My name is Claire, and I have a problem. With digital audio player addiction. I swear, I have like forty of the things. I don’t use many of them…just my iPhone, and my old 60GB fourth-generation iPod jolts me awake to the melodious sound of DragonForce every morning. That doesn’t stop me from collecting more and more players, though…so when Julie offered me the FreeStyle Audio SoundWave waterproof MP3 player, how could I resist?

Turns out that resisting would have been pretty easy, had I known what I was in for.

I wanted to like this thing, I really did – the waterproof feature meant that I could take it in the hot tub or to the beach without worrying about it getting damaged, whereas I generally keep my iPhone in a Ziploc bag in such situations. While that’s a nice feature of this little guy, it’s just not enough of a reason to buy it.

With that in mind, let’s see what we have here…

What’s in the box

The SoundWave comes with everything to get you started:

• 2GB MP3 player
• 3.5mm-to-USB charge and sync cable
• Waterproof earbuds
• Earbud covers in various sizes
• Elastic armband
• “Floater” black vinyl thingy (I have no idea what this is actually for)

On the outside

At first glance, the SoundWave is pretty unassuming – it’s small, blue, and has rubber-coated buttons and a very tiny OLED display. It has little textured grippies on the side and a belt clip on the back. Strangely, even though the clip has a little note printed on it that it’s not meant to be removed, there was a second belt clip in the box.

This is all fine and dandy, until you go to use the SoundWave for the first time (after, of course, charging the non-removable battery via an available USB port on your nearest computer).

It turns out that those little rubber-coated buttons are a real pain in the butt to press down. They’re simply too small, and the rubber that covers the buttons isn’t raised enough to find it easily with your thumb. Not only that, but I had to press down hard to get a press to register. I quickly discovered that pressing down with the tip of my fingernail seemed to work best.

While this is bad design in any situation, one needs to remember that this player is specifically designed for active use in the water. I would given up a little of its compact size in order to have usable buttons – not to mention that other miniature players (the Sansa Clip and iPod Shuffle 1G/2G come to mind) have fully usable buttons in a compact form factor.

It’s also worth mentioning that there is no discrete audio control on this player. This is a huge mistake in my opinion – a music player must have an easily accessible volume control. Instead, you have to press the “Vol.” button and then use the track skip/search buttons to change the volume.

Thankfully, while the very mediocre earbuds are waterproof themselves, the 3.5mm tip that plugs into the SoundWave appears to be pretty standard – it doesn’t have a rubber sheath or anything, so I’d imagine you can use a different set of earbuds or headphones with this player without impacting its waterproof capability.

On the inside

As mentioned, the SoundWave is waterproof. It also sports 2GB internal storage, and FM tuner, and, oddly enough, an assortment of preloaded tracks. I have since discovered that I’m not a big fan of Led Zepplin, Van Halen is as awesome as I already knew they were, and The Police’s “I’ll Be Watching You” is actually pretty creepy when you think about it. Incidentally, The Beatles’ “I Am the Walrus” was also included – side note: watch Magical Mystery Tour if you get a chance. It’s…interesting.

You don’t just get a variety of classic songs, either – I also got to hear tracks from everyone’s favorite train wreck, Britney Spears, as well as Ricky Martin and Kelly Clarkson. I’m not entirely certain that the SoundWave ships preloaded with music, however – the only player I’ve ever purchased that came with (undoubtedly not-quite-legal) preloaded music tracks was purchased straight from China on DealExtreme, so this could have just been how my demo model shipped.

Music commentary aside, let’s see what this thing is like to use.

Using the SoundWave

Per my earlier observation, the little tiny buttons were obnoxious to press down. Not only that, but they’re only “labeled” with a little raised icon on each one – difficult to see, and difficult to use. I had to read the manual to figure out how to navigate the player’s menus, which was a little annoying.

The SoundWave shows itself as a run-of-the-mill removable drive, so you can drag-and-drop songs onto it to your heart’s content. You can also use Windows Media Player to sync it with your media library.

Once you get songs loaded up and the battery fully charged, you can start listening to your music in waterproof bliss. Kind of.

The player boots up with FreeStyle’s tagline, “Take Your Music There” scrolling across the OLED display. You can then navigate to the FM tuner, the digital equalizer, the settings menu, and (of course) your music.

This is another area where I think the SoundWave falls a little short. They tried to fit way too much information on that teeny-tiny display.

Let’s take a look at the Sansa Clip:

When a track is playing, you get some basic info…

• battery life
• track number/total tracks
• song info – artist, title, album
• graphic bar showing position in song relative to length of song
• repeat
• shuffle

Hit the center button the player, and you can see a nice-looking graphic visualizer of the currently-playing track.

Not so on the SoundWave…instead, a playing track shows you the following:

• thin graphic equalizer bar
• song title
• track number
• total tracks
• bitrate
• file format
• equalizer setting
• battery life
• current position in song
• length of song
• a cryptic icon indicating the repeat mode

And, best of all, the top left corner of the screen is completely wasted with a music note icon. You can see the two side-by-side below:

Not only that, but the display itself is lower-resolution than the one in the Sansa Clip, so text is overly large on the song title (and scrolls by interminably slowly – it shouldn’t take half the duration of a song just to see the whole title).

Most of the information displayed is completely unnecessary, like the bitrate, file format, and equalizer setting. Even the repeat icon is unclear in its meaning, because the SoundWave has multiple repeat options (normal, song, folder, artist, etc.)

The menu structure is odd – there’s no clear way to get to the repeat settings while a song is playing, and there’s no apparent way to move back and forth between levels in the menu structure while a song is playing. I had to read the manual just to figure out the basics of the player, which is pretty inexcusable in 2009.

