretty cool too.