After trying to futilely navigate through the player for a few minutes, my thumbs started getting sore from having to press down so hard on the buttons to get them to respond. I eventually gave up and rather irritatedly threw the thing on the floor so I could finish writing up this glowing review.

I wanted to like this player. Really. Sandisk has proven that you can use a tiny screen on a tiny player and still have spectacular usability, even for the most noobish of users. Freestyle, unfortunately, didn’t come through. At all.

And, at $89.95 MSRP, I would recommend you save your money and just buy a Sansa Clip (buy.com has 1GB refurbs for $15 shipped) and a box of snack-size Ziploc bags (about 99 cents if you buy generic).

Filed in categories: Audio, Video, TV Gear

Tagged: DAP, MP3

Freestyle Audio SoundWave Waterproof MP3 Player Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on June 5, 2009 at 9:55 am.

I have been using my second generation iPod Shuffle for years now. I primarily use it running and during tasks that would put my Touch in harms way. My Shuffle has truly been a trooper… I have dropped it, washed it, sweat on it, etc. It continues to keep putting along. That said, I tried out the third generation Shuffle for about a week when it first came out. My oh my, did it disappoint me. However, the experience did get me thinking about what was out there that could tempt me away from my trustworthy running companion. My searches led me to the SanDisk Sansa Clip, a small, lightweight mp3 player with a boatload of features, an actual screen and great bang-for-the-buck price point.

The Sansa Clip is relatively small, seems like SanDisk could have packaged it in a quarter the volume.

Package Contents

• Sansa Clip MP3 player
• USB 2.0 Cable
• Earphones
• Quick Start Guide
• Installer CD
• Clip Attachment

Hardware Specifications

For a plastic device, the Clip is well made, a quality device. On the front of the Clip there is the main control wheel, center button, and a small home button. The control wheel looks like it should have scroll functionality (like on the iPod) but clicks in four directions; up for play/pause, down for the menu, and left/right for reverse/forward skip. The center button clicks whatever is selected on the screen. The home button is an excellent feature that allows you to quickly get to the main screen if you are lost in the sub-menus.

The left side of the device has the standard mini-USB port and power/lock control switch. Both of which are great features that SanDisk engineered into the Clip. The non-proprietary input/charging is a definite plus with all the mini-USB cables and chargers I have in my world. The lock function is also nice so that the device is not accidentally tweaked while I am running or working out.

The right side of the device has the volume control and headphone jack.

The only item to mention on the top and bottom of the Clip is the tiny microphone hole on the back-top of the device.

The Clip’s clip is made of plastic and the spring is stiff enough to keep the device attached to your clothes. The clip is the most breakable part of the little mp3 player. Thankfully, the clip is replaceable in the event that happens.

The earbuds SanDisk includes with the Sansa Clip are good enough for exercising and (at least) on par with the standard iPod earbuds.

With its small but effective screen, large capacity, and great overall functionality, it seems like the Clip’s design could easily have been the evolutionary path of Apple’s 3rd generation Shuffle.

I am fairly certain I could not break the Clip by crushing it in my hand (although, I am not sure it would pass Julie’s creak test). The Clip probably could not take as much punishment as the Shuffle but is hardy enough withstand the riggers of most situations. While its not as tough as the 2nd & 3rd generation Shuffles, it more than makes up for this in features and functionality.

Considering its size and relatively low cost, the Sansa Clip is incredibly feature rich. The little screen does not support photo or video files but does provide you a great deal of information and control. The one inch screen is relatively large (considering the size of the device), bright, and very clear.

Along with its screen, the Clip has a built-in FM radio tuner with support for up to 40 preset stations, a built-in mike and voice recorder, ability to make on the go playlist, and an adjustable five-band equalizer.

From the Mac side of the house….

The Sansa Clip is both Mac and Windows compatible. On my Macbook, the device appears as a external hard-drive and allows you to easily drag & drop mp3 files into the Music folder. This makes getting files onto the mp3 player a snap but does not allow you to create playlists to keep the 4gb of music organized. I consulted the internet to see if there were any suggested applications that would enable me to make this happen.

I tried XNJB and iTuneMyWalkman to name a few. Some of these applications got me part of the way to my objective and a few failed completely. I was becoming pretty frustrated with the whole process wishing for the simplicity of iTunes and my Shuffle.

The only thing that saved me was trying to connect the Clip to Windows 7 running in Parallels and use Windows Media Player to manage my music and playlists. This worked relatively seamlessly. The music and playlists synced with the player perfectly.

Running with the Clip….

Now that I had all my running tunes on the Clip, it was time to take it out for a test drive. I prefer running with an extremely lightweight music player, so it is not noticeable and doesn’t bother me during my workout. I ran with a Nano for a while but definitely thought the Shuffle was an improvement in terms of weight and experience. The Clip meets my running preferences as well as any other player I have ever used. Plus, it has the huge benefit of being able to select which song I want to play next (via its screen) and keep music types organized (via playlists). Using the controls while running took a few outings to get used to, but after that they were as easy to use without looking as the Shuffle.

Overall experience….

Other than lack of AAC support, I have nothing but praise for the Sansa Clip. This feature packed, tiny little music player is an incredible bang for the buck. The 4gb version of the Clip can be found for three quarters the cost of the most recent Shuffle. The 8gb version (of the Clip) goes for the same $80 that Apple is charging for its button less, screen less player. If you are looking for a small, inexpensive mp3 player, I highly recommend considering the Sansa Clip.

Filed in categories: Audio, Video, TV Gear

Tagged: Audio, DAP, MP3

SanDisk Sansa Clip MP3 Player Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on May 26, 2009 at 2:30 am.